UAE rain forces food delivery apps to pause or slow services

Talabat, Deliveroo, noon and Careem delay orders as UAE rains flood roads

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Food delivery during Rain in Dubai
Scattered clouds pack rain, thunder, lightning, hail risks, fresh winds kicking dust and rough seas along coasts.
Ahmad Alotbi/Gulf News

Dubai: Heavy rains sweeping the UAE have forced major food delivery apps to slow services, prioritising rider safety amid slippery roads and poor visibility. Talabat, Deliveroo and Careem flashed warnings to users on Thursday afternoon, with in-app notices citing "high demand" or outright unavailability in hit zones.

Food delivery apps

“The safety of the riders and the wider community is our utmost priority,” Constantin Kodsi, Director of Logistics at Talabat told Gulf News. “We set the standard for safety in the region through robust protocols, continuous monitoring, and clear, real-time communication with riders via our app, including practical road safety guidance during challenging weather conditions, as well as suspension of delivery operations when needed.”

Food delivery during Rain in Dubai

“Customers in affected areas of the UAE will receive in-app notifications about delivery delays,” he added.

Deliveroo flagged fewer restaurant options and longer waits: "Due to poor weather conditions you may see fewer options than you’re used to." Careem echoed delays across food and rides.

Apps monitor roads live, pulling riders from danger zones. Slippery highways and flooded underpasses turn two-wheelers into hazards, prompting blanket pauses over partial service.

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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