Has anyone who has delivery just stopped?

1

We are currently a delivery carryout business only and I’m kind of rolling around the idea of just stopping delivery service. I know it might sound kind of insane since food delivery is such a big thing now so here’s my thoughts and reasons.

Easily 70-80% of customer complaints are related to delivery in some way shape or form. Whether it is delivery time related, forgotten food, didn’t like the way the driver smelled, you named it we get a complaint about it.

EASILY 80-90% of my employee issues are with my delivery drivers. There must be some innate personality trait in people who are willing to deliver pizzas because they are constantly bickering, fighting, and generally causing the most havoc in the store.

Delivery Drivers are the toughest people to hire BY FAR. Despite my drivers making an absurd amount of money (easily $30 an hour) Its damn near impossible to hire new ones. Perhaps its the thought of putting too many miles on ones personal vehicle, when we need to hire a driver it is next to impossible. I do think people think I am exaggerating when I place the ad saying our drivers make $30-35 an hour and just brush it off as hyperbole because when they actually start working at our shop they are fricken amazed. Funny anecdotal story. We have this one young 22 year old who works for us. He still lives at home and his mom ( she works as a bank teller making $12 hour, relevant to the story) got on him about getting a real job. He retorted that he makes $700 bucks a week working 20 hours a week! She just pauses and goes, well damn that’s more than I make working full time!

It would save money not delivering. Between the difference in workmans comp cost and non owned insurance there would be a somewhat sizeable savings there.

Its stressful delivering. Getting a message that Johnny Driver slid off the road and hit someone’s porch is incredibly anxiety inducing. We also have had MAJOR issues with drivers thinking its fine to deliver while HIGH!? Apparently its not the same as drunk driving, according to them anyways.

We would lose money not delivering. As it sits this year by orders 43% of our orders are delivery and the average delivery ticket is $32 while the average pickup ticket is $24.50. I do think there would be some percent of current deliveries that would convert to picking up if the service wasn’t offered but I also think the lions share of the delivery sales would be lost.

Looking at the previous numbers it might seem insane to some that this thread even exists but this is merely something that I have percolating in my brain. Sales would definitely be lower but I think that could allow me to also work more on sending out better products and developing some ideas I have that I feel are too complex and time consuming to handle as the operation currently exists. I also think there would be a general savings in labor but I have not done the projections on that yet.

So what does everyone think? Tell me I’m crazy, give me some feedback, or just regal me with your own stories of delivery driver ineptitude so we can feel solace in each others pain.

2

we are all crazy to deal with these drivers but it is a necessary evil…had a guy go to the door the other night with absolutly NOTHING in the delivery bag…I would look into outsourcing to 3rd party before pulling the plug

3

I have Toast POS which offers delivery through Door dash as a third party . Each delivery costs me $7.50. I charge 4.50 a delivery, don’t have to pay drivers and don’t have none owned auto. I still have issues, like forgotten food, and its a bigger issue, because to re dispatch it cost another $7.50 or we issue a credit. It’s not great, but like you said, delivery sucks to try and hire and retain workers

4

I’ve always said we’re going to write a book someday; oh the stories we could share. We’ve had the same driver ruin a customers front yard twice or three times because he couldn’t back up properly, ran over some custom planter box etc etc in dry normal conditions, how he functioned in the snow I’ll never know. We used to use car signs but would get too many calls about speeding or rolling stop signs so we just quit it. Our drivers are making around the same as yours an hour and everything you said rings so true it’s scary. It must be like this everywhere. Drivers used to deliver, do veggies, dishes, sweep, mop, fold boxes or whatever else was needed. Just last night I sent my two drivers home after close but before cleanup was done because they were too damn slow at doing dishes. We did the rest of the cleanup in the store before they could do their dishes. We finished their dishes in 10 minutes which would’ve taken them 45. I truly believe if you don’t deliver, you have to have alcohol and a sit down experience. I’ll contradict myself though, there’s a place near us that doesn’t deliver but it’s pick-up, dine-in and a bar. They just extended happy hour to 7 days a week AND started 3rd party delivery with door dash through toast. So maybe you don’t need booze and sit down. Maybe if you’re not a fast casual you HAVE to have delivery, but I certainly sympathize.with what you’re going through…we are too

5

It took me a very long time to get delivery up and running and I can’t imagine ever discontinuing it. It is more than a profit center. It is a competitive advantage.

Finding good drivers is hard but dealing with bad drivers is harder. I use an interview questionnaire from restaurantowner.com. The crux of this questionnaire is that you hire for attitude and train for skill. I turn down about 50% of the persons I interview with this questionnaire. When I first started using it, that was really hard, because finding drivers is so difficult, but I learned quickly that when I ignored this process, I hired bad drivers and that was worse.

When I am short on drivers, which is often, I crank up my promise times. If a guest doesn’t want to wait that long, they are more than welcome to come and pickup, which they often do. That may sound terrible, but the fact is that every other place in town has the exact same problem, so comparatively speaking, you don’t look that bad in the eyes of the guest, especially if your product is good and the drivers you do have are polite, well groomed, and on time. Better to quote 45 minutes and be there in 40, then to quote 35 and be there in 40.

Even when I am short on drivers, my percentage split between delivery and carryout barely budges, which means that while I sometimes hear complaints, it doesn’t drive away customers or deliveries. It is a fact of life that, especially post-COVID, guests have learned to deal with.

6

I wish my quote times were as low as 45 and getting there in 40 lol.

7

We were at 2 hour delivery times for a while last year. Fortified the forces and we are around 47 minutes average delivery time most days.

8

I agree with the sentiment to hire for attitude, issue is we get basically zero delivery apps ever so for the most part if you are willing to do the job and the driving record comes back clean we basically hire you. I’d love to find some way to attract more candidates but unsure what that looks like for potential hires.

9

I understand. I am often asked how I hire folks and my answer is simply BRUTE FORCE. I spend about an hour every day searching every database, using every service, and posting on every platform I can find. With all that work I hire about one person per month so it’s important that that person doesn’t suck LOL

10

We basically use indeed, what other resources have you found that are helpful?

11

Talking about hiring, I’m not sure if others are seeing the same thing but I can basically hire a near infinite number of inside help. I basically just make sure I always pay $2 an hour more than the competitors and just get tons of apps every time I need to hire for inside. I’m not sure how to translate something like that to entice driver apps since they already make a nice wage and there’s way more factors for drivers than just pay i.e. vehicles etc.

12

I use Indeed. I also use “handshake” which is my local university’s student job board. I am a member of every local chamber, DDA, etc. social media group I can be on. I also use Nextdoor.com

13

My servers are even worse than my drivers with the infighting, bickering, and all the same issues. Everyone thats tipped is always high… If I had to start another I’d do takeout only, no dining room, no delivery… maybe just DoorDash, we get like 5k weekly from DoorDash here after their cut (15%+cc). This last week was crazy, I’ve been out with covid since the 30th and we did 48k for the week and we are only open 36 hours… full service Italian restaurant/pizzeria.

14

Yea, I feel your pain.
I also know my drivers attitudes, starts with my attitude.
We have Dine-in, Delivery and Carry-out.
My restaurant is Certified a Place of Hospitality. So, I think how we treat each other is more important than anything else. I believe our guest won’t be treated any better than we treat each other. That is where I start.
I make it a point to show my drivers how much they are making and I remind the drivers that act like they are doing me a favor, they aren’t.
I have also told them I am willing to put a table and chair outside the front door with a tip jar. Then I tell them we will count the tips at the end of the shift, and we will see if they are getting tipped because of who they are or because of what I bring to the table.
I have had too few drivers for the last year. It sucks but, it is what it is.
I heard someone say Revelance is more important than price.
So I have raised my prices 3% twice in the last 3 months and I am raising them again 3% in February.
If I am going to have to deal with this. I’m going to make more money.

1 Like
15

Arent you part of a francise. Your post make it seem like you run your store how ever you want. Im just curious, cause I am from your neck of the woods. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

16

We stopped delivery 3/1/21 due to our inability to hire enough employees. Ninety-five percent of my problems disappeared overnight. Sales are down about 30%. Labor is also down among other things. I think if you provide a quality product, they will pick it up. I should have done it 5 years sooner!

17

Hello,
I am just clarifying that you are asking me the question?

Wes

owner
Jim’s Razorback Pizza
Fort Smith, Ar, 72903
ph 479-841-1104

18

If you are really considering it, why don’t you try phasing it out instead of just stopping. Keep it during your peak delivery times and and slowly start reducing the hours that you offer deliveries. Just a suggestion. You might be able to better gauge on how much it will effect your business.

19

My locations have done delivery for almost 20 years now. The thought has crossed my mind to either eliminate delivery entirely and go with a 3rd party or to continue doing the delivery as well as adding a 3rd party delivery service. On busy nights we often run well over an hour on deliveries because we don’t have enough drivers.
-How much does Door Dash and Uber Eats charge the business?
-If you use them, have you raised your menu prices just for those 3rd party orders to offset what they charge you and if so, have customers complained?
-Has anyone kept their own delivery and added 3rd party delivery? If so, how did it affect delivery sales overall? Did you lose delivery sales that came directly from you or did it just add to your total delivery sales?
-If you decided to go strictly 3rd party, how do you handle phone orders placed asking you to deliver? Do you tell customers that they have to go online now to order directly from the 3rd party or is there another way to handle this?
-Anything else to consider? Thanks