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Delivery Driver Dilemma

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DoughBoy07

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I am new brand in a pretty competitive market, 3rd Party has taken over and fighting with uber/doordash over delivery drivers is wearing me down. Currently we pay 8$/hr plus tips driver usually makes about 15-20$ an hour and helps out with dishes, phones and boxes. I have had to take on a LOT of delivery shifts the past few months and 60+ hours of delivering means i cant work on growing the restaurant.

With what im spending on job postings and headaches i have been looking for other options.
  1. Get a delivery car (Scion iQ) great gas mileage, simple mechanics, low price.
    -Thinking 6/hr + Tips (I pay GAS/MAIT/INS)
    -will get to utilize my in house staff many of which arent at full time consistently
    -wider applicant pool (we are a college town - higher risk i know)
    -Get to Wrap - Good Visibility for marketing.
  2. Change pay structure.
    -we are a high volume/low ticket size restaurant. meaning tips are mostly 1-3$ but very clustered and townies tip much higher generally.
  • Adding a 1$ per delivery would cost me 40-80$ more per day so hourly would have to drop significantly.
  1. Go full 3rd Party
  • I HATE 3rd party but there are sooooo many uber/doordash drivers that are taking 90% of the driver market and it is the way of the future so is fighting it worth the effort? I have Decent rates.
    Doordash - 23%
    Grubhub 25%
    Uber -23%
    -we are open later than Grubhub and uber deliver so that would mean MAJOR repercussions not really considering this option much but throwing it out there.
Please comment any experiences or advice!
 
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Why not up your delivery charge to close to what the 3rd parties are and split evenly with your drivers. Keep the pay rate the same?

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My delivery fee is $1.99. Roughly 1000-1100 Deliveries in a good month, For 1000$ a month i could afford 2 Delivery cars. Raising fees i would love to do but we are already high comparatively. Not much room there.
 
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Unfortunately, this is a problem all over the place.

You can’t compete with someone who makes $20-$30 an hour who can work whenever they want & not have to wash dishes or do anything else.

I’m sure the government will step in soon and nix their independent contractor loophole.

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Yeah, once drivers start getting 1099’s and have to pay $5000 at the end of the year instead of getting a refund, things will start to change.
 
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I am sure everyone understands the predicament you are in myself included. Look into the door dash drive program. It integrates with most Pos systems and you can use their fleet to offset some of your in house deliveries. They charge a flat fee and it is based on weekly volume.
 
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What is your delivery charge and how much do the drivers get of that? I had up to 4 Honda Elements fully wrapped and although the marketing aspect was huge the headaches or repairs & cost of commercial fleet insurance was crazy. Much better with drivers using their own cars with my toppers although hired/non-owned has been a pain in the ass in recent years
 
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I am sure everyone understands the predicament you are in myself included. Look into the door dash drive program. It integrates with most Pos systems and you can use their fleet to offset some of your in house deliveries. They charge a flat fee and it is based on weekly volume.
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Steve. I’m quoted $9.99 per delivery . The cost just doesn’t make sense for me. If it was less I would consider.

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RobT said:
Steve. I’m quoted $9.99 per delivery . The cost just doesn’t make sense for me. If it was less I would consider.

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that is pricey. I am at $8 per delivery. So I utilize it for overflow and such. It works out really well for my shops.
 
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I charge $3.00 for deliveries within 4 miles and $6 for 5 to 10 miles. I own a Scion XB and love it. For my first 2 years in business I ran a Saturn and had nothing but problems. I did slot of research and bought this Scion used off Craigslist and love it. I unfortunately don’t have and experience with these delivery services but I am assuming they have to be charging the customer more than a $1 right?

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https://perfectingpizza.com/public/the-real-cost-of-delivery/

I highly recommend that anyone that doing delivery stop what you are doing and do this NOW! It is FREE and a great tool that the guys at Perfecting Pizza offer to help you better decide.

Also, I have found that we have taken drivers from competitors for alot of reasons mainly pay, but I also should mention our hours (we close earlier at 9:00) and we have a cleaning crew so they do not have to stay to sweep & mop.
 
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famousperry said:
https://perfectingpizza.com/public/the-real-cost-of-delivery/

I highly recommend that anyone that doing delivery stop what you are doing and do this NOW! It is FREE and a great tool that the guys at Perfecting Pizza offer to help you better decide.

Also, I have found that we have taken drivers from competitors for alot of reasons mainly pay, but I also should mention our hours (we close earlier at 9:00) and we have a cleaning crew so they do not have to stay to sweep & mop.
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I don’t know where they got $1750 for own car insurance but it sure isn’t what I’d pay to replace HNOA. Non owned is based on percent of revenue that is delivery. On commercial for the two autos I own every time I add a driver it bumps my premium (progressive). In my case just two owned vehicles the insurance was equivalent or more than the HNOA insurance. Plus people don’t take care of the vehicles etc. With my numbers it costs more for our own autos. Previous owner had better luck with it. I had an almost 3k per car premium for just liability on old beater subarus. I’ll still insure and use them during busy season but the rest of the year I will drop them from insurance and park them. All drivers with pretty good MVR’s and over 21.
 
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  1. Don’t go 3rd Party - They Suck!
  2. Sign up and post jobs on a site called “Better Team”
  3. Order delivery from home and if the driver is somebody you want on your team…recruit them.
DoughBoy07 said:
I am new brand in a pretty competitive market, 3rd Party has taken over and fighting with uber/doordash over delivery drivers is wearing me down. Currently we pay 8$/hr plus tips driver usually makes about 15-20$ an hour and helps out with dishes, phones and boxes. I have had to take on a LOT of delivery shifts the past few months and 60+ hours of delivering means i cant work on growing the restaurant.

With what im spending on job postings and headaches i have been looking for other options.
  1. Get a delivery car (Scion iQ) great gas mileage, simple mechanics, low price.
    -Thinking 6/hr + Tips (I pay GAS/MAIT/INS)
    -will get to utilize my in house staff many of which arent at full time consistently
    -wider applicant pool (we are a college town - higher risk i know)
    -Get to Wrap - Good Visibility for marketing.
  2. Change pay structure.
    -we are a high volume/low ticket size restaurant. meaning tips are mostly 1-3$ but very clustered and townies tip much higher generally.
  • Adding a 1$ per delivery would cost me 40-80$ more per day so hourly would have to drop significantly.
  1. Go full 3rd Party
  • I HATE 3rd party but there are sooooo many uber/doordash drivers that are taking 90% of the driver market and it is the way of the future so is fighting it worth the effort? I have Decent rates.
    Doordash - 23%
    Grubhub 25%
    Uber -23%
    -we are open later than Grubhub and uber deliver so that would mean MAJOR repercussions not really considering this option much but throwing it out there.
Please comment any experiences or advice!
Click to expand...
 
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