Today’s consumers increasingly expect online ordering and home delivery to be available for a wide range of food options. The days of home delivery only being offered by pizza restaurants are long gone.

As such, more and more restaurants and takeaway businesses are recognising the importance of providing a user-friendly way for their customers to order online, as well as offering off-premise eating options.

With fine dining restaurants perhaps being one of the few exceptions, more or less ALL kinds of restaurants and takeaway outlets can benefit from the additional revenue home delivery orders can bring.

What we’re now seeing is many restaurants working with third party companies/ordering platforms that also handle the delivery side of things and do home drop offs on their behalf.

But while it may initially seem ideal and convenient to outsource this part of your service offering to a third party, there are certainly some strong advantages to keeping things in house by using your own delivery drivers where possible.


More control over how the food travels…and arrives at your customer’s doorstep 

Once you hand over a takeaway order to a third party delivery driver you no longer have any control over what happens to it from there. While you would assume every effort is made to ensure the customer’s order arrives hot, undamaged, well presented and ready to eat, you just don’t know whether this will always be the case.

If the food does arrive in a less than ideal condition (pizza squashed down one side of the box for example) the customer won’t be happy and it will be your business reputation that suffers. It won’t matter to the customer that it was out of your control.

There have been a number of stories in the media recently about Australian restaurant owners experiencing this exact issue.

Worse still, not only could your business reputation get damaged by something out of your control, the delivery company will most likely expect you to bear the cost (or at least a percentage) of reimbursing the customer.


More control over customer interactions and service

Using your own dedicated team of delivery drivers also means that your customers are being served by and interacting with your own internal staff, rather than someone completely separate from your business that may not provide the level of service your customers deserve.


Your brand front and centre

Using your own delivery drivers allows you to control the experience customers have with your brand and enables you to make your business the main focus, instead of a third party delivery service, which will be more concerned about promoting their own platform than your business and your brand.

This increased visibility of your own brand then allows you to foster brand loyalty as your customers become more directly familiar with your business. Customer loyalty means more repeat orders, which is always something to aim for.

Not only that, you’ll be in a better position to control your pricing and the kind of promotions you run.

Brand consistency is important, and your customers will come to appreciate the familiarity.


Potentially more cost-effective

With the commissions charged by third party ordering and delivery services now getting as high as 35%+ there is also a very real potential for cost savings by employing and using your own drivers.

When you “cut out the middleman” you’re going to be taking in a much higher % of the overall profits from each meal delivered, which is a major win for any business.