Restaurant Delivery: The Old Way vs The New Way

Here’s the scene of a restaurant using third-party delivery… 

Dine-in customers walk into the smell of delicious food, but the atmosphere feels more like a busy train station than a place to eat. Drivers are clustered around the hostess stand asking questions, sifting through bags of food looking for a specific name, or waiting for their assigned pickup to be ready. 

Along the wall, food bags are lined up like an e-commerce fulfillment center. Each bag has been carefully packed up and tagged, but there’s still a scramble. Drivers are rifling through, searching for the right bag. They often pick up the wrong one in their rush. Bryan C. gets Bryan G.’s order. Your restaurant gets a chargeback for both orders. 

Many bags sit waiting, their assigned drivers stuck in traffic or finishing up their last drop off. Marketplaces, in response to the shortage of drivers and poor unit-level economics, are batching orders that might not be ready at the same time, or even coming from the same restaurant.

Drivers who are trying to be more efficient are even batching orders themselves – picking up multiple deliveries at once. They wait for one order to finish while the others sit, getting colder by the minute. 

Outside, the parking lot is packed. Drivers are circling for spots, blocking the drive-thru, and requiring your paid customers to park further away and walk. Or maybe they even turn around and go somewhere else – expecting there will be a wait when they get inside. 

This scene is common in many restaurants today, because the third-party delivery system we’ve grown accustomed to has put strains on our restaurant operations. It compromises the in-house dining experience because it was always added as an afterthought.

The Old Way: Reactive and Fragmented Delivery

It’s hard to think of delivery as “old,” but the current system of 3rd party delivery was created in 2013. In the decade since, restaurants have raced to incorporate 3rd party delivery into a system that was designed for something else entirely.

Historically, restaurant operations were focused within the four walls. Dine-in was always the beating heart of the restaurant – so you focused on making great food, hiring and training the staff, and improving efficiencies in the kitchen. When the demand for food delivery grew, your restaurant posted its menus on the 3rd party marketplaces without really changing underlying operations. That is, until problems started popping up left and right. 

By rethinking how we do things and using smarter solutions that put delivery first, restaurants can beat the problems that come with 3rd party delivery.

And these problems make sense. Restaurants that were originally set up for people to eat inside are now tasked with handling dine-in, takeout, and delivery – all of which require slightly different fulfillment strategies. And delivery becomes the most complex of all, with food quality dropping by the minute as it travels miles from your kitchen to someone else’s. 

As a result, customers who order delivery – whether by preference or need – don’t get the best of your brand experience. The packaging could be perfect. The food could be just right as it leaves the kitchen. The drivers could be great. But all the band-aids in the world don’t fix what’s foundationally broken: A system that inherently causes delays for food, drivers, or both.

Futuristic delivery solutions like drones and sidewalk robots, while innovative, are just new layers of complexity and cost on this already struggling system. They don't address the fundamental issue: Delivery has been treated as an afterthought rather than a core part of restaurant operations. 

But delivery isn’t going away, so we need to find a better solution. 

The New Way: Taking Control of Your Delivery

Here’s the scene of a restaurant managing its own delivery…

Dedicated delivery zones: Instead of delivery drivers cluttering the main parking lot and disrupting dine-in guests, there is a separate area designated solely for your delivery operations. This area is away from the main customer entrances and organized specifically for quick and efficient dispatch. Drivers line up in this designated zone, ready to take the next available order.

Streamlined order handoff: Orders are prepared and handed out to the next available driver, eliminating the chaos of drivers searching for their pre-assigned order. This system ensures that each order is fresh and hot, handed off immediately from the kitchen to the driver. No more lost time, no rifling through bags — just a smooth transition that keeps the food at optimal quality.

Exclusive, familiar drivers: Instead of 3rd party drivers who you don’t know (or maybe wish you didn’t know), you have a dedicated team of contract drivers who work exclusively for your restaurant during their gig. You get to build a relationship with a trusted group who understand the importance of representing your brand. These drivers become familiar faces to your regular customers and are as committed to delivering quality service as your in-house staff. Most importantly, your restaurant chooses which drivers are able to represent the brand.

This scene is possible for operators who start thinking about delivery and drivers as core parts of the restaurant ecosystem, rather than a siloed operation.

How We Win: Putting Delivery at the Center of Operations

In the race for customer satisfaction, mastering delivery is key. You can no longer keep your focus within the four walls. Customers want convenience, and they're ready to pay for it. 

By rethinking how we do things and using smarter solutions that put delivery first, restaurants can beat the problems that come with 3rd party delivery. Software that matches orders to drivers more flexibly and enables restaurants to own and manage their own delivery fleet and operations can make everything run smoother and faster. 

Restaurants who take delivery into their own hands and treat it as a core part of their operations, will not only be keeping up with what customers want today, but they’ll stay ahead for the future. Every delivery done right is a win, not just for the customer, but for the restaurant’s future.