The success of ride-sharing startups is increasing along with on-call food-delivery services for restaurants that don’t have their own drivers. Some of these services offer not only food delivery but also favors such as bringing you a battery or picking up your suit from the cleaners.
Favor has announced it has reached one million deliveries nationwide. The delivery service no longer just delivers food. It connects people with personal assistants, called runners, who will fetch anything from batteries to burritos. Customers place their requests through Favor’s mobile phone apps, available for both iOS and Android platforms. It reports an average delivery time of 35 minutes. Favor currently makes deliveries in 15 markets in the U.S. and Canada. Go here for $5 off your first Favor Order.
Groupon-owned OrderUp launched recently in Orlando with around 60 drivers bringing food from restaurants to homes and businesses competing with local companies. Doorstep Delivery and Munchem are the local delivery services who are facing a growing threat from app-based services in the central Florida city which lacks Postmates for now.
OrderUp runs on an independent-contractor model where it dispatches drivers to pick up orders at restaurants and then drive the food to its destination. The industry seems to be expanding at a record pace with more people ordering food from Postmates, Delivery.com, GrubHub and UBER Eats.
Restaurants get to expand delivery without hiring drivers so it’s a win-win situation. It’s a no-brainer to order a tasty deli-sandwich from Publix’s delivered to you at a small cost without having to go and wait for it. Places such as Chipotle who do not have drivers just make up the orders to bed delivered.
These Third-party delivery services usually cost $4 to $6 per order, and customers are expected to tip the drivers. The delivery service often takes a cut of the total bill from restaurants but sometimes the restaurants have a surcharge.
Doorstep has about 300 partners in Central Florida, while OrderUp started with 31 partner restaurants. Munchem takes orders for any restaurant in which it can find a menu. Because of the rapid pace of technology DoorStep plans to redevelop its app to allow real-time tracking of delivery drivers.
While you may not think you have a food or task delivery service in your area it will be there soon if not already. These companies are growing fast and add locations constantly. One issue is getting food delivered to the suburbs vs. uptown or downtown areas. The best thing to do is try all of these apps and see if you can find a local delivery service if no one else delivers.
