Food Delivery Services: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
Online food delivery services have been a familiar technology to us for a while now, and they have experienced a major boom since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The circumstances of the pandemic have allowed services like DoorDash, UberEats, and GrubHub to expand their reach, adapt their approach, and grow demand to a point where they are now well ingrained in our lives and daily routines. These technologies are great advancements within the world of ubiquitous computing, with users on all levels (restaurants, drivers, and end consumers) interacting within the same interface to provide or receive a service, but now that the pandemic seems to be coming to a close, is it time to bring attention to the real flaws of these services? From someone who has used food delivery services like these as a restaurant worker, a delivery driver, and a customer, I can say that, in the short run, these services may have seemed like the next best thing for the food industry, but it could very well turn into a problem down the road that needs to change.
For those unfamiliar with how these services work on the back end, the concept is pretty straightforward and has the potential to become even more efficient and convenient if a few minor flaws are addressed. As an overview, a typical food delivery service transaction like DoorDash starts and ends with the consumer. The user navigates the DoorDash interface to find a restaurant that is on their platform and places an order of their choosing, once the order is placed, the restaurant gets a notification in their system, accepts the order, and starts preparing it. As soon as an order is accepted by a restaurant, it is immediately sent to a potential driver who can accept or decline the delivery depending on how much the driver would make in relation to the total miles that need to be traveled. From there, drivers are notified when orders are ready to pick up, restaurants are notified when drivers arrive, and end users are notified every step of the way from when their order is being made until their food is delivered.
Expanding the abilities for local and chain restaurants to deliver takeout orders to their customers by utilizing platforms like DoorDash proved to be a useful innovation during the ongoing pandemic. Statistics show that the market for these food delivery apps have nearly doubled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. With quarantining and social distancing causing restaurants to alter the way they serve their customers, these food delivery apps turned out to be extremely fruitful for all parties involved. Customers could still enjoy and support their favorite restaurants from the comfort of their own homes, drivers were able to adopt a new and safe way of making some extra money during the shut down, and many restaurants were able to keep their doors open through the uncertainty of the economy. With all these outcomes being relatively positive under the extreme circumstances, the market of food delivery services is at a crossroads now that the pandemic is seeming to be controlled and the public is slowly transitioning back to some of their original consumer habits. Although there was noticeable growth in popularity and adoption of these food delivery sites in the few years leading up to the pandemic, there is still uncertainty that the current state of the market would be where it is today without COVID-19 forcibly increasing demand. What we are seeing now, as life returns somewhat to a state of normalcy, are the flaws associated with these services as they stand right now. Economically speaking, for consumers, drivers, and restaurants, it’s becoming clear that the continued use of these food delivery services may not be so beneficial in the long run.
Starting with the consumer side, the overall demand for using these food delivery services has experienced a decline and economists expect this to continue as restrictions lift and dining out becomes a more attractive option. While part of this is due to the decrease of fear for infection as COVID subsides, this decrease in demand may have been a long time coming if you look at the cost associated with getting your food delivered through a platform like DoorDash or UberEats. It is well known that the price that is to be paid for the convenience of food delivery is one that comes with reluctancy. With all the fees and tips associated with using these platforms in addition to the increased cost of the food itself, consumers are starting to rethink making third party food delivery their new normal. The subconscious cost-benefit analysis all consumers consider before making a purchasing decision is starting to result in the realization that simply ordering online and picking the food up themselves is much more cost effective and results in much shorter wait times.
There is also a case to be made that the restaurants themselves are better off going back to taking delivery and takeout procedures into their own hands. What seemed to be a quick fix to stop the bleeding of the restaurant industry at the height of the pandemic proved to be the one thing that is keeping these establishments from maintaining comfortable profit margins. This is largely due to the high commissions these delivery apps charge restaurants for every sale they make through their platforms. These commissions of 20–30 percent are more often than not more than the profit margin restaurants expect to make on each sale which causes most establishments to actually lose money on delivery orders. These high commissions are most threatening to smaller, local restaurants that may have seen these platforms as a saving grace at the beginning of the pandemic, but are now seeing their true colors.
One of the more important components of making these food delivery systems work are the delivery drivers themselves, and they seem to be growing increasingly dissatisfied with their positioning within this gig-economy. Lawsuits have been filed against DoorDash for their continued misclassification of their drivers as private contractors rather than official employees that would be entitled to protections and benefits. Additionally, as restrictions lift and more people are roaming the streets in higher populated areas, where demand for these delivery services are higher, safety is a growing concern. Many couriers in New York City have reported being assaulted and their bikes, along with the food they are carrying, being stolen while on the job with no protections as far as reimbursements for the stolen or damaged property. Clearly, the appeal of making your own hours and working at your own pace is being overshadowed by all the ways these workers have been shortened for what they are owed by these large companies.
Although the technology behind connecting multiple parties on one platform to complete a delivery transaction seems like a step in the right direction for innovation, job creation, and helping restaurants expand their customer base, these delivery service apps have a lot of adapting to do before we can consider them a staple of consumers’ lives moving forward. These companies can no longer ride the wave of success that’s due to a massive alteration of consumer habits during a global pandemic. Some of these platforms, like UberEats, have expanded their services to offer delivery of non-food products like convenience items and hygiene products, but expanding their services is not the answer to try and salvage the success they experienced over the past couple of years. These delivery service platforms need to reconstruct their business model at every level of user interaction for them to be considered viable industry players that are around for the long haul.
