London’s key delivery apps are fundamentally problematic.
While the likes of Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat have helped provide restaurants with the infrastructural support to obtain a stream of (additional) revenue through the COVID-19 pandemic, their services come at a cost: usually to the tune of around 30 percent commission. Not that the workers carrying out the deliveries see much of that, a recent report in 1843 suggesting that drivers and riders typically earn an average income lower than both the London living wage (£10.75 hour) and national living wage (£8.72 hour).
So, as new delivery apps continue to launch to challenge the triopoly of the Big Three — including, for example, Big Night, which charges 6.5 percent commission — a clutch of restaurants have set up in-house delivery services of their own. A bit like the old, pre-smart phone, days, but with PPE, less contact, and more competition. While in-house delivery typically requires upfront investment, many restaurants have taken the opportunity to save staff jobs, redistributing kitchen and front-of-house staff to make local deliveries, often on bicycles. Others have shunned the big apps by using unique, alternative delivery methods. Either way, these restaurants are managing to take total control of customer experience and reputation, provide reasonably paid work, and ultimately make more money in the hope of continuing to trade in these profoundly uncertain times.
Here’s Eater London’s pick of those restaurants offering their own delivery services all over the city.
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