Outsourced Food Delivery

[Haunted Ghost]

You employ a crew of 10 drivers. Then you approach restaurants that don't already have home/office delivery service and ask them to outsource the delivery function to you.

How would you make this business work legal-wise and business-wise? Should I start with a big crew or should I start with perhaps less than three drivers or even just by myself at first, just to gain some experience?

[Evan]

Unless the restaurants are all right next to each other this is going to be a logistical nightmare.

[ahnuld]

A company does this in montreal. I worked at a food store that used them. They charged the customers a fee of 3.50 per trip and then customers had to tip the dirver. The restaurant charged the normal amount. Customers would call the deliver service and place the order with them, then fax it over to us so we could have it prepared in time for when the driver arrived 10 minutes later. Seems to work well.

Check out a la carte express in the montreal location.

[binki]

We have this in SoCal. I think it is a franchise. Don't remember the name of the company but a lot of the local eateries have their flyers in the lobby.

[ouzacprice]

we have collegedelivery.com in my college town, if you wanna check out their website for an idea of how they run things. im sure if you called the guy would give you some info too.

[mshalen]

I have 2 clients that run this type of business. It is not as easy as it seems. They have a call center where phone and internet orders come into. The orders are then transmitted to the participating restaurants. The drivers then pick up the orders and deliver to the customer.

The main negative issues are:
1. finding and keeping quality delivery people. The turnove is very high and the quality of most applicants is amazingly low
2. Having a high concentration of people within a small delivery area, otherwise each delivery person can only make a few deliveries per hour.
3. Can the restaurants handle the orders and will they give priority to your orders or to people sitting in their dinning room?
4. Can you find enough quality restaurants that serve a wide range of food?

[Perplexity]

www.diningin.com

[Big TR]

www.takeouttaxichicago.com/

This is done all over.

[latefordinner]

You should check and see if it isn't already offered. As mentioned this service is available in almost every major US city.

[Haunted Ghost]

Thanks to those who have responded so far. What kinds of permits and licenses would this kind of business require?