Delivery management that fits how your restaurant actually gets food out

Deciding which model to run

Most restaurants do not pick one. They pick a default and keep the others in reserve. The default usually follows geography: if nine out of ten orders come from within a couple of kilometres, your own rider on a scooter is hard to beat on cost. If orders spread across a city, or arrive in bursts you cannot staff for, a per-trip service like Porter absorbs the peaks.

A useful way to decide is to look at last month’s delivery addresses, if you have them from a marketplace, and draw a circle. Inside the circle: own rider. Outside: per-trip rider, or do not deliver there yet. Pickup covers the people who were going to drive past anyway.

Mixing models during a week

A Tuesday with eleven orders and a Friday with sixty are different businesses. Because the fulfilment choice sits on each order, your Tuesday rider can handle everything and your Friday can split: the near orders to your two riders, the far ones to Porter, the ones from the office across the road to pickup. Nothing needs reconfiguring between the two days.

Pickup deserves more attention than it gets. It carries no delivery cost, the customer arrives at a time you set, and the order is already paid. Offering a small discount for collection, or free delivery above a threshold, nudges customers toward the cheaper option without a conversation.

Start with a small delivery area

The temptation is to switch on every area the map offers. Resist it for the first month. A tight radius keeps delivery times honest, keeps riders near the kitchen, and makes the charge simple to set. Expand once the near orders run smoothly, one area at a time, with a charge for each that reflects the longer trip. The delivery fee calculator is built for that per-area decision.

Packaging and handover

Delivery management software cannot fix a soggy box. Before you expand delivery, decide which dishes travel and which do not, and hide the ones that do not from delivery in the menu builder while keeping them for dine-in. Mark bags with the order number from the order screen so a rider carrying three orders hands over the right one.

Pickup is a delivery option too

Every order that is collected is a delivery you did not have to make. On your own site, pickup is a selection at the top of the ordering page, with a lead time you set so the counter is not surprised. Customers who live near a bus stop, work across the road, or simply want to avoid a delivery charge will choose it if it is offered and clearly cheaper. A collection discount, or free delivery only above a threshold, is enough of a nudge for most of them.

What to measure in the first month

Four numbers tell you whether the setup is working. Orders per delivery area, so you can see which areas carry their charge. Late deliveries, counted against the time you promised rather than the time the customer hoped for. Orders refused or refunded at the door, which mostly tracks address quality. And rider idle time, if you run your own riders, because that number decides whether the second rider is a cost or an investment. None of these need a dashboard; a notebook by the order screen for four weeks is enough to see the pattern.

When no rider is available

It will happen: a rainstorm, a festival, a rider off sick. The order screen keeps the customer’s number on the order so someone can call, offer pickup or a later slot, or refund. Build that into training rather than hoping it never comes up. A quick, honest call keeps a customer; a silent late delivery loses one.

For the fuller picture of how delivery and pickup fit together on your own site, the guide to offering delivery and pickup from your own website covers setup order, charges and the first month.