Own delivery or apps: what each order really costs

With a delivery app you pay a percentage of every order. With your own driver you pay a fixed amount per shift plus a little per delivery. So the answer depends on how many orders go out per shift: with few orders the app is cheaper, and above a certain number your own driver costs less per order. That number takes two lines to work out, but the decision also depends on how many orders the app brings you that you would not get without it.

What goes into each option

Part of an order's cost is the same either way: the food, the box, the dip pots, the bag. That is the order's loaded cost, and it does not change. What changes is how the order reaches the customer.

With an app, the cost is the commission. Check your contract for the exact rate and what it is charged on. This guide uses 30% as an example; your number may be different.

With your own driver, the cost has two parts:

• Fixed per shift: what you pay the driver to be available, busy or not. If you drive yourself, put a value on your hours.
• Variable per delivery: fuel, a per-drop payment if you agreed one, wear on the car if it is yours.

There is also a cost that does not show on any receipt: getting the order in the first place. On the app, customers find you. On your own, someone has to answer messages, take card payments over the phone, check addresses. If someone already on the till does it, it adds nothing; if it pulls you off the oven, it does.

The guide on the real cost of delivery shows how to measure fuel per mile and vehicle wear. Here we start from those numbers already measured.

The break-even point

The sum is:

deliveries per shift to break even = driver's fixed pay per shift ÷ (commission per order − variable cost per delivery)

Commission per order is your average order value times the app's rate. The subtraction tells you what you save on every order you deliver yourself. The fixed pay gets covered by those savings, one order at a time.

Below that number, the app is cheaper. Above it, your own driver is.

Worked example: a pizza kitchen

You make pizza for delivery. Your average delivery order is one large pizza, garlic bread and a soft drink: $32.00. You have worked out the loaded cost of that order, boxes included: $13.00.

• Order contribution before delivery: 32.00 − 13.00 = $19.00

With the app (say it charges 30%):

• Commission: 32.00 × 0.30 = $9.60
• You keep: 19.00 − 9.60 = $9.40 per order

With your own driver: say you pay $15 an hour for a 4-hour evening shift, so $60 a shift, plus $1.50 per delivery for fuel and wear.

• Saving per order compared with the app: 9.60 − 1.50 = $8.10
• Deliveries to break even: 60 ÷ 8.10 = 7.4, so 8 deliveries per shift

Watch the top end. If a single round trip takes your driver about 20 minutes (time it yourself), a 4-hour shift fits 12 trips at most. Getting to 16 means carrying two or three pizzas per run, which only happens when orders bunch up by area and time.

Over a month, at 12 deliveries a night for 26 nights: that is 312 orders.

• With the app: 312 × 9.60 = $2,995.20 in commission
• With your own driver: (60 + 12 × 1.50) × 26 = 78 × 26 = $2,028.00
• Difference: $967.20 a month in favour of your own driver

The missing question: where the orders come from

That $967.20 assumes all 312 orders would still arrive by phone or through your own site. They rarely do. Say you look through your orders and find that 1 in 4 comes from someone who found you on the app and has never ordered direct.

In scenario C you drop to 9 deliveries a night (234 ÷ 26), barely above break-even, and keep $397.80 a month less than staying on the app. The mixed setup (D) keeps $335.40 more than app-only, a fraction of the $967.20 the first sum promised.

The lesson is neither "stay on the app" nor "leave it". Your own driver pays when you have your own volume. If regulars order direct 15 times a night, the driver is a good deal. If they order 6 times, you are paying for a shift to save very little.

Slow nights and bad weather

Fixed pay does not drop when sales do. On a Tuesday with 3 deliveries, your cost per order is 60 ÷ 3 + 1.50 = $21.50, more than double the app commission. Work from your average across the whole week, not from Friday. If your nights vary a lot, you can run your own driver Thursday to Sunday only and use the app on the other nights.

How to make the move carefully

1. Count today's direct orders. The ones already coming by phone or message are your real base for own delivery.
2. Trial a partial schedule. Book a driver only on the nights with the most direct orders and measure the real cost per order for a month.
3. Keep each channel priced right. If you stay on the app, the app price has to absorb the commission. The delivery app price tool gives you the app price that keeps your margin after commission.
4. Set rules for direct orders. A $12 order does not pay for a trip. The guide on minimum orders and delivery fees shows how to set both.
5. Compare channels on the same terms. The guide on comparing profit by channel puts app, counter and direct orders in one table.

To see where this sits in a delivery-first business, read the cost model for delivery-first food businesses. And to find how many orders a month you need to cover everything, use the break-even tool.

Do it with the calculator

Load your average order into the food cost calculator to get its loaded cost; with that number and your real commission rate you can run the break-even sum above for your own driver.