Order and pay for food in restaurants with Deliveroo

DELIVEROO has unveiled a “table service” tool so diners can order and pay for food through its app while eating at select restaurants.

The company said it hopes the tool, which will be available on July 15 for the 35,000 restaurants on its app, will make it easier for restaurants to maintain social distancing guidelines.

“This is an important safety feature to give consumers confidence they can return to restaurants safely, and for restaurant staff, who will be able to work while minimising in-person contact,” Deliveroo said in a statement.

While the company normally takes a cut of orders delivered by its bike couriers, table service orders will be offered free of commission. Deliveroo also said it would also offer restaurants on its app 0 per cent commission for orders that customers come to pick up themselves for three months.

Chains such as Greene King pubs, Harvester, Slug and Lettuce and J D

Wetherspoon will all be providing apps that allow customers to order without leaving their table for the bar or seeing a waiter, although Deliveroo’s is the first from a food delivery company.

Ordering over apps is just one way the Government has asked restaurants to change amid the wider reopening of the economy. Restaurants and pubs will be asked to keep a record of bookings for 21 days so they can assist with contact tracing efforts.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Will Shu, CEO of Deliveroo, said: “Covid-19 has marked a new era of delivery. Since we started Deliveroo, there’s been this incredible adoption towards online and apps. But I think Covid-19 has brought forward this consumer behaviour by one to three years. On the other hand, our restaurant partners are hurting.”

The company said it had signed up 7,000 new restaurants since the start of lockdown in March.

The announcement comes days after Deliveroo had a major investment by Amazon waved through by Britain’s competition regulator.