Squaring the circle of pizza delivery
Restaurateur hires own drivers in response to high fees, sideways pies
KARON LIU
Fed up with high fees and orders mangled by corporate delivery apps, restaurant owner Roger Yang is trying to blaze his own trail: a food delivery service run by the restaurants that use it.
On Friday, Yang’s vegan pizzeria, Pizzeria Du on Queen Street West near Bathurst, began curbside deliveries with a hired driver and cyclist. The goal is to partner with other neighbourhood restaurants, hire more people and end the reliance on third-party delivery.
“Delivery wasn’t a priority for most restaurants a few years ago, but when the apps came along people started to get into it and the pandemic just accelerated it,” Yang said. “You hope that enough people will come by the restaurant to pick up takeout, but with everyone trying to stay home it’s just not going to happen.”
As more people isolating at home order takeout, they are also becoming more aware of the fees restaurants pay for third-party delivery services, which can be as much as 30 per cent of each meal. Yang says since he started delivery with
Uber Eats during the pandemic, some of his pizzas were placed sideways in the delivery pouch, resulting in negative feedback from diners.
Other businesses trying to avoid paying delivery app commissions have hired their laidoff staff to do deliveries, or turned to neighbourhood volunteers and ordering platforms with lower fees.
“This is an opportunity to make a more sustainable system. Uber Eats’ model was to commodify the food and strip it of its personality because there’s no communication between the customer and the restaurant,” Yang says.
“I think this is something that’s overdue.”
Restaurants that sign on with Yang’s new service won’t pay a service fee but will split operating costs and wages for the delivery people, who will initially make $20 an hour plus tips. Yang also made sure the driver could get insurance to cover food deliveries.
“It’s more of a co-operative than a for-profit venture on its own,” he says, adding that government wage subsidies during the pandemic give him the ability to do this.
For now, Pizzeria Du is doing curbside drop-offs from Roncesvalles to the Don Valley Parkway and north to St. Clair.