If you are a restaurant owner, you have probably joined one of the many third-party delivery apps to help boost your revenue and market your restaurant.
Although these applications can be great, they do take a considerable percentage of your earnings out.
A new business model is quickly gaining momentum.
Relay Delivery was created to save restaurants money on delivery, streamline the to-go food order process, and combine all of your third-party food delivery devices into one platform.
By taking the stress out of delivery orders and managing to-go orders, you can shift your focus back to your in-house customers and strengthen your business!
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What Is Relay Delivery?
Relay Delivery is changing the way that restaurants deliver their food with third-party companies.
Things like GrubHub, DoorDash’s Merchant program, Seamless, Eat24, Uber Eats, Postmates, and more overcharge customers for your food, then take your margins and lose you money.
An UberEats representative noted that they take out 30% per order to use their delivery service, and that can be cut in half if restaurants choose to use their own delivery.
Relay Delivery acts as your own personal delivery service to cut costs for you and to be more reliable for your customers.
Relay Delivery also makes managing applications easier for restaurants.
Relay removes your need for multiple ordering platforms and multiple apps and devices.
You now can sell all of your to-go food in a straightforward management system, which combines online orders, third-party orders, and website orders all onto one easy-to-use platform.
How Does Relay Delivery Work?
Signing up for Relay Delivery is fast and easy!
First, a restaurant owner will reach out to Relay and speak with one of their specialists about what they are looking for and what technology and services Relay can offer them.
You then unselect the option for delivery on all of the third-party food delivery apps you subscribe to.
You still use these platforms to receive orders, but now Relay becomes the only delivery service you use.
It makes it more affordable for you and more consistent for the courier and the customer.
You pay no commission when orders are received by phone or on your website, and you pay less to third-party delivery apps, saving you money over time.
All you have to do is log in to your third-party delivery apps on the Relay platform and then set them all to self-delivery.
Relay will walk you through each step of the process, and once this is complete, they take over.
Once you receive an order on any of your platforms, Relay will automatically send you an on-demand courier to deliver the meal.
All they focus on is delivery so you can continue to sell and make your food as you always have.
As a Relay Courier (delivery driver), you are your boss and can work as little or as much as you want between the hours of 7:00 am and 11:30 pm.
Relay Couriers must undergo a background check and learn the basics of excellent customer service skills.
Relay promises more reliable delivery to your customers, especially on weekends and holidays.
Where Does Relay Delivery Operate?
Alex Blum founded Relay in New York City in 2014 and has focused its expansion on densely-populated east coast cities such as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
They are working on expanding into surrounding cities, including Miami, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, Atlanta, etc.
Relay claims that they “offer restaurant owners an easy way to optimize their delivery operations all while regaining control over their business’s output and financial health.
We’re focused on transparency and giving you complete visibility and ownership of your data.”
Most Relay couriers operate on bicycles, delivering food quickly and efficiently in dense areas.
Blum states that the company is considering selling carbon credits at some point to make the company more income.
Relay’s Delivery Technology
The idea behind Relay is to benefit from the marketing power of third-party food delivery apps while reducing the amount that you have to pay for their deliveries.
It also is more convenient and reliable for your customers, making them more likely to continue ordering from you in the future.
The technology they use simply combines all other platforms into one single application, showing all orders that you receive in one single place.
They also send their delivery people to have one single company performing all of your deliveries.
Relay Delivery vs. Other Platforms
Using Relay Delivery service has a lot of pros.
You can save your company money, still market on third-party delivery apps, and reduce the amount you have to pay for each order.
For example, Joe Trento, owner of Blockheads Burritos, claims that Relay has saved them over $90,000 per year!
Although there are many pros to using Relay over other platforms, there is a downside as well. Relay Delivery is currently only available in New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.
This is limiting, so if you do not live in NYC or one of the other main cities, Relay is not an option for you.
However, it is growing fast and likely will be spreading to other cities soon.
Wrapping Up
Relay Delivery is a new way that restaurants will be managing and executing all to-go food orders.
Over the last year, ordering food to go has become a norm for many American families since people have spent much more time at home.
Relay is doing everything it can to keep up with growing demands and benefit the restaurants.
If you are a restaurant that uses any third-party food ordering platform such as UberEats, GrubHub, Postmates, and beyond, you should consider doing more research into the Relay Delivery system and see if it could potentially save you time, money, and hassle!
