this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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I don't share any moral delima with the concept of third party delivery. Conceptually what's different than the branded delivery drivers? Both by the way rely more on tips than anything else for payout to the delivery person, but at least the base pay rate for the branded driver is typically a tiny bit higher. I am bothered by the ratio of what I pay extra for third party services as compared to what the delivery person receives. You can't possibly just drive the price up further to fill the gap, the gap is massive and the prices are already a limiting factor for most to utilize these services. I also relate to the cold tossed meal. There is no effort in training these gig workers or supplying them with proper equipment to deliver the food. It often arrives in a terrible state and there is very little in the way of quality control. If I were a restaurant I would hesitate to let these people represent my food. Conceptually I actually rather like the idea of third party delivery. I don't want to be a domino's employee and deliver pizza, but give me some freedom to pick my hours and a fare wage that doesn't rely on tip culture, and I'll stop by and deliver a domino's pizza every once and awhile for some extra cash. The real world execution though is currently a mess. These companies took advantage of how badly Americans want food delivery and how hard it is for most restaurants to implement it themselves.
So, a lot of conceptual and practical differences beyond the couple you mentioned. I don't order from doordash etc, but I will sometimes order delivery from dominoes or something where they have their own delivery drivers. It's not hard for me to drive a couple miles to pick up my own order, which saves me money, has a better chance of having hot food, and I'm not enabling people making poor choices to work below minimum wage.
That said, I prefer ride sharing apps over taxis.
The solution already existed. It’s called restaurants delivering their own food. But Ubereats shoehorned their way into the equation to be an unnecessary middleman in order to profit. Exploiting a whole new group of people in the process.
I absolutely share the moral dilemma with the concept of third party delivery. They’re just as useless as health insurance companies, so if you see the problem with the latter, you can def see the problem with the former. (Not to say they’re on the same scale or have similar histories or have equal amounts of blood on their hands, just that they’re similar in structure in a system that work(s)/(ed) fine without them.)
The solution did not exist at all. There was a huge market gap. Lots of restaurants didn't have the population density or resources to support a built in delivery service. I had two restaurants that delivered to my location prior to ride share delivery. It instantly jumped to dozens as soon as door dash came to town.
But tons of restaurants didn't offer delivery before. That's what the other commenter was saying. For many places, especially smaller, locally owned restaurants, a 3rd party enabling delivery for them is a huge boon. But like the other commenter said, it needs to be implemented well and fairly, which it currently is not.
Also, comparing 3rd party food delivery to health insurance is definitely something...