Food Delivery: This Is How You Determine The Size Of Your Delivery Area

People nowadays order food far more often than they used to. Having the meals delivered to your restaurant at home can also mean a huge growth in turnover and brand awareness. People not only order a greasy bite, the steaks and salads are delivered to the home nowadays.

Do you also want to have your meals delivered? Where do you start? And how big should the delivery area be? In this blog we provide information, tips and a practical step-by-step plan for determining your delivery area.

How long can your customers wait?

The first step in determining your delivery area is to think of how long your customers can wait. You probably will not make your customers happy when they have to wait two hours for their food. That applies in your restaurant, so also when you deliver at home. Actually, you want to have the food at the customer’s home as quickly as possible – but speed is not the only factor that plays a part!

Consider, your budget. How much are you willing to invest in a delivery service? Delivery by bike is cheaper than by car, but your delivery area decreases drastically. In addition, environmental friendliness also plays a role nowadays. People prefer to order from a company with a small ecological footprint than with a large polluter.

Finally, it is important that you know how long your food will last. Nobody likes to be offered cold food, not even your customers. Therefore adjust your delivery time and area to the food you want to deliver. This is of course custom-made and varies per restaurant.

How many customers do you want to reach?

Your delivery area depends on where you are located. Do you have a restaurant in a village outside the Randstad? Then you may need a large delivery area to reach enough customers. If you are based in the heart of Amsterdam, you need a smaller delivery area for the same customer area.

It is therefore important to see where you are located and to consider how many customers you want to reach. Do you only want to serve local customers, or do you want to expand your customer base to surrounding villages and cities? This has a major impact on the delivery method and the delivery area that you need.

Who will deliver the meals from your restaurant?

Do not be afraid to outsource the delivery of food to a delivery service. Besides that this can give your name recognition a helping hand, it also saves you a lot of work.

If you choose a thirt-party delivery service provider, but before signing any contract you should learn more abour fast food delivery insurance. It is important to know the differences between the services. Home delivery mainly focuses on traditional fast food such as shawarma and pizza. UberEats and Eat24, on the other hand, also deliver meals from some more qualitative restaurants.

You can also choose to have your food delivered by your own staff. You have the way of delivery completely in your own hands. In addition, it is more personal to customers if they can order directly from you instead of from a large delivery company.

Step-by-step plan for determining delivery area

Now that you know what to think about when you are going to determine your delivery area, it is time for some practical tips. Below is a step-by-step plan as a restaurant owner to determine your delivery area:

1. Ask friends or regular customers – who live at different distances – whether you can deliver something to them once. For example someone at 1, 5 and 10 kilometers away. Ask for honest feedback.
2. Deliver food in different ways. For example, by bike, by scooter or car.
3. Clearly chart the delivery times and the quality of the deliveries.
4. Choose where your priorities lie and determine the delivery area.
5. Compare the results of the different delivery ways. Pay attention to the following things:

• Distance: This must be as large as possible.
• Delivery time: This must be as short as possible.
• Ecological footprint: This must be as small as possible.
• Quality of the meal on arrival: This must be as high as possible.
• Costs: These must be as low as possible.