UPS announced in October that it had achieved the highest level of FAA certification for drone deliveries, the FAA’s Part 135 Standard certification. It might sound like government word salad, but UPS and drone partner Matternet have been awarded a landmark license to operate drones for the very first time. This new certification gives UPS a huge amount of leeway when it comes to aerial drone operations. The FAA’s Part 135 Standard certification has no limits on the size or scope of operations. It is the highest level of certification, […]
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Before Waitr acquired it, Bite Squad was a Minnesota-based delivery service putting up huge numbers in its home turf, especially Minneapolis. Less than a year after finalizing the acquisition by Louisiana-based Waitr, Bite Squad has discontinued service in the cities of St. Cloud, Rochester and Duluth—Minnesota’s largest cities outside of the Twin Cities metro area. Reported by a handful of Minnesota newspapers, the company is winding down operations in those cities in the coming weeks as parent company Waitr struggles with declining share prices and a net loss of more […]
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DoorDash has released its annual delivery trend report dubbed “The DoorDash Dish: 2019-2020 Trend Report,” showing what U.S. delivery consumers are hungry for. The report is built on the data from orders through the network and a survey of more than 1,200 DoorDash customers, with the goal of gleaning important food trends for this year and how consumers are approaching delivery. Drumroll please—this year’s winner is burrito bowls. See the list to the right for the entire top 15. The big headline is delivery customers love Mexican food. In 2019, […]
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Third-party delivery best practices are seemingly endless these days, but Uber Eats has some key places to focus efforts to make things as efficient as possible. Read on for a sponsored message from Uber Eats.
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On the third day of the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference, execs from Kitchen United, Sweetberry Bowls and Dog Haus joined Food On Demand’s Nicholas Upton to go behind the scenes on the economics and other details for restaurants now operating within delivery- and takeout-only kitchens. New Jersey-based Sweetberry Bowls CEO Desi Saran said his two-year-old brand is now up to 19 restaurants across seven states, with delivery adding as much as 15 percent to the brand’s overall topline numbers. Delivery comprises approximately 20 percent of its systemwide sales. The […]
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Negotiating with a unicorn company out of Silicon Valley, even for an established restaurant brand, can be nerve-wracking. Portillo’s, the Chicago hot-dog institution rapidly expanding into new markets, had one key tactic for getting everything they wanted from its third-party delivery contracts. Nick Scarpino, the senior vice president who oversees marketing and off-premises operations at Portillo’s, said when he joined the company five years ago it had some experience sending food out with third-party couriers, but not many guardrails around the program. “If we go back in history,” said Scarpino, […]
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Louisiana-based Waitr Holdings, which also owns Bite Squad, is the latest publicly traded national delivery provider to post a significant loss in recent weeks, bleeding a total of $220.1 million during Q3 2019. Diving into the numbers, Waitr’s quarterly revenue increased 153 percent to $49.2 million, compared to $19.4 million during the third quarter of 2018. Revenue related to the Bite Squad merger totaled $24 million during the period. Those numbers equate to a significant, $220.1 million net loss, which compares with a loss of $6.5 million during the third […]
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Aerial drones may represent an incredible leap in foodservice technology, but there is still plenty of work to be done before we collectively get there. Uber’s Elevate division recently painted a picture of what that future model might look like as it announced its new drone prototype. It’s a cool drone, with six rotors that turn for more efficient distances, essentially turning a typical drone rotor 90 degrees and creating lift with a wing to save precious battery power. By doing so, the drone can fly for up to 18 […]
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Andrew Martino bootstrapped his way to opening a ghost truck-themed, multi-concept, delivery-only kitchen in New Jersey that offers a more refined delivery and takeout experience with nine in-house concepts operating out of a tiny space. Six months in, Ghost Truck Kitchen is turning a modest profit, even while giving a sizable portion of each order to third-party delivery providers. The key to much higher profits for the self-funded facility, however, lies in guiding its customers to order through its own channels, so the business doesn’t have to divert nearly as […]
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A new week has brought yet another major financial blow to the third-party delivery landscape with Uber posting a $1.2 billion loss during the third quarter on the heels of the mobility giant’s epic $5.2 billion loss during the second quarter. Its stock price fell from the low $30s toward the high $20s, suggesting that Wall Street is generally unmoved by the red ink that some analysts said was smaller than expected as reports suggest SoftBank has lost a combined $6.5 billion on its WeWork and Uber investments. With revenues […]
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