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Comment by rconti | Hacker News Reader

At least with ride hailing we got cheap, convenient rides for a subsidized price.

For food delivery, we get overpriced (upcharged) food, plus a delivery fee, for cold food that takes forever to show up.

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It really does amaze me how much worse the delivery experience has gotten in the last few years. Prices are way up, and the additional complexity means deliveries are less reliable and less predictable. Which makes a lot of sense, really. If a restaurant advertised delivery previously, they had delivery employees and treated it like an important aspect of their experience. Now it's really not clear who, if anybody, is responsible for ensuring a good experience.

Uber is responsible for the delivery experience, the restaurant is responsible for the food experience.

As any restaurant cook can tell you that there's a lot of steps they have no control over that directly impact food experience.

I use UE more than I care to admit and while the prices can suck the only weirdness I've seen is people lie about riding bikes, a lot.

I think there's an incentive for bike riders so I don't report it (not like they're paid well anyway) but it is odd.

I think bike riders get extra information about orders (presumably so they can refuse orders that they can't carry), but obviously car drivers would like that information too.

This is just based on my recollection from a friend of mine doing Postmates a few years back.

I noticed the bike thing when traveling to NYC recently. I assumed it had something to do with the city's utilization bill not applying to bikes.

In a competitor app, I’m guessing it’s the same for Uber, bikers got paid more per mile because it was assumed to take longer. Also, bikers dont need proof of car insurance

Delivery is now just a pass-the-buck system. Delivery companies blame riders who blame restaurants who blame delivery companies again. I'm not sure if this is something that can sustain once the discount gravy train runs dry.

This hasn't been my experience at all. Granted, I try to order from places close to me, but I was shocked at how smooth the transaction was with Uber Eats, and how fresh the food was. Also, little pro-tip: order food that travels well. French-fries are a huge risk, but hot sandwiches/pizza/asian food is great.

I think Radio Lab did an experiment with french fries.

The optimal method of transporting them was to never seal them (!!), turn your car heater on full blast, and put them right in front of a vent.

... if you survive driving a car that smells like french fries, while hungry, apparently they turn out pretty decent.

You gotta pop the hood of your car and put them on whatever part of the engine is the warmest. There's probably optimization where you cook the fries as you drive.

Yea, so how are the unit costs working out? Why is delivery so costly AND they are losing money? How costly is delivery supposed to be for a company to be profitable (assuming NYC level density).

> Why is delivery so costly

If I live 10 minutes and 2 miles from a pizza place, a round trip is $1 in fuel and depreciation, and $4 salary at minimum wage - if the driver is driving constantly, never has to wait for the food to be ready or sit around waiting for orders to come in.

If the driver sometimes has to wait around for the food to be ready, and there are quiet times at the start and end of the evening, and the driver gets health insurance, holiday/sick leave and a pension, delivery could easily cost $10.

Choice of delivery restaurants is much higher though.

Previously (outside of NYC and other major metro areas) your choices for easy delivery were pizza and.... pizza. Everywhere else either didn't offer delivery, or it was offered on a very ad hoc basis (one employee who might be able to deliver for very large orders, and you had to ring the store, and pay in cash).

Now the majority of restaurants offer delivery, it costs a lot more than domino's pizza but no one cares.

Shows up unpredictably. I can’t fathom how DoorDash stays in business, let alone grows. At least Uber has other businesses with possible network effects.

Too bad the NYC bicycle delivery model doesn’t scale.

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