Hacker News Reader

I feel like the real challenge isn't the software but the provision of delivery drivers. Before UberEats, there was a service in Australia called Menulog, did much the same thing but required restaurants to supply their own drivers.

It was dominated by the sorts of restaurants who already had drivers (pizza joints, chinese/indian places). There was very little uptake among places which didn't already have delivery organised.

View on HN

Menulog still exists here in Australia, however it has adopted a combination of the system you describe and the third party driver system of Uber Eats et al. You can filter by restaurants that use their own drivers - I sometimes do this for two reasons, firstly it supports a driver who is directly employed and paid an award wage instead of this "contractor" bullshit, and secondly because restaurant employees have an additional incentive to get the delivery right (if they fuck it up, their boss will have a word with them and they will redeliver, any similar process for Uber Eats is far less direct).

In a way you are supporting larger businesses in detriment of smaller ones that don’t have the demand or cash flow to hire a driver, aren’t you?

Yes, that's true, however larger is relative when we're talking about pizza places and the local Chinese restaurant. These aren't national chains I'm talking about.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com