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by WrtCdEvrydy 2128 days ago
Food delivery will probably never be profitable unless you're able to schedule food delivery days ahead... and utilize the same pathing algorithms used for regular deliveries (like UPS and Fedex).

There's a maximum amount of time someone will wait (1 hour) and the product degrades after it's created (cools off)
1 comments
toast0 2128 days ago
I mean, it's not that bad. Delivery is an important part of many restaurants (pizza, jimmy johns (sandwiches), chinese in many cities). The issue in my mind is those restaurants with hugh delivery volume can do multiple deliveries in a single run, and can time the completion of the food to the return of the driver, so the food doesn't spend a lot of time sitting at the restaurant, and neither does the driver.

It's very hard to do that when you're aggregating restaurants and drivers.

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WrtCdEvrydy 2128 days ago
Right, but there's an incentive to perform well because if you don't, the food is returned.

Uber can just write off the loss as more and more money is shoveled into it like coal was shoveled into an engine on a trail.

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