I’ll never use Uber Eats again

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We were trying to help out our local restaurants by ordering via Uber Eats twice a week. You pay a small delivery fee and tip the driver. What I didn’t know was Uber Eats charges the restaurants 30% of the bill. At a time when the restaurants were struggling to reopen and put their employees back to work and greedy Uber Eats was taking 30% of their profits. I deleted their app off my phone.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 16 • Views: 1,984 • Replies: 41

@jcboy,

If the restaurant can knock off 30%, it kind of makes you wonder what kind of profit margin they have for regular dining room orders.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

Really - but the restaurants must be still making money off them - otherwise why use them? Just remember that they need to make a profit as well otherwise why would they be in business. Not sure what the delivery fee is - and not sure the ins and outs on the business side of it - but uber may be paying the driver more than just what is charged as part of the delivery fee as the drivers use their own vehicles so perhaps the delivery fee pays in a sense for the use of their car and then they get paid a "salary" from the 30%. And it is great you tip the driver - but tips are not mandatory.

My daughter has been doing postmates (similar to uber but they do a bit more variety of deliveries) - and she has had some people who do not tip.

1 Reply

@roger,

True, one restaurant owner I know said the food prices have skyrocketed the last couple months and he hasn’t increased his prices. He said he makes very little now when anyone orders from one of the delivery services.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

One deliver guy thanked me for the tip, said he lost his job and makes very little money driving for Uber Eats but that's all he has for work right now.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

True, one restaurant owner I know said the food prices have skyrocketed the last couple months and he hasn’t increased his prices. He said he makes very little now when anyone orders from one of the delivery services.

But the thing is - the restaurant doesn't have to use this service, right? Why would you agree to it if you don't make much money with the orders?

Not doubting you - just doesn't make good business sense.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

One deliver guy thanked me for the tip, said he lost his job and makes very little money driving for Uber Eats but that's all he has for work right now.

Well that's my daughter. She had two jobs on campus at college so of course she lost both jobs.

She hasn't worked a lot with postmates more here and there because she had online classes. I guess for a student she makes some good money - not huge but enough if she wants anything. Typically she will go out on a Saturday or Sunday for a couple of hours and make $50 - she doesn't need it to live on as she lives for free at home now with school out. And just until she goes back to her summer job.

It is good in the sense as she can do as much or as less as she wants.

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

But the thing is - the restaurant doesn't have to use this service, right? Why would you agree to it if you don't make much money with the orders?

Not doubting you - just doesn't make good business sense.

True but a lot of them didn't have a choice because they were pick-up only or use a delivery service. Nobody was going out during the lockdown here in Orange County. I guess they thought making something was better than making no money.

Washington State capped their fees at 15% during the pandemic.

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@jcboy,

Hmm wonder what postmates charge - you should check them out - I have no idea honestly.

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@jcboy,

Quote:

Uber Eats notes on its website that it charges restaurants a 30 percent fee for delivery and a 15 percent fee per order for pick-up, unless a restaurant negotiates a different rate. It is possible for restaurants to negotiate a lower rate, though even those rates tend to be between 20 to 30 percent.Mar 18, 2020

Ok this is what I found - you are right the charges seem high

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The problem is not Uber's greed. The problem is that customers aren't willing to pay for delivery. That means that employees of Uber (from Drivers to programmers) are going to get cheated.

If you buy $25 worth of food, 15% of that is $3.75. From that $3.75 you need to pay

- The driver.
- The programmers, marketers, HR people for Uber.
- The rent for offices, electricity for lights, janitorial staff.

You can't expect Uber to run at a loss. You can't screw the drivers.

If you really care about the restaurants.... be willing to pay more for your ******* food.

1 Reply

This is why liberals piss me off. They aren't rational.

After the political correct whining... the result will be that delivery companies will decide that there is no reason for them to operate. People won't be able to order food out and many of them will decide to just eat what is in the fridge.

Restaurants will end up losing business and will be worse off, thanks to this liberal hand-wringing. People are so fixated on idoligical principles, that they don't care about the real harm they are doing to the people they pretend to be protecting.

If you are going to screw the Uber drivers by boycotting them... hopefully you are getting off your butt to help the restaurants. They need your business too.

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@maxdancona,

I think the complaint was that they were charging the restaurant so much - not his delivery fee.

Yeah - I think it should be a shared fee - not a 30% charge to the restaurant - since the consumer is getting the benefit of the delivery they should pay half and the restaurant is getting the benefit of selling its food so they pay a portion.

2 Replies

@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

I think the complaint was that they were charging the restaurant so much - not his delivery fee.

Yeah - I think it should be a shared fee - not a 30% charge to the restaurant - since the consumer is getting the benefit of the delivery they should pay half and the restaurant is getting the benefit of selling its food so they pay a portion.

The money has to come from somewhere.

The restaurant could hire their own driver to do delivery. In this case the restaurant would have to pay an hourly wage, plus the cost of the car and gas and hopefully health insurance.

In that case, what percentage of the food cost would go to paying for a delivery service?

Restaurants don't have to offer Uber service. They do so because it saves them money. Unless JCboy is now picking up his food himself (and eating out just as often as he always), his little protest actually hurts the restaurants.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Delivery service is expensive. You are asking a human being to make a trip from wherever they are to the restaurant to your house on demand. This human being should make a fair wage. In addition Uber is providing a service in taking your order and making sure your food comes quickly. They aren't doing this for free.

The fair way to do this is have the customer pay for the cost of delivery. Any amount the customer pays that is lest than the cost of delivery comes out of the bottom line of the restaurant.

Customers aren't willing to do this. And that is the real problem.

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@maxdancona,

well the other alternative for the restaurant is to increase prices. I agree the delivery service should not be free - but a reasonable price. If uber charges too much - then the restaurant has the choice not to use them. If enough restaurants feel the same and they stop using them then uber will have to choose to charge less.

I think the issue could be - in the current state of things - is it that the restaurants have little choice now because they can only have take away and that is likely short term so setting up their own delivery service could be too costly - not sure. To me, I would only argue against the price if it is that uber is taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation to gauge their prices.

It would be like people going out and buying all the TP and then charging people on ebay $1k a roll or something. However, if this is uber's normal charge for this service then that is simply the price of doing business and a restaurant has to decide what is best for them .

And as a consumer if you want to help a small business restaurant - you might want to go pick it up instead knowing the money will go to them.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

1. I think what Uber is offering for the restaurants is reasonable. The 30% commission is almost certainly less than the cost of hiring delivery drivers themselves.

2. Uber is not a monopoly. There are several competitors (DoorDash, Grubhub) who are all competing on price.

Quote:

It would be like people going out and buying all the TP and then charging people on ebay $1k a roll or something.

There is a reason that people don't go out and buy all of the TP. As the price goes up, the pressure for production goes up. If the price of TP is $1 on ebay... then stores will magically get a supply of TP that they can sell for $0.95 (which is more than enough incentive)... and the poor sap will end up losing money.

The market works.

Politicians get uptight about "price gouging". Economists in general are against any measures to stop alleged "price gouging". It is a way to get the public all riled up even though it doesn't make economic sense.

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We never use delivery. It's always carry-out or the drive through.

The risk of exposure is low and we get to get out of the house for a while.

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What do you get when you Uber Eat?
A guy in a car that brings you trouble
That's what you get, then you pay double
I'll never Uber Eat again
I'll never Uber Eat again

What do you get that is edible?
Incredible germs, only they're rapid
As for the food, it's never sapid
I'll never Uber Eat again
Dontcha know that I'll never Uber Eat again

Don't tell me what it's all about
'Cause I've been there and I've had a bout
Out of those chains, those chains of old foods
That is why I'm here to remind dudes

What do you get when you Uber Eat?
A gutfull of lies and pain and sorrow
It's over at least until tomorrow
I'll never Uber Eat again
No, no, I'll never Uber Eat again…

0 Replies

@jcboy,

so you think uber should deliver the food for almost nothing. I done Uber eats and sometime i had to wait 10-20 mins for the order just to drive it 1 mile away for 4 dollars no tip. that happened 50% of the time so you do the math. people dont always tip 90% of the time they don't. drivers get almost nothing after car gas charges 4 dollars sometime you driver 7 miles just to pick the order up with lights and traffic easy 10 + mins on top of other waiting time for 4 dollars why they have to if anything you shouldnt use them because they refuse to pay the drivers a fair wage for time spent

1 Reply

I’ll never use Uber Eats again

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