delivery charges???

for all of you who charge for deliery, i would like to know how you base your fees. we are trying to come up witha fare way, and seem to be stumped. if we charge say 2 dollars, then the little old retired couple will get hit hardest. if we charge 10-15% then we are punishing the big companies for ordering so much(our main delivery target). so... what to do?
thanks'
mike

One possibility:
A tiered fee system. You might deliver 'free' to the immediate surrounding area, whether that's an arbitrary five miles or town limits or this side of the river or whatever. You would build your costs into the price. Then from 10-15 miles (or whatever) a certain fee applies, and so on.

Pizza chains do it. Of course pizza is a low cost item to make, but still they make money at delivery, or they wouldn't be able to offer the service.

Summer is coming and high gas prices will be getting higher.

Mike

What will be your delivery range?

I agree with Kinsman, about the tiered system, when it comes to delivery.

In my bbq/catering buisness I charge a flat 5% fuel surcharge (which can be waived at my discretion)

thanks for all the help. well, we are only going to deliver a couple miles each direction, thats it. like two, at the most. any further, the food won't be optimal.
but, our little town is only about four miles long, anyway.

How about 5% of the bill, up to a maximum charge of $2, or something like that. That wouldn't penalize the retired couple (who would pay 50 cents to $1 for delivery), and wouldn't hurt the big company either.

Since your town is small, I am not sure if this factor can be taken but still let me put the point to add to the discussion:

In my opinion, you should encourage people in ordering from home (by giving away free delivery?). The costs you shall incur in travel can as well be compensated by the resources that you might otherwise be spending on the customer who visits your restaurant like:

AC
Water
Precious dining area(where you can probably accommodate another customer)

We charge $1 for all deliveries, whether it be across the parking lot, or in the next town. If it is a catering order, we charge much more (but that is a different topic). We charge the dollar because gas is expensive, and the delivery person can't afford too many "dead beats" who don't bother to tip the guy who brings their meal so they don't have to get off the couch and burn gas in their own car. Just kidding, but you know what I mean.

What we found is that most people tip just about the same as they did before the $1 we started adding. So the delivery guy makes out well, and it allowed us to reduce the hourly pay by $1 per hour when we got a new delivery person. In all he makes out well, and it benefits us some. Other places chage $1.25 and $1.50. I don't know if anyone delivers for free anymore in our area.

Maybe you have to consider exactly why you charge for delivery. Is it to subsidize the delivery person, or to gain extra income for you, or ?? If it is just for the delivery person I would hesitate to tack on a big fee that just goes to the delivery guy. You want to encourage the big companies. Maybe your prices aren't high enough if you feel you need extra income from delivery fees? Something to think about.

thanks all!. well, my wife will be doing the delivery. its not about the income, its the added wear and tear and gas, simply. plus, no one else in our town delivers, so that is our edge. we thought about free, but we dont wnt it to be abused. our target is the businesses, who are open and cant get away. we have more businesses in our area than homes. one mile in each direction, lays a huge plant. dart container one way, and lancaster labs (medical research) the other. each employ hundreds of poeple. most commute from neighboring areas those are our biggest targets. if we get in good with them, we can survive pretty well, even without much walk up.
our guest count target i simply 40 heads a day. that will sustain life as we know it. cool huh? how many heads to you have to see, to sustain life as you know it?(meaning pay all your overhead, and draw a paycheck just enough to pay all your personal bills)


very interesting way to look at the big pic, but it really works.

It's a difficult situation. If possible, try to include it within the price and offer free delivery. That'll boost your sales. When I used to run an online business, I had this idea of offering free shipping on all orders. Actually, I included the shipping charges within the price but sales went up. I guess people like to get things for free :)

Now that gas is $4 bucks a gallon even suppliers are
charging delivery charges !
The liquor companies in my area charge $7 bucks !
The paper supply folks charge $3..........
and so on !

So if you deliver food a delivery charge is a must!

Hello All,
Bassrocker4u2, many years ago, I worked for a pizza/sub place that
delivered. I had to use my own car and was paid a pittance for the gas.
The worst thing was the wear and tear on my car. I had to buy a new
set of tires which wiped out all the profits in tips I had made.
You sound like you want to deliver to people at businesses...well, most of
my daytime deliveries were to businesses, and no offense to anyone,
the tips were awful. Being at work made them less generous with tips for
some reason...stress or hating being at work, or whatever.
I would suggest you figure out how much it cost (gas, wear and tear on vehicle) to
deliver and add a tip to a Delivery charge, and then stress No Tips with Our Delivery.
The problem with what I propose is that the delivery charges can be perceived unfair
for those who are 3 blocks away versus someone that is 3 miles away.
Ahh, this is why I'm not a businessperson.
Here is another idea...go to Dart Container and offered them a deal that fits their workers,
and go to Lancaster Labs and offer them a deal that fits their workers.
If you can, arrange to set up a place at both workplaces, where you can offer small free samples
to workers(around 10:30 to 11:30 or mid-afternoon for a snack) and have plenty of menus with your
phone number and prices to hand out. They will keep the menus and put them in their desks or lockers.
From my experience, workers are desperate and grateful for reasonably price and something special, and
you may find that management may like you to cater to special meetings and holiday events.
There may be smaller businesses that would be open to you catering to meetings and holidays as well, (and
by catering, I don't mean a sit-down meal, but just simply supplying food, utensils, drinks and letting
them fend for themselves.)
Hope it helps, but I am not a businessman.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle