Melbourne pizza chain quits UberEats
Pizza Religion, which has five outlets across Melbourne and Geelong, has stopped using UberEats.
The business says the deal is just unsustainable with the ride-sharing platform now taking a commission of 35 per cent on delivery orders.
Director Matt Hunter said the decision to part ways with UberEats comes one year after Pizza Religion’s Hawthorn, Malvern and Armadale stores joined the platform.
“We’ve been with UberEATS for 12 months and we basically looked at it [initially] because with our current deliveries, we were so busy,” Hunter told SmartCompany.
Part of the problem, he says, is that the commission rate just kept creeping up.
He says the original arrangement was for Uber to take a 22 per cent flat rate on the value of Pizza Religion orders placed through the site.
So for a delivery order of $100, UberEATS would take $22.
“They’ve now raised it to 30 per cent and recently asked for 35 per cent,” he told Smart Company.
At the same time, he said his business had to deal with his customers complaining about UberEATS drivers and the delivery experience.
And that was another issue, he said. Pizza Religion has no control over what happens to an order once it leaves the store so dealing with complaints about UberEats drivers is a time-consuming task.
“There is a lot of talk in the industry about the poor level of service and we simply want our product delivered in the best possible way,” Hunter told Smart Company.
He said others in the hospitality sector also have concerns about the standard of service offered by UberEats,
UberEats declined to provide details of the rates that it offers partner restaurants.
But it told Smart Company that hospitality businesses are paying for more than just a simple listing on its platform.
“Restaurant fees help contribute to delivery partner payments, 24/7 customer support, app development and marketing campaigns,” an Uber Australia spokesperson told Smart Company.
October 31st 2017
