Brisbane entrepreneur Chris Toovey has developed an online ordering platform used by dozens of restaurants and cafes

Brisbane restaurants and cafes have started using an online ordering tool developed by a local entrepreneur and it costs just a fraction of competing services

ORDER UP

The timing is just unbelievable.

Young Brisbane entrepreneur Chris Toovey launched his Uorda business just four weeks ago.

It allows consumers to use their smartphones to easily order and pay for food by scanning a QR code on a menu or, more to the point these days, clicking on a venue’s website. There’s no app.

Toovey, 26, came up with the idea after watching the delays in ordering and service at crowded outlets.

With his dad as an investor and business partner, he spent about $200,000 developing the concept over more than a year while working with local web consulting outfit Digital8.

Uorda allows peiole to order by scanning a QR code on a menu.

Then, just a day after Uorda threw open its doors, the first virus-driven restrictions on venue trading started kicking in. But the new reality hasn’t hurt the business.

Indeed, it has taken off, embraced already by nearly 40 vendors who have had to pivot to just takeaway or delivery--and who don’t want to get slugged with the big costs imposed by the likes of Uber Eats and Deliveroo.

Toovey is up against competitors such as Bopple and TableTime but his product appears to be the most cost effective.

He charges just 2.5 per cent of the transaction cost and there’s no start-up fee, monthly cost or lock-in contracts. Another 1.75 per cent and 30 cents per order goes to the outfit handling the encryption.

Farm House Kedron owner Amanda Scott told City Beat she’s chuffed with the service and so are her customers.

The co-owners of the St Coco Café at Daisy Hill have also been doing a good trade with the help of Uorda, turning their carpark into a quasi-drive through for their loyal clients.

BUM GUNS

First it was skirmishes in supermarket aisles as hoarders stockpiled precious toilet paper.

Now, fearing a permanent shortage of the precious paper, some folks are in a mad rush to install “alternative toileting devices’’.

These include bidets, douches and handheld sprays, tastefully described by some as “bum guns’’.

Facebook Marketplace ads for all this stuff have mushroomed over the past few week and there’s been a ten-fold spike in Google searches for “bidets’’.

A bidet.

But building industry regulators and even the ACCC this week warned that unqualified DIY installation jobs are not only illegal but could end up creating a public health hazard, as well.

Queensland Building and Construction Commission head Brett Bassett said that incorrectly installed devices may increase the risk of contaminating water supplies with E. coli bacteria.

“If you’re not a licensed plumber, it’s illegal to do plumbing work, and if you do, you can’t guarantee that your family’s health and your own health is protected,” Mr Bassett said.

“The last thing we need right now is to put unnecessary strain on our health systems.”

To pass muster, all toilet devices require a “WaterMark” certification for compliance with relevant Australian Standards and must have an appropriate backflow device to prevent contamination of drinking water supplies.