UpToasted delivery app taking on Uber Eats, Menulog

The founder of a Brisbane challenger to Uber Eats and Menulog says ‘countless’ restaurants and cafes have closed their doors due to unsustainable fees — he wants to change that.

AN UPSTART start-up in Brisbane is taking on behemoth food delivery apps like Uber Eats and Deliveroo with promises to keep commission fees low and pay drivers more.

Jack Lindsay is the owner of UpToasted and already has 14 eateries signed up, including Brisbane’s The Smoke BBQ, BitterSuite, Mekhong, Instanbul 1923 and Stone & Coopers.

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UpToasted only takes an 18 per cent commission on deliveries, compared to up to 35 per cent from other companies.

Restaurants and cafes forced to rely heavily big delivery apps during the pandemic have cried out for fee cuts as the commissions cut deep into their margins.

Their concerns even prompted the Queensland Government to hold crisis talks with the hospitality industry and the technology companies.

Mr Lindsay says he wants restaurants and cafes to keep that dosh to pay suppliers or extra staff “instead of that money going overseas”.

“If we’re able to support communities, and make sure that money stays locally that’s pretty important,” he said.

“Technology’s been unfair and there’s been a lot of bad actors and there’s probably been countless restaurants who have gone out of business because of these tech companies.”

He said some of his clients had already made about $5000 in weekly sales through the technology and he was seeing growth.

Jack Lindsay’s start-up UpToasted is taking on major food delivery platforms like Uber Eats.

“The goal of the company was to start a sustainable alternative to other third party delivery platforms,” he said.

“What we wanted to do was bring the commission down and still provide the same service with a whole fresh look at the problem.”

His food delivery service only has a driver-facing app, with orders placed through cafe and restaurant’s websites and Facebook pages rather than a stand-alone UpToasted app.

“If you’re ordering through one of the other delivery apps there’s no loyalty to that restaurant — they don’t share their customer details with the restaurant at all,” he said.

“There’s no relationship with those big delivery apps between the customer and the restaurant, we’re adding that relationship back in.”

His said this leaner model was also why he was able to keep commissions down — and he still managed to pay drivers more than other companies.

He said while it was “kind of a David and Goliath battle” he already knew there was a place for his company to exist.

“I would say that these big third party delivery apps, they’ve left a big hole, they’re very inefficient, but we’re small, local and efficient.

“If a restaurant’s able to drive more sales through their website or Facebook, we’re able to give them the technology and on-demand drivers to get the customers what they want.”