Deliveroo goes nationwide and cuts costs for restaurant partners

Short-term relief on commissions aims to assist restaurants to continue to trade and to keep their teams employed.

The announcement from Deliveroo is the latest in a series of measures aimed at supporting the restaurant industry. Picture: Christian Gilles

Deliveroo has announced it will expand restaurant pick-up nationwide and cut costs for restaurants that use the platform to take orders but use their own delivery riders.

Commissions on the Marketplace+ service, which relies on restaurants using the Deliveroo platform to take orders but deliver the food themselves will be capped at a flat 5 per cent.

In addition, pick up orders will now be expanded to all restaurants and all Deliveroo will temporarily halt all commission on those orders. The measures will be in effect until 5 June.

Deliveroo said the moves were in response to demand driven by continued social distancing measures.

More than 2000 restaurants have joined the platform in recent weeks.

Deliveroo Australia CEO Ed McManus said the move was aimed at supporting restaurants.

“We have listened to the concerns of our restaurant partners, and we know that this short-term relief on commissions we are announcing today will assist them to continue to trade and to keep their teams employed,” he said.

“The strong message that we want to send to the public is that the Australian restaurant sector is still open for business. Please continue to support your local restaurants - this is the time when we all need to come together as a community to support each other.”

Uber Eats announced that it would cut its commissions on pick-up orders through the platform on March 17, as part of the restaurant relief package they announced.

However, Uber Eats does not have a product similar to Marketplace+ offered by Deliveroo.

Commissions paid by restaurants on delivery platform orders have come in for scrutiny in recent weeks.

The fees reportedly scale in relation to a number of factors. However, it is unclear what the average commissions Deliveroo previously charged on pick-up, Marketplace+ or normal delivery are.

The announcement from Deliveroo is the latest in a series of measures aimed at supporting the restaurant industry.

Daily payments to restaurants were introduced in recent weeks, in addition, to help for restaurants looking to join the platform.

Uber Eats’ relief measures will expire on July 31, but they have flagged that those measures might be extended if needed.