One thing I noticed when doing Uber Eats and DoorDash was that not all local restaurants in my city were participating with the big food delivery behemoths. While some eateries eventually latched on, it made me wonder why some put it off. The big name fast-food places have obviously never removed themselves from these services. But localized restaurants play a major dice game going along with the major players.

Then I started digging in to the details of how restaurants work with DoorDash and Uber. The latter companies always take significant commission fees from the restaurants as a major payback for the exposure. Smaller restaurants can benefit from this, of course, if also taking a potential loss if they don’t get enough Uber or DoorDash orders.

The major problem is many restaurants get lured into the top-tier commission fees, often putting the business in jeopardy just because they’re lured into the enhanced exposure promise. If you own a restaurant, or just delivering for Uber Eats and DoorDash, what’s really going on with the commission fees? The future may look a little more interesting as restaurants figure out more creative ways to get food to their customers.

How Much Are Restaurants Paying in Commission Fees?

It might sound like a ripoff, but the most basic tier for both of the famous food delivery services already tops off at 15%. That may sound like a lot to take out for a restaurant just getting started. Even then, a basic plan hardly scratches the surface on what DoorDash or Uber can do for an upstart eatery.

Their Plus plans take out a 25% commission, not including an additional 6% for pickups. However, this offers a lot more visibility for the business when marketing in other ways can cost more. And it always helps when someone sees that a new restaurant can deliver an item quickly through an Uber or DoorDash driver.

While the 25% Plus plans are popular, evidence shows most restaurants are delving into the Premier plans that take out a whopping 30% in commission fees. No doubt a lot of localized restaurants are lured in based on what the Premier tier offers. After all, DoorDash offers growth guarantees, including expanded delivery radiuses. They even promise commission refunds if a new restaurant makes fewer than 20 orders during a month.

Add in other fees Uber and DoorDash take out (often operational fees, and, you know, What the Hell fees), we’re talking close to 40 or 50% in commission grabs. If you’re just starting a new restaurant, your margins are already on thin ice. Having to pay out nearly half your profits on commissions to DoorDash or Uber is a major back-breaker.

Regardless, I’ve seen some local fast-food joints here in Salem, OR finally take on DoorDash after personally wondering why they previously hadn’t.

Do Your Local Restaurants Participate in Uber or DoorDash?

There were several local restaurants here in Salem, OR that didn’t do DoorDash, and one in particular still doesn’t. The first of these was a local fast-food franchise called Hawaiian Time. For my entire first year of doing Uber and DoorDash, I kept driving by their locations and puzzled over why I was never called there to pick up. Finally, a year later, I received an order from there. I asked the woman at the drive-thru pick-up window if they’d held off on using DoorDash until then. She said they had, but were giving it a try to help find and gain more customers. They already had a unique menu, and it seems to have helped them as of the last time I did a DoorDash pick-up there.

Then you have slightly larger franchises like coffee drive-thru Dutch Bros. So far, they have drive-thru shops in only 19 U.S. states, with full intention of becoming national. The interesting thing is my local Dutch Bros locations have no association with Uber or DoorDash, or at least when I delivered. Because of their intended expansion, this might change in another year or two from this writing. 

Let’s also keep in mind that some local restaurants or franchises have more than enough business from the local community and don’t need DoorDash. Dutch Bros above have long car lines every day, making the delivery services probably unnecessary. This is unlike Starbucks and regional coffee drive-thru Black Rock Coffee. I picked up nearly daily at those equally popular coffee places.

As you go out and do delivery pick-ups, you may find yourself visiting the usual suspects most of the time. That is, McDonalds, Starbucks, Jack in the Box, and Popeye’s as just a few. The national company-driven fast-food places can easily afford a 30-50% DoorDash commission takeout and still bring in millions per year. 

Local restaurants are trying to compete with them, so sometimes take a chance with the higher commission tiers. Unfortunately, they end up in debt when DoorDash takes out a huge chunk of their profits, despite the amazing exposure. The balance on that is very tricky, if perhaps still profitable when giving it some time.

So, that local restaurant you WANT to pick up from may be abstaining from DoorDash—for now. Or, they may just decide to take a chance in avoiding the delivery services all together.

Will More Restaurants Drop Uber and DoorDash Due to High Commission Fees?

Operating a localized restaurant is already a major business risk, but many new ones keep popping up. Local Salem restaurants here often have a hard time, though many do take on DoorDash as I’ve noticed over the last several years. There’s more localized restaurants using the delivery apps than those not. This said, many restaurants here don’t last beyond five years.

With more effective marketing methods out there now, local restaurants may start dropping Uber and DoorDash in favor of customers doing direct ordering through the eatery’s website. Creating a marketing plan just for that can be done a little cheaper via online means than paying a DoorDash commission fee for every sale.

This might mean buying ad space in the online realms using SEO techniques so those who search local restaurants can easily find that local place in a Google search. People still search for restaurants this way, and/or using ChatGPT or Grok on X. But then, do people still want a DoorDash delivery? 

Some restaurants do their own deliveries, particularly pizza places. Many of them still use DoorDash, though, to not overwhelm the delivery drivers. Regardless, balancing that out with customers who’d rather pick up in-person could lead to a better advantage for a few. 

I mean, the bad publicity of Uber deliverers and Dashers dipping into a customer’s food are all over the place by now. With an eroded lack of public trust in recent years with the sign of any bag tampering, we could see more local restaurants deliver on their own.

It probably won’t hurt the big food delivery titans. Due to national fast-food companies still raking in profits daily, they’ll stick with DoorDash and keep former and latter in the black. The hope for businesspeople may be that their localized restaurants won’t have to rely on Uber and DoorDash just to become a reasonable success. 

One might wish this as a parallel to those who deliver for the delivery services, simply because they’re forced to and have no other options. Hopefully they’ll have new lucrative options as much as your favorite local fast-food joints.

In Part XXXVII, I’ll take on the topic of recurring customers, and new statistics showing families as the top Uber & DoorDash users. How long will families be able to afford using these delivery apps over the singles?

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