As demand for restaurant food delivery remains high and restaurateurs wrestle with problems that arise from relationships with third-party platforms, the National Restaurant Association has developed a set of best practices aimed at guiding lawmakers in setting public policy.
The Association today released Public Policy Principles for Third-Party Delivery (or Principles for short), the culmination of a year-long collaboration with third-party delivery leaders, including DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats and Postmates. “The Principles represent the first time the restaurant industry and third-party delivery companies have come together and agreed on a framework for their relationship,” the Association noted in a press release.
Related: Why third-party delivery is so controversial in the pizza industry.
In an Association online survey of 1,000 adults conducted Dec. 7-9, 2020, 70% of adults said they ordered delivery from a restaurant and 40% had used a third-party delivery company for their delivery. But the relationship between the restaurant owner and the third-party platform isn’t always a smooth one. Some restaurateurs have complained about lax standards among third-party companies that reflect poorly on the restaurants as well as high fees and commissions that hurt the restaurants’ profits. In some cases, third-party delivery companies have created “phantom” online ordering pages for restaurants without permission
“Even before the pandemic, delivery—and decisions related to delivery—had major impacts on restaurant operations,” said Mike Whatley, vice president for State and Local Affairs for the National Restaurant Association. “Until now, the relationship between restaurants and third-party delivery companies lacked a national framework to protect restaurants. These new Principles, which center around permission and transparency, add consistency and structure that will benefit all restaurants.”
The seven Principles are:
1. Restaurants have a right to know and determine when and if their food is delivered.
2. Customers should expect the same degree of food safety from delivery as they do when dining in a restaurant.
3. Restaurants should be able to offer alcohol to customers through third-party delivery in a safe and legal manner.
4. Restaurants deserve transparency on fees (including commissions, delivery fees, and promotional fees) charged by third-party delivery companies.
5. Third-party food delivery contracts need contractual transparency, and issues surrounding fees, costs, terms, policies, marketing practices involving the restaurant or its likeness, and insurance/indemnity should be clear.
6. Sales tax collection responsibility must be clear in terms of which party is collecting and remitting the specific sales tax to the appropriate authority.
7. As a best practice, third-party delivery companies should offer restaurants access to anonymized information regarding orders from their restaurant that originate on third-party platforms.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to have partnered with the National Restaurant Association in developing these principles, which will help platforms like DoorDash continue to empower restaurants to reach new customers and grow their revenue,” said Max Rettig, global head of Public Policy at DoorDash. “We are proud to support these principles through the range of products and services we’ve developed for restaurants, and we look forward to continually improving our offerings to best serve our restaurant partners.”
“These principles will help strengthen the critical relationship between the diners, drivers and restaurants that has grown even more important during the pandemic,” Seth Priebatsch, chief revenue officer at Grubhub, said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the National Restaurant Association to deliver for the hundreds of thousands of restaurants we’re proud to partner with every day.”
“The teams at Uber Eats and Postmates are committed to the restaurant community,” said Stephane Ficaja, head of Uber Delivery for the U.S. & Canada. “As one company, we’ve recently made commitments to listening to and learning from merchants and have worked together to support the National Restaurant Association’s development of these new principles that are designed to address the most pressing interests of the industry.”
In the customer survey, roughly 90% of customers who ordered delivery in the last six months favor each of the seven Principles. Read the full Public Policy Principles for Third-Party Delivery here.
“This agreement represents an important first step in an ongoing dialogue between restaurants and third-party delivery companies about ways to improve our relationship going forward,” Whatley said.
