Food Delivery in the Time of Coronavirus

Food delivery , or more simply, home delivery, has become one of the most visible businesses on our streets in recent years. Who hasn't come across those guys on bicycles, scooters, or cars, with colorful cube-shaped backpacks on their backs? Italian cuisine, fast food, sushi, or kebab : all this and much more, delivered directly to your door in just a few minutes. And a single tool for ordering: your smartphone. For about five years, international brands like Deliveroo, Foodora, Just Eat, Glovo, and Uber Eats have been competing in the challenging Italian market, long considered a global benchmark for food. And among these industry giants, some interesting, 100% Italian initiatives are also emerging.

Anti-Coronavirus regulations: are they being respected by food delivery services?

Before exploring this, it's necessary to provide an update on the current situation, based on the latest developments related to the coronavirus pandemic in Italy. Meanwhile, the recent decree on home delivery is clear:

All food service establishments (including bars, pubs, restaurants, ice cream parlors, and pastry shops) are suspended, with the exception of canteens and contracted continuous catering, which guarantee a safe distance of one meter between people. Only home delivery services are permitted, subject to compliance with hygiene and health regulations for both packaging and transportation.

Having acknowledged these bans, Assodelivery and FIPE (Italian Federation of Public Establishments) have listed some specific rules that all food delivery operators must adhere to in order to operate their business to the public:

• make sanitizing products available to staff
• set up areas for collection that are separate from the food preparation areas
• Pick-up and delivery of food at a distance of at least 1 meter and without direct contact
• use of special protected containers for prepared food
• transport containers must be sanitized

Food Delivery: Instructions for Use

It's important to clarify that each food delivery platform has its own unique characteristics that distinguish it from its competitors. This can primarily mean different delivery costs. Furthermore, when dealing with such a delicate situation, delivery times are another huge unknown , difficult to estimate to accurately evaluate each of the top 5 food delivery apps. Today more than ever, the first piece of advice is to order ahead of time : it's obvious that if we're working, or watching our favorite series, it's objectively difficult to "plan" our meal for the evening. But this small effort would allow an entire supply chain, currently under great pressure, to operate more efficiently. As for paying for food and subsequent delivery, while the trend is to prefer electronic payments by credit card, many providers also offer the option of paying via PayPal or cash on delivery. Now, let's dive into discovering the best—and most popular—food delivery services, all from your inseparable smartphone, of course!

Just Eat

Just Eat is simply a food delivery platform, aggregating restaurants and acting as an intermediary between establishments and customers, but without directly handling food delivery . Founded in 2000 in Denmark by Jesper Buch, Just Eat (now headquartered in London) operates in 13 countries. It has been active in Italy since 2011, where it acquired smaller brands such as HelloFood Italia and PizzaBo. When accessing the app, Just Eat displays all the restaurants available for delivery to my address. They can be sorted by delivery cost, minimum order, or alphabetical order, and filtered by current special offers or the latest openings. As an aggregator between restaurants and users, Just Eat offers users the ability to review or recommend one restaurant over another. Since Just Eat does not play an "active" role, we see feedback as an added value, expressing an opinion exclusively on the restaurateur, from a qualitative and logistical standpoint. Accepted payments: credit card, PayPal, or cash on delivery.

Deliveroo

Deliveroo 's mission is to transform the world of food delivery: "Delicious meals conveniently delivered to your door, wherever you are. 30-Minute Delivery," was how founders Will Shu and Greg Orlowski introduced themselves to new users in 2013. Today, Deliveroo covers 13 countries and more than 200 cities worldwide. Through Deliveroo Editions , they have focused on developing a network of so-called "ghost kitchens" (which prepare food exclusively for home delivery). In 2019, Amazon itself invested $575 million in Deliveroo, bringing total funding to $1.53 billion. On Deliveroo, you can order from McDonald's, Burger King, Domino's, and many other restaurants , which can be filtered by cuisine or diet (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, organic). Delivery costs €2. There's a €10 surcharge for orders under €15.00. Accepted payments: credit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. Cash is accepted at certain restaurants only.

Glovo

Unique in its genre, the "Catalan-style" startup Glovo opened its doors in 2014, based on the idea of Oscar Pierre and Sacha Michaud. It established itself not just as a food delivery service, but as a full-fledged logistics company, capable of delivering a wide range of products: shopping items, medicines, sweets, ice cream, and even supermarket groceries! Glovo has thus implemented a perfect differentiation strategy, defining itself as an " Anything Delivery" platform, compared to competitors who operate only in food delivery. Starting from €4.90, the "yellow riders" purchase and deliver any type of item to the user's home, as long as it weighs no more than 9 kg and does not exceed 40 x 40 x 30 cm in the famous yellow-green box. And it is precisely during these days of "staying at home" due to the restrictive government decree that many have realized the importance of having a " short-range personal assistant ." Let's think for a moment about how many elderly people, or those with limited mobility, can't count on a trusted person for small daily errands. And now tell us if Glovo isn't simply an amazing idea with enormous social value. The service covers 88 Italian cities from north to south (including islands) and is not affected by the anti-coronavirus measures .

Uber Eats

Uber, the parent company of Uber Eats, was founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick. Uber entered the food delivery industry in August 2014, launching UberFRESH in Santa Monica, California. Rebranded to UberEATS the following year, the service is available in over 50 cities in 13 countries and is rapidly expanding. In Italy, Uber Eats is present in 14 cities (Catania, Palermo, Milan, Monza, Turin, Bologna, Florence, Trieste, Rome, Naples, Rimini, Reggio Emilia, Genoa, and Bari) and offers its service to thousands of restaurants, with hundreds of thousands of dishes available on the platform. While Uber proved to be a particularly unpopular app among taxi drivers a few years ago, sparking heated protests, Uber Eats has also come under fire for its poor contract terms. Known as "the worst" of the food delivery companies, UberEats acts as a meeting point between the two parties—the rider and the restaurant—and takes only a percentage. Accepted payments: credit card, PayPal, and cash.

What I carry

Cosaporto's vision is to create a startup offering a delivery service where the differentiating factor lies in carefully selecting the right partner, who must offer a quality product. Cosaporto is Italy's leading quality delivery service : founded in Rome and established in Milan and Turin, it's now preparing to conquer London. Not just food, but also gifts for special occasions (flowers, beauty products, small gifts); Cosaporto's luxury delivery service ranges from starred dinners to luxury bottles of wine and designer objects. Stefano Manili, the mind behind the project, launched in 2017, is always looking for something that can add value to the standard food delivery service. " Our partners are top-notch; we guarantee a high standard ," says Manili. It is possible to choose specialties from starred chefs such as Niko Romito, Aimo e Nadia, Heinz Beck: “ There is the possibility of placing multiple orders to have them delivered together with champagne, flowers, desserts and an aperitif to prepare a superlative dinner even at the last minute ”.

Morsy – The workers' lunch break

A fresh start-up, Morsy markets itself as a food delivery service aimed at the business world : it advertises itself as " the tastiest and most fun lunch break for workers ." Thanks to an agreement with employees, the cost of the meal is fully tax-deductible with a reduced VAT rate (4%) and 100% deductible, eliminating the hassles of meal vouchers. In short, Morsy offers the convenience of a company canteen without taking up fixed space on your premises. How does it work? Once you've chosen your desired dish by 11:30 a.m., the order will be placed in the kitchen. The order, complete with cutlery, fruit, and bread, will be passed to the drivers who will deliver it to the office by 1:00 p.m.