Which means of transport is best suited for your delivery service?

In today’s fast-moving world, ordering food online is more popular than ever. Not only the fries and kebab shop, but now also the top restaurants provide home delivery. It’s fast, easy, affordable, and more and more healthy options are becoming available.

Are you looking to launch a new home delivery service for your customers, or would you like to improve your current delivery service? Do you know which means of transport is best suited for your delivery service? We’ve put together a list of the advantages and disadvantages of the most popular means of transport.

The most popular means of transport

The most popular means of transport for delivery services are bicycles, scooters and cars. For each means of transport, we discuss its characteristics and the situations for which it is suited.

Bicycle

It’s not for nothing that in recent years the bicycle has gained popularity as a means of transport for deliveries. Firstly, a bicycle is more environmentally friendly than a more traditional scooter. Since many people are environmentally aware, this makes your restaurant look good.

Both the ecological footprint and the costs of bike delivery are relatively low. You do not pay road tax or fuel costs, and maintenance doesn’t have to be very costly. In addition, you can hire younger and cheaper staff if you use bicycles, because the deliverers do not need a driver’s licence.

A disadvantage of bike delivery is the range. With the bike it is less likely that you can travel long distances and you run the risk that the food will become cold. This does not mean that a bike is always slower. The bike’s manoeuvrability allows it to manoeuvre faster through a city centre than a car. It is therefore not surprising that delivery services such as Deliveroo and Foodora deliver many meals by bicycle.

Scooter

The scooter shares a number of similarities with the bicycle as a delivery means. Just like a bicycle, a scooter is relatively manoeuvrable and ideal for use in a city. Speed provides the scooter with a big advantage over a bicycle, especially over medium distances and outside rush hour, where a scooter is simply many times faster.

However, there is a price to pay for this speed. Using scooters as a means of transport for your delivery service means you will incur fuel and maintenance costs. In addition, the purchase costs for one or more scooters can be very expensive. Fortunately, there are options for leasing scooters.

In addition to speed, the range of a scooter is also greater than that of a bicycle. Lastly, rain and headwinds have a lessor affect for a deliverer on a scooter and the deliverer tires less quickly. A scooter can be the ideal solution for your delivery service, especially for small towns and villages, with different solutions for different meal deliverers. One example is Scoober, the delivery service for Thuisbezorgd.nl, which uses electric scooters because they also deliver outside busy cities.

Car

Lastly, you can also choose to use cars for your delivery service. This can be an excellent solution for longer distances, though, of course, a car also has relatively high costs. With a car, you can deliver more and larger orders at the same time.

Weather also has little impact for a car; a rain shower or headwind will have little, if any, impact on your delivery time. A car, however, is significantly impacted by traffic jams and traffic lights, and is therefore generally not suitable for delivery services in the city centre. However, the car is by far the most suitable for large orders and catering.

A combination

As you can see, each means of transport has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each means is best suited for different situations. Fortunately, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one type of transport.

For example, you can use bicycles for all orders in the city centre, but scooters for all orders outside the city. With a combination of different means of transport, your delivery service is at its strongest. Even Uber Eats uses all three means of transport for their delivery service. It is definitely advisable to determine your delivery area in advance.

Managing your delivery service

In the end, only in practice will you discover which means of transport are best for your delivery service. Each situation is unique and benefits in different ways from the characteristics of different means of transport.

Whatever means of transport or combination of means you use for your delivery service, CashDesk’s delivery app helps you manage your orders. In the delivery app you can see exactly where your deliverers are and you can also find all the relevant order information. This ensures that you always have a good overview, no matter how big or small your delivery service is.