How Does Uber Eats Make Money? | Uber Eats Business Model

From shawarma to kebabs and from pizzas to doughnuts, everything that can have you drooling is now available at your doorstep, in less than an hour.

All thanks to technology and food delivery services these days. Food delivery startups have, hands down, made life a lot more convenient for us.

But the question is-

How do these food delivery services work? How do they earn money for themselves from the little margins that they have? How do they satisfy their customers as well as their partners, along with maintaining a stable situation?

Here’s how.

A hyperlocal on-demand business model is what enables them to perform all these tasks with the utmost amount of profit and the least amount of hassle and mess.

Let’s study the business model of a major name in food delivery companies- Uber Eats, the fourth most successful food delivery app in the world.

It is an American online food ordering and delivery platform launched by the well-known taxi brand, Uber, in August 2014, based in San Francisco, California.

Both Uber and Uber Eats have similar strategies for functioning. With just a few taps, you can have a fair amount of cab drivers willing to drop you to the desired destination, via the Uber app.

Same works with Uber Eats. With just a few taps, you can locate a lot of restaurants as well as Uber Eats drivers near you, so you can order your favourite food and track it while it reaches your doorstep in less than 30 minutes.

How Does Uber Eats Work?

Uber Eats is basically a perfectly designed food triangle between-

  1. End customers
  2. Delivery partners
  3. Restaurant partners

The process is quick and easy for everyone involved: restaurants list their brand and menu on the platform; customers in that area can find them and order from their menu using their phone or computer; and then one of Uber Eats partner-drivers will pick it up from the restaurant and drop it off at the customer’s door.

Here’s how Uber Eats brings this 3 tiered association into action:-

End Customers

uber eats schedule time

Customers get to order food from a large variety of restaurants near them and can order food via 2 methods:

  • Real Time Ordering: Customers who wish to receive their food immediately after ordering can select the ASAP option while placing the order. The food is delivered to them within 30 minutes.
  • Scheduled Ordering: Customers may pre-schedule an order for the future. They can customize their orders with respect to the delivery date, time and destination address.

Delivery Partners

ubereats drivers

Uber Eats delivery partners (also called Uber Eats Drivers) are independent individuals who pick up food from the restaurant associates and transport it to the customers. They get delivery tasks based on their location and proximity to the restaurant as well as the customer.

Uber Eats drivers receive one pick up fee every time they go to a new restaurant, one drop-off fee for each separate order they deliver, and a fixed amount for every kilometre/mile they travel to deliver. The approximate minimum payment before Uber’s service fee which they receive for each delivery is ~$4.

A service fee ranging from 15-30% is charged from every driver’s final payment by the company depending upon the are of operation.

Restaurant Partners

Restaurants that partner with Uber Eats get a virtual presence on the platform. Uber Eats gets 30% commission from the restaurant partners on the cost of each item delivered. The restaurants decide upon the price of each item they display on Uber Eats’ menu (which OFTEN differs from the rates at the physical restaurant).

In return, the restaurants receive publicity, technological improvements and 24*7 connectivity with their customers.

Uber Eats Business Model

Uber Eats functions on a 4 step operating model which includes the following steps:

  1. Searching of the right restaurants by the customer
  2. Placing the order by the customer
  3. Picking up the order from the restaurant by Uber Eats drivers
  4. Delivery of orders and receiving the payment

Uber Eats combines the Aggregator business model and the Hyper-Local On Demand business model.

It has 3 major transactional segments. These are the 3 avenues through which Uber Eats earns/invests money.

It operates on a 3 tiered transactional strategy: one, Business to Business (B2B); two, Business to Partner (B2P); and three, Business to Customer (B2C).

  • Restaurant partners with Uber Eats fall under the business to business (B2B) aspect of the strategy. They are already existing businesses, which benefits from another business (Uber Eats in this case), in return for money.
  • The Uber Eats drivers are not the employees but the partners of the brand. They come under the business to partners aspect of the strategy. They are the independent partners who benefit from the business and earn revenue via it.
  • The third aspect is the customers, who receive food for cash, and are often entitled to exciting discounts and offers.

How Does Uber Eats Make Money?

Commission On Orders

Uber Eats receives 30% commission from the restaurant partners on the cost of each item that is ordered by the customers.

Promotions

Many restaurants and food chains like McDonald’s sign special contracts with the company to run exclusive promotions on the application and to get more traction and sales. These brands which get into special contracts pay special commissions according to those contracts. The partnership includes special discount codes, features, or even advertisements by Uber Eats.

ubereats promotions

Delivery Charges

Uber Eats charges its customers for the food delivered via its services. The delivery charges are divided into three categories –

  • A variable delivery fee which depends on the customer’s location and the availability of the couriers.
  • A service fee which amounts to 15% of an orders subtotal.
  • A small order fee of $2 which is charged when the order amounts to less than $10

ubereats fees

The calculations involved in the process of revenue generation by Uber Eats are-

If a customer orders a dish worth $7.58 from a restaurant in Dallas via Uber Eats driver,

uber eats delivery fee

  • Total paid by customer : $7.58 + $4.99(delivery fee) + $2 (small order fee) + $1.14 (service fee)= $15.71 + tax ($0.63)
  • Total received by restaurant : 0.7 * $7.58 = $5.306 (70% share of restaurant per dish)
  • Total earned by Uber Eats driver (considering the delivery was just a kilometer away): $5.50 (per visit to the restaurant, irrespective of the number of dishes picked up) + $3.50 per drop off (irrespective of no. of dishes) + $2.20 per km = $11.20
  • Uber’s cut from the driver’s fee (17% of the amount earned by the driver) = $1.9
  • Total received by the driver: $11.20 – $1.9 + Tip = $9.3 + X
  • Total retained by Uber : $15.71 – $5.3 – $9.3 = $1.11

Surge Pricing

Just like the parent company, Uber Eats also employ a dynamic pricing algorithm for surge hours. This surge fee (called the Busy Fee) is calculated according to the number of orders in the area and the availability of the delivery partners. It can be as less as 1.13x or as huge as 3x of the delivery fee depending upon the demand and rider availability.

uber eats surge

Delivering in the surge zones (or boost zones, as the company likes to call it) benefits the riders as well. More drivers are notified about the boost promotion amount available in a certain area which eventually benefits in terms of more delivery fee them but brings down the surge pricing by increasing the supply.

Future Of Uber Eats

Almost no delivery service is growing as fast or is as popular with customers as Uber Eats in the USA.  It has seen a huge rise in the past years and aims for an even brighter future.

Eats is an exploding business in a good way. It’s now at a $6 billion bookings run rate, growing over 200 per cent. – CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at Code Conference at Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

Uber Eats has already proven itself to be a scaleup company and within three years, the Uber Eats restaurant food delivery service has grown from an experiment to serving much of the U.S. and major cities worldwide.

Uber Eats has a bright future secured for itself if it is able to either maintain or uplift the standards it currently possesses. Keeping the customers as well as the delivery and food partners satisfied is the major aspect to focus on.

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12 Comments

  1. Both Uber and Uber Eats have similar strategies for functioning. With just a few taps,but it taking to much comisiion.

    Reply
  2. Do you guys consult for a newly startup?
    A delivery app. Please contact me.
    Thomas Banjo
    [email protected]

    Reply
  3. To UberEatsDriver: I am also an Uber Eats driver and I have ordered from ubereats before. The app let me select which location to order from. That’s the only resolution I can think of for your question.

    To Daniel: WOW! Only $3.00? I’ve been getting $10-$20 trips plus tips. I feel very blessed and I pray for it. Have your earnings increased yet?

    Article writer: Thanks for this article! I came here because I was wondering how in the world they are making any money at all because I am actually profiting very well and I was curious. So thank you

    God bless!

    Reply
  4. As an Uber Eats Delivery Partner I am interested in HOW Eats determines which branch of a multi-outlet restaurant chain actually serves the customer’s order. I have had numerous occasions where I have had to drive >10 kms to pick up an order & similar distance to deliver to customer, when there has been a local branch of the same chain within < 3 kms of the customer's address. Now, I don't mind as I get paid based on distance – but I can not determine the logistical matching of customer with outlet. Any inside info', anyone ??

    Reply
  5. With Covid19 in NZ moving to Level3 we will be allowed to order Takeaways (my teenage boys are excited and already planning). Uber Eats states it will not relax its 30% commission during these difficult times, although they have injected money into NZ and our cousins across the ditch. Uber drivers our locals may make a small earn but to fair having an electric car is the way to go to make a better earn. Anyway, our Government baked by our local retailers are saying to Kiwis, “support local” either do pick up (contactless) or see if the business delivers. Uber does stimulate the economy but the overall profit doesn’t sit with the country hosting the business.

    Reply
  6. I don’t make 11 dollars for one trip. Most trips are 3 dollars .And I depend on tips

    Reply
  7. Sorry but UberEats is failing as a delivery platform business. It’s losing something like a billion dollar a year. The cost of maintaining the customer base and drivers is through the roof. It’s just too expensive already to figure out how to grow profit. There’s other players taking away market share.

    Reply
  8. Really a great insights about Uber Eats which is growing their business each year.

    Most of the restauranteurs are moving their food delivery business to online by spending money building Uber Eats, Foodpanda, GrubHub clone like SpotnEats to generate more revenue.

    Uber Eats is an win win business model.

    Thanks for this useful insight.

    Keep up the awesome work.

    Reply
  9. Would be appreciate if the article takes into account Cost and Profit. Even Uber is expanding, it makes hugh losses for many years.

    Reply
    • You are right Asard, the article explains just one-off sales invoice, looks good though. But the architecture Uber Eats maintain to run the App and Delivery Partner and Restaurant minimum order guarantee fee to restaurants and the cost to retain customers must be too much even to imagine. I guess it is more profitable for shorter deliveries and higher order ticket value. Imagine delivering a sandwich to someone 10 kms away.. doesnt help Uber Eats unless it charges the entire trip cost from the customer. Just to retain customer in the flooded market the costs are factored in..

      Reply
  10. I drive for uber eats and I learned things from your article. Very good job

    Reply
    • We’re glad we could be of help.

      Reply