Running a food delivery marketplace on Uber Eats or Deliveroo where the commission structure makes unit economics unworkable at current order volume and there's no path to owning the customer relationship?
Operating a delivery platform that assigns drivers manually by phone because there's no automated dispatch system matching orders to available drivers by proximity and zone?
Food Delivery Platform Development
RaftLabs builds custom food delivery platforms -- customer ordering apps, restaurant dashboards, driver dispatch and tracking, real-time order status, delivery zone and pricing management, and operations reporting.
We build the platform layer that owns the customer relationship and the driver network. No per-order commission to an aggregator. No dispatch logic that cannot handle your delivery zones or restaurant prep time requirements.
Customer ordering app with real-time order tracking
Automated driver dispatch by proximity and delivery zone
Restaurant dashboard with order management and prep time control
Delivery zone and dynamic pricing configuration
RaftLabs builds custom food delivery platforms -- customer ordering apps with real-time order tracking, automated driver dispatch matched by proximity and delivery zone, restaurant dashboards with order management and prep time control, and delivery zone and dynamic pricing configuration. Most food delivery platform projects deliver in 12-16 weeks at a fixed cost.
100+Software products shipped
·FixedCost delivery
·12-16Week delivery cycles
·24+Industries served
The economics of aggregator dependency
The problem with building a delivery business on Uber Eats or Deliveroo is not the technology -- it is the commercial model. A 25-30% commission on every order means you are running delivery at a loss or passing the cost to the customer. At low order volume, that is a cost of distribution worth paying. As order volume grows, it becomes the biggest line on the P&L that you cannot control. And the customer relationship belongs to the aggregator, not to you.
Operators who build their own delivery platform take on infrastructure cost in exchange for margin control and customer ownership. The platform knows who the customer is, what they order, and how often. Dispatch is automated to your zone logic. Restaurant prep time is factored into order sequencing so drivers do not arrive before the food is ready. The commercial model -- delivery fee, service charge, surge pricing -- is set by you, not a platform with its own priorities.
We build delivery platforms for marketplace operators, restaurant groups, and dark kitchen operators who have reached the point where owning the infrastructure makes financial sense.
What we build
Customer ordering app and web ordering
iOS and Android ordering apps and a web ordering flow with restaurant discovery, menu browsing, basket management, and checkout. Real-time order tracking from confirmation through kitchen preparation to driver pickup and delivery. Push notifications at each order status change. Customer account with order history, saved addresses, and payment methods. Reorder with one tap. Ratings and review submission after delivery. The customer-facing layer that carries your brand rather than the aggregator's, and builds the direct relationship and first-party data that aggregators own on your behalf today.
Restaurant partner dashboard
Restaurant-facing dashboard for order acceptance, prep time management, and kitchen status. Incoming orders displayed with accept, reject, and delay controls. Prep time adjustment in real time so dispatch holds the driver until the food is ready. Menu management including item availability updates and price changes that push live to the customer app. Sales reporting by day, week, and order type. For restaurant partners who need to manage delivery orders without a dedicated device running the aggregator's app.
Driver app and dispatch system
Driver mobile app for order assignment, navigation, and status updates. Automated dispatch matching orders to the nearest available driver within the correct delivery zone, factoring in restaurant prep time so the driver arrives when the order is ready. Driver status management: available, on delivery, and break. Order acceptance and rejection with automatic reassignment on timeout. Earnings summary and shift history for drivers. For operators replacing manual phone-based dispatch with a system that scales without adding coordination headcount.
Real-time order tracking
Live order tracking map for the customer showing the driver's location and the estimated delivery time. Status updates at each stage -- order confirmed, kitchen preparing, driver assigned, driver en route, delivered. Automated ETA recalculation based on actual driver position and traffic. SMS and push notification fallback for customers who close the app. For operators where delivery time accuracy is a core part of the customer promise and the current setup cannot surface real data to the customer during the order.
Delivery zone and pricing management
Delivery zone configuration by polygon, radius, or postcode with per-zone delivery fee, minimum order value, and estimated delivery time. Dynamic pricing configuration for peak periods, bad weather, or high driver demand -- surge multiplier applied automatically based on configurable triggers. Zone availability management: disable a zone when driver coverage is insufficient rather than accepting orders you cannot fulfil. For operators who need zone and pricing control without a developer making a code change for every adjustment.
Operations and delivery analytics
Operations reporting covering order volume, average delivery time, driver utilisation, and zone-level performance. Late delivery tracking with reason code capture -- kitchen delay, driver unavailability, or traffic. Customer satisfaction by restaurant and by driver, linked to order-level ratings. Revenue reporting by zone, restaurant, and time period. Driver performance metrics including acceptance rate, on-time delivery rate, and average delivery time. The reporting layer that shows where the delivery operation is losing time and where it is performing well.
Frequently asked questions
The crossover point depends on your order volume, average order value, and current commission rate. At 30% commission on a $25 average order, you are paying $7.50 per order to the aggregator. A custom delivery platform with infrastructure cost amortised over 12 months typically becomes cheaper at 150-300 orders per day depending on the platform complexity. Beyond the cost calculation, there is a strategic question: the aggregator owns the customer relationship, the review data, and the reorder behaviour. Building your own platform means those assets belong to your business. Most operators who commission a custom platform are at or approaching that volume threshold and have already decided that owning the customer relationship is a priority regardless of the cost crossover.
The dispatch system monitors driver location in real time through the driver app. When an order is confirmed, the system identifies available drivers within the delivery zone and ranks them by proximity to the restaurant, factoring in current traffic conditions and estimated travel time. The restaurant's prep time -- set by the restaurant in real time or defaulted to a historical average for that time of day -- is included in the calculation so the driver is not dispatched to arrive before the food is ready. The system sends the assignment to the highest-ranked driver and waits for acceptance. If the driver does not accept within a configurable timeout, the order is reassigned to the next driver in the queue. The operator can override automatic dispatch and manually assign an order from the operations dashboard if needed.
Prep time is the variable that most manual dispatch operations get wrong. If the kitchen takes 18 minutes and the driver is 4 minutes away, dispatching the driver on order confirmation means an 11-minute wait at the restaurant -- idle driver cost, food cooling, and a late delivery. We build prep time management into the restaurant dashboard so kitchen staff can set a live prep time by service period. The dispatch system holds the driver assignment until the estimated pickup time -- restaurant prep time minus driver travel time -- so the driver arrives close to when the food is ready. Restaurants can update their prep time in real time when the kitchen is backed up. The dispatch system recalculates in-flight.
An MVP food delivery platform covering customer ordering, driver app with basic dispatch, restaurant dashboard, and real-time order tracking typically runs $25,000--$60,000. A full platform adding automated dispatch with zone and prep time logic, dynamic pricing, operations reporting, and driver management tools typically runs $50,000--$120,000. A multi-restaurant marketplace delivery platform -- covering restaurant partner onboarding, full dispatch automation, zone management, and analytics -- is typically at the upper end of that range or above depending on the number of restaurant integrations and the commission and payout logic required. We scope and price every project before development starts.
Talk to us about your food delivery platform project.
Tell us your current delivery setup, your order volume, and the dispatch or zone logic that your current system cannot handle. We'll scope a platform built for your delivery model.
