A cap of 15 percent for fees local restaurants pay online third-party ordering and delivery services during the COVID-19 pandemic was approved Tuesday night by the Walnut Creek City Council.
The 15 percent cap will apply to restaurant delivery orders using services including DoorDash, Grubhub and UberEats, with a 10 percent cap for meal pickups ordered through those services. It will be in effect until
either the pandemic-related emergency is declared over by local health officials, or when restaurants are allowed to serve inside at full capacity.
These delivery service companies have been charging up to 30 percent per order when customers order food through the delivery service’s app or restaurant website, senior planner Jeanine Cavalli told the council Tuesday night.
This cap is expected to have a significant positive impact on Walnut Creek’s 200 local restaurants, very few of which are operated by big chains that can better withstand the higher third-party-delivery fees.
With indoor dining suspended since March, and only last week reopened for 25 percent capacity, restaurants have been more reliant than ever on delivery and takeout orders, which have gone from about 10 percent of their business to more than 70 percent.
These fees have been a significant hit on restaurants’ profitability just as business has been down significantly. That prompted some restaurant owners and business advocacy groups like the group Walnut Creek Downtown to ask the city to cap the delivery fees.
AWESOME!
Maybe the government can control everything cause they’re so economically astute.
God help us!
If the people ordering the food, or the businesses that are using these services (DoorDash, Grubhub and UberEats) don’t like the charges, don’t order the food or use the services. It’s pretty simple. Get off your couch and pick it up yourselves. The City of Walnut Creek needs to stay out of the private sector. TERRIBLE over reach of government.
If a 15% fee is too low, DoorDash can always stop deliveries from those restaurants. It most likely makes them more money to include them at 15% than to not do business with them.
The delivery companies should band together and stop accepting orders from Walnut Creek restaurants.
Just more modeling in the free enterprise system by government. We need LESS government, not more. I agree with Sign from above, they should just stop deliveries in Walnut Creek.
Be sure to vote YES ON 22, the app drivers job classification
Are DoorDash, Grubhub, and UberEats delivery services widely/frequently used in the area? I’ve never seen any food being delivered, nor have I spoken with anyone who uses them. The only food delivery I occasionally notice is a Domino’s Pizza or Extreme Pizza delivery.
All I can think of now is the UberEats driver who got caught on video eating French Fries from a customer’s order he was delivering. Yuck!
Yes, they are very popular. The delivery vehicles do not have any branding on them – they just look like normal cars.
While I agree the fees are way too high, I don’t think the gov should be involved. Why don’t the restaurants start delivering the food themselves and stop working with grub hub etc. That’s how the free market takes care of these issues
The government is out of control.
The path to hell is paved with good intentions. More government is NOT the answer. I don’t care how justified one feels in their intentions government needs to be scaled back drastically not increased.
So tired of these government leeches that produce nothing, generate nothing, and steal our money thru taxes while consistently telling others doing real work how to live. F off.
Government cripples restaurant business to take out or delivery only…restaurants cannot afford vehicle, employee, insurance, so relegated to take out only…delivery business steps in and provides immediate solution…restaurant agrees to terms…restaurant benefits…then decide, they, and only they, have the right to determine their costs…government cripples delivery business…delivery service boycotts WC restaurants?
Good job Walnut Creek. I’ll just go to oakland to doordash now and continue to make money worth my time. Useless government at its finest. If people don’t want to pay an extra five dollars for their delivery, they can get off their a** and go pick their food up during traffic hours.
How is this legal? A city government dictating what private business can charge? Is the Communist China?