A restaurant in Casablanca runs 400 deliveries monthly. After platform fees, payment processing, and hidden charges, they keep 12,000 MAD from 34,000 MAD in orders. The math stopped working three months ago — but they can't quit because 80% of their customers come through the platform.
This is the delivery trap most restaurants face. The right takeaway delivery software changes this equation entirely. Not through promises or features lists, but through fundamental shifts in zone setup, commission structure, and operational control.
Zone Setup: The Geographic Foundation That Makes or Breaks Your Delivery Business
Your delivery zones determine everything. Set them too wide and drivers waste fuel reaching distant customers. Too narrow and you miss revenue from nearby neighborhoods. Most restaurants guess wrong and wonder why delivery loses money.
The choice between polygon and radius zones affects your bottom line more than any marketing campaign. In dense urban areas like Casablanca's Maarif district, polygon zones capture 23% more orders by precisely following street boundaries and excluding dead zones like industrial areas.
Radius zones look clean on a map. Draw a circle, set a distance, done. But cities don't work in circles. A 5-kilometer radius from your restaurant might include the ocean on one side and wealthy villas on the other. Your drivers waste time and fuel crossing empty spaces.
Polygon zones follow actual delivery patterns. You draw custom boundaries around apartment complexes, exclude areas with no road access, and extend into high-order neighborhoods even if they're slightly farther. This precision matters when driver costs run 8-12 MAD per kilometer in Morocco.
The 15-Minute Rule: Where Speed Meets Profit
Customer patience has a hard limit: 15 minutes from order to arrival for most delivery zones. This constraint shapes every zone boundary. A neighborhood 3 kilometers away might seem close, but if traffic patterns mean 20-minute delivery times, it's outside your profitable zone.
Smart operators use this formula: average preparation time (8 minutes) + travel time + 2-minute buffer = total delivery time. Any zone pushing past 15 minutes needs premium delivery fees or exclusion from the standard menu.
The Commission Trap: Why 15-30% Fees Kill Restaurant Margins
Platform commission isn't just expensive — it's mathematically impossible for most restaurants to sustain. When your net margin sits at 3-7% and platforms take 15-30%, you're effectively paying to stay in business.
The Hidden Cost Breakdown
| Fee Type |
Typical Range |
Monthly Impact (400 orders × 85 MAD) |
| Platform Commission |
15-30% |
5,100 - 10,200 MAD |
| Payment Processing |
2-3% |
680 - 1,020 MAD |
| Marketing Fees |
3-5% |
1,020 - 1,700 MAD |
| Total Platform Cost |
20-38% |
6,800 - 12,920 MAD |
These aren't theoretical numbers. A typical Agadir restaurant processing 34,000 MAD in monthly delivery orders loses up to 12,920 MAD to platform fees. That's rent money. Staff salaries. Equipment upgrades — all going to a middleman.
Why "Marketing Reach" Doesn't Justify 30% Commission
Platforms promise customer access in exchange for commission. But customer acquisition through paid channels costs 50-80 MAD per first order in Morocco. If your average order is 85 MAD with a 7% margin, you need 10 repeat orders just to break even on acquisition.
The platform dependency trap emerges quickly. Customers associate your food with the platform brand, not yours. When you try to shift them to direct ordering, conversion rates drop below 5%. You're renting customers at 30% commission forever.
Driver Assignment: Auto vs. Manual and Why It Actually Matters
Every delivery starts with a decision: which driver gets this order? The wrong choice means cold food, angry customers, and lost revenue. Most food delivery management software treats this as a simple proximity calculation. Reality is more complex.
Auto-Assignment Algorithms: What They Optimize For
Basic algorithms assign the nearest available driver. Better systems consider driver rating, current route efficiency, and order characteristics. The best platforms let you set priority rules: high-value orders to experienced drivers, new customers to your most reliable team members.
Batch delivery changes the calculation entirely. During lunch rush, grouping 2-3 orders per trip cuts delivery costs by 40%. But the algorithm must balance pickup times, delivery zones, and food type. Hot pizza and cold salads don't batch well together.
Manual Override: When Restaurants Need Control
Some situations demand human judgment. Your regular customer who tips generously deserves your best driver. The order going to a difficult-to-find address needs someone familiar with the area. Bad weather means assigning only to drivers with proper vehicles.
Restaurant delivery software must balance automation efficiency with manual control. Pure algorithms miss context. Pure manual assignment doesn't scale. The sweet spot: auto-assignment with instant override capability and clear driver performance data.
