Why most restaurants lose money on delivery apps (and what to do instead)
Third-party delivery apps take 15-30% commission on every order. For a restaurant running 20-30% margins, that's the difference between profit and breaking even.
Here's the math most restaurant owners don't run:
Average order: $35
App commission (25%): $8.75
Packaging: $1.50
Your actual revenue per order: $24.75
Over 50 daily delivery orders, you're giving away $437.50/day — that's $13,125/month in commissions alone.
The alternative: Own your delivery. A dedicated local courier costs a fraction of those commissions, and you keep 100% of the order value. Your customers get faster service because your courier isn't juggling 6 apps at once.
We built DashLine to solve exactly this. Fixed monthly rate, up to 5 deliveries/day, same-day service. No per-order commissions. No surge pricing. No sharing your customers with competitors.
If you're a restaurant doing 5+ deliveries a day and tired of watching margin disappear into app fees, this is for you.
