Seattle-based food delivery app Runner gives full cut to restaurants

Often when you have food delivered through services like Uber Eats or DoorDash, the restaurant does not get a big cut of that check. A new Seattle-based food delivery app called Runner seeks to correct that. CEO and founder John Rood joined Seattle’s Morning News to discuss what differentiates his service.

If people have food delivered through Runner, the restaurant gets the full amount that customers pay.

“We actually started Runner for this reason with the stress that local restaurants and small businesses have been under, and especially adding to that COVID-19 has been very destructive. We wanted to see if we could be some helpful, constructive source in this chaotic environment that we’re in,” Rood said.

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“When you order on Runner, let’s just say that order is $46, the restaurant actually gets that money,” he added. “We started this because there are no other platforms where this is possible. Every other platform that you can get delivery from charges restaurants, takes a percentage from them. And so it looks like you’re paying normal prices, but the restaurant isn’t getting their normal business, their normal profit, their normal revenue.”

So the obvious question is how does Runner make a profit then?

“I thought this industry was very, very profitable, too profitable, because companies like Uber Eats and DoorDash are essentially making about $30 to $50 out of every $100 spent,” Rood said. “That is a big chunk out of the total equation. I thought what is the value proposition of getting orders from a restaurant to your house? And does that value deserve 50% of your order?”

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“My thought was, no, I believe that the service fee — and our service fee is one of the lowest in the industry, which is 12% — is plenty enough profit for us to build our business, and in the long run, the community is going to be benefited in a major way from that.”

If the service costs less, the money has to come from somewhere. So what does the driver get when he or she works for Runner?

“We give our power to our drivers by allowing them to set their own wage, and we balance that power with our customers by making sure that the person who places the order gets the lowest cost to get that to their house,” he said.

“By the time that you’re coming in to order, we know where you’re at, where your restaurant is at, and where our drivers are at. So we can say, OK, out of all the drivers that could deliver this, what’s the lowest cost we could give them?”

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