Everything You Should Know About Food Delivery in the U.S. 🥐 🧀 🍔 🍟 🥟
What may influence food delivery times?
Opting for online food ordering is a convenient alternative to cooking. Recent research reveals that nearly all customers, or four out of four, prefer using mobile apps for food orders. The global food market is undergoing a transformation with the rise of online food delivery, initially observed in urban areas and now extending to other regions.
Ranked as the second-largest online food delivery market worldwide after China, the United States achieved an estimated revenue of 218 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, with over 76 billion dollars attributed to the meal delivery sector. Projections indicate further growth, nearing the 500-billion mark by 2027.
According to a survey released by Deliverect in 2022, almost one-third of participants identified the long delivery time as the primary frustration with online food delivery services. Thus, I want to look into how some factors may influence the average delivery time, including types of vehicles used, road density, weather conditions, and types of orders.
The chart shows that there was not much difference in average delivery times across the four vehicle types employed for delivery, from around 24 to 27 minutes taken per order. Electric scooters emerge as the swiftest option, averaging less than 25 minutes. Doordash highlights scooters as a cost-effective, eco-friendly, and agile means of navigating traffic, providing delivery workers with a convenient way to complete their tasks. On the other hand, motorcycles, while slightly slower, are not always favored due to their higher insurance liability in the U.S.
Across four road density levels—low, medium, high, and jammed—the delivery times ranged from approximately 21 to 31 minutes. The bar chart illustrates a clear trend: as traffic density increases, the average delivery time also extends, which aligns with our common knowledge.
In sunny weather, delivery workers typically complete an order in under 22 minutes. However, during sandstorms, storms, or windy conditions, customers often experience longer wait times of around 26 minutes. Cloudy or foggy weather poses the greatest challenge, with delivery times averaging around 29 minutes. Inclement weather not only makes the job more demanding for delivery workers, but also sparks discussions about whether ordering online and receiving food deliveries in such conditions is ethical or not.
There is nearly no variation in average delivery times across various types of orders, such as meals, snacks, buffets, and drinks, which all take around 26 minutes. While one might assume that drinks could potentially take longer as it may spill easily, or buffets, because they often include multiple items, delivery workers tend to spend similar amounts of time when completing their tasks.
Not only in the U.S., but the food delivery industry worldwide is also promising. The worldwide online food delivery market was valued at around USD 130.8 billion in 2023. According to Statista, the revenue in the Online Food Delivery market is forecasted to reach US$1.22 trillion in 2024.