Independent Operators

Restaurants, third-party delivery companies agree on public policy principles

Restaurant leaders and third-party delivery providers have released their first public policy guidelines around principles for restaurant delivery provision in the U.S.

January 11, 2021

Developing public policy around third-party delivery for the restaurant industry has been without a framework, but restaurateurs and delivery companies have come together to create a document that defines best practices.

The National Restaurant Association — which helped bring the parties together — has released The Public Policy Principles for Third-Party Delivery, culminating what the NRA said in a news release was a year-long effort to develop national guidelines based on the experiences of restaurant operators of all sizes.

In an NRA online survey, 70% of adults said they ordered delivery from a restaurant and 40% had used a third-party delivery company for their delivery.

"Even before the pandemic, delivery — and decisions related to delivery — had major impacts on restaurant operations," Mike Whatley, NRA vice president for State and Local Affairs said in the release. "Until now, the relationship between restaurants and third-party delivery companies lacked a national framework to protect restaurants.

"These new principles, which center around permission and transparency, add consistency and structure that will benefit all restaurants. This agreement represents an important first step in an ongoing dialogue between restaurants and third-party delivery companies about ways to improve our relationship going forward."

As defined in the document, the seven principles are:

• Restaurants have a right to know and determine when and if their food is delivered.
• Customers should expect the same degree of food safety from delivery as they do when dining in a restaurant.
• Restaurants should be able to offer alcohol to customers through third-party delivery in a safe and legal manner.
• Restaurants deserve transparency on fees (including commissions, delivery fees, and promotional fees) charged by third-party delivery companies.
• Third-party food delivery contracts need contractual transparency, and issues surrounding fees, costs, terms, policies, marketing practices involving the restaurant or its likeness, and insurance/indemnity should be clear.
• Sales tax collection responsibility must be clear in terms of which party is collecting and remitting the specific sales tax to the appropriate authority.
• As a best practice, third-party delivery companies should offer restaurants access to anonymized information regarding orders from their restaurant that originate on third-party platforms.

"We are grateful for the opportunity to have partnered with the National Restaurant Association in developing these principles, which will help platforms like DoorDash continue to empower restaurants to reach new customers and grow their revenue," Max Rettig, DoorDash global head of Public Policy, said in the release. "We are proud to support these principles through the range of products and services we've developed for restaurants, and we look forward to continually improving our offerings to best serve our restaurant partners."

In the customer survey, roughly 90% of customers who ordered delivery in the last six months favored each of the seven principles.