The Challenges of Delivering a Burger

Nick Green, head of sales for Deliveroo, a U.K.-based app that connects users to restaurants that wouldn’t normally deliver, probably stays up at night worrying about the food itself. 

“A burger is a relatively fragile thing. It’s a stack of stuff, and you’ve got to be quite careful with it,” Green told The Wall Street Journal recently. With condiments like truffle butter, veal jus, slabs of bacon and soft pretzel buns, fast-casual and higher-end restaurants have elevated the burger to an art form.  Deliveroo and others are challenged by the obstacles of getting these expertly prepared culinary artworks to your door with the bun, patty and toppings just right. And tasty too. 

Deliveroo uses some bicycle riders as one way to transport food from restaurants to users. The Wall Street Journal reports that given the difficulties of keeping food warm and intact on a bicycle journey, the company’s delivery boxes include detailed instructions about how to pack and carry food on two wheels. Packaging is a central focus for Deliveroo and the restaurants it works with. What works best, Green said, is the corrugated cardboard box, which is small and sturdy and has small air vents to prevent overheating. “The challenge is you want it to stay warm, but not to keep cooking and steaming itself,” he said. Boxes that are completely sealed can result in soggy food. The average time for the company to deliver is 30 minutes. 

According to Deliveroo, burgers are among the top three cuisines in 90 percent of the more than 110 cities where it operates in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Burgers are big business in the United Kingdom and here, too, in the United States. On GrubHub, the average price per burger is $9.52 in New York, $9.44 in Los Angeles and $8.40 in Dallas.