What is Food Delivery Scheduling? – A Complete Guide 2024

Consumer behavior has changed a lot over the decades. 

There has been a drastic shift in restaurant priorities as customers went from dining in for meals to getting meals delivered within minutes. 

The online food delivery segment will reach 343.8 billion US dollars by 2022. With the rise in digital restaurant orders, there has been a 63% surge in demand.

Hence, the huge market is getting meals delivered on time is even tougher. 

There is a noticeable gap between a consumer’s needs and wants. 

There are moments when the consumer settles down to decide what to order for lunch. 

But there are moments when the consumer lacks time to sort through restaurants and needs the food on their table. 

There might be a need to order food every day simultaneously.

But the problem of repeating the same procedure, especially during limited hours, needs an alternative.

Is it possible to solve this problem for the consumer?

Can the customer schedule food delivery for the day? If yes, how can it work for your food delivery business?

Let’s find out the answers.

What is Food Delivery Scheduling?

The most convenient feature introduced in the food delivery application. 

This allows the consumer to schedule the delivery for the day and deliver it at the required time. 

Through food delivery scheduling, customers can enjoy their food at their desired time, mostly done by people who work with tight deadlines. 

If a company’s employee has to order lunch every day, the same procedure must be followed, which is time-consuming. 

Hence, scheduling allowed the customers to place an order and schedule the time they wanted it to be delivered.

How to Schedule Food Delivery?

Scheduling a food delivery varies from application to application.

Moreover, not all restaurants provide scheduled delivery services. 

So before you start scheduling, ensure you know the outlets that provide scheduled food delivery. 

The variation in applications is considered as well. 

Some apps allow you to schedule a delivery before 48 hours, whereas some provide the convenience of scheduling a delivery date for up to seven days.

The variation in the convenience of different applications is justifiable in restaurant availability. 

 However, the process of scheduling the food delivery is pretty simple. All you need to do is:

• Select the restaurant that provides scheduled delivery. 
• Choose your meal
• Go to the checkout page
• Add an appropriate address
• Simply select scheduled 
• Enter the time by which you want the delivery
• Select mode of payment
• Finish it up by clicking place order

It is convenient to order food from your favorite restaurant without going through that chaotic moment before lunch when you are already running on deadlines and need food on the table.

Food Delivery Business- An Overview

Food delivery services are similar to parcel delivery services. 

But the food delivery must be made within a few hours to provide excellent food and delivery experience. 

A food delivery business holds a chain of food outlets and delivery drivers and fulfills the order demands. 

Whether for a lunch break or a party, you can get the freshly made food delivered to your doorstep.

The order is either placed through the application or the website. 

The restaurant accepts and prepares the order. Delivery personnel are assigned to the delivery job. 

Correct order details and address are attached to the order and sent for delivery within the promised time limit. 

It comes with a limited area and time, but it is the most popular delivery business.

Why is it Important to Upgrade The Food Delivery Business?

The main reason one should update the food delivery business is to minimize and overcome its challenges. 

The challenges mentioned above cost businesses a lot of time and money, leaving them at a loss.

To ensure the meal is delivered on time and efficiently, one must continually upgrade the service, offers, and changes to align with market trends. 

The recent upgrade in scheduling food delivery was a great success for many businesses. 

This increased their revenue and made them the permanent go-to food restaurant for delivery. 

However, this also increased the workload on the management and the delivery personnel, but there is always room for changes and upgrades. 

This led to this revolutionary automation of scheduling and management. 

Food businesses that introduced the upgrade of delivery scheduling earned some regular customers and an advantage over their competitors. 

The advantages of scheduled food delivery can be enjoyed by setting up proper management for the same. 

Benefits of Scheduling Food Delivery

A scheduled order is beneficial to the business as well as the consumer.

Although it might seem like a big task to handle with proper management, scheduled orders can have many advantages. 

The key benefits of delivery scheduling are:

• It saves time for customers and enhances their experience.
• A food business can get permanent and random orders throughout the day. 
• Scheduled order brings you some regular customers.
• These orders are flexible, and arrangements can be made well in advance. 
• Scheduled orders put your customers at ease and let you serve them with excellent service.

Many restaurants have already started offering scheduled orders. The faster the meal is delivered, the better the customer experience.

What are the Challenges One Can Face in Fulfilling Scheduled Orders?

Scheduling an order is very easy. 

Fill in order details, mention the specific time, enter the location, and simply click ‘place order.’ 

But the same is not what happens when fulfilling that order on time. 

A restaurant and the delivery partner must face many difficulties in completing the scheduled orders. 

Some of the major tasks are

1. Managing orders

If a restaurant is taking scheduled orders, it must be serving customers in person and fulfilling random orders. 

This means that the restaurant management is supposed to keep track of the time it takes to prepare the order so that it is delivered fresh. 

It is also supposed to assign the delivery job to a delivery driver based on availability.

2. Last-mile delivery challenges

Last-mile is the most unpredictable part of the whole delivery process. 

To make a successful last-mile delivery, one must be prepared for any challenges that might occur on the way. 

Things like taking the wrong route, delivery vehicle breakdown, blocked roadways, accidental road blockage, and natural disasters affect the on-time delivery. 

These challenges cannot be predicted, but if they occur, they lead to a failed delivery, and the consequences are well known.

3. Temperature regulation

In the case of food delivery, customers require their food at certain temperatures. So, it is important to keep the food warm or cool as required.

Moreover, the food preparation should start before the scheduled delivery time, but neither too early nor too late.

However, maintaining that temperature is a challenge in itself as there is uncertainty about the time the order will be delivered.

Due to this time-bound delivery, providing the best service and care for customer satisfaction is challenging. 

There is a chance that the coolant might stop working during delivery. 

All this uncertainty adds up to the challenges involved in scheduled food delivery.

Manage Food Delivery Orders on Upper Route Planner

Regarding delivering hot-served meal kits, Upper Route Planner is the best-advanced route planning software to get food deliveries done.

Upper Route Planner is the most recommended delivery management solution for food delivery businesses. It is used to plan and optimize delivery routes efficiently so drivers can quickly find the delivery stop.

It completely automated the delivery process with features like route planning, record keeping, driver assignment, and real-time food tracking. 

A delivery route planner and driver-friendly app combined will ensure an excellent food delivery experience for your customers.

As an admin, you can schedule multiple food deliveries and keep your delivery team updated to hand over the meal real fast. Eventually, there would be no communication gaps and accelerate the entire process. Since you have less work to do, you can focus more on business operations.

Conclusion

As an owner of a Food delivery business, you need to provide convenient options to food buyers. Faster delivery is no different, and therefore, it becomes necessary to switch to an advanced delivery route planner. That’s right. We understand the challenges of the food industry, which could be difficult to handle manually. 

An autonomous process is better for food delivery operations. In fact, it is the easiest option to make a delivery schedule and keep your team updated. If you are in the food delivery business, we suggest you book a demo with us. By doing so, you can utilize advanced routing features for your delivery business.