On-demand taxi services are one of the biggest and smoothest running technology business models. The next biggest is the online food ordering and food delivery industry. These industries are rapidly growing and evolving because of the low initial capital
expenses and variety of niches new startups can fill. However, they have a long way to go. Let’s look at how the
blockchain and cryptocurrency revolution could transform the food delivery industry.
Reliability
Food delivery services create an entire supply chain. The customer creates an account with an app. They log in, pick a restaurant and place an order. The customer pays for the food, and the order is assigned
to a specific restaurant. The designated restaurant makes the food. The app assigns a delivery driver to pick up the order and deliver it to the customer. Questions about reliability arise at several points. First, the customer doesn’t know how hygienic that
particular restaurant is or how fresh their ingredients are. Customers lose trust in the service when food is poor quality, but the ordering app can’t verify the quality of the food. Blockchain could be used to create digital contracts to track the order and
let customers get their money back if the food turns out to be far less than desired. Or the customers can vet the reputation of the restaurant before they agree to buy food from that restaurant. You could even vet the quality of that restaurant’s suppliers.
Another concern is the reliability and quality of delivery drivers. Blockchain could be used to verify the licenses of the driver or restaurants in the
supply chain. If there is a discrepancy, an administrator is alerted.
Decentralization
Food delivery services like the taxi industry suffer from centralization. This contributes to the 20 to 25 percent commission with every order, and that cost limits the growth of the industry. This would be improved by the use of Blockchain and cryptocurrency.
After all, the size of the commission is determined by how many people are in the supply chain. Cut the delivery service app out of the chain, and the commission customers pay could be lowered while more of the money goes to both delivery drivers and restaurants.
And by lowering the cost of delivery services, the food delivery industry could grow large enough to be financially sustainable.
Transparency
The food delivery industry suffers a lack of transparency. Blockchain and cryptocurrency enable cashless payments, and the payment process is simplified. There is far less of a delay waiting for someone’s credit card transaction to process, and processing
fees are dramatically reduced. This is especially true when dealing with customers using a variety of currencies. On the flipside, restaurants are now able to accept payments from customers who would like to pay for their pizza with Bitcoin.
The financial transparency of cryptocurrency and blockchain based restaurant delivery apps also makes it much easier for these services to expand internationally. In fact, several of the most popular restaurant delivery apps in the European Union already
rely on P2P payment services.
Blockchain and cryptocurrency could improve margins for drivers and restaurants while adding trust to an unreliable industry. Fixing these problems is the key to the long-term survival of the industry.