When getting an Uber to McDonald’s is cheaper than buying Uber Eats

With the high additional costs of ordering food from certain restaurants on Uber Eats, it is possible that paying for an Uber and ordering directly at those restaurants would be the cheaper option.

MyBroadband’s regular comparisons of the prices of food when bought through Mr D or Uber Eats as opposed to ordering directly has found the prices can often be substantially higher on the third-party platforms.

The increases are fairly easy to explain.

For the on-demand apps to be commercially viable, they must charge restaurants and other food-serving businesses selling through their platforms a commission on each order.

For Uber, this amounts to somewhere between 15% and 30% of the order value.

In addition, UpMenu has pointed out that Uber Eats may charge fees for processing and marketing, which can add further costs that could eat into restaurants’ revenues.

To offset the impact of these fees, restaurants increase the prices of menu items ordered through Uber Eats.

MyBroadband previously found that McDonald’s, Nando’s, Roman’s Pizza, Rocomamas, and Simply Asia typically charged between 20.7% and 32.9% more for their products on these platforms.

Whether you choose Collection or Delivery on Mr D or Uber Eats, you pay an extra fee for the food.

When one MyBroadband reader recently argued it would be cheaper to use an Uber Ride to collect food directly than Uber Eats, we had to investigate further.

We created a hypothetical order from a nearby McDonald’s and compared the cost of booking an Uber and buying the food directly from the restaurant with having Uber Eats deliver it from the same branch.

The total cost of a two-way Uber Ride covering a total distance of 7.8km between our house and the branch was R88.

The distance-based delivery fee from the particular McDonald’s branch to our house was R16, a far lower figure.

That meant that the total additional cost of the food on Uber Eats would have to be at least R72 more to be more expensive than using Uber Ride and direct order.

Using McDonald’s 30% difference, we determined that our minimum order value (when bought directly) would need to be about R240 for an additional cost of R72.

However, Uber Eats also charges a service fee for which there is no clear calculation.

The service fee lowers the difference you would need to make up — and thus the total value of the order required to reach parity with the Uber Eats price.

By the time our order value had reached R210.60 with three popular items, it was already enough to make up for the difference because a service fee of R13.70 had also been applied.

In total, the additional cost of ordering through Uber Eats was R93.30, 44.3% more than when buying directly. That amount also excludes a tip.

Using an Uber Ride and ordering at the restaurant for this particular order would be R5.30 cheaper.

Below is a summary of the costs of the two different options we compared for our analysis.

A case-by-case basis

While the comparison was informative, the most cost-effective option would still be to drive yourself.

The average car in South Africa will not consume anywhere near R88’s petrol when covering 7.8km.

An alternative for those seeking the convenience of ordering from home is to use McDonald’s own McDelivery service.

That lets you buy directly from the restaurant using its prices and comes with a once-off R15 delivery charge.

Unfortunately, not all restaurants have their own direct ordering apps or websites, although many also let you phone in and collect and pay for your food at their location.

For those who want the convenience of food delivery from their favourite restaurants, Mr D and Uber Eats are a great option.

Determining whether it would be cheaper to use Uber and collect yourself or opt for Uber Eats will depend on a variety of factors, including:

• Restaurant or chain — Additional fees on products may vary from one restaurant to the next.
• Total order value — Generally a low-value order will be better to order via Uber Eats, while food orders over R300 may be cheaper to catch an Uber ride.
• Distance to restaurant — This can impact both the price of the Uber ride and the delivery fee but the variance is greater for the former. Just 1km adds significantly more cost for a ride than the same would for a delivery fee.
• Time of your order — Uber Ride’s fares can vary greatly depending on the time of day and demand at the time of booking the ride. In addition, the initial price you pay may not be the final price, which takes traffic and total ride time into consideration.