{"id":648601,"date":"2026-05-21T11:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=648601"},"modified":"2026-05-21T11:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:03:51","slug":"south-african-delivery-app-goes-where-mr-d-and-uber-eats-wont-with-20-cheaper-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/648601-south-african-delivery-app-goes-where-mr-d-and-uber-eats-wont-with-20-cheaper-prices.html","title":{"rendered":"South African delivery app goes where Mr D and Uber Eats won’t with 20% cheaper prices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African fleet management and delivery platform Skedadel is taking on a market dominated by Uber Eats and Mr D with lower prices and incentives to keep its drivers away from competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform, based in the Western Cape, is also tackling areas that Uber Eats and Mr D avoid, and currently manages more than 100,000 deliveries per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vernon Marais, CEO and founder of Skedadel, told MyBroadband that he started the platform in September 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic out of necessity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A restaurateur, Marais was managing deliveries across his businesses through Mr D and Uber Eats, which he said were limited at the time in terms of what they offered restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Then the idea of Skedadel was born, whereby we can do our own deliveries, manage our own client interaction and push our own services,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From there, a KFC owner asked me if I could do the same with his own restaurant, KFC Rocklands, and we said yes, and from then on it became a success.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skedadel started with thousands of deliveries in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town and has continued to grow since. It now offers services in most major South African metros, including Johannesburg and Pretoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the success, the platform operates in a market dominated by two companies, the Naspers-owned Mr D, part of the Takealot Group, and American delivery giant Uber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aidan Soule, Skedadel’s chief technology officer, explained that the platform remained competitive by offering lower prices than the big players and by targeting underserved areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can offer restaurants prices up to 20% lower than Uber Eats and Mr D, depending on the brand, thanks to its dynamic operating model, with a small staff handling the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our stack is quite lean from a cost perspective. Our teams are pretty lean. We have quite a bit of margin to work with, that’s why we can cost to be more profitable,” said Soule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offering 20% lower prices than Uber Eats and Mr D<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Vernon Marais, CEO and founder of Skedadel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marais said restaurants were choosing Skedadel because of the high fees the incumbents charged them. “The margins on the third parties are killing the business,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skedadel counted KFC, through Yum! Brands, among its partners, and other chains like Nando’s and Pedros Chicken. It will soon onboard Scooters Pizza<\/a> and Food Lover’s Market on its platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also partnering with Shoprite Group’s Medirite Pharmacies for deliveries, and has a stable of various other restaurants, butcheries, pharmacies and grocery stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another strategy Skedadel used to increase its market share is to target “white space,” or regions that major players are ignoring, like more rural areas and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think the kind of edge that we had is the fact that the areas that we cover and support are generally areas they don’t go into,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company was actively helping KFC and its franchisees take root in the white spaces and rural areas they had been missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We want to make deliveries comfortable for the restaurateur as well,” said Marais. “That’s important to me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping drivers engaged with incentives and gamification<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Aidan Soule, Skedadel CTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marais and Soule told MyBroadband that one of Skedadel’s biggest challenges in the market was keeping drivers interested in delivering for its platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soule explained that delivery drivers in South Africa tend to “multi-app,” providing deliveries for multiple platforms simultaneously, which could reduce Skedadel’s availability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that getting driver attention and engagement remained a challenge, which is why the company moved into “gamified incentives” for drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Skedadel platform offers high-performing drivers incentives, such as restaurant, fuel, food, and airtime vouchers, and uses its delivery monitoring system to track efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This same platform is used by the company to proactively pick up issues with drivers or deliveries “before they become issues.” Management can use the platform to help drivers ensure on-time delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think a lot of these delivery companies are taking advantage of these drivers. We’re looking at upskilling these drivers and paying them what they’re worth,” said Soule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that Skedadel’s technology was designed to support drivers with what they need to succeed. “We want to uplift the drivers, too. That’s our major drive here at Skedadel.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We want to make it possible for deliveries in any area in South Africa,” said Marais, and added that their ultimate vision was to become the largest fleet management partner on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

More photos of Skedadel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delivery platform Skedadel is taking on Uber Eats and Mr D in South Africa with cheaper prices and deliveries in communities avoided by the bigger players. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":648603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[105339,105340,49419,64438,1643,105019,105020,995,35236,105338],"class_list":["post-648601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-aidan-soule","tag-delivery-management-platform","tag-food-delivery","tag-mr-d","tag-naspers","tag-scooters-pizza","tag-skedadel","tag-takealot","tag-uber-eats","tag-vernon-marais"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648601"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":648939,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648601\/revisions\/648939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}