A lot has changed since Palo Alto Delivery launched in 2013 as a local food-delivery startup in California. Today, now called DoorDash, the venture operates in 600 cities spread across 56 metropolitan areas. More than 110,000 restaurants are available to users nationwide and so far, the company has completed 40 million-plus deliveries.
Today, Cleveland will join the club.
“We are beginning our launch in the Cleveland area tomorrow and we’re very excited,” Brent Seals, head of local launch for DoorDash, said yesterday. “We are starting in a few neighborhoods like Westlake, Cleveland Heights, University Heights and a few others and then over the next few months we’ll be expanding throughout Greater Cleveland as well.”
The official list is Westlake, Bay Village, Rocky River, North Olmsted, Cleveland Heights, University Heights, Shaker Heights, Mayfield Heights, Warrensville Heights.
Like its competition, DoorDash utilizes technology to connect consumers to restaurants. But unlike most of the competition, that selection of restaurants is enormous. Seals estimates that roughly 1,000 restaurants – from high-end places to fast food – will be available to customers. That number includes restaurants with multiple locations like Wendy’s, Subway or whomever.
“What really sets us apart is the selection that we provide to our customers," Seals adds. "We want to make sure that we have all the restaurants that our customers want to be able to order from and also great-quality delivery as well.”
A quick search revealed options such as The Cheesecake Factory, BRIO Tuscan Grille, BRAVO Cucina Italiano, PF Chang’s, Starbucks, Bob Evans along with pretty much every independent eatery in the area, from my favorite pizza joints to the best Indian food spots.
Dashers – or delivery drivers – will likely pull from the same group of people who drive for Uber, UberEATS, Lyft, ClusterTruck and whatever else. All payments and tips are handled online or in app. Drivers deliver the food to your door as opposed to a curbside handoff like ClusterTruck.
“Our drivers are all independent contractors and what we provide them with is the flexibility to work on the DoorDash platform when and where they want,” notes Seals, adding that drivers are paid per run.
Available restaurants appear based on an algorithm driven by delivery times.
“We want to maintain great delivery time and great quality of service,” notes seals. “Based on your specific location we will show you restaurants available to you so that we can make sure that we’re not delivering from restaurants all the way across the city, but restaurants that are going to get to you in a great time so that the food maintains its quality.”
Customers in the Cleveland area can begin ordering today. Regular service hours are between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Customers can use promo code DASHCLEVELAND for $5 off an order over $15, valid throughout February.
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