Overview: Converting existing restaurants into best practice, delivery-only operations
Part one: Best practice delivery-only operations - physical set up
Part three: Operations for the highest level of safety - hygiene and customer care
Part four: Staffing guidelines for delivery-only restaurant service
How should staff and other personnel be organised?
Roles and responsibilities: While front of house staff are no longer needed to interact with customers, there are a number of important coordinating roles in a delivery-only kitchen.
Chefs (Preparation team)
Continue to be responsible for cooking excellent food to order as well as all aspects of the food safety management system on site.
In the delivery-only kitchen the priority will be on the quality and timing of orders to ensure that prep times are met and decrease over time
Ensure your staff regularly wash their hands, at least every 15 minutes, and wear gloves where appropriate
If possible, do not allow other visitors e.g. supply delivery, inside the kitchen or storage areas
Inside Order coordinator
Ensure social distancing requirements are met and provide clarity to riders
Announce the orders awaiting pickup so that the riders can approach the table
Log the order numbers from arriving riders (if no outside coordinator)
Ensure social distancing requirements are met
Take customer service calls and enquiries
If the store becomes overwhelmed with too many delivery riders, place the restaurant on ‘busy mode’ (or similar setting on other platforms) through the tablet to reduce the quantity of incoming riders until demand has stabilised
Runners (peak times)
securely pack and seal delivery orders using tape and/or stickers and run them to drop off on the Deliveroo table
Outside Order coordinator (high volume stores, peak times)
improve communication outside the store by collecting the order numbers of all riders waiting outside the store and - checking with store staff that their order has been prepped (through communication with the inside order coordinator)
Supply personnel
should not enter food preparation areas where possible. Stop overnight deliveries if stock is being put away well inside the restaurant - stocking during the day enables staff to perform the storage and ensures hygiene practices are used. Stock should be passed to the chefs in contact-free manner.
Tracking and measurement
Success is dependent on different behaviours and measures, so performance measures (KPIs) should be updated to reflect this.
Prep Time Accuracy is a primary contributor to food quality and successful customer outcomes (target within 2 mins of ‘prep for’ time)
Rejections (target 0)
Missing Items
App Rating
Compliance with health standards etc (perform spot checks and weekly audits to measure this)
Rider wait time
Employee welfare
Many teams are motivated by delighting customers, but in a delivery-only environment they get less real-time feedback. This increases the importance of on-site engagement, such as the following:
Bonus schemes and celebrating success: Consider weekly incentives based on KPI’s to keep the team motivated. Create a KPI tracker based on your performance measures and locate where all can see.
Sense of community e.g. through social media
Setting up messaging groups will help the team feel more comfortable as they know what’s going on, and help them understand new focus areas.
Team meals: Bonding moments can be particularly valuable in challenging times
Example scoreboards


We thank you for your collaboration in these circumstances in which extreme precautions are fundamental to our ability to serve customers safely and support the overriding interest of safeguarding public health. We will continue to develop these policies as this situation develops.