Olo, the leading digital ordering provider for over 160 restaurant brands across the U.S., announced that Dispatch, its revolutionary service that enables restaurant operators to offer delivery at scale, is now operating nationwide across most major metro areas as well as smaller suburban and rural markets. Brands utilizing Dispatch are empowered with greater access, control, and transparency during the food delivery experience on a network that covers hundreds of millions of U.S. consumers.
Dispatch solves the challenges of hyperlocal and fragmented on-demand delivery by creating a national network of Delivery Service Providers (DSPs), such as Postmates, UberRUSH, DeliverLogic, and Favor, among many other local, regional, and national players. The service expands the restaurant brand’s existing digital ordering program to offer delivery service to more consumers regardless of location. Dispatch integrates with today’s growing number of DSPs to provide a comprehensive delivery network and real-time pricing for food delivery. The result is improved coordination, control, scale, and transparency for restaurant operators, delivery couriers, and consumers.
Multi-location brands such as Which Wich, Noodles & Company, Taylor Gourmet, LYFE Kitchen, Planet Sub, Fields Good Chicken, Busboys and Poets, and VERTS Mediterranean Grill are all in various stages of rolling out Dispatch.
“Today’s consumer is demanding fast and transparent food delivery, but scaling restaurant delivery is challenging for large restaurant brands,” says Noah Glass, founder and CEO of Olo. “Dispatch’s technology tackles these challenges head-on by integrating a vast network of delivery providers to better coordinate and synchronize food orders from point A to point B. The outcome for restaurants, couriers, and consumers is a heightened level of control, integration, and scale that up until now did not exist.
“Postmates operates the largest on-demand delivery platform in the U.S. with a fleet of over 30,000 Postmates in 40 markets and completes more than one million food deliveries per month,” adds Bastian Lehmann, co-founder and CEO, Postmates. “The integration with Olo’s Dispatch and Postmates just makes sense, as both companies have a strong vision of the future. Olo is re-imagining digital ordering platforms for restaurants, just like how Postmates redefined what is possible for on-demand deliveries.”
Launched in late 2015, Dispatch is now live in 60 major metro areas, covering 50 percent of the U.S. population. It is the only fully integrated logistics stack in the restaurant space—both to the delivery network and to popular Point of Sale (POS) systems.
Olo is actively adding coverage for client locations in suburban and rural markets. The DeliverLogic partnership adds over 790 cities to Dispatch coverage areas. Dispatch accounts for prep times in estimates so couriers pick up orders exactly as they are ready. Average delivery times after order handoff continue to improve and are less than 12 minutes on average today.
“Dispatch was easy to implement and has allowed us to offer delivery to our customers, yet maintain the direct customer relationship through our own online ordering website," says Jon Hartis, VP of Information Technology at Which Wich. Dispatch delivery order values at Which Wich are double those of digital takeout orders—$16 for digital pickup orders to over $30 for Dispatch orders, excluding fees.
Today, over 30 million consumers actively use Olo’s platform to expedite their restaurant orders to Skip the Line. The addition of Dispatch provides them with the option of having orders conveniently delivered as well.
How Dispatch Works:
A guest visits the restaurant’s existing digital ordering website or mobile app, builds an order and pays ahead
At checkout, the guest selects “Delivery”
Upon selecting “Delivery,” the guest enters their delivery address and receives the best matched quote from local available DSPs
The guest can then track their delivery from courier traveling to the restaurant, the handoff of the order to courier, and finally the delivery of that order from the restaurant to the delivery address—all live from the restaurant brand’s existing digital ordering website/app
