A first-of-its-kind national study with 1,400 mystery shoppers found that UberEATS has the fastest delivery time (35 minutes and 31 seconds, on average). The study was conducted by SeeLevel HX with mystery shoppers ordering food through apps from UberEATS, Grubhub, DoorDash and Postmates in five major cities: Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Dallas. The study measured more than 20 other aspects of the delivery, as well, including driver attentiveness and whether the hot food was still hot on delivery.
Service Average Delivery Time
- Total Cost (including delivery fee and tip)
- UberEats: 35m31s; $20.74
- Postmates: 40m12s; $24.78
- Grubhub: 50m22s; $22.93
- DoorDash: 42m01s; $21.21
“Our study also showed that for all four delivery services, both the car and the driver were rated as professional and clean for 98% of the deliveries,” says Lisa van Kesteren, CEO of SeeLevel HX. “This should be reassuring for restaurant services considering third-party delivery services.”
In terms of managing client expectations, DoorDash did the best job with 92% of deliveries that were delivered either early or on-time based on promised delivery times.
Across the cities surveyed, Atlanta had the overall slowest delivery time (45 minutes and 41 seconds), while Los Angeles came out fastest at 39 minutes and 20 seconds. Los Angeles also had the cheapest overall cost at $19.38 while Dallas came out on top with $24.23.
