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Lindsay Siegel
Executive Director
Zahn Innovation Center
City College of New York
Elizabeth Vilchis
Operations
Homer Delivery
Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D.
Director
Science & Tech Studies Prog
Associate Professor, History
Stevens Institute of Technology
Aaron M. Socha, Ph.D.
Director: Ctr for Sust Energy
Professor: Department of Chemistry
Bronx Community College, CUNY
Theo Vassilakis, Ph.D.
Founder & CEO
Metanautix
How extensive is your network of delivery? How many restaurants do you serve? How much do you hope to expand?
Did the Zahn Center help with getting in contact with restaurants to help implement the Homer system or did you have to rely on your teammates to drum up business?
What challenges or obstacles did you encounter in developing Homer Delivery? How did you overcome them?
How did you come up with this idea? How did you turn your idea into a company?
My partner moved to New York from California. In California they do not have both a high population or restaurant density in the same areas. New York has this unique feature which allows us get more efficiency from the food delivery process in several ways, among them removing the empty handed return trip back to the restaurant. We worked together to learn about the process and then realized that there were several other problems with the current model, such as unfair working conditions. Many delivery riders only get paid tips, they do not have an hourly wage. We interviewed people and then designed a business model that offered benefits to both workers and restaurants.
To really developed this idea into a company we needed initial funding, which is where the prize from the Social Innovation Challenge comes in. The funding motivated us incorporate as a company and develop our technology product.
What influenced the team to think of the food delivery innovation? How long did it take you to complete your project? Were you confident from the start that your idea will win the Social Innovation Challenge?
Food delivery is something that we have all used at one point or another. It’s something that touched each and everyone of us in a small way. For me, I was drawn to food delivery because I have worked in the restaurant industry and have seen the unfair conditions workers are subject to. 12 hour shifts are standard shifts and the minimal wages make it difficult cover basic necessities. Working in the food industry is especially hard for delivery workers. Delivery is a dangerous jobs and many workers have been in accidents and do not have health insurance to cover their recovery. I felt I could really help create something that would improve the lives of the delivery workers.
Game-changer idea, but how do you expect this change to be facilitated? Is the transition from the traditional process simple, to merge into your system, or might small restaurants and companies would be intimidated?
Do you hire delivery staff or do you work restaurants with their own delivery staff?
How do the restaurants collaborate with Homer Delivery?
How is Homer Delivery improving conditions for workers?
We offer higher overall wages for our workers. By having delivery riders work with multiple restaurants in an area and just focus on doing pick-ups and drop-offs instead of returning to one restaurant our system allows our workers to make additional deliveries that increase their income without riding unsafely. We also offer a higher hourly wage, giving our workers higher incomes.
Additionally, we stress safety in our company and provide our workers with safety equipment and training for doing their work. We also aim to provide health insurance or partner with local clinics to provide medical services to our workers.
Did you apply to the Zahn Center with a team already in place or was the Center involved in putting together your team?
What are you methods for evaluating your system or staff? How do you plan on maintaining speed and quality service as your business expands?
We have put in place a detailed procedure for training and clearly set expectations for all our employees. We evaluate our workers on their ability to meet those expectations.
We have a very controlled growth process. To control for quality, we determine how many restaurants we work with and how many employees we hire at each stage of our growth. We understand that restaurants may be excited to work with us but we set expectations of when we can begin to work with them and remind them that this will ensure they will receive the best quality of our service.
What happens to the delivery staff at the restaurants now that your company is coming in with your more effective delivery system?
Our end goals is to hire the current delivery staff of the restaurants and train them to be our employees. We value the experience that the current workers have. No one knows the job or customers as well as the current employees and we would like to have them work for us. Also, although the process will create a reduction in the staff needed in one location, we have identified several restaurants that do not offer delivery but are moving to establish delivery in their restaurant. Working with these restaurants and growing the delivery of restaurants that already offer delivery will allow us to hire additional workers and not lay people off.
Do customers pay a lot more for the additional (or perhaps better) services they get?
We have a business-to-business model not a business-to-consumer model. We provide the service to the restaurant and they pay our company. The customer does pay us, they just experience the better service the restaurant has chosen to use.
How did the Zahn center help develop your idea? What resources did they provide?
And how do you go about with other companies that do this like “Postmates”?
Great question. We offer a niche service. We specialize in food delivery under 30 minutes and charge restaurants a small fee (about $3). We also only use bikes to make our food deliveries and have a strong customer service model.
Postmates delivers all types of items and charges customers $5 + a 9% service fee on your purchase. Customers also have to wait much longer (an hour on average) to receive their items. They also use different modes of transportation.
what’s the difference between Homer Delivery and Postmates or other 3rd party food delivery/courier services?
Please see above.
Are you for-profit or non-profit?
We are a for-profit company that has a strong focus on ensuring our workers are treated fairly and have a safe working environment.
How many employees are currently working in Homer Services? How many did the company start with?
Can you talk more about the technological aspect of Homer Delivery? What are some key points about the software?
Our software consists of an app for our riders, a website for restaurants and a website for our company to manage deliveries.
Riders use an app to receive food delivery requests. The app provides instructions from restaurants and customers, provides order details, and routes the most efficient path for the delivery.
The restaurant has a website to submit requests for delivery. We also have an interface that allows us to visually see all deliveries being made and helps us identify any issues that may arise so they are resolved quickly.
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How does this differ from something like postmates or similar services?