'They start with a fingernail and end with an arm': Restaurants farewell Foodora

Restaurant owners are not surprised by Foodora's exit from Australia, with some saying the food delivery firm's reliance on bikes rather than cars put it at a significant disadvantage to the likes of UberEats.

Foodora announced on Thursday it would stop operating in Australia by the end of August.

Burger Urge co-founder Sean Carthew says it soon became apparent that Uber Eats had a significant advantage over the likes of Foodora, because it offered food delivery via car while Foodora drivers were predominantly on bikes.

“I think that the issue with delivering on bicycles is that in highly populated and dense cities like Melbourne, it might work. But in a city like Brisbane, it’s not as appropriate,” Mr Carthew said.

“It would depend on the individual fitness of the delivery rider.”

Burger Urge, which has 26 burger chains, paid a 25 per cent commission to Foodora on orders made through the platform. Mr Carthew said his company’s experience with the platform was that it was “too expensive”. Read more
Emma Koehn & Cara Waters - Brisbane Times - 4 Aug 2018