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The break-even point for your own delivery riders is the number of deliveries per day at which what you currently pay in platform commission equals what a rider actually costs you — and for most independent restaurants in the EU, that point sits lower than they assume. Every delivery platform charges between 20% and 30% of the order value, regardless of how many orders you process that evening. A rider costs the opposite: a fixed amount per shift, whether they run five drops or twenty-five. Somewhere between those two cost structures sits a crossover point, and that crossover can be worked out with four numbers.
This isn't about negotiating a lower commission
The strategies for cutting your platform commission published elsewhere on this site, and the comparison between delivery platforms, both assume you stay on a platform and get the best deal you can out of it. This article asks a different question: what if you stopped paying commission on part of your orders altogether, because you drive those deliveries yourself? Not as an all-or-nothing switch, but as the question most owners skip — because "hiring a rider" feels like a big step rather than a sum.
Number 1: your real commission rate
The 20–30% platforms advertise is rarely the whole story. On top of the base commission there is often a separate fee for better placement in the app, for taking part in promotions the platform itself runs, or for payment processing. The number that actually matters isn't the rate printed on the contract — it's the rate you're left with once you divide a month's total commission spend by that month's total revenue through the platform. That's the blended rate, and for most restaurants it lands 2 to 5 percentage points above the headline figure.
| Cost item | Typical share | Optional or always? |
|---|---|---|
| Base commission | 15–25% | Always, written into the contract |
| Payment processing | 1–3% | Often included, sometimes billed separately |
| Marketing or listing fee | 1–3% | Optional, but skip it and your placement in the app weakens |
| Participation in platform promotions | 0–5% | Optional per campaign, but hard to refuse once competitors join in |
Work it out yourself in five minutes: take the revenue the platform reports for last month, and divide it by what actually landed in your account. The gap is your blended commission rate — and that figure, not the 20% on the contract, is what you enter into the calculator further down.
Fixed vs. variable, at three volumes
Cost per evening: platform commission rises with every order, a rider costs the same amount whatever the count
Based on an average order value of €30, 25% blended commission and a €90 fixed daily cost for one rider — the figures used throughout this article. Enter your own numbers in the calculator below.
Number 2: the fixed daily cost of one rider
A rider costs you two things that have nothing to do with how many drops they do that evening: wages (including employer overhead, which varies by country but rarely sits below 25–30% on top of gross pay) and a vehicle. Both are fixed costs per shift — a rider who does five deliveries instead of twenty-five costs you exactly the same.
| Cost item | Typical amount |
|---|---|
| Rider wages incl. employer overhead | €15–18/hour |
| Vehicle (e-bike or scooter): lease | €80–150/month |
| Insurance | €25–50/month |
| Maintenance & battery | €15–30/month |
| Vehicle total | €120–230/month |
A concrete example: a 5-hour rider shift at €16.50/hour incl. employer overhead, plus a €165/month vehicle — around €7.50 per working day across 22 shift days — comes to a fixed daily cost of about €90. Whether that rider does 5 deliveries that evening or 25, that €90 doesn't move. That's exactly the opposite of how platform commission behaves, and that structural difference is why a crossover point exists at all.
Number 3: the ceiling — how many deliveries can one rider actually do
"Just hire a rider" doesn't scale forever. Every rider has a physical ceiling: the time one delivery takes, including driving, parking, the stairs up and back down. That ceiling depends almost entirely on your delivery radius — the further the average drop, the fewer runs fit in a shift.
| Delivery radius | Deliveries per hour | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dense city centre (<2 km) | 6–8 | Short runs, little driving time, addresses close together |
| Suburb (2–5 km) | 3–5 | More driving time between addresses, traffic lights, parking |
| Spread-out area (>5 km) | 1–2 | The drive itself dominates the time; hard to combine with other runs |
At 5 deliveries per hour over a 5-hour shift, one rider's ceiling is 25 deliveries. That number matters at least as much as the break-even point itself: it's the line above which "just hire another rider" turns into a completely different sum — see number 4.
Live comparison: platform vs. own rider
Drag the number of orders per evening and see which option is cheaper right now
Uses €30 average order value, 25% blended commission, €90 fixed daily cost and a ceiling of 25 deliveries per rider per shift — the same figures as above.
Work out your own break-even point
Enter your own numbers — order value, commission rate, order volume, wage cost, vehicle cost, time per delivery and shift length — and see your break-even point, your capacity per rider, and what a hybrid setup would actually save you this month.
Break-even calculator
All amounts are illustrative — enter your own numbers
Below the break-even point: stay with the platform, a rider costs you more than commission at that volume. Above it but below your ceiling: a rider is already cheaper, and the gap is pure saving. Above your ceiling: the hybrid setup — your own rider fills their shift to the ceiling, the rest goes to the platform — beats both "everything via the platform" and "hire a whole second rider for a handful of extra runs".
Number 4: the break-even point, and why the answer is usually 'both'
With the figures above — €30 average order value, 25% blended commission, €90 fixed daily cost — the break-even point sits at 12 orders per evening: €90 ÷ (€30 × 25%) = 12. Plenty of restaurants that do delivery already clear that on an ordinary Friday night. That's the number that surprises most owners: they assume a rider only pays off at high volume, while the break-even point usually sits well inside a normal busy shift.
Below the ceiling: pure upside
Between the break-even point (12) and your rider's ceiling (25 in this example), your cost per delivery drops with every extra order — the fixed €90 gets spread over more runs, while the platform keeps charging the same rate per order. At 25 orders, the rider still costs €90, against €187.50 in platform commission for the same volume.
Above the ceiling: not straight to a second rider
Once you're consistently above your first rider's ceiling, the instinctive move is "hire a second one". Run the numbers before you do: a second rider adds another €90, and that investment only pays for itself once the overflow — the number of orders above the first rider's ceiling — reaches at least 12 on its own. Below that threshold, it's cheaper to simply route the overflow through the platform, commission and all. That's the hybrid setup: one rider up to their ceiling, the rest to the platform, until the overflow itself is large enough to justify a second rider.
Action plan
This week: work out your blended commission rate (total commission spend divided by platform revenue, not the headline rate) and count your average number of orders per evening over the past month.
This month: fill in the calculator above with your own numbers — wage cost, vehicle cost and average delivery time in your area. Compare your current volume against the break-even point and ceiling it produces.
This quarter: if you're above the break-even point, get concrete quotes for e-bike or scooter leasing including insurance, and check with a payroll adviser or lawyer how hiring a rider — as an employee or as a freelancer — needs to be structured in your country before you take anyone on.
Conclusion
Platform commission and your own rider aren't opposites you have to choose between — they're two cost structures, one variable and one fixed, and the only question is at what volume one overtakes the other. For most independent restaurants with a reasonable delivery volume, that crossover sits closer than expected, and the smartest setup is rarely "all" or "nothing" — it's a rider up to their ceiling, with the platform as the safety net for the rest.