What are your three choices for delivery?
Most home kitchens deliver in one of three ways. None is always right. The best one depends on how many boxes you send, how far they go and how much cooking time you have.
| Who delivers | Good when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| You | The round is small and close, and you have time between cooking and serving | Delivery eats into cooking, rest and family time |
| A family member or helper | Someone at home is free at meal times | It depends on their day; agree times and cash rules as you would for any job |
| A paid local rider | The round is long, or lunch and dinner overlap with cooking | A cost every day; you need clear rules and someone reliable |
What does delivery really cost you?
Delivering yourself feels free, but it is not. Your time has a value, and fuel and wear on the vehicle add up. Write the real costs down before you compare.
- Your time: the minutes each round takes, every day.
- Fuel or transport for the round.
- Wear and repairs on the scooter or car.
- Pay for a helper or rider, if you have one.
- Bags, boxes and phone data for whoever delivers.
| Example numbers | You deliver | Paid rider |
|---|---|---|
| Round time each day | 75 minutes of your time | None of your time |
| Fuel each day | ₹60 | Usually inside the rider's pay |
| Pay each day | ₹0 | ₹250 |
| For 26 working days | ₹1,560 and about 32 hours of your time | ₹6,500 |
Then ask a simple question: what could you do with those hours? If they would let you cook for more customers, or take cake orders in the evening, a rider may pay for themselves. If not, delivering yourself may still be the better deal.
When is it time to hand delivery over?
- You start cooking later, or rush the food, because of the round.
- Lunch delivery runs into dinner cooking.
- Customers far away get cold food or late boxes.
- You are too tired to keep the standard you started with.
- You turn down new customers because you cannot reach them.
A middle step works for many kitchens: deliver the nearby stops yourself and give the longer ones to a helper, or let some customers pick up from your door.
How do you plan the route and the rounds?
Fix a driving order once and keep it. Customers get their box at about the same time every day, and whoever delivers does not have to think.
- List every stop with a full address and a phone number.
- Put the stops in the order you would drive, ending close to home.
- Keep lunch and dinner as separate rounds if they go to different people.
- Note pickups separately, so nobody waits for a box that is not coming.
- Update the order when a customer joins, moves or leaves.
What rules should a driver follow?
Whoever delivers is the face of your kitchen at the door. Agree a few rules on the first day.
- Hand the box to the customer or a named person, or leave it in an agreed place.
- Mark each stop as delivered right away, not at the end of the round.
- Call or message the customer if nobody answers, and tell you about any problem.
- Collect cash only where you said so, note the amount, and hand it over the same day.
- Bring back empty tiffins and bags.
How does a driver link make it easier?
A list of addresses sent on WhatsApp works until someone changes their plan at 11 in the morning. A link that always shows today's round stays up to date.
In HomeTiffin, delivery and the driver link give whoever delivers a link with no login. It shows today's stops in your order, with Call, WhatsApp and Map buttons and a Delivered button for each one, and lunch and dinner can be separate rounds. Their ticks show up on your own screens, and you can reset the link any time. For collecting what is owed, read how to collect tiffin payments on time.