I know food delivery is becoming an issue in the USA, but here in Czechia it is significantly better. Sure, you cannot tip the restaurant - but delivery tipping has never ever been a thing as far as I can remember (maybe if you pay cash). The delivery costs are usually not jacked up, and the drivers make a living wage.
Am I missing something? The three services we usually use are Wolt, Bolt Food, and Foodora (predecessor was bought by a multinational company and renamed, was a regional thing in the past).
Somehow, the delivery services in the US have gotten into a situation that’s bad for basically everyone involved. The drivers are underpaid. The restaurants are underpaid. Customers feel they’re being gouged. Despite charging a lot without paying much to the people who actually make and deliver the food, the companies are losing money.
Arguably, the only people who are happy with the money involved in any of this are the salaried programmers working for these companies. That only because they could make just as much anywhere else. The owners can hope that line will go up enough that they can sell the company and take a big payout. This cannot last, and while you shouldn’t cry for them, it probably won’t last long enough for the owners to get their payout.
Can it be because of the fact that they do deliveries in the US using cars mainly while in Europe it’s mostly with bikes/e-bikes?
Might be true, almost all of my deliveries to work are by bike. But that’s in the city centre where going 200m take about 20 minutes by car.
On the other hand, where I live, it is almost always a car, because it is faster and more convenient for the drivers.
But I feel like the company also has something to do with the quality of the service for the end user. I feel like Wolt, which originates from Finland, is not funking up the economy here.