Following the recent news that many consumers are unaware that up to a third of their payment is taken as commission for takeaway delivery platforms such as UberEats and JustEat, Foodhub has called for this model to be overhauled to better support the takeaways and the consumer.

Philip Mostyn, Foodhub Chief Operating Officer, said: “It is common for many food delivery services to charge takeaway restaurants a commission for using their service and also charge consumers a fee.

“We believe this is wrong and actually inhibits the growth of the industry by punishing those at its heart – the takeaway restaurants – with huge charges that are unnecessary and punitive.

“Here, at Foodhub, we’ve been committed to a non-commission-based business model from the outset.

“Now, more than ever, it is important that takeaway businesses are encouraged and helped to thrive. These are challenging times for everyone – with a potential recession on the horizon. We’d encourage other food delivery services to follow our lead and introduce a non-commission-based model.

“Charging up to 36% – as many commission-based takeaway delivery services do – in these times is unfair. Our takeaway orders have increased by 33% since lockdown but over 36% of takeaways have closed during the same period. It is only right that these takeaway restaurants also benefit from that extra money when they’re such an essential part of the industry.”

Foodhub is an online food website and app launched in 2017. There are more than 12,000 takeaways currently featured online at foodhub.co.uk and through the apps available for iOS and Android.

Foodhub is unique in that it does not take a commission from the food establishments for each order placed. This enables them to offer better prices and deals to customers than other online food platforms.

Philip Mostyn added: “In the first 7 weeks of lockdown we estimated that we’ve saved consumers, when compared directly to the prices of our rivals, £1.9 million* on the cost of their favourite takeaway meals*.

“Moreover, compared to other delivery services who charge takeaway establishments commission on orders and deliveries for use of their service, we can save the average takeaway partner £2,550** a month by not charging them commission – that’s £31,025 extra in their till every year.”

As part of our commitment to support the food industry, we are now offering Restaurants Foodhub totally free of charge for 3 months – https://signup.foodhub.co.uk/ so they can offer a take out service too, generating revenue and saving jobs.