From Tuesday 18th July, McDonald’s fans in the Greenlane area will be able to enjoy their favourite menu items delivered straight to their door, via UberEATS.
“To remain relevant to our customers, we have to change and adapt with their preferences faster than ever before,” said Dave Howse, Managing Director of McDonald’s New Zealand. “Like all of our innovations, the expansion of McDelivery has come from customer feedback. The introduction of our delivery trial last year proved to be very popular, and we’ve had many requests to expand the service.”
McDelivery via UberEATS will initially be available from McDonald’s Greenlane restaurant, with more Auckland locations set to be announced within coming weeks. The service will operate within a 10-minute delivery zone to preserve food warmth. Customers can choose from nearly the full range of menu items including burgers, fries, wraps, McMuffins, desserts and McCafé coffee.
McDelivery via UberEATS will be available from the Greenlane restaurant between 8am to 11pm, Sunday to Thursday and 8am to 1am Friday and Saturday.
The food delivery trend is taking off worldwide, with TripAdvisor announcing earlier in the month a new partnership with Deliveroo, allowing travellers to order food through the popular tourism app. The scheme will connect users with more than 20,000 restuarants in cities across twelve countries: United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
"Whether reading reviews, reserving a table through TheFork or placing a food order through Deliveroo, our goal is for TripAdvisor to serve as a one-stop-shop for diners around the world," said Bertrand Jelensperger, senior vice president of TripAdvisor Restaurants.
The McDelivery and Trip Advisor announcements coincided with a report released by the British government into the development of a ‘gig economy,’ defined as "a labour market characterised by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work, as opposed to permanent jobs". It is estimated that five million people in the UK are employed in this manner, but it comes with the risks of being classed as independent contractors rather than ‘workers’ and missing out on benefits such holiday pay, sick leave and protection against unfair dismissal – despite the employment often being the individual’s sole income, and working a full time equivalent. Last October saw a victory for Uber drivers in the UK to be classed as workers, entitling them to minimum wage and paid rest breaks. Uber launched an appeal against the ruling in December.
Further to employment disputes, however, food delivery services in New Zealand will face logistical problems as they continue to grow – there are now 190 restaurants with the service, compared to 70 when the app launched in March. With a planned expansion of the McDelivery service and UberEats now servicing the North Shore, demand will only grow and drivers may not be able to keep up. According to the University of Auckland Business School, this could result in drivers picking up more than one order on a single run to make the most of their delivery fee, which will involve multiple parties and unpredictable Auckland traffic. With UberEats already having received a number of complaints regarding cold food, this could prove to be an issue.
