Owners call delivery-app commission "the new rent" for a reason: it comes off the top of every order, whether you had a good night or a bad one. And the cost is no longer just commission. In 2026 a UK restaurant on Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber Eats is also absorbing a 20% VAT bill on hot food, rising packaging charges, employer wage costs and a marketplace that has quietly filled up with competitors you can't see.
The platforms themselves have changed too. The UK now has effectively three aggregator owners. Uber runs Uber Eats; DoorDash completed its £2.9 billion takeover of Deliveroo on 2 October 2025; and Prosus won EU clearance for its €4.1 billion purchase of Just Eat Takeaway.com on 11 August 2025 (DoorDash, 2025; Euronews, 2025). Bigger, more consolidated platforms mean less leverage for the independent operator. That makes the mistakes below more expensive than they used to be. Here are the seven that cost UK restaurants the most, and how to fix each one.
Key takeaways
- Delivery now earns 13.4p of every £1 spent at UK restaurants (NIQ via Startups.co.uk, 2025) — it is a core channel, not a side hustle, so manage it like one.
- Channel-price your delivery menu. Hot takeaway food is standard-rated at 20% VAT (HMRC); absorbing both VAT and commission on dine-in prices is the fastest way to sell at a loss.
- Packaging is now a rising, non-appealable cost. 2025-26 EPR base fees are £423/tonne for plastic and £192/tonne for glass (GOV.UK), and suppliers pass that through to the containers you buy.
- Own your customers, don't rent them. Company-owned and direct channels already make up 26.4% of UK delivery occasions (Lumina Intelligence, 2025).
- Dispute every wrong refund. Uber Eats gives merchants a 30-day window to challenge an order error (Uber Eats); most owners never use it.
Why delivery costs more than the commission line in 2026
Before the seven mistakes, it helps to see why margins are so tight that small errors hurt. The commission percentage is only the headline. Underneath it sit a 20% VAT charge on hot food, packaging you now pay more for, and a wage bill that rose in April 2025 when employer National Insurance went from 13.8% to 15% and the threshold at which you start paying it fell from £9,100 to £5,000 (GOV.UK, 2025).
The pressure is real: trade body UKHospitality has warned of 2,076 hospitality closures in 2026 — 963 restaurants, 574 hotels and 540 pubs (The Caterer, 2025). Delivery can be a lifeline that fills quiet shifts, or a slow leak. The difference is whether you run it deliberately. (For the line-by-line margin work that sits underneath this, see our guide to controlling food costs in your UK restaurant.)
Mistake 1: Treating your delivery menu like your dine-in menu
The fix is to build the delivery menu for a phone screen, not a table. A customer scrolling Just Eat at 8pm decides in seconds, on a photo and one line of text. Yet many restaurants upload the same plain item names and no images they use front-of-house, then wonder why conversion is poor.
Photograph your best-selling and highest-margin dishes properly, write descriptions that sell (key ingredients, portion size, heat level), and group the menu so the items you actually want to sell sit at the top. Drop dishes that travel badly — anything that arrives soggy generates refunds and one-star reviews, which then suppress your ranking in the app. A tighter, better-shot menu almost always outperforms a long one.
Mistake 2: Absorbing the commission instead of pricing for the channel
The single most common margin-killer is charging the same price on the app as in the dining room. When you do that, the commission and the 20% VAT on hot takeaway food (HMRC) both come out of a margin built for dine-in — and some orders go out at a loss.
Channel-pricing fixes this: set your delivery-menu prices high enough to recover the commission and the extra costs of the channel, so a delivery order earns roughly the same gross margin as a table does. The aggregators permit it, and customers already expect app prices to run a little higher. Work out your true cost per delivery order — commission, VAT, packaging, the staff time to pack it — and price up from there rather than guessing. The goal is simple: never knowingly sell at a loss to chase volume.
Mistake 3: Forgetting that packaging is now a rising, non-appealable cost
Packaging has quietly become one of delivery's fastest-growing line items, and you should price it in. Under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), producers pay fees on the packaging they place on the market — and for 2025-26 the base fees are £423 per tonne for plastic, £192 for glass and £196 for paper and card (GOV.UK). Most independents sit below the direct-reporting thresholds, but you still pay it: your suppliers fold those fees into what they charge for containers, lids and bags.
The fixes are practical. Right-size your packaging so you're not paying for a large box on a small order. Favour formats that score better under the scheme's recyclability assessment, because higher-recyclability materials attract lower fees over time. And review your packaging spend per order the same way you review food cost — it is now a number that moves, not a fixed line you can ignore.
Mistake 4: Renting your customers instead of owning them
The most strategic mistake is letting the apps keep the customer relationship for good. When an order comes through Deliveroo or Uber Eats, the platform owns the data — the name, the address, the order history. You can't email that customer an offer or win them back directly; you have to pay commission to reach them again every single time.
That's why the smart play is hybrid. Use the aggregators for what they're genuinely good at — discovery, reach, filling quiet shifts — but give regulars a reason to order direct from you next time, where you keep the margin and the relationship. Direct and company-owned channels already account for 26.4% of UK delivery occasions (Lumina Intelligence, 2025), so this isn't fringe behaviour — it's where a meaningful share of the market already orders.
<!-- Uber Eats -->
<!-- Direct -->
<!-- Just Eat -->
<!-- Deliveroo -->
You don't need a developer to do this. A simple commission-free ordering page of your own — the kind DineHere builds from a photo of your menu — lets regulars reorder direct, with a QR code on the receipt or a flyer in the bag nudging them to use it. Our commission-free online ordering guide for UK restaurants walks through the full setup.
Mistake 5: Letting refunds and missing-item disputes slide
Every wrong refund is money out of your account, and you can contest more of them than you think. When a customer claims a missing item or a problem, the cost is often charged back to the restaurant automatically. Owners assume it's not worth the fight and let it go — which, across hundreds of orders a month, adds up to a serious leak.
Build a simple routine. Photograph or double-check every bag at the pass before the driver leaves, so you have evidence the order was complete. Then actually dispute the charges you don't recognise: Uber Eats, for example, lets merchants challenge an order error within 30 days of the order date through its manager tool (Uber Eats). Review your refund and adjustment reports weekly — if one item or one driver generates a pattern of complaints, you've found a fixable problem, not just a cost.
Mistake 6: Set-and-forget delivery radius and prep times
An over-wide radius and an inaccurate prep time quietly wreck your ratings. Push deliveries too far and food arrives cold; under-quote your prep time and the driver waits while orders pile up — both produce the late, lukewarm experiences that sink your star rating, and your rating drives where you appear in the app.
Tighten your delivery zone to the area you can genuinely serve hot, even if that means fewer orders from the edge of town. Set prep times honestly and lengthen them automatically at your peak so the kitchen isn't overwhelmed. Use the apps' "busy mode" or pause function on a rush rather than letting tickets back up — a short, controlled pause protects the experience far better than accepting orders you can't cook on time.
Mistake 7: Ignoring listing health in an increasingly crowded marketplace
The apps are more competitive than they look, so a neglected listing falls behind fast. Around 15% of outlets on the major delivery apps are now dark kitchens — delivery-only operations, many of them virtual brands run by larger chains rather than the independents they appear to be (The Grocer, 2026). You are competing for the same screen space against operators built purely to win it.
Treat your listing as a living shopfront. Keep your opening hours accurate so you're never marked unavailable during trading. Respond to reviews, refresh photos, and use promotional tools deliberately — a targeted offer to win a first order or recover a lapsed customer can pay for itself, but a permanent blanket discount just trains people to expect it. Check your listing the way a customer sees it once a week; small lapses compound into lost ranking.
The bigger picture: run delivery, don't let it run you
None of this means quitting the apps. They reach customers you can't, and for many UK restaurants delivery is the difference between a profitable Tuesday and an empty one. The owners who win treat the aggregators as one channel in a mix — used hard for discovery, priced honestly, packed carefully — while steadily building a direct channel they actually own. Fix these seven mistakes and you keep more of every order, on the apps and off them. For a side-by-side on which platform suits your kitchen, see our Deliveroo vs Just Eat vs Uber Eats comparison.
Frequently asked questions
How much commission do UK delivery apps charge restaurants?
Reported commission rates vary widely by platform, contract and whether the app or the restaurant provides the driver — figures of roughly 15–35% are commonly cited, but there is no single published UK rate, so check the exact terms in your own agreement rather than relying on a quoted number.
Do I have to charge VAT on delivery orders?
If you are VAT-registered, hot takeaway food is standard-rated at 20% VAT (HMRC). Cold takeaway food may be zero-rated depending on the item. The VAT treatment is the same whether the order comes through an app or your own ordering page, so factor it into your delivery pricing.
Is it allowed to charge higher prices on delivery apps than in the restaurant?
Yes. The aggregators permit channel-pricing, and many restaurants set delivery-menu prices higher to recover commission and other delivery costs. Be reasonable and consistent so regulars aren't surprised, but pricing for the channel is a normal, legitimate way to protect margin.
What is the best way to reduce delivery-app commission?
You can't usually negotiate the headline rate down as an independent, so the realistic levers are: channel-price to recover commission, pack efficiently to cut waste and refunds, and move repeat customers to your own direct ordering channel where no commission applies.
Should I be on all three apps or just one?
It depends on your area and kitchen capacity. Being on more apps means more reach but more menus and tablets to manage. Many owners start with the platform strongest in their postcode, then add others once the operation is smooth. Our platform comparison covers the trade-offs.
How do I handle false refund claims from delivery customers?
Keep evidence that each order left complete (a quick photo or checklist at the pass), then dispute charges you don't recognise within the platform's window — Uber Eats, for example, allows challenges within 30 days of the order (Uber Eats). Review refund reports weekly to spot patterns.
Does packaging really affect my delivery profit that much?
It is a growing cost. EPR fees mean suppliers charge more for packaging, with 2025-26 base fees of £423 per tonne for plastic (GOV.UK). Right-sizing containers and reviewing packaging cost per order can recover meaningful margin across a busy week.
Why does my restaurant rank low on the delivery app?
Ranking is driven largely by your acceptance and preparation reliability, ratings, opening-hours accuracy and order volume. Late or cold deliveries and unanswered issues pull you down. Tightening your radius, setting honest prep times and keeping your listing healthy are the main fixes within your control.
What is a dark kitchen and how does it affect my listing?
A dark kitchen is a delivery-only operation with no dine-in space, often running several "virtual" brands. They now make up around 15% of outlets on the major apps (The Grocer, 2026), which means more competition for the same customers — a reason to keep your own listing sharp and your direct channel growing.
How do I get delivery customers to order directly from me next time?
Give them an easy reason and route: a QR code or insert in the bag, a small loyalty incentive, and a simple own-branded ordering page that's quick to use. Over time, shifting even a fraction of repeat orders direct meaningfully lifts your margin.
