RadiusMapperDelivery zone calculator for restaurants
Restaurant Delivery Area Map
Map takeout and hot-food delivery zones
Restaurant delivery is a two-dimensional problem: drive time for hot food quality, and route density for delivery economics. A real drive-time zone lets you show customers honest windows — and stop losing money on orders that can't make money.
Typical restaurant delivery area: 25 minutes by driving.
Create your restaurant delivery area map
Restaurant Delivery Area Map
What is a restaurant delivery area?
A restaurant delivery area is the drive-time zone within which a restaurant will deliver prepared hot food. Because food quality degrades in transit — and driver cost per order is fixed — restaurant delivery zones typically run 15-30 minutes, tighter than most other delivery businesses.
- Most non-pizza restaurants use 20-30 minute delivery zones for hot food quality.
- Sushi, noodle, and Asian-fusion delivery tightens to 15-25 minutes to preserve texture and temperature.
- Barbecue, deli, and sandwich shops tolerate longer transit (30-40 minutes) because food tolerates the drive better.
- Ghost kitchens and delivery-only operators use 30-45 minute zones because they're built around delivery economics rather than dine-in customer traffic.
How restaurants use a drive-time delivery area map
Self-deliver vs. third-party lanes
Self-deliver inside a tight, high-margin polygon. Hand off wider zones to DoorDash or Uber Eats at lower margin. Customers see one map; your operations runs two policies.
Lunch vs. dinner polygons
Dinner orders can wait longer; lunch orders can't. Publish a tighter lunch delivery polygon and a wider dinner polygon if your order volume and driver capacity vary by daypart.
Catering and party-order zones
Catering jobs have different drive-time tolerances than single-entree orders. Publish a wider catering polygon for advance-order large-ticket business.
Restaurant delivery margins evaporate at 30 minutes
A $30 order with a 40-minute drive loses money after driver pay, food-quality refund risk, and lost dine-in table utilization. A drive-time delivery zone aligned with actual driver capacity is the cleanest line between profitable and unprofitable restaurant delivery.
Restaurant delivery area FAQs
What's a typical restaurant delivery area?
Most restaurants use 20-30 minute drive-time delivery zones. Sushi and noodle spots tighten to 15-25 minutes. Barbecue and sandwich shops tolerate 30-40 minutes. Ghost kitchens extend to 30-45 minutes because they're delivery-first operations.
Should I self-deliver or use DoorDash / Uber Eats?
Many restaurants do both: a tight self-delivery polygon where margins are best, and a wider third-party polygon for the rest. Third-party marketplaces charge 15-30% commission — acceptable in zones where self-delivery economics wouldn't work.
How do I calculate restaurant delivery fees?
Fees should cover driver pay for the round trip plus a margin. A drive-time polygon broken into 3-4 rings gives you natural pricing tiers (e.g. $3 inner ring, $5 mid, $8 outer).
Can I show my delivery zone on Toast, Square, or Clover ordering pages?
Many restaurant POS ordering platforms accept iframe embeds on custom pages. The standard embed code pastes into most HTML-friendly fields.
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