RadiusMapperDefinition
Delivery zone
Also known as: Delivery area, Delivery radius
A delivery zone is the drive-time area within which a business will deliver goods or prepared food. Unlike a service area, it is often constrained by product quality — not just drive time.
A delivery zone is a drive-time polygon used by restaurants, grocery stores, florists, and other delivery businesses to define the geographic zone where they will deliver. For hot food (pizza, restaurant delivery), zones are sized by how long the product stays acceptable — typically 15-25 minutes. For cold-chain products (grocery, ice cream), zones are sized by temperature risk. For ambient products (florist, dry goods), zones are sized by driver-cost economics. Tiered delivery zones apply different fees to each ring.
Key characteristics
- Pizza and hot food: 15-25 minutes from kitchen.
- Restaurant delivery (non-pizza): 20-30 minutes.
- Grocery delivery: 30-60 minutes (tighter for frozen-heavy carts).
- Florist same-day delivery: 30-45 minutes; peak holidays tighten to 20-25.
- Tiered delivery: common ranges are $0 / $3 / $5 / $8 across four concentric rings.
Common use cases
- Hot-food delivery zone definition
- Tiered delivery-fee pricing
- Cold-chain integrity planning for grocery
- Checkout experience (show or hide addresses based on zone)
How it compares to related terms
Frequently asked about delivery zone
What is the average delivery zone size?
It depends entirely on product type. Pizza and hot food: 15-25 minutes. Non-pizza restaurant delivery: 20-30 minutes. Florists same-day: 30-45 minutes. Grocery with cold chain: 30-60 minutes. Ghost kitchens: 30-45 minutes. The constraint is always the product's in-transit quality ceiling, not how far a driver can physically go.
Should I use distance or drive time for delivery zones?
Drive time. A 3-mile distance circle can mean 8 minutes or 30 minutes depending on traffic and road type — but product quality decays by the minute, not the mile. Drive-time zones give you and the customer an honest delivery promise. Every delivery platform worth using (Uber Eats, DoorDash, Instacart) thinks in time, not distance.
How do tiered delivery fees work?
A tiered delivery zone splits the drive-time polygon into rings: free inside 10 minutes, small fee for 10-20 minutes, premium fee for 20-30 minutes. Customers see the fee that matches their address before checkout. The rings are driven by driver-pay economics — each fee tier roughly covers the round-trip driver cost for that ring.
Why do delivery zones shrink during peak hours?
Two reasons. First, traffic literally shrinks the reachable area in the same time budget. Second, driver capacity gets constrained — on a Friday night a pizza shop might have the same kitchen output but only half the drivers needed to reach the full polygon within 20 minutes. Many restaurants shrink the zone at peak to protect promise quality.