The IT Nerd

I just received a statement from Kevin Edwards, CEO of SkipTheDishes about the Ontario Government’s efforts to put a cap on commissions that food delivery services can earn. Here’s the statement in full:

While we are glad the Ontario government recognizes the work SkipTheDishes has been doing since March to support our restaurant partners, we are disappointed that they have decided to regulate private enterprise by enforcing a commission cap on food delivery services operating in the province. 

Our restaurant partners are of the utmost importance to us. SkipTheDishes is a proud Canadian brand, and since the start of the pandemic we’ve worked tirelessly beside our restaurant partners and have proactively provided them with over $30 million dollars in industry leading support since March, months before being called upon by Premier Ford or Mayor Tory to do so.

When taking into account the 25% commission rebate we have implemented in affected regions of the province, all local, independent restaurant partners on the SkipTheDishes platform are already paying less than 20% in commission while their dining rooms are closed.

Since the start of the pandemic, SkipTheDishes has provided industry-leading support, which includes:

• 25% commission rebate to our local, independent restaurant partners to help when they need it most
• 0% commission rate for new restaurants joining the network during the lockdown period
• 10% commission rate to any restaurant on Skip looking to utilize staff to facilitate their own delivery, connecting over 30,000 restaurants with millions of customers across the country
• Additional marketing and order-driving initiatives to drive repeat orders and attract new customers for our restaurant partners, increasing incremental revenue
• Streamlining our restaurant onboarding process, so that new partners join the network 40% faster
• The continuation of our restaurant tipping initiative, which has seen over $1.2 million in generous donations from Skip customers go directly to local restaurants

We have been working directly with all levels of government in Ontario over the last few months on ways we can work together to best support the restaurant industry, and look forward to continuing those discussions over the next few weeks.