Delivery Apps In Mexico Cut Fees In Reaction To Restaurant Struggles

Uber Eats and Rappi are dropping the fees they charge restaurants to deliver meals in Mexico in response to pleas from food industry trade groups on behalf of members facing new financial pressures brought on by government-mandated full or partial lockdowns implemented in response to the pandemic, Reuters reported.

An industry group called CANIRAC stated that its members had been paying delivery services about 30 percent of the price of meal, Reuters reported, and issued a statement that read in part: “Keeping the same commissions that applied before the pandemic has become unsustainable for thousands of restaurants.”

In February Uber Eats is dropping its commission to 17 percent, while Rappi is cutting its to 16.5 percent, Reuters reported. They’ll charge 19 percent in March and 22 percent in April.

Reuters reported that food app Didi Food is dropping its commission to 23 percent.

According to CANIRAC data cited by Reuters, 13,500 restaurants in greater Mexico City have closed since the pandemic struck.

Worldwide, COVID-19 has sickened more than 99 million people and killed more than 2 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker.

Mexico has reported 1.8 million cases and 149,000 deaths, according to the tracker. Mexico’s population is about 128 million. The U.S. has reported 25.1 million cases and 419,000 deaths. The U.S. population is about 328 million.

The situation is particularly acute in Mexico, however, because the rate of deaths among patients reported to have been infected with the disease reaches roughly 15 percent in many locations — some five times higher than in even the hardest-hit parts of the United States.

In the U.S., meanwhile — even in pandemic-ravaged California — some delivery services are increasing charges.

In California, delivery companies are adding charges to fund the concessions they offered drivers as part of the industry’s successful backing of a ballot initiative through which voters reversed a state law that forced many companies to treat drivers as employees rather than as independent contractors.

The increases have left a bad taste in the mouths of many California restaurateurs. In a typical response to it, the owner of one eatery called them “outrageous.”