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SALT LAKE CITY — Well, it’s official. UberEATS recently joined fellow food delivery service, Grubhub, in Salt Lake City as a new kind of fast-food craze continues to sweep across the nation.
UberEATS and Grubhub customers can order food straight from the companies’ websites or apps, then drivers will pick up orders from participating restaurants and deliver them to hungry consumers in the Salt Lake area.
In light of UberEATS entry into the market, I decided to put both UberEATS and Grubhub to the test to see which was the preferable food delivery service. While it’s worth noting that UberEATS is obviously much newer to the game than Grubhub, I wanted to see how Uber’s venture into the arena would stack up.
In order to keep this experiment as scientific as possible, I decided to order the exact same meal from the same restaurant at the same time and ask that one be delivered by Grubhub and the other by UberEATS.
Piper Down Pub was close by and had partnered with both UberEATS and Grubhub, so I ordered a Monte Cristo sandwich with seasoned fries at 2:28 p.m. Then the games began.
1. Price of food:
The biggest redeeming factor of UberEATS is that they do not require customers to order a minimum dollar amount of food before delivering. As a born and bred cheapskate, I appreciated that UberEATS would let me buy a $2 order of fries and they’d still deliver (though as a born and bred cheapskate, I don’t usually pay for people to deliver my food).
Grubhub requires customers to buy a certain dollar amount of food before delivery. Piper Down Pub’s minimum price was $10 and was one of the lower ones I saw. I had to go back and change my order a couple times to make sure it was over the minimum price. If you’re looking for something small, Grubhub might not be the way to go.
2. Price of delivery:
As far as I can tell, UberEATS has a set delivery price of $6 for the Salt Lake area. This can be a pro or con depending on who you’re ordering from. Grubhub’s delivery price varies depending on the restaurant and your location. It was $1 cheaper for me to order from Piper Down Pub through Grubhub than UberEATS, but it would have been more expensive had I ordered from a different restaurant through Grubhub.
3. Delivery time:
UberEATS’ time estimates for delivery are definitely faster than Grubhub’s. When I ordered, however, Grubhub estimated it would arrive about 10 minutes after UberEATS, but it actually arrived a couple minutes before. I don’t know what happened on the road, but based on my experience, Grubhub is faster than they claim. I received my food from UberEATS at 3:05 p.m., 37 minutes after I ordered. While it was on the later end of the delivery time estimate between 30 to 40 minutes, it was still within the range.
4. Restaurant and area options:
It’s undeniable that Grubhub has quite a few more restaurant options than UberEATS, though UberEATS has a lot more than I expected (a little over 30). According to my Grubhub driver, Grubhub also started off with a lot fewer options, so it’s understandable that UberEATS is still growing. If you’re looking for wide selection right now, however, Grubhub might be the place to check first, though UberEATS has quite a few places Grubhub does not. Grubhub is also available outside of Salt Lake City, whereas UberEATS is not.
5. Driver pay and tips:
This was a game changer for me. When I asked both my Grubhub and UberEATS drivers how much they were paid, I got two vastly different answers. Though I understand UberEATS drivers may be considered much more “freelance” than Grubhub’s, my UberEATS driver said she was paid about $3 for the delivery, plus tips, and mentioned that it wasn’t much. My Grubhub driver said he’s paid $13 an hour, plus tips.
I was also prompted by Grubhub’s website to tip the driver before I completed my transaction. I was never prompted on Uber’s website to tip the driver. I may have missed something and maybe it’s different on the app, but I thought I would be prompted to tip after the driver delivered, and I never was. To that poor UberEATS driver: I’m so sorry I didn’t tip you. I thought I would be able to after the delivery.
Conclusion
I appreciated that UberEATS didn’t make me buy a minimum amount of food, but Grubhub really seemed to win this round. I’ll give UberEATS a little more time to beef up their selection and make tipping the driver a little easier before I come to a final conclusion. In the end, it really depends on what you're looking for.
Props also go to Piper Down Pub for calling me to clarify that I did, in fact, want two of the exact same meal delivered via both UberEats and Grubhub.
