RISE Independents of the

Andrew Simmons aims to bring independent pizzerias and independent restaurant delivery services together as partners to take on the giants.

BY RICK HYNUM

Andrew Simmons is hardly a pipsqueak, but as a pizzeria operator with just one store—Mamma Ramona’s in Ramona, California—he’s what you might call one of the “little guys.” Yet he has zero fear of giants. In fact, he’s helping independent restaurateurs across the country go head-to-head with both the big pizza chains and the top third-party delivery companies. His vision: Independents can take back control of pizza delivery and send DoorDash and Uber Eats packing without ever breaking their stride. And it starts by forging a true partnership with a local restaurant delivery service (RDS) that cares as much about your brand as you do.

In addition to Mamma Ramona’s, Simmons runs his own RDS called OrangeCrate. He’s also president of the Restaurant Marketing Delivery Association (RMDA), a nationwide organization of locally owned delivery providers that play David to all those third-party Goliaths, armed with hot bags instead of slingshots and working closely with smaller pizzeria owners who want personalized and dependable service.

What exactly does the RMDA do? “We work to level the playing field against DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub—all of these very well-funded companies,” Simmons explains. “We help put the little independent delivery services on a more equal footing. The power of our organization is that we have 700 independent local companies that don’t want to be part of one big company. We have worked to tie them all together

Source: Datassential with a single API…so the orders flow in, we push the orders out to everybody’s individual platforms, and those local companies take local ownership of those deliveries [for local pizzerias]. If something goes wrong, somebody local can help that customer. These companies care about the product. They carry the professional delivery bags and the insurance required to do those local deliveries.”

Best of all, the restaurateur doesn’t have to be tech-savvy, as the RMDA’s service can be integrated into most any restaurant POS system, Simmons says. “We just need to know what POS you’re using, and we take care of the integration. If you’re not on a POS system or still use a cash register, we can provide a tablet. Even if you’re not WiFi-connected, we can still call or fax an order in. There’s a lot of different ways we can make it happen for you, whether or not you’re technologically gifted.”

That’s it in a nutshell. And, yes, when you think about it, as a delivery provider, Simmons isn’t really a “little guy.” Although he owns just one pizzeria, OrangeCrate currently delivers for more than 2,500 restaurants in 40-plus cities. Even so, as president of the RMDA, he’s leading a movement for the little guys. He wants to see independent pizzeria operators and independent RDS companies alike thrive on their own terms—simply by working together.

Battling Giants

For franchisees of Pizza Hut, Papa Johns and Little Caesars, third-party delivery platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats are now a must-have, especially as the labor shortage continues. Smaller chains and multiunit operators in large metro areas work with the big third-party companies, too. But these corporate giants aren’t for everybody, especially smaller pizzerias that can’t afford the commissions and fees. So how can independent pizza shops keep up when drivers are getting harder

Source: Sense360 to find, even as demand for delivery remains high?

Why not partner with another little guy that specializes in local food delivery? They’re out there, and they’re ready to work with you. You just need to sit down with them and cut a deal.

According to the RMDA, its network of RDS providers do more than $500 million in combined sales annually in about 700 cities nationwide and comprise the fourth-largest delivery fleet in the country. The RMDA is also developing the LocalDelivery.org website and app, which will let customers find local pizzerias and other restaurants that work with local RDS businesses in their hometown.

Before he founded OrangeCrate in 2015 and bought Mamma Ramona’s (previously called Mamma Rosa’s) in late 2018, Simmons delivered pies for Domino’s. He even developed his own app that provided delivery drivers with the kind of info about their customers that you can’t get from a map—the color of the house, unique features, the presence of mean dogs, even how well the customers tipped.

According to Simmons, that app didn’t go over well with Domino’s corporate office. “That was the impetus for me to leave Domino’s and start doing delivery for other companies.”

With OrangeCrate, he says he initially signed up more than two dozen local eateries in Ramona—not just pizzerias