story by Kim Souza
ksouza@thecitywire.com
Ryan Herget, CEO and founder of Little Rock-based Chef Shuttle, has spread his wings from central Arkansas westward to offer a new restaurant delivery service in Rogers and Bentonville. The 2014 startup venture is already active in 19 other cities in the Little Rock metro, the Hot Springs area and around Memphis.
“I began to look for opportunities to facilitate last mile delivery in what has become an ‘I want it now’ scenario,” Herget told The City Wire Wednesday at the company’s grand opening in Rogers.
He said the fastest way to consumer loyalty is often through their stomachs, which is why he devised Chef Shuttle, a pure-play food delivery service that works in partnership with area restaurants.
The service has already grown to 25,000 customers in the central Arkansas market and Chef Shuttle drivers have already made more than 100,000 deliveries in the past 16 months. The company has grown from one to 20 employees since its February 2014 inception. Herget said a small management team of three or four work in each of the company’s markets and he oversees the entire operation from central Arkansas.
“We expect Northwest Arkansas to be a strong market for the company. Logistically there are more than 100,000 residents in the five zip codes we are delivering to in Rogers and Bentonville. We would have to cover more square miles in central Arkansas to reach that population,” Herget said.
The company employs about a dozen drivers in the local market to start, each who work as an independent contractor earning a small fee for every delivery and 100% of tips. Chef Shuttle kicked off its Northwest Arkansas service Wednesday (June 17) at 11 a.m. with five local restaurants signing on start. Those restaurants are IDK? Cafe, Mellow Mushroom, On the Border, La Antigua, and Boneheads.
Herget said the company plans to add four to five new restaurants to the service each week. Herget said Chuy’s, Genghis Grill and other restaurants with Little Rock connections will likely be the first ones added.
Consumers go online to Chef Shuttle and register as a user. They choose their entree from the restaurant list and pay the exact same menu price as if they were ordering in the store. There is a $4.95 flat delivery fee charged by Chef Shuttle per restaurant. Tips and driver gratuities are up to the consumer’s discretion.
Herget said his service is unlike any other in this market because Chef Shuttle negotiates its pay directly with the restaurants within the wholesale to retail margin so that consumers pay the menu price and the $4.95 delivery fee, which mostly goes to compensate drivers.
“We hire about 30% of the drivers who apply. We screen them thoroughly and make sure they present the professional image that Chef Shuttle requires. We have women, men, students, professionals and retirees among the 200 drivers in our three markets. Because the transaction is paid for online drivers are not carrying a lot of cash aside from any cash tip a customer may give them. Most of our customers tip online and wrap that into the final price so there is no need for any cash exchange at the door,” he said.
The minimum food order is $15 and food can be ordered up to 30 days in advance which comes in handy for catering lunch and dinner events or coordinating office parties.
Herget said when the order is placed online the order is dispatched to the driver on call out of the company’s central command center in Little Rock. There, he said, dispatch operators track driver moves and notify them of traffic issues, accidents or other obstacles that could delay delivery. The average delivery time is one hour, but consumers are given an estimated time when the order is placed.
One aspect Herget is passionate about is that the dispatch call center is not outsourced. He said each dispatcher has been a driver and their top priority is to make sure the customer and driver get the order delivered promptly and correctly.
Chef Shuttle drivers use insulated bags that keep foods hot and cold as needed. The company operates 7 days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day but Sunday when it’s open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
He said 75% of the company’s order are for dinner, but the average lunch ticket is three times more than the dinner tickets because they are often for the entire office. He said the service is popular with traveling professionals staying in hotels and Chef Shuttle gifts cards are popular for new moms and for families dealing with the loss of a family member.
“When new moms ask for these gift cards at their baby showers the average credit is $450. When families ask for them in lieu of (funeral) flowers the average credit is $1,500 which can be used as needed,” Herget said.
While Herget is eager to grow his NWA footprint, he said it’s important that customers, restaurants and drivers all grow in tandem. He did not share his timeline for expansion into Fayetteville but said it is coming once the Rogers and Bentonville markets are running smoothly and growing in sync.
This is not Herget’s first company. At just 24 years oldm he began two other ventures – a power washing service company when he was just 15 years old and a beverage discount service called the Daily Quench in recent years.
He said Chef Shuttle secured its Series A funding from the Steve LaFrance family, the founders of USA Drug. Herget said he’s been fortunate to find capital in Arkansas as well as mentorship from his investors.