Ghost Kitchen & Dark Kitchen Courier Handoff & Pickup Time (SLA) Checklist

DoorDash sets an ideal target of under 2 minutes of avoidable wait time. It states most stores average under 3 minutes 24 seconds. The definition matters as much as the number. The timer starts when the courier is within 25 metres of the store AND the quoted prep time has elapsed. It stops when the order is marked picked up. Pickups marked from outside 100 metres do not count at all. No source publishes an equivalent benchmark for delivery-only or multi-brand sites, where one courier may be waiting on several brands. So your own sat-time log is the only version of that number that exists.

No. Padding hides the wait instead of fixing it, and it costs you twice. The avoidable-wait clock only starts once the quoted prep time has elapsed. So a padded time flatters the number while the food sits and cools. Meanwhile a prep time the line cannot hit turns into a cancellation. Restaurant-initiated cancellations averaged 2.97% of all orders in a full-year analysis. Marking orders picked up before the courier is physically there ruins the same data. Fire against the real prep time. Review it per brand and per time of day. Correct the quote rather than the clock.

Yes, measurably, and yes - through packaging and staging rather than through the platform. Audited temperature accuracy was 91% for single direct deliveries versus 83% for batched ones. Direct deliveries arrived 8 minutes 5 seconds faster than batched ones in 2025. The same audit measured that gap at 13 minutes 34 seconds in 2024. 66% of consumers blame the restaurant rather than the courier for a bad delivery. So the kitchen's move is to insulate harder, stage later, and refuse to release hot food to a courier with no insulated bag.