Local businesses impacted by delivery driver shortage
Courtesy of Metro Creative
Area businesses are having a difficult time finding delivery people as the pandemic continues.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
While local businesses have found it difficult to maintain delivery drivers, the demand from online shopping for home deliveries has not waned over the course of the pandemic.
Many area small businesses are relying upon third-party delivery services to drop goods off at customers' doors.
Grocery stores aren’t the only businesses experiencing shortages.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, local businesses have struggled to provide delivery services to their customers.
“There are times where we just don’t deliver that day, that’s all,” said Lori J. Coury, who owns River House Cafe in Charleroi with her husband, Michael. “We don’t like to do that. We always like to be there for our customers, but because of the impact the pandemic had on us, that just, unfortunately, seems to be turning into the norm.”
When pandemic shutdowns were first put into place two years ago, Coury said, River House’s take-out and delivery orders increased, and the delivery driver shortage has impacted the cafe’s delivery services.
“It’s very difficult to get new delivery drivers. They’re just not even responding to our ads, or word of mouth,” said Coury, noting one of her drivers works 9 hour days, six days a week, and the other driver works Tuesdays.
Sometimes she pulls kitchen staff to deliver orders, and on busy days, it can take up to two hours for a driver to deliver food to customers.
“We’re very fortunate in that we have such a great staff that’s been here for years and who care about the business the way that we do,” said Coury. “Our customers are wonderful – they’re very patient. I would love to have another delivery driver just to help lessen the load. They’re just not applying.”
L&M Flower Shop in Canonsburg is also hard pressed to find drivers.
“Right now, I’m down a driver,” said Harold Smith, who’s owned the business for 12 years. “I’ve had ads in the paper and no one’s responding. We’re trying. No one’s coming aboard.”
Smith said since the pandemic began, he’s seen an increase in delivery orders, and his two drivers are picking up extra hours to meet customer demand.
“We get them all done before we leave here,” he said.
Orders are certainly being delivered, but it isn’t as easy today as it was before COVID-19.
“It’s a hit or miss kind of thing. Sometimes we have a full staff and sometimes we don’t,” said Karen Nickman, a pharmacist and owner of Nickman’s Drug in Fayette County.
“When we did not have a full staff, then we had to make the other (driver) do double-duty,” she added. “We made do. We never didn’t deliver, that’s for sure. We always made sure we had the deliveries go out. It was just a question of staffing.”
Like Nickman’s, Scotty’s Pizza in Waynesburg has a full staff of drivers, but a “full staff” looks smaller than it did before spring 2020.
“We have less drivers. We just kind of modify things a little bit so we can keep going with the drivers we have,” said Ian Grimes, the store’s manager.
Scotty’s has modified its delivery radius and no longer offers most “meet-ats,” deliveries to out-of-area customers or businesses, like churches.
When the pandemic first hit, Grimes said, Scotty’s went without drivers for about a month. Because not much was known about COVID-19, drivers weren’t comfortable going to customers’ homes. Scotty’s pivoted its business model until drivers returned to work.
“We just did pick-up only,” he said.
Harry’s Pizza in Peters Township was strictly dine-in and pick-up until about two and a half years ago, said daylight manager Stacey French-Finnegan, when GrubHub added the pizza joint to its web site.
“You do not have to sign up your restaurant,” said French-Finnegan. “You do not have to agree to them. They put you on there themselves.”
Harry’s never considered in-house delivery services, and French-Finnegan said the mark-up on online orders is “insane.”
“It’s close to 40%,” she said. “You could be giving that to these small businesses.”
But a quick online search reveals many businesses offer delivery through companies like UberEats and DoorDash, and both have enjoyed increased demand since the pandemic began.
“UberEats has grown more than 100% since the pandemic started,” said Harry Hartfield, an Uber spokesperson. And, he added, “The number of people delivering has grown.”
Since the pandemic began, the number of DoorDash delivery people nationwide nearly tripled, said Eli Scheinholtz, a DoorDash spokesperson.
“We’re proud that so many can come to DoorDash to earn when, where, and for however long they want, and that millions of people have been able to earn additional income through our platform,” Scheinholtz said in an email.
Like some businesses, chain pharmacies, too, rely on third-party delivery drivers to drop prescriptions off at customers’ doors.
“The majority of our delivery services are provided through partnerships with outside couriers like USPS and Shipt,” Matt Blanchette, CVS Pharmacy’s manager, retail communications, wrote in an email. “Our delivery teams are meeting customer needs in a dynamic environment that is part of a nationwide workforce shortage affecting nearly every industry and company.”
While the driver shortage will continue to impact industries nationwide for the foreseeable future, local businesses are working to serve customers as best they can.
“These are bad times, but we’ve got to be stronger,” said Coury. “We’ve got to continue working and do whatever we have to do to keep our town viable.”