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How to set delivery fees and minimum orders for a UK takeaway

Updated 19 October 2026 · Arslan Munir

If you already have a driver, or you only deliver a few streets, you do not need a marketplace to take the order. You need a boundary you can actually drive, a fee that covers that drive, a minimum that stops a tiny order sending someone out, and a ticket the kitchen can read. This is how to set those three without copying another shop’s offer or inventing a number that looks tidy.

Chefzi does not supply couriers. The driver is yours, or the order is collection. The software checks the address, shows the fee before payment, and rings the tablet. The cost of the fuel and the wage stays in your accounts, which is why the fee is a decision for the shop and not a default we publish.

Start from the runs you already do

Write down the streets you delivered to last Friday, not the streets you would like to cover if you had a second driver. Include the ones you regret. A river, a ring road, a one-way system or a hill is a reason the far side of a circle is a bad order even when it looks close on a map. If a radius matches how you drive, use a radius. If it does not, draw the area. Chefzi supports both: a shape on the map, or a distance from the shop.

Split the area when the drive is not one job. The streets within a few minutes can be one zone. The far estate can be another. You do not need a zone for every postcode sector on day one. Two honest zones beat one circle that includes a road you will not drive after seven. You can add a third later, after a month of orders shows a street you keep accepting by phone anyway.

Collection is a zone of its own, in practice. People who will walk or park do not need a fee, and they should still be able to order when you have turned delivery off because the driver has gone home. Set collection hours and delivery hours separately. Closing time is the cut-off. There is no extra cut-off before that. A page that offers delivery at 10:30 when the driver finishes at 10 is how you end up apologising.

The fee is the cost of the run, said before they pay

A delivery fee is not a punishment and it is not a marketing slogan. It is what you need, on top of the food, so the run is worth making. The close zone can be a small fee. The far zone should be higher. If you would not drive there for the fee you have typed, the fee is wrong or the zone is wrong.

Show it at checkout, on the basket, before the customer pays. A fee that appears after they have entered a card, or only on a sticker in the window, is how you get complaints and chargebacks. If you change the fee for a wet Friday, change it in the dashboard before service, not by adding a line on the ticket after the fact.

Free delivery over a certain amount is a rule some kitchens choose because the larger basket covers the run. It is optional. Do not copy a threshold from a marketplace listing or from another restaurant’s website. Work it out from your own average basket and the cost of sending the driver. If you cannot explain the threshold to the person on the till, do not publish it. A single fee on every delivery is simpler, and simple is fine.

This site does not publish a recommended fee in pounds. Shops in the same town have different distances, different wages and different minimums. A figure that was right for one of them would be a guess for you.

The minimum stops the small order

A minimum order is the other half of the same decision. The fee covers a normal run. The minimum stops a very small basket from qualifying for the run at all. A £9 order with a £2 fee can still be a loss once the driver is out for twenty-five minutes. Raise the minimum on the far zone, or remove that zone, rather than hoping the customer adds a drink. The £9 and £2 figures are an illustration, not a recommended fee.

Say the minimum when they enter the address, not after they have built a basket and feel caught. If they are under it, the page should tell them how much is missing. Do not take the order and then phone them to ask for more. That phone call is the thing your own ordering page was meant to remove.

Collection can have a lower minimum, or none, because nobody is driving. A shop that uses one minimum for both is often over-charging the person at the counter or under-charging the delivery. Set them apart.

Time, pauses, and the ticket

Each zone can have its own delivery time. The close streets might be thirty minutes on a quiet Tuesday and longer on a Friday. Set a time you have actually hit, then lengthen it when the kitchen is behind. A promised twenty minutes that arrives at fifty is a worse review than an honest forty-five. The prep time the kitchen accepts on the tablet is the time the customer sees for that order. The zone time is the expectation before they order.

To stop one area, remove that zone. There is no switch that pauses a single zone and leaves the others running. You can switch delivery off for the night and leave collection on. Bad weather, a driver off sick, or a road closure are reasons to do one of those two things. The customer outside the remaining area should be refused at checkout, with a plain sentence, not given a slot you will cancel.

The ticket needs the address, the fee and the zone, not just the dishes. The Android app rings until someone accepts with a prep time or rejects with a reason. If the tablet is in another room with the volume down, the zone setup does not matter. The tablet guide covers where it should sit and what happens if it drops offline. Ordering stays open until you pause it. A missed heartbeat is a warning, not a closed shop.

Check four addresses before you announce it

Place test orders on a phone, the way a customer would.

An address in the close zone. The fee and the minimum should match what you wrote down.
An address in the far zone. The higher fee or the higher minimum should show.
An address you do not deliver to, including one that a radius would have included by mistake. Checkout should refuse it.
A collection order while delivery is switched off. It should still go through.

Then look at the ticket. If the fee is missing, or the address is a comment the pass might skip, fix that before you put the link on Google.

How this sits next to the apps

A zone on your own site does not replace Just Eat, Uber Eats or Deliveroo for someone who has never heard of you. Those apps charge their own commission on their own orders. Your fee is a different thing: it is what the customer pays towards your driver, and Chefzi does not take a percentage of it. The monthly price is three months free, then £19 a month for cash or no-card payments, or £29 a month with online card payments through Stripe per location, excluding VAT, with no commission on the order. The commission calculator is for the marketplace invoices. The commission guide is about moving regulars without leaving the apps. Pricing is the monthly fee.

Delivery zones on Chefzi are where the map, the fee and the minimum are set. Book a call if you want the first zones drawn with you. Bring the streets you already drive.