Delivery Dudes was a

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

-based on-demand delivery service founded in 2009. The company delivered restaurant food, groceries, and prescriptions. It was acquired by Louisiana food delivery company

Waitr ASAP Inc., stylized Asap, is an American online and mobile prepared food ordering and delivery and Grocery delivery company. It originated in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where it was founded as Waitr, Inc. by Chris Meaux with support from McNees ...

in 2021. In its consolidation, the company changed its name to ASAP.

History

Delivery Dudes was founded by Jayson Koss as Delray Delivery Dudes in

Delray Beach Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020 was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States Census. Located 52 miles (83 kilometers) north of Miami, Delray Beach is in the ...

, Florida in 2009. According to Koss, his "delivery service" was initially just himself on a moped delivering food and marijuana. After a slow start, the company gained pace in 2012. In October 2015, the company introduced the "Dudes Liquor" service in Delray Beach to deliver alcoholic beverages and related supplies. At the time, Delivery Dudes had operations in 29 cities in Tennessee, Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and southern Florida. By mid-2016, it had approximately 2,000 drivers nationwide. At the time, the company had grown using a

franchising Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

model with about half of its locations being franchises and served 50 cities by late 2019. "Dudes Bodega", a no-contact home delivery service for groceries, prescriptions, and other household goods, was introduced in May 2020 in East Delray Beach. The company eventually expanded the service across its markets in South Florida.

Acquisition

In March 2021, Delivery Dudes agreed to sell its assets to Louisiana-based online restaurant pickup and delivery platform Waitr Holdings () for about . The move was intended to accelerate Waitr's growth in Florida. Two months later, Delivery Dudes announced it was hiring 200 additional contract drivers in South Florida to handle growing demand. In 2022, Waitr changed its name to ASAP in light of recent consolidations and legal issues with

Waiter.com Waiter.com, also formerly known as World Wide Waiter, is an online restaurant delivery service that went online in early December 1995. It was founded by two Stanford University Business School graduates Craig Cohen and Michael Adelberg. Althoug ...

Corporate citizenship

As part of an effort to reduce its environmental impact, Delivery Dudes worked with

4ocean 4Ocean is a for-profit company founded in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2017. 4Ocean retails bracelets made from recycled materials, as well as apparel and other merchandise for which the materials are environmentally- and socially responsibly sourced ...

, an ocean cleanup group based in Boca Raton. Delivery Dudes offered its customers the option to forego single-use cutlery normally included with restaurant deliveries. The company raised more than $14,000 for the

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Hospitality Helping Hands (H3) by donating the delivery fees it collected over two days in April 2020.

Controversies

Delivery Dudes was the subject of a lawsuit filed by Delivery Dudes driver Justin Attai and others claiming they should be classified as employees instead of independent contractors. The suit alleged that the company violated the

Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) is a United States labor law that creates the right to a minimum wage, and "time-and-a-half" overtime pay when people work over forty hours a week. It also prohibits employment of minors in "oppres ...

by paying some drivers less than

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

and not paying required overtime. According to Delivery Dudes CEO Koss, these drivers were part of a franchise. The company settled the lawsuit in May 2016. The suit occurred at a time when a number of other delivery companies including

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

, GrubHub, Caviar, and

DoorDash DoorDash, Inc. is an American company that operates an online food ordering and food delivery platform. The company is based in San Francisco, California. It went public in December 2020 on NYSE and trades under the symbol DASH. With a 56% mar ...

had been sued by drivers with similar complaints.

References

External links

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Moving & Delivery Services
{{Authority control 2009 establishments in Florida Companies based in Palm Beach County, Florida Logistics companies of the United States Transportation companies based in Florida Transport companies established in 2009 Online food ordering