HOW HONEST MARY'S TOOK CONTROL OF THEIR CATERING DELIVERY PROGRAM:
$14,000 SAVED, 100% COVERAGE,
ZERO MARKETPLACE
DELIVERY DEPENDENCY
Founded in 2017 by Nelson Monteith, Honest Mary's built its Austin brand following on a simple idea: build-your-own grain bowls made from scratch, with ingredients you can trust. When catering took off, they scaled the menu with intention, activated marketplaces for broad reach, and activated well-known catering marketplace delivery options.
As catering grew, so did the stakes. Catering drivers on the marketplace networks weren't seeing Honest Mary's orders as financially competitive, pushing some deliveries into on-demand DSPs for rescue, adding cost and inconsistency to a brand built entirely on doing things the right way.
The answer was a delivery infrastructure built around their needs: a dedicated catering-focused driver fleet eliminating the need for marketplace delivery, delivery orchestration enabling how every order moved, and a Gratuity Lift Program that made Honest Mary's orders the most attractive to drivers in the Austin area,
DELIVERTHAT SOLUTIONS:
Driver Fleet
Delivery Orchestration
Gratuity Lift Program
Marketplace Delivery Mitigation
THE PROBLEM
Good Food, Reluctant Drivers
From the standpoint of a driver, a catering delivery is not a standard order. The routes are longer, the setups more demanding, and the windows less forgiving — but the orders carry high earning potential. Drivers on any delivery platform are making economic decisions with every offer they receive, and when a catering order carries the same gratuity as a quick lunch drop, most drivers decline.
For a brand as intentional as Honest Mary's, inconsistent catering delivery management wasn't an option.
BEFORE DELIVERTHAT
-
Variable driver gratuity, based on customer behaviour
- Reliance on meal-time and non-preferred DSPs to absorb declined deliveries, adding cost and inconsistency
- No visibility into local market averages
AFTER DELIVERTHAT
-
Predictable, guaranteed gratuity on every order
- 100% delivery by DeliverThat drivers. No overflow or mealtime DSPs on high-value catering orders
- Gratuity calibrated to the local Austin market average
GRATUITY LIFT PROGRAM
A Catering Delivery Program Built From Data, Not Guesswork
Catering delivery economics are local. What makes an order competitive for a driver in Austin looks different than Denver, and different again from a suburban market with shorter routes and lighter setup demands. There is no universal tip amount that solves this — which is why DeliverThat doesn't offer one.
Instead, DeliverThat's team works directly with operators to understand their market, their order profile, and their fulfillment history.
The result is what DeliverThat calls the Gratuity Lift Program.
Not a platform setting, but a deliberate strategy that ensures every order goes out with a gratuity that reflects what drivers in that market actually need to say yes.
Orders with competitive gratuity are covered at 95% or higher, network wide. For Honest Mary's, the number was set deliberately above the local Austin average; not arbitrary, but because the data said that was the threshold where driver acceptance increases.
WHAT DOES STARTING UP WITH DELIVERTHAT LOOK LIKE?
When your orders are the most attractive to catering drivers in your area, refunds decrease, customer experience increases, and your staff can manage the guest experience, not deliveries.
If your catering delivery program relies on on-demand DSPs or a variety of delivery fleets to ensure coverage, DeliverThat's Delivery Lift Program is worth a conversation. What to expect from a call:
MARKET ANALYSIS
DeliverThat analyzes local driver acceptance rates, market averages, and order-level outcomes.
BRAND CONSULTATION
The team reviews your order profile, volume, and fulfillment history together.
GRATUITY STRUCTURE
A gratuity methodology is calibrated to ensure each order is attractive to drivers in your markets.
EVERY ORDER WINS
Your deliveries become among the most attractive on the platform.
DRIVERS AS BRAND AMBASSADORS
Engaged Drivers Don't Just Deliver. They Return.
The truest sign that the Gratuity Lift Program is working is displayed in driver behavior.
On most catering delivery fleets, a brand sees a wide, rotating pool of drivers: high volume, usually low repetition. Honest Mary's tells a different story.
Since the Gratuity Lift Program rolled out, a tight group of drivers has claimed these routes as their own. Not because they were assigned — because they chose to come back.
A driver who returns five times is a brand ambassador. They know the packaging, the setup expectations, the neighborhoods. The staff knows and trusts these drivers. That institutional knowledge — built quietly through good economics and true partnership — shows up at the guest doorstep.
DeliverThat has cracked the code. Building driver gratuity, delivery fees, delivery support all in a way that's a win-win for the brand, the restaurants, the customers, and the drivers.
Nelson Monteith, Founder, Honest Mary's
ALTERNATIVE TO CATERING MARKETPLACE DELIVERY
The Financial Return: What Owning Your Catering Program Is Worth
The gratuity model wasn't just a fulfillment fix. It generated a measurable financial return. After seeing the result of the DeliverThat driver fleet at full scale, Honest Mary's felt confident in routing all catering deliveries to DeliverThat, eliminating the middleman in their catering marketplace.
COST SAVINGS
After consolidating all deliveries to DeliverThat, eliminating on-demand rescue DSP fees, and reducing catering marketplace deliveries to zero
$14,000+
MARGIN RECAPTURED
Average savings per order -- recaptured from catering marketplace deliveries
$18/ ORDER
YOUR DELIVERY PROGRAM. YOUR RULES:
LOWER DELIVERY FEES & INCREASE FULFILLMENT.
A delivery program strategy call isn't a demo or sales pitch.
Instead, it's a working session about your current delivery setup, where the gaps are, and what DeliverThat could actually do to improve your catering delivery program.