Driver Pools: Deliver Without Hiring a Single Driver

Delivery has one hard problem and it is not the app. It is that you need drivers standing by at seven on a Friday and nobody at all at three on a Tuesday, and a person cannot be hired by the hour of demand.

A driver pool solves it by borrowing.

How it works

A venue that already employs drivers — usually one doing enough volume to keep them busy — opens a pool and sets a flat fee per delivery, anywhere from €1.00 to €10.00. Nearby venues subscribe. When one of them has an order to send out, it requests a driver and the pool assigns one who is free.

The provider is paid the flat fee for the drop. The hirer sets whatever delivery charge it likes for its own customers, so the margin between the two is theirs.

What each side gets

If you have drivers, the pool turns your quiet hours into revenue. The wage you were paying anyway becomes billable, and you are earning from the same street that used to be only competition.

If you have none, you get delivery this week rather than after a hiring round, with no vehicle, no insurance question and no rota. A slow week costs you nothing, because you only pay per drop.

What it costs

• The provider keeps 85% of the flat fee
• Mosey takes 15%, which covers assignment, tracking and the weekly settlement
• Settlement is weekly, by Stripe transfer, to each venue's own account

The hirer still pays the standard 6% delivery commission on the order itself. The pool fee is the cost of the driver, not of the sale.

Assignment is race-safe, which matters more than it sounds

Two venues requesting a driver in the same second cannot be given the same one — the claim takes a lock and the loser is offered the next free driver instead. On a Friday at seven that is the difference between a working system and two managers on the phone to each other.

Cancellations

Before pickup, no fee. After pickup, the provider is owed half the flat fee, because their driver has already made the journey. That split is the whole negotiation, settled once, so neither side has the conversation again.

Setting up a pool (if you have drivers)

1. Account → Features → Delivery, then open the driver pool section.
2. Set your flat fee between €1.00 and €10.00. Price it against an idle hour, not against a courier's rate card.
3. Set your availability window — the hours you are genuinely willing to lend, which is usually not all of them.
4. Add your drivers and give each a concurrent-delivery cap.
5. Approve the venues that ask. You choose who is in; a pool is a relationship, not a marketplace.

Joining one (if you have none)

1. Search pools within 5km. Proximity is the point — a shared driver only works if both kitchens are close.
2. Request to subscribe and wait for the provider to approve.
3. Set your own delivery fee to customers, above the flat fee you pay.
4. Send one real order through it before a busy service.

What it connects to

• Delivery — the pool is how a venue with no drivers runs it at all.
• Order Ahead — collection needs no driver, and at 1.5% it is the cheaper half of the same menu.
• Contractors — a driver can also be hired directly as a contractor at 7%, when you would rather have your own.
• Analytics — pool earnings and deliveries sent both show up in your reporting.