Gigwage

Gig Wage Customer Spotlight: OrangeCrate

Right now, delivery workers are fueling the front lines of COVID-19 to deliver necessary supplies to individuals and companies across the world. We are PROUD to partner with delivery companies like OrangeCrate to help them pay their hardworking contractors quickly and legitimately. We had the opportunity to ask Andrew Simmons, CEO and Co-Founder of OrangeCrate, about his business, how contractors have helped him thrive, and how COVID-19 has impacted business.


A little about you:

GW: Introduce your business.

AS: We are OrangeCrate, a platform for restaurant delivery services. We operate in 40 cities around the United States, from Anchorage, AK to Pensacola, FL. We initially started out in smaller cities that met our rural definition, we have inevitably ended up in larger cities through acquisitions.

“We can drive dining customers to a particular partner on a day when they really need help, or just spread the love to all restaurants in that particular location.”

GW: What is your business’s mission?

AS: We help restaurants in smaller cities get access to delivery services for their restaurants and cafes.

GW: How did you decide to start your business?

AS: In our hometown, there was only an option for pizza delivery and restaurants that had no delivery options were not being served by larger companies because the population density was too small to make it a viable business model (low hanging fruit) for them.

“We don’t have a one size fits all model like our larger competitors who demand more money against lowered or break-even profits to the restaurant.”

GW: When did you know contractors would be an important part of your workforce?

AS: We knew from the beginning our business model would be based on the contractor workforce.

“Don’t reinvent the wheel; the cost to work with a company such as Gig Wage is far less than building it yourself for uneven results.”

GW: How is your company different from your competitors?

AS: We partner with operators in each of the towns and cities we operate in, and they themselves are contractors to us. We have helped them transition into owning their own location through sweat equity, rather than a franchise fee, to ensure that we keep our look and feel local. We completely fund their startup, teach them to talk to restaurants and how to partner with delivery contractors to grow their locations. Because of that, they typically have fast organic growth (in small towns, everyone knows your business, so it’s easy to get traction there) and a great relationship with their restaurant partners. Our operators come to us usually through our website, ownadeliveryservice.com which gives them an overview of the business they are interested in starting. Second, we work with restaurants to establish a commission structure that works within the confines of their overhead. We don’t have a one size fits all model like our larger competitors who demand more money against lowered or break-even profits to the restaurant. As a result, we both profit from our results instead of a one-sided, heavy-handed approach to the market.

“Switching to Gig Wage shrunk our payment processing time internally about 50% of the time we were devoting to making payments previously.”

GW: How has COVID-19 shifted your business?

AS: Currently, we are considered essential personnel in every city that has a COVID-19 stay-at-home lockdown, so our contractors are able to pick up food from restaurants who are struggling to stay afloat. We can drive dining customers to a particular partner on a day when they really need help, or just spread the love to all restaurants in that particular location.

GW: What advice do you have for businesses who employ contractors?

AS: Find the best of class service providers, like Gig Wage, that make it drop-dead simple to run your business without impacting the people that help you make your business work. Don’t reinvent the wheel; the cost to work with a company such as Gig Wage is far less than building it yourself for uneven results.

Your thoughts on Us:

GW: What problem(s) were you trying to solve with our product?

AS: We wanted to make sure our contractors would get paid in a timely, consistent manner. We tried several other services, but payments didn’t always arrive when we expected, and contractors become unhappy when they can’t depend on a consistent payment time frame, even if you’ve done everything right on your end.

GW: How does our product or service stand out from other options?

AS: Switching to Gig Wage shrunk our payment processing time internally about 50% of the time we were devoting to making payments previously. We don’t need to get the information from them; we just input their name and email address and Gig Wage does the rest, which makes onboarding much easier and less time-consuming for us.

“We are having to recruit less because we have a lowered turnover from unhappy contractors.”

GW: What made you happiest about working with our company? What is your biggest success story?

AS: Not having to collect information from the contractor, because they were slow to respond. It takes us two seconds to send a notification now and it’s on them to complete it. We are having to recruit less because we have a lowered turnover from unhappy contractors.

We feel truly lucky to support companies like OrangeCrate who are innovative and unique in their business model. Right now, companies like OrangeCrate and their contractors are fueling the front lines of COVID-19 and using the gig economy to support local businesses. We have loved working with OrangeCrate and look forward to what is to come from their team.

Check out OrangeCrate online at orangecrate.com

Written by

Lucy Hart