Hiring a delivery boy for restaurant orders makes sense once you are sending out roughly 25 or more deliveries a day inside a tight radius. Below that, per-trip couriers are cheaper. Above it, a rider on payroll costs less per delivery, can carry two orders at once, and knows your regulars by their gate. The job is to find a reliable person, pay them fairly in a way that rewards the right behaviour, and give them a system so they are not calling the counter for every address.
This guide covers where to find riders, what to check before hiring, the three pay models with rupee ranges, fuel and bike arrangements, rosters, the legal basics, and the training that stops the most common delivery complaints. Figures are typical ranges for Indian cities; your city and the current fuel price will move them.
Decide whether you need a rider at all
A full-time rider is a fixed cost of roughly ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 a month all in, depending on city, once salary, fuel and bike upkeep are counted. Divide that by your monthly deliveries. At 300 deliveries it is ₹50 to ₹83 per trip, which is no better than a courier app. At 600 it is ₹25 to ₹42, which is clearly better, and the rider still has capacity.
So the first step is counting. Pull last month's delivery orders by hour of day. If the deliveries bunch into two three-hour windows with nothing between, one rider covers both windows and sits idle in the afternoon, which is fine if the volume in those windows justifies it. If the volume is spread thinly across twelve hours, a courier app with no idle cost is the better answer, and the comparison in the hyperlocal delivery guide will help you decide.
Where to find delivery riders
The best source, by a distance, is referral from people already working for you. Kitchen staff and existing riders know who is reliable and who is looking. Offer a small bonus, ₹500 to ₹1,000, payable after the new rider completes a month.
After that, in rough order of usefulness:
- Riders who already deliver to your area for the apps. They know the lanes, have a bike and a licence, and many want fixed hours and a fixed income instead of incentive-chasing. Talk to the ones who pick up from your kitchen.
- Blue-collar job apps. Several apps are built for hiring drivers, riders and shop staff in Indian cities. Post a clear role with the pay, hours and area; vague posts attract vague applicants.
- A notice at the kitchen and in nearby shops. Low cost, local candidates, and the person already knows where you are.
- Local WhatsApp groups and community boards. Useful in tier-2 cities where job apps have fewer listings.
What to check before you hire
Keep the paperwork short but do not skip it. A rider represents your brand at the customer's door and carries your cash.
- Two-wheeler driving licence, valid, with the rider's own name and photo.
- Aadhaar and a current address, so you know where the person lives. A quick visit or a neighbour's confirmation is reasonable for a role that handles cash.
- Vehicle papers if they ride their own bike: registration, insurance, pollution certificate. An uninsured bike in an accident becomes your problem.
- A smartphone with data, because orders, addresses and status updates all run through it.
- Knowledge of the area. Ask them to describe the route to three addresses in your zones. Someone who knows the back lanes saves ten minutes a trip.
- A trial week at the agreed pay before anything is finalised. Watch punctuality, handover manners and how they handle a wrong address.
Police verification is optional for most small kitchens but worth doing if the rider will collect cash regularly; many city police websites offer a tenant and employee verification form.
The three pay models, with numbers
How you pay shapes how the rider behaves. A pure salary rewards showing up; a pure per-delivery rate rewards speed, sometimes too much. Most kitchens settle on a hybrid.
| Pay model | How it works | Typical range (city dependent) | Rewards | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed monthly salary | Flat amount for agreed hours, fuel paid separately | ₹12,000 to ₹20,000 a month | Reliability, availability at peak | No incentive to take the extra trip; idle time is paid |
| Per delivery | Fixed amount per completed delivery, no base | ₹25 to ₹45 per delivery plus fuel | Speed and volume | Rushing, cherry-picking near orders, no loyalty on quiet days |
| Hybrid | Lower base plus a per-delivery amount, often with a daily or weekly target bonus | ₹8,000 to ₹12,000 base plus ₹10 to ₹20 per delivery | Shows up and works the rush | Needs clean records of deliveries per rider |
A worked hybrid: ₹10,000 base plus ₹15 per delivery. At 500 deliveries a month the rider earns ₹17,500 plus fuel, which is competitive with app incentives in most cities and far steadier. Pay on a fixed date, every month, without fail. Late pay is the most common reason good riders leave.
Whatever the model, work out what it comes to per delivery and compare it to your courier alternative, which is covered in On-demand delivery partners compared. The full cost of a single delivery on a small order is in what a 200 rupee order really costs to deliver.
Fuel, bikes, rosters and the legal basics
Fuel
Two clean options. Pay a per-kilometre allowance based on the delivery distance your system records, at a rate that reflects the current petrol price and a typical bike's mileage. Or pay a fixed monthly fuel amount for a defined radius and review it quarterly. Avoid reimbursing petrol receipts; it invites disputes and padding.
Own bike or company bike
A rider using their own bike is simpler and more common; pay a small monthly maintenance allowance, ₹500 to ₹1,000, in recognition. A company bike makes sense only when you have multiple shifts sharing it, and then it needs insurance in the company's name, a logbook and a service schedule.
Phone and data
A ₹200 to ₹300 monthly data allowance is cheap compared to a rider who cannot open the address. Make it explicit.
Rain gear and a delivery bag
Provide both. An insulated bag keeps food hot and reviews good; a raincoat keeps the rider working in monsoon. Budget ₹1,500 to ₹2,500 per rider once.
Rosters and hours
Write the hours down: a split shift of 11 am to 3 pm and 6 pm to 11 pm is normal for a delivery role, with one weekly off. Rotate the weekend off between riders so Saturday night is always covered. A roster on the wall or in a shared chat, a week ahead, prevents most no-shows.
The legal basics
On the legal side, keep it simple and safe. Minimum wages are set by each state and differ for skilled and unskilled roles; pay at or above the figure for your state. Once your headcount crosses the thresholds in your state, ESI and EPF registration apply to employees under the wage ceiling, and those thresholds are counted across all staff, kitchen included. Check the current numbers with a local accountant rather than a blog.
Two things matter more than the paperwork in practice. First, a personal accident insurance cover for each rider, which costs a few hundred rupees a year and protects both of you. Second, a one-page letter stating the role, pay, hours, fuel terms and notice period, signed by both sides. No lawyer would admire it, and it still ends most disagreements before they start.
Training that prevents the usual complaints
Most delivery complaints come from four moments, and a one-hour induction covers all of them.
- Before leaving. Check the order number against the bag, confirm the bill and any cash to collect, and mark the order as out for delivery so the customer sees it.
- On the road. No calls while riding. If a customer calls, pull over. If the address is unclear, call from a stationary spot, and use the location pin before calling at all.
- At the door. Greet by name if the order shows it, hand over the bag upright, confirm the amount if cash, and mark the order delivered before leaving the gate.
- When something goes wrong. Spill, wrong address, customer unreachable: the rule is to message the counter immediately. The counter decides on a remake or refund; the rider never argues with a customer.
The promise you make to the customer on timing depends on the rider's part of the trip, so set the promise with the rider's real travel times in mind; see delivery time estimates: how to promise and keep ETAs.
Give riders a screen instead of a phone call
A rider who has to call the counter for the address, the amount and the customer's number on every trip is slower and more error-prone than one who sees all of it on a screen. The minimum is an order view on their phone with the address, a map pin, the phone number, the bill and whether it is paid, plus two buttons: out for delivery and delivered.
Give riders their own login with permissions limited to their job, so they can update status without seeing revenue or editing the menu. How to structure that is in restaurant staff management: roles, permissions and who sees what. On a WhatsApp ordering platform such as Tezzu, orders arrive with the customer's address, phone number, zone charge and payment status already captured, the staff app alerts on new orders, and staff roles let a rider update statuses without wider access; the cloud kitchen solution page shows how it fits a delivery-first kitchen.
See how a delivery kitchen runs its riders
Orders with address, payment and zone on one screen, a staff app that sounds an alert for new orders, and rider-level permissions. See how it works for cloud kitchens.
See how it works for cloud kitchensFrequently asked questions
What is the salary of a delivery boy in a restaurant?
Fixed salaries for restaurant delivery riders commonly fall between ₹12,000 and ₹20,000 a month depending on city and hours, with fuel paid separately. Many kitchens use a hybrid of a lower base plus ₹10 to ₹20 per delivery, which lands in the same range at normal volume and rewards working the busy hours. Pay at or above your state's minimum wage.
How many deliveries can one rider do in a day?
Within a 3 km radius, a rider can typically complete 20 to 30 deliveries across a split shift of lunch and dinner, more when two orders go the same way and are batched. Longer trips, traffic and rain cut that quickly. The number depends more on your radius and order bunching than on the rider.
Should I hire a delivery boy or use a delivery app for my restaurant?
Count your deliveries per day. Below roughly 15, a per-trip courier is cheaper because there is no idle cost. Above 25 to 30 inside a tight radius, an in-house rider costs less per delivery and can batch orders. In between, many kitchens run one rider for the core radius and book couriers for overflow and far addresses.
Do I need to register delivery staff for ESI and PF?
It depends on your total headcount and each employee's wage, with thresholds set by law and some details varying by state. The thresholds count all staff, riders included. Ask a local accountant for the current figures and register when you cross them. Separately, a personal accident policy for each rider is inexpensive and worth having from day one.