Lodel vs Joyrun: Double the delivery for hungry students
Over the past few weeks, students may have been receiving flyers around campus from a man representing the food delivery app, Lodel.
That man is Daniel Rolland, owner of Lodel. Rolland spent a few weeks in the area working to build the brand that he and his brothers created.
Rolland and his brothers all attended colleges in different parts of the country. They each ran local versions of the app on their respective campuses. Once they graduated, they joined forces. Their first Lodel market was born in Flagstaff, Arizona. Now the brothers are traveling the country working to expand their service.
“We travel around to our markets and spend a few days at a time there,” Rolland said. “When I’m in Logan, I meet with restaurants and go out and be in the community to promote the brand. We sponsor events and look for opportunities to be involved.”
Last year, students in Logan were introduced to the food delivery app Joyrun. Students experienced the mass amounts of flyers and booths around campus similar to what Lodel has done this semester.
So what is the difference between these two similar seeming apps?
The basic function of each service is to deliver food to those who order through the app. The idea is that the consumer can be at their house and just through the click of a button have their favorite restaurant delivered to their doorstep.
Rolland said the difference between Lodel and Joyrun comes from the way they work with restaurants.
“We are a website and mobile app that connects diner to restaurants in their neighborhood. It allows them to order directly from those restaurants for delivery,” Rolland said. “The biggest thing that separates us is that we integrate directly from the restaurant. You order directly from the menu without adding prices and menu items. When you order it goes directly to the restaurant which makes it a quicker process.”
With Joyrun the process is a little different. Kent Thompson, marketing intern and runner for Joyrun, said they can deliver much more than just food.
“Joyrun provides an opportunity for someone to order food or a household good. Any grocery store or restaurant we can deliver from,” Thompson said. “The cool thing is we have way more options. You can do groceries or any restaurant. Lodel just works with restaurants they partner with. Joyrun is more flexible in that aspect.”
Lodel and Joyrun employees are their drivers and delivers, or as Joyrun calls them, their “runners.” Their task is to get the food from point A to B. Lodel sources their drivers using various job websites. Then they are hired on just to be drivers.
“Our drivers are independent contractors, so we are constantly hiring drivers. We use tons of different job websites to do that. The drivers set their availability and then we give them a schedule. It all works depending on the number of orders and drivers that are working,” Rolland said.
In comparison, anyone can become apart of the Joyrun team. There is no background or hiring process, all someone needs to do is download the app.
“It’s cool because anyone can do runs. You could download the app right now and do it. It’s a good thing for anyone who wants to make some extra cash,” Thompson said.
The final step of the delivery for both services is the payment process. Each app differs in the way there payments are handled. This is both in the way employees are paid and how the food is payed for.
Lodel’s system processes the entire payment process. There is no credit card swiped at the restaurant or cash being handled because it is all taken care of through their system. Rolland explained that this process is very efficient.
“Since we integrate directly with he restaurants, Lodel processes all the payments. So by the time someone has ordered the food is already all payed for. Typically, we provide restaurants with tablets and the order appears there,” Rolland said. “Then, since the order is paid for, we then do direct distributions into the restaurants account for the sales that week. It’s all processed through Lodel. The drivers get delivery, and tip, and payed for all the orders they do.”
Joyrun users orders are paid through on the app as well. Users add their payment info into the app and then it is remembered for their future purchases. Their system differs in what happens when the drivers get to the restaurants.
“When they order, the app charges them for the food, delivery fee, and tip. The runner goes to the restaurant and pays for the food themselves and then joyrun reimburses them for everything,” Thompson said.
Both Lodel and Joyrun recognize each other’s presence in Cache Valley, but neither of them are too worried about the other. They feel their differences will have users deciding which one they prefer.
“There’s no doubt in Logan, Utah that Joyrun exists and they are our competition. We consider them a competition to an extent. They have a different business model than us and both have advantages and disadvantages,” Roland said.
They also both agree that Logan is a perfect market for their services. The college town atmosphere provides a demographic that their services thrive off of.
“Logan is good for this type of service mainly because of the campus we have here. That what makes it work here. The app is run by college age kids, here at Utah State it is like a community. We can help people out when they are studying or slammed with something by delivering them food,” Thompson said.
Megan Sansom, special education and elementary education major, used Joyrun several times last year. For her, the aspect of being busy and being able to have the food delivered is what kept her using the app.
“They had free delivery days, so it was a no brainer. You could get in your car and pay for gas or get it for free, “ Sansom said. “Then it became just convenient. It’s easy and makes sense for users. Even the delivery fees aren’t that much. It’s better than driving there and getting in line.”
Lodel and Joyrun’s future will be determined by the users of the service. This is why both have aggressive marketing campaigns and are constantly offering deals to their users. To keep their service going, they have to grow.
Lodel’s team is going on a cross country journey to make sure that their app will keep becoming bigger.
“We have a road map of 60 more college towns we plan on expanding into in the next 24 months. We are expanding in places where we don’t have this type of service. We feel there really is a big need for it,” Roland said.
As for the Joy Runners, they are hoping to keep spreading joy in Cache Valley by seeking out more deals with local restaurants and spreading to more campuses.
“As far as the future goes Joyrun is just branching out to more college campuses. Ideally what would be awesome is that you could go to any college town or city and be able to use Joyrun,” Thompson said. “It’s still growing to be more of a common thing. We are also getting more restaurant partnerships to do more frequent deals in the future.”
Customers in Logan now have the opportunity to have whatever they are craving delivered right at their fingertips. It will be up to them whether Lodel or Joyrun becomes the more popular app or if both will be able to coexist in Cache Valley.
—shelby.black@aggiemail.usu.edu
@shelbsterblack