PrepStation
For catering delivery
Price the road before checkout Not after delivery eats the margin
PrepStation calculates catering delivery by flat fee, service area, drawn zone, or driving distance. Customers see the charge before they commit; you keep minimums, range, and free-delivery offers under control.
No credit card required · Per-location rules · Cancel anytime
Order summary
Delivery · 1200 Figueroa St · 64 guests · Midtown zone
Why use a delivery fee engine
01
Protect delivery margin
Charge for the route you actually serve instead of hiding every drive inside menu prices.
02
Set the promise early
Show the fee, delivery minimum, or service-area limit before a customer commits.
03
Reward the right orders
Offer free delivery above the subtotal that makes sense for each area, zone, or distance band.
No credit card for the live demo
Preview a saved rule against an address
Cancel anytime
A flat guess works until the route does not. Downtown loading and a 30-mile drop are different jobs.
Catering delivery has real labor, mileage, and service-area limits. Price it deliberately so a small far-away order cannot erase the margin you protected in the kitchen.
Take delivery seriously
The fee belongs on the quote and checkout, not in a manager’s calculator after the customer already said yes.
Four pricing methods
Match the fee to how your market works
Pick one method per location. PrepStation resolves the destination, applies the matching rule, then keeps the calculated fee on the order as totals change. Tap a method to see the same address priced each way.
- Flat
- One fixed charge per delivery, or a percentage of each delivery’s subtotal.
- Area
- Prioritized rules for ZIP, city, county, state, or country.
- Zone
- Draw service polygons and set the fee for each boundary.
- Distance
- Price driving miles or kilometers with included distance and caps.
Delivery Fees
Pricing for orders fulfilled out of Downtown Kitchen
Calculation method
Zone pricing
- Downtown
- $25.00
- Midtown
- $45.00
- Outer zone
- $75.00
Shared options
- Minimum order
- $250.00
- Free delivery
- $2,500.00
Fee preview
Test an address against saved settings for Downtown Kitchen.
Delivery address
480 S Spring St, Los Angeles
Order subtotal
$1,677.00
Calculation method
Zone · Midtown
Available
$45.00
This address matches the Midtown delivery zone.
Try each pricing method with a real catering order in the live demo.
Delivery Fees
Pricing for orders fulfilled out of Downtown Kitchen
Calculation method
Flat
$35
Area
3 areas
Zone
4 zones
Distance
$2.50/mi
Driving distance
Distance-based fees
- Base fee
- $18.00
- Free distance
- 3 miles
- Minimum billable
- 2 miles
- Max delivery distance
- 30 miles
- Distance rounding
- Nearest 0.5
Shared options
- Minimum delivery fee
- $18.00
- Minimum order
- $250.00
Free delivery by distance
$500+ Up to 15 mi
$850+ And beyond
No offer
Margin guardrails
Minimums, fee floors, and range limits
Delivery economics change with order size and distance. Set a minimum order subtotal, enforce a minimum fee, cap the service range, and decide where free delivery still makes business sense.
- Minimum order checked after the address is confirmed serviceable
- Free-delivery overrides by area, zone, or distance band
- Minimum order and free delivery that scale with driving distance
- Pickup automatically skips the delivery calculation
Test before launch
Preview an address against saved rules
Enter a destination and subtotal in delivery settings. PrepStation runs the same geocoding and fee calculation used by a real order, so managers can sanity-check boundaries, distance, minimums, and free-delivery offers.
- Clear result for matched area, zone, or driving distance
- Clear reason when an address is outside the service range
- Shows the would-be fee when only the order minimum blocks delivery
Fee preview
Test an address against saved settings for Downtown Kitchen.
Delivery address
1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA
Order subtotal
$420.00
Calculation method
Zone · Westside
Delivery available
$65.00
This address matches the Westside delivery zone.
Add $330.00 more to qualify for free delivery in this zone.
- Zone
- Westside
- Tested subtotal
- $420.00
- Free delivery over
- $750.00
The route is part of the job
Deliver the event without giving away the drive
The customer sees a clear fee. Sales keeps the quote honest. The kitchen still gets one order ready for the promised handoff.
One fee from quote to checkout
Staff preview delivery while building sales orders and quotes. Customers see it before payment on your online storefront. On a multi-day or multi-drop order, each delivery carries its own fee on the same ticket. See pricing for plans.
What does delivery cost? Ask Roux.
Give him an address, a ZIP code or a city and he prices delivery from your saved delivery pricing, whether that's a flat fee, a percent of the food, zones or driving distance. When he drafts a reply to a customer, the delivery fee in it is a live estimate, not a guess.
Try asking Roux
- “What's delivery to 1450 Harbor Blvd?”
- “Delivery fee to 94110 for a $900 order”
- “Delivery fee to Oakland”
- “Draft a reply with the delivery fee”
Roux proposes, you approve. Nothing saves until you do, and he only works in the apps you have turned on.
AI Tool
Using Delivery Fee (estimating)
- Address found, 11.4 mi
- Zone 2 pricing
- Your saved delivery pricing
Roux
That's in Zone 2, 11.4 miles out: $65 delivery on an $1,800 order.
Questions catering teams ask
Straight answers about delivery rules, service areas, and fee previews.
How can PrepStation calculate a delivery fee?
Four ways: a flat fee (a fixed amount or a percentage of each delivery’s subtotal), the first matching area rule, the first matching drawn zone, or driving distance from the kitchen. Each location uses one calculation method at a time.
Can fees differ by ZIP code or city?
Yes. Area rules can match postal code, city, county, state, or country. Put rules in priority order and PrepStation uses the first active match.
Can we draw our own delivery zones?
Yes. Draw polygon delivery zones around the areas you serve, set a fee for each zone, and order them by priority. Addresses outside every active zone are marked unavailable.
How does distance-based pricing work?
PrepStation uses Google Maps driving distance from the kitchen or a custom origin. You can set included distance, a per-mile or per-kilometer rate, rounding, a minimum billable distance, and a maximum range. The minimum order and free-delivery threshold can grow with distance too, so longer runs have to earn their fuel.
Can we offer free delivery only on larger orders?
Yes. Set a shared free-delivery subtotal, override it for an area or zone, raise it by a set amount per mile or kilometer, or use different thresholds for distance bands. The threshold uses the subtotal before promo codes, so a coupon can’t buy free delivery.
Does pickup receive a delivery fee?
No. Pickup returns a zero delivery fee. Delivery and pickup remain separate fulfillment choices.
When does the customer see the fee?
Before committing. PrepStation previews the delivery fee on quotes and at storefront checkout, along with a clear message when the order is below the delivery minimum or outside the service area.
PrepStation
Price delivery before the customer commits
Try flat, area, zone, and distance rules. Preview the fee, protect the minimum, and show the charge on the same catering order.
No credit card required · Cancel anytime