Today, Taco Bell announced an expanded partnership with Grubhub for nationwide delivery.
The news comes a year after Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands bought $200 million of common stock in Grubhub and started testing delivery in a limited number of markets. With the nationwide expansion, delivery is now available at roughly 65 percent of Taco Bell locations (via Grubhub, of course).
For the nationwide rollout, the two companies reportedly worked for months to directly integrate Grubhub into Taco Bell’s POS system. An integration like that means (hopefully) fewer inaccuracies on delivery orders, since workers won’t have to take an order then manually rekey it into a Grubhub tablet, as is the usual process for restaurants. The integration is Grubhub’s largest to date.
It won’t hurt Grubhub’s ongoing expansion, which is currently stretching to second- and third-tier U.S. markets (aka smaller cities). Grubhub has reportedly increased its fleet of drivers to accommodate the Taco Bell deal, which will reach many of those smaller cities.
Taco Bell has some serious growth plans in the works. Besides expanding its delivery program, the Irvine, CA-based chain plans to grow to 9,000 stores worldwide by 2022. The company will also install self-service kiosks in every U.S. restaurant by the end of 2019. Two years ago, that might have seemed like a risky business decision. But kiosks are everywhere these days, it seems, from trendy food halls to McDonald’s.
Taco bell also plans to start testing vegan and vegetarian menus in 2019. While the chain already offers some vegetarian combos, this will be the first dedicated menu for meat-free and vegan options.
That will happen a little later in 2019. In the meantime, the chain will celebrate its nationwide delivery launch by dropping the delivery fee on orders of $12 or more for a limited time.
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