Hey Steve, I need some help.
I’m offering delivery because of the large medical complex near to my cart. This is my target market. The majority of these workers don’t leave for lunch.
Is there any preferred way to keep the dogs hot when the customer gets them delivered?
I’m keeping my delivery circle to a 2 mile diameter. It’s not like delivering a pizza with molten cheese on top to help keep the pie hot. Dogs may cool down quickly.
Do any other slingers deliver multiple orders and how do they keep the food hot when delivered in say within 20 minutes?
-James N.
*************************************
Great question James.
The key is a concept from physics called “thermal mass”. Without getting all “Einstein” here, thermal mass means the temperature times the mass of an object.
So, the hotter the dog, the longer it will stay hot. Or – the more dogs there are in an order, the longer they will stay hot. If you have both, that is the holy grail.
This means setting minimum order quantities, not only to keep the food hot but to maximize your profit margin on each order.
Wrap each dog in foil sheets, pack them close together (without smushing them) and transport them in a cooler. Yes, coolers keep things hot as well as cold. Use a cooler just big enough for your biggest delivery orders. The more empty space in the cooler, the less effective it will be at keeping things hot.
Make a Hot Plate. If you want to go high tech, have a machine shop cut you a piece of 1 1/2 thick aluminum plate about the size of a steam pan lid. Be sure it will fit in the bottom of your cooler. Keep that plate hot by letting it sit on top of your steamer.
When you get a delivery order, place the plate in the bottom of your delivery cooler and put the foil wrapped hot dogs on top of the plate. This will keep them hot a lot longer because we have increased the thermal mass of our delivery order.
Don’t forget to use your delivery cooler for advertising your cart. Get some vinyl graphics made with your logo, phone number, and website and apply them to your cooler. You could even do a full vinyl wrap! It’s a great way to let everyone know who you are when your delivery person arrives at the office or factory.
How about you, slingers? Got any tips for James about doing hot dog deliveries?’
Lets talk about it in the comments below!
-Steve
i have done that i went to home depot and bought a metal tool box and did what steve said with the metal bottom but having an all metal box that can fit around 20to25 dogs is plenty big enough the bigger the box the more you have to heat so use your invented mind and make it happen good luck and keep slinging
they make small and large plug in coolers that both heat or cool. Maybe try the thermal bags they sell at your local store as well. Last of all but not ma favorite you could use a plug in thermal pizza cover like they use it keep them hot. Good luck!
That’s a great idea and what Steve suggests works well. I used to take orders from the hospital I worked at and on payday Thursday I would deliver them to the employee break room. There I would have all the condiments set out for self serve. Every order was packed in separate brown paper lunch sacks with the person’s name on it so that there wouldn’t be a freeloader just reaching in and grabbing a dog or 2. Surprisingly, they stayed pretty warm by the time they were able to get to their dogs. You can also use those thermo bags that you can get at Walmart for smaller orders, they stay pretty warm in them as well. Good luck, hope this helps you out.
Most truck stops have a hot cold cooler that plugs into cigarette lighter outlets, check them out. You can heat the cooler while making the dogs.
That’s a great idea!
I knew about the cooler keeping things warm, not just cool, but the hot plate thing sounds like a super idea, Steve. Thanks for the tips, as always.
Hot food bag only $27.00
link
foil wrap then put in styrofoam.
I would really think about delivery..it’s alot of hassel you got the product to keep hot,
which ain’t that hard..but if your going 2 miles square your gonna need about 3 guys..and if they all want it in there 12 to 1 lunch hour good luck..cause your gonna get 1 order going south ,north, east, an west all at the same time..
And that’s on top of the action you have on your walk up clientel..oh and what happens when 1 of your drivers can’t come in ..and you have to get insurance on them too, incase they hit somebody delivering for you..lot of hassle for a few buks,
just move closer to the hospitals door.Good Luck.!!
great advise, where ever u have a number of car dealer ships in a row,try deliver their, they do not like salesman leaving on sat.
There’s a heat plate you can get that’s made of special material just for keeping things hot, and all you have to do is run it under hot water for a while. That way wouldn’t work well for a dog biz, but what WOULD work is keeping it on top of the steam pans. Then at time of delivery, stick it in one of those insulated bags that keeps things hot OR cold. That would keep it hot for a long time!
Thanks for the advice everyone!
I use the cooler method to keep my barbecue hot while waiting for other foods to finish cooking or wait for guests to show up.
I wrap the meat I a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil and wrap that in several layers of towels. The rest of the space is filled with a blanket or two. I’ve had pork butt hold temps well above 145 degrees for as long a 6 hours before the temps start to drop. YMMV.
Thanks Dutch. Awesome tip! You are right, air is the enemy of holding temps.
how much to charge for delivery fee? in small town
Calculate your costs and charge enough to cover them.
When I was delivering “Meals on Wheels” We would put the meals in coolers and put a hot brick that was warmed in the oven in the bottom, meals stayed plenty hot.