On-Demand Food Delivery Platform with Real-Time Order Tracking

The founding team identified an opportunity in mid-sized cities underserved by major delivery platforms. They needed to build a three-sided marketplace: restaurant partners, delivery drivers, and hungry customers. The platform required real-time order management, intelligent driver dispatch, live order tracking, seamless payments, and commission management—all while remaining profitable on $5-15 orders.

Technical challenges included: real-time GPS tracking with 5-second update intervals, route optimization balancing multiple concurrent orders per driver, restaurant tablet integration for kitchen display systems, surge pricing algorithms, fraud detection for promo abuse, and offline-first mobile apps for drivers working in areas with spotty connectivity. The system needed to handle 500 concurrent orders during peak lunch and dinner rushes.

We built the platform using React Native for customer and driver mobile apps, React web app for restaurant dashboard, Node.js microservices backend, MongoDB for operational data, Redis for real-time state management, and PostgreSQL for transactional/financial data. WebSockets powered real-time order updates across all participants.

The routing engine used a modified vehicle routing problem (VRP) algorithm considering driver location, order pickup/delivery addresses, preparation time estimates, and driver capacity (up to 4 concurrent orders). Machine learning models predicted restaurant prep times based on historical data, order complexity, and current kitchen load. The system automatically batched compatible orders to maximize driver efficiency while maintaining promised delivery times.

Payment infrastructure integrated Stripe Connect for multi-party payments: customers paid upfront, funds were split between platform, restaurant, and driver with automated settlement cycles. Dynamic pricing adjusted delivery fees based on demand, distance, and driver availability, following similar principles to ride-sharing surge pricing.

The delivery platform scaled rapidly to serve 85,000 active users across 3 cities. Intelligent routing algorithms optimized delivery times to an average of 8 minutes (vs. 15-minute industry average), while dynamic pricing maximized driver earnings and platform margins. The app achieved 4.7/5 customer rating and 4.8/5 driver rating. First-year GMV reached $8.2M with 22% take rate.