Why is it so hard to get food delivered hot and relatively fast?

Because drivers can decline orders offered to them

A delivery is actually an agreement between customer and independent contractor (driver) facilitated by the app

Offered to contractors, usually one at a time

Until a contractor decides to accept the delivery opportunity

The app IS NOT a delivery company, your driver is the delivery company

The app does not dictate how we complete the delivery

It's in our sole business discretion to complete the order as we see fit

Some of us figure out quickly what customers like and don't like

And the apps will actually encourage drivers to do things customers don't like

Read that customer agreement, and read the drivers contract with the app platform

They are publicly viewable on all of the apps websites

This independent contractor structure seems to be the only way these apps can stay in business

If they had to foot all the normal costs of having "employees"

Imagine what the fees for the service would rise to

This structure creates a LOT of unintended consequences

Which are never openly explained to the customer before placing the order

I will explain these things with a paragraph

And then you can click on the paragraph to go in depth