Oven Scars

Playbook tool

Delivery Channel Breakeven

Marketplace commission is a percentage of your ticket. Your own driver and white-label fulfillment are closer to a flat fee. There is a specific ticket size where the two lines cross — this finds yours.

About 5 minutes · Free · Nothing you type leaves your browser

Have these in front of you

  • Your marketplace commission rate
  • Your flat cost per delivery (white-label fee or in-house driver cost)
  • Your average delivery ticket

Your channels

Order subtotal, from your POS — not including the customer's fees.
From your merchant agreement. Published tiers run 15–30%.
White-label fee at your typical radius, or your driver's loaded cost per run.
Lets the tool put an annual number on the gap.
Don’t know your driver’s loaded cost? Work it out here.
US average for a pizza delivery driver is about $15.91.
Door to door and back on the clock.
Costed at the 2026 IRS standard rate of 72.5¢/mile.
Loaded cost per delivery

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Your breakeven ticket

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Cost on your average ticket — marketplace

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Cost on your average ticket — flat fee

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On your average order

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This calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your numbers are never sent to Oven Scars, never stored, and never logged. Close the tab and they are gone.

The method

How to run this properly

  1. Find your real commission rate

    Take the rate from your merchant agreement, not the headline number. Marketplace commission is charged on the order subtotal, so it scales with every dollar of ticket size.

  2. Price your flat-fee alternative honestly

    For white-label fulfillment, use the published base fee plus per-mile charges at your typical radius. For your own driver, use the fully loaded cost: wage, employer payroll tax, and mileage for a round trip — plus the insurance exposure marketplaces keep off your books.

  3. Divide the flat fee by the commission rate

    Flat cost ÷ commission rate = the breakeven ticket. Below that ticket, marketplace commission costs less than the flat fee and you are paying for reach on a small check. Above it, the flat-fee channel gets cheaper on every additional dollar.

  4. Route, do not abandon

    The answer is rarely "quit the marketplace." It is to steer orders above your breakeven toward your own site and fulfillment, and let the marketplace keep bringing you the smaller checks it is genuinely cheaper on.

What this doesn’t do

This compares fee structures on a single order, not total cost of ownership. It does not price the marketing spend needed to replace a marketplace’s built-in audience, driver idle time on a slow shift, or non-owned auto insurance for your own fleet — get a real quote before moving volume on this math alone.

The reporting behind this tool

This calculator is the conclusion of an Oven Scars story, made executable. The article shows the worked example and links every figure to its primary source.

The Delivery Math Nobody Does