For Caterers & Meal Delivery Operations

Catering Delivery Software that hits every drop time

In catering, "close enough" doesn't exist. A corporate lunch at 11:45 is wrong at 12:15. Raute routes by required drop time, tracks every driver live, and captures photo proof the trays landed set up and on time — built for caterers and meal-delivery operations running 2 to 50 drivers, from $24.99/mo with a 7-day free trial and no credit card.

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What slows down catering & meal delivery

Drop times are non-negotiable

A board lunch booked for 11:30 means the food is set up by 11:30, not on the road at 11:30. Generic route planners optimize for the shortest drive, not the required arrival window, so they happily stack a 12:00 event behind a 1:00 one and blow the timing on both.

Event day is a wall of drops at once

Catering volume doesn't trickle in like parcels. You have eight corporate lunches all due between 11:30 and 12:30, plus a wedding load-in across town. Dispatch has to launch a fleet in a single window, and a spreadsheet built at 7am can't keep up when the kitchen runs ten minutes behind.

BEOs and order forms aren't routable

Your bookings live in banquet event orders, catering platform emails, and a stack of order confirmations — addresses, contact names, headcounts, dietary notes, all in prose. Someone retypes every venue address and suite number into a maps app before a single van leaves the commissary.

The client swears the food never showed

A corporate account claims the lunch didn't arrive, or arrived late, or was left at the wrong floor — and they want the invoice credited. Without timestamped, GPS-stamped proof that the trays were dropped, set up, and signed for, you eat the cost of a delivery you actually completed.

How Raute fits catering & meal delivery

Route by required drop time, not just distance

Tell Raute when each order has to be on the table and the planner builds routes around those windows, working backward from the event so the kitchen knows the real load-out time. It warns you when a route is set up to miss a window instead of letting you find out at the door.

Hard arrival windows on every stop, working back from event time
Re-optimizes live when the kitchen runs behind or an order is added
Flags any route that can't make a booked drop time

Paste BEOs and platform orders — AI builds the stops

Copy your banquet event orders, ezCater and Forkable confirmation emails, or a CSV of the day's bookings, and the AI parser pulls venue addresses, contact names, headcounts, and dietary notes into clean, structured stops. No integration to build before lunch service.

Reads BEOs, catering-platform emails, order forms, and CSVs
Cleans up venue suites, floors, and loading-dock notes
Carries headcount and allergy notes through to the driver

A live tracking link the office contact can watch

Send each client a branded tracking link with a real ETA so the office manager stops calling to ask where lunch is. They see the van approaching and have the conference room ready when your driver walks in with the trays.

Branded tracking page under your name, not a third party
Real-time ETA that updates as the route runs
Auto-text on dispatch and on arrival at the venue

Photo proof the setup landed right

Every drop captures a GPS-stamped, timestamped photo of the buffet set up on the table, a signature or the contact's name, and the exact address. When a corporate account disputes a delivery, you pull up the proof in one click instead of crediting the invoice.

Photo of the finished setup, signature, or contact name
Date, time, and GPS location stamped automatically
Settles 'it never arrived' chargebacks in seconds

A driver app a new event hand picks up in five minutes

Catering crews turn over and event-day drivers are often part-time. Open the app, see the next venue and its drop time, drive to the pin, drop the trays, snap the photo, tap delivered. No training video, no dispatcher narrating the route over the phone.

iOS and Android, works in low-signal loading docks
Drop time and setup notes front and center on each stop
Driver onboarding is a single SMS invite

Pricing that fits your operation

Starter is $24.99/month for up to 5 drivers and 500 orders. Pro is $59.99/month for 15 drivers. No per-driver fees, no surprise overages inside your plan limits.

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Catering & Meal Delivery FAQ

Can Raute route by the time each catering order has to arrive, not just the shortest drive?+

Yes — that's the core of it for caterers. You set a required drop time on every stop and Raute plans routes to hit those windows, working backward from the event so you know the real load-out time. If a route can't make a booked drop, it flags the conflict before the driver leaves instead of after the lunch is already late. It's the same per-order time-window engine across all plans, starting at $24.99 a month.

We get our orders from ezCater, a catering platform, or banquet event orders. Does Raute need an integration?+

No integration required. Paste your order confirmation emails, BEOs, or a CSV of the day's bookings, and the AI parser reads the venue addresses, contact names, headcounts, and dietary notes into clean, routable stops. You can be running optimized routes within the 7-day free trial, with no credit card and no developer involved.

How does Raute prove a catering drop happened if a corporate client disputes the invoice?+

Every delivery is closed with a photo of the setup, a signature or the on-site contact's name, and an automatic date, time, and GPS stamp tied to the venue address. When an account claims a lunch never showed or arrived late, you open the order and the timestamped proof is right there — so you defend the invoice instead of crediting it.

How much is Raute for a catering operation, and is there really a free trial?+

Starter is $24.99 a month for up to 5 drivers and 500 orders, Pro is $59.99 for 15 drivers, and Pioneer is $99.99 for 40 drivers — flat plans, not per-driver pricing like Onfleet's $500-plus platforms. Every account starts with a 7-day free trial with full access to every feature and no credit card required.

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