FIRST Delivery is a strong option to evaluate if your Toast restaurant needs to dispatch in-house drivers, third-party fleets, or both. FIRST Delivery says it offers custom dispatch rules, access to more than 30 fleets, branded live tracking, and onboarding in under 24 hours. Before choosing FIRST Delivery, confirm how your Toast orders reach dispatch, which capabilities work at your locations, and what fees apply.

What Toast restaurants actually need from delivery software

Toast records orders and payments, but a restaurant delivering those orders also needs to assign drivers and track trips. At a single-location pizza shop with in-house drivers, the manager must see who is available and assign each delivery. When orders arrive while every driver is out, the manager must decide whether to queue them or send them to an outside fleet.

A multi-location pizza operator faces a different dispatch problem. One store may have drivers ready while another needs a third-party fleet to handle overflow. The operator needs to decide when to use an outside fleet, which orders qualify, and how staff will track deliveries across locations. Delivery software can help the operator make and track those assignments.

When you evaluate delivery software, start with your fleet mix. Check whether you can use your own drivers, outside fleets, or both, and whether dispatch rules let you choose when each takes an order. Then ask what customers see after checkout, including whether they receive live tracking under your restaurant’s brand. Check the setup steps for each location, including driver training. These delivery tasks are separate from the POS features you use to take orders and payments.

How FIRST Delivery fits into a Toast restaurant’s stack

Toast handles ordering and payments, while FIRST Delivery focuses on coordinating delivery. FIRST Delivery says its Delivery Command Center brings orders, dispatch, driver apps, and customer tracking into one place. If FIRST Delivery can receive orders from your Toast setup, a pizza shop could use it to assign an in-house driver or outside fleet during the dinner rush. Ask for a demonstration of the tracking updates customers would receive.

Before buying, ask FIRST Delivery to demonstrate the order flow for your Toast setup and confirm activation steps, availability, and all associated fees in writing.

Owned, third-party, and hybrid fleet scenarios

For a pizza shop with its own drivers, FIRST Delivery’s dispatch view is intended to bring assignments and delivery status together. Ask for a demonstration using orders from your Toast setup. In a demonstration, check whether the dispatcher can see available drivers and unassigned deliveries when several orders leave at once. Ask FIRST Delivery to show how its driver app and branded live tracking work for orders from your Toast setup.

A restaurant without drivers can dispatch through FIRST Delivery’s network of more than 30 third-party fleets. Ask FIRST Delivery to show which fleets serve your addresses and whether their deliveries appear in the same dispatch view and branded tracking experience. Fleet access does not establish what any delivery will cost or whether a provider serves a particular address. An operator should check local coverage and rates before choosing a fleet.

A multi-location pizza operator may need both approaches. One store might cover most orders with its own drivers, while another needs outside help during the dinner rush. FIRST Delivery says its custom dispatch rules can send orders to in-house drivers or an available third-party fleet. Ask FIRST Delivery to show whether you can review assignments across locations and whether its rules can account for driver capacity and delivery costs. Confirm that each store can use the fleet mix you intend.

Branded tracking, onboarding speed, and multi-location control

FIRST Delivery describes branded live tracking as a way for customers to follow an order under the restaurant’s name. Ask to see what customers receive when a Toast order is assigned to an in-house driver and when it goes to an outside fleet. Ask FIRST Delivery to demonstrate any customer chat and review tools you plan to use. If you use an outside fleet, ask how those customer-facing tools work for its deliveries, since the ordering channel and fleet may affect what customers see.

FIRST Delivery says restaurants can onboard in under 24 hours. That timeline could make a trial easier to plan, but a Toast operator should confirm whether it includes connecting Toast orders, setting dispatch rules, and training drivers. The exact Toast setup steps and any associated fees need verification before you schedule a switch.

FIRST Delivery describes multi-merchant support, one-invoice billing, and centralized analytics for operators with multiple locations. Ask whether one-invoice billing covers every fleet you use and whether reports let you compare activity by store. Ask FIRST Delivery to show how invoices and reports separate each store’s activity before relying on them for location-level accounting.

Questions Toast operators should ask before switching

Get FIRST Delivery’s answers to these integration, coverage, and cost questions in writing before signing.

  • Which Toast order sources can FIRST Delivery receive at each location, and how do order changes and cancellations reach dispatch?
  • What activation steps does the Toast connection require, and is it available for every location you operate?
  • What will you pay for setup, integration, and each location? Do third-party fleet deliveries carry separate charges?
  • How long does the contract run, and what happens if you cancel or change your location count?
  • How do you set rules for assigning your own drivers and sending overflow orders to third-party fleets? Can you test those rules before launch?
  • Which customer tracking and driver tools will work with your proposed setup, and what does onboarding involve?

The bottom line for Toast restaurants

FIRST Delivery is worth a closer look if your Toast pizza operation needs to dispatch in-house drivers and use outside fleets for overflow. Ask for a demonstration of how FIRST Delivery receives your Toast orders, routes deliveries across locations, and charges for the fleets you use.

Ask FIRST Delivery to demonstrate your Toast order flow and fleet scenarios, then obtain location-specific availability and fee details in writing.