Blog / Tiffin

There is a particular kind of care that does not travel well over a phone call. A parent who eats alone. A partner who skips lunch when work gets busy. A student in their first year, living on whatever is cheapest. You cannot be there at noon every day — but the food can be.

That is the whole idea behind the tiffin run: your kitchen, their desk, a driver who does the same route at the same time every weekday.

Setting it up takes about two minutes

1. Open the rider portal and choose Tiffin delivery.
2. Pick the vehicle. A bicycle is the cheapest for anything under 8 km and keeps the food level; a motorcycle is faster across a bigger city.
3. Put the collection address and the delivery address in, and write the time window in the note — "collect 11:40, deliver by 12:30" is a real instruction, "around lunchtime" is not.
4. Message the driver and ask for a monthly price rather than a per-trip one.
5. Send the tracking code to whoever is receiving it.

What it costs

Tiffin is deliberately the lowest-priced service on the platform, because the route repeats and the driver can plan their day around it. A monthly plan takes another 20–30% off depending on length.

Two tiffins on the same route cost barely more than one. If a neighbour or a colleague eats from the same kitchen, arrange it together and split the price.

Making sure it arrives hot

• Use a stacked steel tiffin with a locking clamp. It holds heat far better than a plastic box in a bag.
• Keep gravy separate from dry items, and say in the note if a container leaks — every driver reads the note before accepting.
• Insulated bags matter more than speed. Ask the driver whether they carry one; many tiffin regulars do.
• Shorter is warmer. Under 8 km, a bicycle courier often beats a car through traffic and keeps the container upright the whole way.

The person waiting does not need an account. Send them the tracking code and they can watch the stages move — collected, in transit, delivered — from any browser.

Why the tracking matters more here than anywhere else

With a ride, you are in the car; you know where it is. With a tiffin, the person who cares most about the delivery is at the other end of it. Giving your mother, your son or your partner the code turns a daily favour into something they can see coming — and it removes the phone call that starts with "has it left yet?"

When plans change

Tell the driver the night before, in the chat thread, not at 11:40 the next morning. Most drivers will not charge for a day they knew about in advance. Agree the month's holidays at the start of the month, and if your driver is unavailable for a day, book a second driver for that date and keep both threads open.

Small thing, done every day

A tiffin run is not a grand gesture. It is one warm meal, arriving on time, twenty-two times a month. That is usually what people remember.

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