Field note
Rider wait at the door is a kitchen metric
When riders idle at the entrance, partner apps punish you even if the pass felt calm.
Partner apps clock the gap between “ready” and rider pickup. Kitchens experience that gap as a crowded doorway, a missing bag rack, or a call-out nobody heard over the extractor.
Map the last five metres
From pass to rider handoff, count the steps and the places a bag can sit without blocking the line. One Subang dark kitchen cut idle time by adding a labelled shelf facing the entrance — riders stopped asking which bag was theirs.
Ready means sealed
Marking ready early to “help” the timer backfires when riders arrive to open boxes. Train the floor that ready equals sealed, labelled, and on the handoff shelf.
When the street is the problem
Some mall loading bays simply jam. Note that honestly in your brief to owners; analytics cannot pave a new driveway. What you can do is batch handoffs and post a clear pickup sign so riders do not wander into the kitchen.