Hoboken is now the latest municipality in New Jersey that will place a cap on fees from third-party delivery services.

The delivery apps, while being essential to many restaurants operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, also take a big bite out of small businesses’ revenues.

“It’s been devastating for our family. We are planners to begin with, so the fact we had to live day by day really takes a toll,” says Theresa Da Palma, of Leo's Grandevous.

Palma is the fourth generation to work at her family’s Hoboken restaurant. It was opened by her great grandfather more than 80 years ago. Palma’s father now owns the business. It’s been too cold for outdoor dining and with indoor capacity limited to 35%, Palma says that delivery apps have been important for the business.

“We were relying on other people, not ourselves and that was the hardest part of it. But it got us through the worst of it,” Palma says.

Many small businesses have been relying on apps like Grubhub or Uber Eats to take orders online and deliver the food to customers. But it comes at a price in the form of a commission. In some cases, it is as high as 30% of an order.

“Anything helps at this point during the pandemic in the middle of winter with limited capacity,” says Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla. “This is another measure to help small businesses.”

On Monday, Hoboken placed a 15% cap on third-party delivery fees.

“Anything that will save us and keep it at a limit. Again, certainty – which we don’t have a lot of. It’s a certainty thing and moving forward, we’ll stick with it and helping get our food on the street,” Palma says.

Hoboken’s cap goes into effect on Feb. 23. Nearby Jersey City also recently passed a similar ordinance.

The delivery fees are not tips for the drivers – many of whom ride bikes to make the deliveries.