Beyond the well-known giants like Uber Eats and DoorDash, there are hundreds of independent food delivery platforms in the United States. However, little is known about the sociotechnical landscape of these ``indie'' platforms. In this paper, we analyzed these platforms to understand why they were created, how they operate, and what technologies they use. We collected data on 495 indie platforms and detailed survey responses from 29 platforms. We found that personalized, timely service is a central value of indie platforms, as is a sense of responsibility to the local community they serve. Indie platforms are motivated to provide fair rates for restaurants and couriers. These alternative business practices differentiate them from mainstream platforms. Though indie platforms have plans to expand, a lack of customizability in off-the-shelf software prevents independent platforms from personalizing services for their local communities. We show that these platforms are a widespread and longstanding fixture of the food delivery market. We illustrate the diversity of motivations and values to explain why a one-size-fits-all support is insufficient, and we discuss the siloing of technology that inhibits platforms' growth. Through these insights, we aim to promote future HCI research into the potential development of public-interest technologies for local food delivery.

翻译：在Uber Eats和DoorDash等知名巨头之外，美国还存在数百家独立食品配送平台。然而，关于这些“独立”平台的社会技术格局，人们知之甚少。本文通过对这些平台的分析，旨在理解其创建动机、运营模式及所采用的技术。我们收集了495个独立平台的数据及29个平台的详细问卷反馈。研究发现，个性化与及时性服务是独立平台的核心价值，同时它们对服务当地社区怀有责任感。这些平台致力于为餐厅和配送员提供公平报酬，其替代性商业模式使其区别于主流平台。尽管独立平台有扩张计划，但现成软件缺乏可定制性，阻碍了其为本地社区提供个性化服务。研究表明，这些平台是食品配送市场中广泛存在且长期存在的组成部分。我们通过解析其多元化动机与价值观，论证了“一刀切”扶持方案的局限性，并探讨了制约平台发展的技术孤岛现象。基于这些洞察，我们旨在推动未来人机交互研究关注本地食品配送领域公共利益技术的潜在开发。