The franchise pack
The Sam Controller handbook
One local operator runs PieSam per village. This is their pack: how to get a village live, the draft agreement behind the franchise, who accounts for what tax, and the safety procedures the app enforces.
Draft status: PieSam has no registered company yet, so the agreement and tax sheets below are working drafts with placeholders — for review with a lawyer and Skatteverket before anything is signed. The playbook and safety procedures are live practice already.
01 · Onboarding playbook
From zero to the first confirmed run
Nothing here needs new infrastructure: the restaurants, the platforms and the neighbours all exist. The controller’s job is coordination — and every step below maps to a live feature of this demo.
- 1
Set yourself up
Create an account, then on your account page appoint yourself Sam Controller for your village. If you already run a registered food business (say, the village pizzeria), tick “licensed kitchen” — that unlocks set meals with you as the seller-of-record.
Account → Sam Controller → - 2
Recruit 2–3 town restaurants
An informal agreement is enough to start: “I’ll collect several orders at once, at a fixed time, paid as normal takeaway pickups.” Restaurants lose nothing — they sell takeaway at full margin, with no marketplace commission on the food.
- 3
Open your channels
List “PieSam [your village]” wherever your neighbours already order: a Foodora/Wolt listing under your own business, the village Facebook group, a phone number on the shop noticeboard. The listing sells the delivery slot (and your set meals if licensed) — the food order itself goes to the source restaurant.
- 4
Plan the week, start the runs
Start with a rhythm people can remember: “Thai Tuesday, burger Friday, 19:30.” Create each run in the console with the order deadline about 90 minutes before delivery, and pre-assign yourself as driver if you are driving.
Controller console → - 5
Pool every order
App orders land on the run by themselves. Anything from the outside — platform listing, phone, doorstep chat — you log into the run in the console, with the customer’s name, items and any allergy note. Outside demand then counts toward confirming the run.
Log a customer order → - 6
Confirm, collect, deliver
When the run hits its minimum it confirms and appears on the drive board. You (or a neighbour driver) claim it, follow the per-restaurant pickup manifest, and mark collected → delivered. Collection-point runs drop everything at one counter.
Drive board → - 7
Review the numbers weekly
Watch fill rate, seats per run and your take per evening (the plan page lists the pilot KPIs). Kill slots that never fill; double down on the ones that do.
Pilot KPIs →
02 · Village operating agreement
The draft agreement, clause by clause
This is the working template for the controller franchise. Square brackets are placeholders that need a registered company and a lawyer’s review; the substance — especially the seller-of-record rule — already matches how the product behaves.
§1 · Parties & territory
Between [PieSam HQ — company name & org. nr, NOT YET REGISTERED] and [Operator name / business, org. nr] (“the Sam Controller”) for the village of [Village]. One primary controller per village; deputies by mutual consent. Non-exclusive brand licence for that territory while the agreement runs.
§2 · What the operator does
Starts and manages runs for the village; owns the customer relationship (orders, questions, complaints, refunds on their own sales); logs external orders promptly and accurately; keeps any third-party platform listings truthful and under the operator’s own business name; follows the trust & safety SOPs in this handbook.
§3 · What PieSam HQ provides
The software (runs, console, manifests, ledger), brand assets and listing templates, the fee engine and reporting, and product support. HQ does not cook, sell food, employ drivers or handle the operator’s customer money.
§4 · Seller-of-record
The seller of food is always the source restaurant or — for set meals — the operator, and never PieSam HQ. Set meals may only be offered while the operator holds a food business registered with the municipality (livsmedelsverksamhet) and any required licences. If that lapses, set meals stop the same day.
§5 · Fees & settlement
PieSam’s platform fee is a flat amount per seat (today 7 kr) collected through the app ledger. Money for external orders is settled on the operator’s own rails (the platform listing, Swish, card) and never passes through HQ. Fee changes need 30 days’ written notice.
§6 · Tax & VAT
Each party registers for, reports and pays its own taxes and VAT. The guidance sheet in this handbook is information, not advice; the operator confirms their own position with Skatteverket or an accountant, including F-skatt status for anyone they pay to drive.
§7 · Insurance & compliance
The operator maintains the insurance their activity requires, ensures every driver has accepted the driver code of conduct (the app enforces this before a run can be claimed), and complies with food hygiene law for any food they sell themselves.
§8 · Customers & data
Both parties follow GDPR. The operator owns their village customer relationships and keeps them if the agreement ends; HQ keeps platform accounts and operational data. Customer lists are never sold to third parties.
§9 · Term & termination
12 months, renewing automatically; either party may end it with 60 days’ notice. Immediate termination for food-safety, legal or serious brand breaches. On termination the brand licence and console access end; open runs are completed or refunded first.
§10 · Liability & law
Each party is liable for its own operations; neither is liable for the other’s indirect losses. [Liability cap to be set with counsel.] Swedish law applies; disputes go to [forum — to be decided].
03 · VAT & seller-of-record
Who sells, who delivers, who pays which VAT
The golden rule first: PieSam HQ is never the seller of food. Food is sold by the restaurant, or by a licensed controller for set meals. What PieSam (and the controller) sell is coordination and transport — and Skatteverket treats delivery arranged by someone other than the restaurant as its own transport service.
| Order type | Seller-of-record | VAT picture |
|---|---|---|
| Slot-only run (the default) | The town restaurant sells the food directly to the customer (normal takeaway). | Restaurant accounts for VAT on the food: takeaway food is 12%, temporarily 6% from 1 Apr 2026 to 31 Dec 2027. The delivery slot is a separate transport service — 25% VAT on the delivery share and on PieSam’s per-seat fee. |
| Set meal (licensed controller only) | The controller’s own food business sells the meal (seller-of-record); the source restaurant is their supplier. | Controller accounts for VAT on the meal as takeaway food (12%, temporarily 6% to end-2027). Delivery remains a 25% transport service. Their normal food-business bookkeeping applies. |
| External platform order | Whoever the platform names as seller — the restaurant, or the controller’s listing for slots/set meals. | The platform settles card money and reports per its own terms; VAT duty follows the seller as in the two rows above. The controller logs the order in PieSam purely for pooling — no money moves through PieSam. |
The rates that matter (Sweden)
- 25% — standard rate: goods transport, so the delivery share and PieSam’s per-seat fee.
- 12% — restaurant & catering services (eating on site).
- 12% → 6% — foodstuffs including takeaway: temporarily cut to 6% from 1 April 2026 until 31 December 2027.
- SEK 120,000/year — the VAT registration threshold: a small operator under it can be VAT-exempt (since 1 Jan 2025).
Verify before relying on this
Rates checked against Skatteverket’s published guidance (June 2026), including the temporary food-VAT cut and the rule that food transported by another company is a 25% transport service. Borderline cases (bundled meal + delivery pricing, the controller’s own margin, F-skatt for paid drivers) need Skatteverket or an accountant — per operator, before the first real krona.
04 · Driver code of conduct
What every driver accepts before their first run
The app enforces this: driver mode cannot be switched on without accepting the code, and the acceptance is timestamped on the profile. It is deliberately short enough to actually read.
- 1. I hold a valid driving licence and my vehicle is roadworthy, taxed and insured — and I have confirmed with my insurer that paid delivery driving is covered (private policies often exclude it).
- 2. I drive sober and rested, phone out of hand, at legal speeds. No delivery is urgent enough to break traffic law.
- 3. Food stays sealed exactly as the restaurant packed it, carried in clean insulated bags, hot separated from cold. No smoking or vaping around the food.
- 4. I read every allergy note on the manifest and repeat it to the restaurant at pickup. If the kitchen cannot confirm an allergy-flagged order, I call the customer or controller instead of guessing.
- 5. I hand over to the customer or the agreed safe spot, and never leave food in direct sun or below freezing. Problems on the road: I call the controller straight away.
- 6. I am the face of the village’s PieSam — kind at the counter, kind at the door.
Identity today is village-scale: the controller personally knows who drives. The roadmap adds BankID verification so a stranger can never claim a run — tracked on the gaps board.
05 · Trust & safety procedures
Allergens, custody and when things go wrong
⚠️ Allergen relay
Every order — in-app or controller-logged — carries an optional allergy note that renders as a warning on the driver and controller manifests. The procedure: the note travels with the order, the driver repeats it to the kitchen at pickup, and an unconfirmed allergy order is a phone call, not a guess.
PieSam coordinates delivery and never guarantees an allergen-free kitchen. Customers with severe allergies are told (on the order form) to ring the restaurant directly as well.
📦 Collection-point custody
- Every order is bagged and labelled with the customer’s name at pickup — the manifest is the packing list.
- At the counter, the whole batch is handed over together and the counter keeps it behind the desk (the PieSam crate), not on public display.
- Customers collect within 45 minutes of the drop message; hot and cold food stay in their separate bags until then.
- Uncollected after that: the counter or controller rings the customer. Food that has left safe temperature too long is not handed out — the controller decides refund vs re-delivery.
- The roadmap replaces the counter with the PieSam Box: a heated locker with one door per order, opened from the customer’s phone. Custody then becomes automatic and logged.
🧯 Incidents & complaints
The controller is the single door for their village: wrong order, late run, cold food — the customer contacts the controller (that is the franchise’s promise: a neighbour, not a call centre). The controller decides refund or redelivery on their own sales, chases the restaurant for kitchen errors, and pauses a restaurant or driver from future runs while a problem is investigated. Serious food-safety incidents go to the municipality’s environmental office (miljöförvaltningen), and the seller-of-record handles it — which is exactly why PieSam HQ is never that seller.
Want to be your village’s Sam?
The console, the run engine and this playbook are live in the demo — appoint yourself controller on the account page and walk the whole loop. The business context lives in the plan.