---
question: What does assigning a delivery partner to a merchant do?
also:
  - how does a shop get riders
  - merchant has no riders to assign
  - change which partner supplies a shop
  - what does partnerid zero mean
area: platform
source: src/api/tenants.ts, src/api/deliveries.ts
---
A delivery partner is the company that supplies riders. Assigning one to a
merchant makes that partner's riders available on the merchant's assign screen,
alongside any riders the merchant hired itself.

One partner routinely serves many merchants — this is not a one-to-one
relationship, and reassigning a merchant does not take the partner away from
anyone else.

**Assigning no partner is a real setting, not an empty one.** A merchant with no
partner uses its own riders, and that is a supported way to run a shop rather
than a half-finished setup. A merchant with neither a partner nor its own riders
has nobody to assign deliveries to, and that is what to check first when a shop
reports an empty rider list.

Only Nearle can set this. It is deliberately not something a merchant can edit
about themselves, because a merchant who could set it would be able to move
themselves under another partner's riders and billing.

A partner works one district. If a merchant's branches sit in a district the
partner does not cover, the partner's riders will not appear there even though
the assignment exists.