So I got tired of being in the house for two weeks straight and hearing them talk about how only essential workers should be on the road, I decided to drive deliveries as an excuse to cruise around. Its been a blast so far mainly because the roads are EMPTY in my oblast. Here are my thoughts after 4 days.

-Postmates lets you see where the pickup and delivery are before you accept which is cool but you can never know how much any order tipped.Even after the fact. There are only certain areas I want to go as I am looking for more interesting views or fun/scenic drives so this is good for me.

-Doordash lets you see how much money you would make on an order before accepting which is great if you want to make more money. I once drove a pint of ice cream 15 minutes up a mountain for postmates.

-I keep both apps on because it actually gets kinda slow during "busy" times especially if you're being picky.
-Dinner is not actually a great time because popular restaurants get bottlenecked and you end up waiting a long time at the restaurant. Then I just do duolingo or hulu which is what I would be doing at home anyway.

All of the other apps put a waitlist or didn't let me signup and go right away.

[Edited on April 1, 2020 at 12:31 AM. Reason : this would be miserable with traffic though]

[Edited on April 1, 2020 at 12:44 AM. Reason : waiting]

4/1/2020 12:30:04 AM

unless u need a side hustle, have u tried reading to curb your boredom?

4/1/2020 12:50:10 AM

My first week was great and things didn't get bland until the second week. Boredom was the wrong word. Stir crazy is what I was looking for. I need to get out of the house during the day. Have been walking/running/hiking but get tried after a while. Can't just stay inside the rest of the day and do that for months. I read at night.

another great thing about this is that I'm on the phone the whole time. I usually hate phone calls because you can't read or do anything else while you're on the call

[Edited on April 1, 2020 at 1:04 AM. Reason : I can be on the phone working out business stuff or catching up with friends and family while drivin]

4/1/2020 1:02:01 AM

I like how you've been doing this for 4 days, but you've also been doing it for 2 weeks

4/1/2020 1:17:41 AM

was in the house for 2 weeks straight before I started doing this. Been doing this for 4 days. Did I pass the investigation yet?

4/1/2020 1:19:36 AM

^How much does russia pay to low rent troll on a website that has no influence on American politics?

4/1/2020 1:29:27 AM

How many times have you coughed on the food?

4/1/2020 9:06:55 AM

Fun? fact... Horosho means essentially the same thing in Russian and Japanese language

4/2/2020 3:50:59 PM

^is it not just a stupid way to say “horror show”?

4/2/2020 4:46:32 PM

Its been a great experience. Really has kept me grounded during this time and been a nice outlet and opportunity to blast my music.

The biggest issue is that restaurants get backed up when the entire city places dinner orders at 6pm and you end up waiting around a lot. I've had some great conversations with restaurant workers and other drivers. I already appreciated service workers but experience is the best form of knowledge and I now have an enhanced appreciation for the entire industry.

I've only come across one entitled customer and two pieces of shit who ordered a pint of ice cream across town during dinner rush.

4/9/2020 5:01:22 PM

4/9/2020 5:08:52 PM

^haha

4/9/2020 5:58:57 PM

lol

4/9/2020 6:00:15 PM

i would do this if i could use someone else's car. i like drivin and listenin to podcasts while gettin paid

4/10/2020 6:39:48 AM

hyrecar is a good service for that. people who don't have a car can get a car ready to use for one of the apps (uber/lyft/etc) for 25 dollars per day and only pay for gas. I was about to buy a car just to put on there before this happened.

[Edited on April 10, 2020 at 1:52 PM. Reason : its by the day]

4/10/2020 1:51:26 PM

Caviar just gave drivers a free "doctor on demand" visit and unlimited free COVID-19 screenings.

4/15/2020 8:11:04 PM

I drove a delivery van for Whole Foods in 2008 because the global economy imploded.

it was fine.

4/15/2020 10:19:35 PM

Every had some porno scene type moment happen?

4/15/2020 10:22:57 PM

nope i barely even see people at all. restaurants leave the bag on a table or hand it to me in a mask and then i leave it right outside the customer's door.

Just got a $113 tip tho

4/19/2020 2:44:45 AM

4/19/2020 8:04:33 AM

what if they live upstairs in an apartment building

do they expect you to come to the door?

seems like that would cut into your money per hour

4/20/2020 3:08:13 PM

Yeah I actually like the exercise when there are stairs and clear instructions. A lot of people don't put the details in the app (which directions clearly ask you to). Instead they say "call when you arrive" and then they don't answer the phone and then call back a few minutes later and tell you the gate code.

It especially sucks when THOSE people live in buildings that don't have parking outside.

But that is nothing like the waiting at restaurants. Restaurants are by far the biggest factor that cut into my pay because at rush hour, many restaurants take orders form all apps and end up taking more orders than they can handle.

The app sends the person a guaranteed deliver time of 7:30 but doesn't realize 500 people just ordered from that restaurant at the same time.

There are 3 different ways the restaurants can handle the rush

A: The restaurant closes off orders at a certain point to ensure timliness
B: The restaurant tells me an accurate time when I arrive so I can text the customer and do other things "hey sorry we are slammed its not going to be ready for 2 hours"
C: The restaurant doesn't care becase they got their money and just leaves me hanging while the customer bugs me "Why haven't you brought it yet the app said it was going to be here no later than 45 minutes ago". I lose all the time AND get no tip for that order and any order that the app paired with it.

I've started to figure out which restaurants are quick and decline the restaurants that use method C.

[Edited on April 20, 2020 at 3:43 PM. Reason : most people expect you to just drop the food off at their door and leave]

4/20/2020 3:41:38 PM

So my favorite is caviar but they send the orders to you when they are placed instead of when they are ready so I use doordash and postmates to fill in the time gaps.

I've settled into doing 6:30-8:30 pm 4 or 5 days per week making about 20-30 per hour depending on tips.

Just did my first grubhub delivery. Had it on for a few hours but only got 2 requests. Denied one for taco bell.

5/25/2020 4:32:28 PM

I write articles for verbose.com

5/25/2020 9:35:09 PM

I picked up some Uber rides when I was still part-time status for the first 2.5 years at my current job. It made a few bucks, and I only did it when I was out and about anyway, or just hanging around the house doing household chores or other stuff that could wait if I picked up a ride. I never really treated it like anything approaching a job, but it was fine for what how I used it.

There were a couple of douchey customers, but the majority were either cool or just sat there without much to say.

5/25/2020 11:53:42 PM

^ which vehicle did you use?

5/26/2020 1:34:54 AM

Insight

5/27/2020 12:01:16 AM