Marketplace
Hi,
I recently signed up to deliver in Melbourne with Uber Eats. I already have a 9-5 full time job and doing this as a short-term side hustle to see if income is as decent as what people said online and on Youtube. I have delivered for 4 days and over 60 deliveries so far for a few hours per day.
I also signed up for the $500 bonus Uber gives you after reaching 30 delivery. I plan to stop in a few weeks after fully experience it myself and hope this would help potential and current drivers.
I will provide some tips and answers to common questions below. Please feel free to ask me more questions!
1) How much do you make?
Your income depends on factors such as how long you work, petrol price, the delivery area and time of the day. For me I focus on lunch and dinner time and work about 3.5-4 hours per day. Actual work hours(from receiving order to delivered to customer) would be less as you also spend time on waiting orders and driving back. Each single delivery is usually $5-$8 while two deliveries in one order ranges from $9-$15 or more. Each order would take 15-25mins from receiving to delivered. In short, after factoring in petrol expenses I can achieve around $23-25 per hour and $30 per hour on good days. My car consumes 9.5L/100km so you may get higher $/hr.
2) How much tips do you get?
I have done just over 60 deliveries and was tipped 4 times, all single digits. While another forum drivers delivered over 700 and only got tipped twice. It is a matter of luck. I always delivery the food neatly, look at order notes and said something like "enjoy" to customers then they would say "you too"….. I do this not for the tips but purely just my standards to do the job properly. Each order usually has a maximum of 2 customers and if one of them tipped me I cannot tell which one of the 2 tipped me, this is a flaw in the driver app.
3) Are Uber Eats stereotypes true?
I believe the income for Uber Eats driver is decent and above competitors. Customers are generally nice and Uber support is responsive. I do not believe this is a lower-class job. Drivers are proper jobs with decent income providing an important service to community. Although Uber Eats might charge high for merchants but it is only thanks to it that restaurants are able to even open and receive orders in this circumstance. I see nearly all orders are placed via delivery companies. One stereotype that is true is all the drivers I see are from culturally diverse backgrounds but might apply to my area only.
4) Why is delivery so slow?
Drivers do not receive the order immediately. For example customer placed order at 7pm, drivers might only receive the pick up request at 7:20pm. Sometimes there may be no drivers in the area to pick up your orders too. Other reasons such as restaurant missing your order or bad traffic.
5) How can customers help for a smoother delivery process?
I would check how many items I am suppose to pickup but what is inside I won't know. Please contact Uber Eats support for missing or wrong items. One thing I can check is to ensure drinks are included as I can see the actual bottles. If you live in apartments/suites/townhouse it would be so useful to let us know the approx location of your unit so we don't have to check one by one for your number. Even better you can come out or turn on front door lights(if any) when drivers arrived especially at night time!
My Personal Tips:
1) Deliver in areas you are familiar with. Saves you so much time from parking, finding pickups and driving around = Less stress
2) Within the area locate popular restaurant strips or shopping centre complex (I called it the base). Hang around there and wait for orders.
3) The base should have easily assessable parking and roads
4) Aim for peak hours such as lunch/ dinner and promotion periods with 1.1-1.5x earning.
5) Avoid work hours traffic
6) Avoid delivery to industrial/large office sites. Hard to locate specific door and consume time, lunch hour problem only. Refer to tip 1.
7) Avoid Asian restaurant areas as they are nearly all taken by Easi and Panda
8) Avoid rainy nights although higher requests. As most streets are pitch black and wet making it even harder for each delivery
9) Try to stay close to the base so you won't have to drive far to receive orders again
10) Beverages and snacks are preferred as they are light and small. Pizzas and kebabs are not preferred because heavy and strong smell
11) Pick and choose the orders you want to target. Eg) I target $10+ orders with 2 deliveries per trip, it is more economical this way
But if the pick up & delivery address are very close to you it's ok to accept even if it is about $6, the app will always try to give you a second order request nearby before you finish the food pick up. If you accept the second request you can get around $10 or more for two nearby/easy deliveries. Again you will learn what to accept and reject as you deliver more
12) Read notes from restaurant and customers
13) Use old vehicles with low fuel consumption to minimise your expenses and vehicle wear and tear
14) Invest in a good back support for your car seat as my back hurts after 2 days of driving and in/out of the car constantly
15) Look at the delivery location because the app always take you to toll road, if in doubt switch to Google map and select "avoid toll"
16) Keep a large shopping bag (e.g. Costco carry bag) in your car as some restaurants require bags on pick-up
17) Refer to tip 1 and work smart
Verdict:
Uber Eats driver is a good alternative for those who want to make more money on top of their full time professions. It provides flexible working hours and easy to do tasks without the need of any formal training or qualifications. I believe it is a better choice than most low-pay hospitality jobs in terms of pay and conditions. It is suitable for students or anyone who wants to treat this as their casual/ part time job.Though full licence is required for vehicle delivery.
I do not recommend this as a long-term full time job. It is simply a way to make extra cash and has no career growth or opportunities. I think I have covered most things not sure if you would have more questions?
Update 18/09/2021 : Just completed a 2.5hr dinner run with $77.39 gross. 6 orders 11 trips. Around net $28/hr after petrol.
Update 19/09/2021: Completed 2.5hr dinner run with $59.10 gross. 4 orders 7 trips. Around net $22/hr after petrol. My worst night so far, with slow restaurants and several customers living in townhouse/units without putting down their suite numbers or telling me the approx location. I was calling and finding each suite one by one in pitch black, one hand holding the food the other holding the phone.
Update 30/09/2021: Got my $500 bonus on 24/9. I also delivered several parcels (they are called "Connect") ranges from $25-$45 each so far, more or less depending on distance. You should accept them due to high pay and very easy. For now I work about 3.5-4hrs each day split between lunch and dinner, and get around $100-$120 per day gross. So about $25/hr after petrol. On top of that I received average of $16 tip per week so far.
Can you confirm if you can eat someone's delivery with no recourse?