Hello Students. Welcome back and to new students welcome!
This is a short note from a part time food delivery driver (such as Uber Eates, Skip the Dishes etc.).
First of all thank you for using these services. I have found 80% of all deliveries are to university aged people, and we all really appreciate your business and patronage. I just wanted to give a few pointers and enlightenment's on how the service works, so you can better understand what your driver is dealing with on a daily basis.
When you place an order through your app, eventually the restaurant will send out an alert and the closest driver to the restaurant will be given the order. We get paid a small fee for pick up and another small fee once we drop the order off. we do not get paid for time! The only way we can make a worthwhile living is to do as many deliveries as we can while on shift, and at the end of it hope to make just above minimum wage. A couple of points to help the driver deliver efficiently and to get you your order quicker:
1) If you are in residence, be sure to list the residence building (IE Langdon Hall) in your profile. The GPS app's will take us right to that building. There are many profiles that just have the general Mac address and this means the driver has to contact you to find out where to deliver to. Again this adds time and delays in delivering your order hot and as fresh as it can be.
2) If you are in a residence can you please inform the driver if you intend to meet them outside (this can be done in your profile or you can call or text the driver through the app when they are en route). Again this avoids the driver stopping outside the residence and then calling or texting you to arrange drop off. The App shows progress of the driver- please watch this and if you can be waiting when the driver shows up, that would be ideal!
3) If you are in an offsite house please mention in your profile special delivery instructions (such as side door), if the order is not to be delivered to the main door of the house. Also if you could please (at night) make sure the outside lights are on, illuminating the house number. the GPS gets us to within a few houses but we still need to zero in on the correct house, and this can be difficult if the outside lights of the dwelling are not turned on. Thank you!
4) TIPPING. This is the big one! As I mentioned we are trying to make a decent wage, and without tips, on a good day we are looking at minimum wage. As with other service industries (waitstaff in restaurants, bartenders, corporate pizza delivery persons etc), we rely on tips to help us make ends meet and to make the investment in gas, mobile data, insurance and wear and tear on our cars somewhat worth it. Now, some APPS put a statement in that says something like "tipping is not required or expected". This is a corporate statement from head office which is done to make the service more attractive to you the end user. THIS IS NOT A DRIVER STATEMENT! People in far away head offices have decided that the drivers are the least important part of this delivery equation and hence keep their pay as low as possible (which is a flawed theory when you consider the driver is the only face to face person the customer sees, You would think they (head office) would want their drivers happy, and providing good service, but that is not the case). The fact that that statement is in the app is the equivalent of a restaurant manager whispering in your ear "tips are not necessary". How would you feel for the wait staff, if you were told that? Many of you may have part time work in the service industry, and can relate to how much tipping is important to make it worth while. SAME FOR FOOD DELIVERY DRIVERS! Tips CAN be made through the APP or of course handed in cash to the driver. If you are happy with the service you received please tip, just as you would your bartender or waitperson in a restaurant.
Thank you so much for reading my post and I appreciate any feedback I may get.
Happy studying and Eating
. But generally much better! Stay hungry students!
