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Is Uber eats worth it for drivers?
eshughes77
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eshughes77
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The Guru Take
Depends
I will let other drivers on the forum answer this, but here are some comments:
Are you a driver looking for more gigs? Then sure.
Drivers can receive both ride requests and food delivery requests on the same shift. Therefore, drivers can keep busy by accepting both regular requests and Uber EATS requests. It is a good way to increase the incoming requests.
Are you a driver who is already keeping busy with rides?
If the driver's shift is already busy picking up regular rides, he or she may opt out of Uber Eats requests that has a different pay scale. The rates are calculated in a similar fashion to regular rides but they are different. Drivers have to do the math which job to focus their shift on.
Is it worth the hassle? Gotta watch pickup/delivery policies
See, the time is of the essence to a Uber driver. Unlike regular rides, the drivers need to consider for the time lost during pickups and making the deliveries. Every market has a different policy but some instruct the drivers to go to the doors for pickup/delivery while some encourage customers to meet the driver curbside. This definitely will play into the drivers preferring UberEATS.
UPDATE:
- We had a few drivers share with us that Uber Eats requests are usually short-distance trips, always less than a few miles. Since drivers are getting paid for the time/distance driven, they do not make that much money on each request, and when considering the time spent on picking up and dropping off, it seems this is a less desired Uber service by the drivers.
Featured Answers
jbauer
Imagine the steps it takes.
- You see the request comes up. You accept.
- You drive to the restaurant.
- You find a parking spot.
- You walk inside the restaurant.
- You wait until the hostess can approach you.
- You wait until the food comes out.
- You walk back to the car.
- You drive to your destination.<-------------------The time you make money.
- You arrive then look for a parking spot.
- You walk to the address.
- You knock and wait at the door.
- You hand over the food
Tell me how this is worth it.
Comments
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Imagine the steps it takes.
- You see the request comes up. You accept.
- You drive to the restaurant.
- You find a parking spot.
- You walk inside the restaurant.
- You wait until the hostess can approach you.
- You wait until the food comes out.
- You walk back to the car.
- You drive to your destination.<-------------------The time you make money.
- You arrive then look for a parking spot.
- You walk to the address.
- You knock and wait at the door.
- You hand over the food
Tell me how this is worth it.
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Total of 15 mins for all of these steps. Sorry...but unless you live in a big city...not a big deal at all.
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Well, in a big city, they are all bicycle riders. Have you ordered DoorDash in Manhattan?
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@Krista, are you a fan of UberEats? I have never tried and I am thinking about doing it. Is it worth it?
I'd love for these to fill my slow times but I am afraid UberEats' busy times coincide with rider's busy times. (Lunch time and end of workday) When do you see them being the busiest?
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Yeah, but that’s fifteen minutes you aren’t making money.
And it’s definitely more than fifteen minutes
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Agreed agreed agreed! Except I carry my phone into the restaurant and the moment I am physically there and available to take the food I start the delivery. If the restaurant causes a delay, that's not my monkey and not my circus.
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Right after "You walk back to the car", you should ask, "Find a ticket on your windshield."
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It is not worth it! No tip and most times the drive is significant enough you make $3 to $6 per hour. Definitely not worth it. Would rather drive people.
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Two of my buddies started doing Doordash (or UberEats), I can't remember, and they both ride bicycles in Manhattan. They have been excited to get exercise in and make money at the same time.
...but guess what. They say it still isn't worth the money, and they have no car costs. That just tells you how the economics doesn't work on food delivery.
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For me, help.uber.com says delivery pay is: pickup fee + drop-off fee + mileage + time. For time, it says, "Per-minute rate based on expected wait time at restaurant, expected travel time from restaurant to dropoff, and expected wait time at dropoff."
Based on that your 'time you make money' line might go a few lines higher. Although even based on Uber's description the time calculation is really vague.
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So true it hurts.
I make $5 a pop. Often I would buy the same amount of food during pickup, so I never make money. LOL.
BTW, there's usually a rack of food where drivers can just walk in and grab the delivery items. I hear there are lots of mistakes and homeless people just grabbing them. Some growing pains on this business model.
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LOL this is hilarious.
Not to mention you might not get a tip. At least traditional delivery drivers are almost always tipped. I think people feel like they don't have to tip uber drivers and that carries over into uber eats.
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My experience on UberEats is worth telling.
When Uber first came out with this feature they didn't announce it to the drivers. It came in an update with the "Eats" switch on.
The first delivery was from a restaurant in South Philadelphia to the other side of Philadelphia. Couldn't find a parking spot near the restaurant, so I ran in and the order was ready. No tip, no ticket, but not bad.
The second one was a McDonalds order of hamburgers. I spent a total of 45 minutes to make $5.75. No tip, but bad.
The third and last one was also a McDonalds order. Again the total time spent was 45 minutes to make $5.75. That was the good part.
The delivery was to a hi-rise. I called the guy and told him the food was here. He said, "I'm on the seventh floor, bring it up". He said it was required by Uber. I had no idea if that was true at that time. I believe Uber is advertising door to door delivery now.
I locked the car and took a smelly bag of burgers up a smelly elevator…
My experience on UberEats is worth telling.
When Uber first came out with this feature they didn't announce it to the drivers. It came in an update with the "Eats" switch on.
The first delivery was from a restaurant in South Philadelphia to the other side of Philadelphia. Couldn't find a parking spot near the restaurant, so I ran in and the order was ready. No tip, no ticket, but not bad.
The second one was a McDonalds order of hamburgers. I spent a total of 45 minutes to make $5.75. No tip, but bad.
The third and last one was also a McDonalds order. Again the total time spent was 45 minutes to make $5.75. That was the good part.
The delivery was to a hi-rise. I called the guy and told him the food was here. He said, "I'm on the seventh floor, bring it up". He said it was required by Uber. I had no idea if that was true at that time. I believe Uber is advertising door to door delivery now.
I locked the car and took a smelly bag of burgers up a smelly elevator and knocked on the door. A half dressed guy reaches out and takes the bag and closes the door.
I got out of the building safely and my car was not vandalized.
Did I get a worthwhile tip? Yes, I will never take an UberEats again.
If you deliver in the suburbs, I doubt if you'll make $10 an hour, but at least you will be safe.
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I am having difficulty identifying whether you are being sarcastic. When you say, you made $5.75 in 45 minutes, that's bad, right? That isn't $10/hour like you say.
And call me naive, but...people are ordering McDonald's using UberEats? I like McDonald's like any other, but I don't want it so bad that I would get one delivered to my house. If I have my options, ya know?
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I haven't been driving for about a month and Uber had an update. on there update they turned on the delivery option.
Damn if I didn't get an UberEats as my first ride. Again a McDonalds delivery. This time I made $4.54 in 30 minutes.
This delivery was in the suburbs.
Im my original post I said, "I DOUBT if you'll make $10 an hour in the suburbs, but at least you will be safe".
I wasn't being sarcastic, those were the facts.
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No, no, no, and no. Ugh! I "accidentally" ended up with an Uber Eats request the other night. I had to wait 15 MINUTES FOR THE FOOD because the disorganized crew at the Taco Bus didn't have their act together. Didn't get paid a cent to wait for the food (which I knew in advance). This isn't the first time this has happened. I rarely get a tip when I do this service (tho' the out of town tourists tend to be much more generous than the locals). So as soon as I could I turned off the Uber Eats requests. Does the food talk back or ever act dangerous? Nope. But customers sure pay a lot more, and they (usually) don't stink up my car. So no more Uber Eats for this chick. Ever. Just not worth my time.
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11 deliveries last night, not one single tip. 5 hours work for $39.00 pretty pathetic. Its not worth it!
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“Food delivery from anywhere” is just an unnecessary nonsense, another luxury item America doesn’t need.
We already have food delivery being offered by individual food establishments. Have four of those near you in every category and we are all good. Italian, Chinese, Indian, and something else.
Why would we need food delivered from fast food restaurants? No amount of “efficiency” can make this work in the long run.
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I tried it for a few weeks, and it is totally not worth it in my opinion.
People usually order from restaurants in their own neighborhood. They don't order from a place on the other side of town. Remember, we still get paid to drive for uber eats. Driving 2~3 miles picking up food doesn't make us money. Then the time spent on picking up the food that is rarely ready when I show up? Then dropping it off? Way too much for a 3 mile ride.
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I think it really depends on how drivers get paid and some computer tech to arrange uber eat drivers accept the optimal request at that time considering the distance of restaurant, driver and customer; or maybe two or three orders on one route then driver could deliver in just single journey.
Also, one thing I want to mention is that in China, although it's not 'uber eat', there are special restaurants opened just/mainly for take away and they are located together. So driver could only wait in one place and saved the time for driving to restaurant, and don't need to worry about orders, because there are enough 'take away' restaurants for him.
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They like Uber eats in Orlando and make good scratch.
Twice I have been tricked into doing it for what equates to $3 an traumatic hour.
Nope, not here. It actually costs me money to do it here. Esp when it is 17 minutes or miles away.
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I wonder how it's different from pizza delivery or Chinese delivery. I am sure those restaurants make money, right? I mean, Domino's has its entire business model built on delivery. How can it be so bad for Uber.
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Hmmm, lets see.
Pizza delivery is only done within a certain radius of the restaurant.
The mileage and gas is less.
You leave when the food is ready and hot,
you receive an hourly wage.
You do not have to have an excellent car and there is minimal depreciation.
You do not have to drive 15 minutes to the pick up, find parking, find someone to give you the food, then check it.
You do not have to get something to keep the food warm.
You generally do not have to deal with GPS as much the distance to deliver can be longer... 8-20 minutes of traffic to get the food there.
People tip pizza and Chinese delivery and are happy to see the delivery guy.
People know that if they do not tip for a paid delivery guy... the restaurant will remember them.
Your car does not get smelly like a poorly cleaned restaurant.
You make a bit more than $3 an hour... before expenses.
There are a lot of variables with the food that can go wrong, and it gets taken out on the driver.
Who cares …
Hmmm, lets see.
Pizza delivery is only done within a certain radius of the restaurant.
The mileage and gas is less.
You leave when the food is ready and hot,
you receive an hourly wage.
You do not have to have an excellent car and there is minimal depreciation.
You do not have to drive 15 minutes to the pick up, find parking, find someone to give you the food, then check it.
You do not have to get something to keep the food warm.
You generally do not have to deal with GPS as much the distance to deliver can be longer... 8-20 minutes of traffic to get the food there.
People tip pizza and Chinese delivery and are happy to see the delivery guy.
People know that if they do not tip for a paid delivery guy... the restaurant will remember them.
Your car does not get smelly like a poorly cleaned restaurant.
You make a bit more than $3 an hour... before expenses.
There are a lot of variables with the food that can go wrong, and it gets taken out on the driver.
Who cares how bad it is for Uber. It is a bad business model in many markets and bad for Uber Drivers.
If Uber was smart, they would only offer it in good areas. (Some are actually good. Not where I am!)
I am just glad I can turn it off or ask them to remove it completely.
Try getting pulled 17 minutes off course to pick up a bacon egg and cheese mcmuffin… then 10 minutes further for $3 and no tip.
Or a delivery in traffic that takes 55 min and grosses $3 and enough aggravation to kill a horse.
No thanks.
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Problems finding parking at restaurants, then waiting and waiting for orders in restaurant, then driving through heavy traffic to delivery and get no tips. Not only that but in the Pittsburgh, PA area many homes are actually up 30-50 steep steps from the street and the folks ordering will not come even half way to meet you. If you have asthma like I do, then you get hollered at because the food is cold, late etc. I need a couple rest breaks and inhaler uses to get to the door. So definitely not worth the hassle.
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There is a huge gap in the expectation and what's realistic. Customers expect us to be like pizza delivery. Straight to the door, whether they are in an apartment complex or an office building. So many times, they would expect me to go upstairs and knock on their door, while my car is stranded on side of a road. When I ask that they come meet me, I either get a complaint or have to wait several minutes for someone to come down. What a nightmare.
I am sure there are people who would do it. I mean, there are Chinese and Pizza delivery people out there. It's a good idea for Uber to try to leverage their existing workforce (i.e. drivers), but I feel like this is entirely a different job.
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Not worth the time and effort.
Accept the order, drive to restraint, wait for order [not getting paid]. Get the order and drive to the delivery [now getting paid], try to find a place to park and get the stuff to the door [getting paid]. Usually all for $5-7 and it can take over 30 minutes to do. The last one I did was a large food order that I had to wait 20 minutes for -- then when I got to the house there were 36 [no I am not kidding] steep steps up to the front door. I called and asked if they could come down for it as it was 90 degrees out and I had asthma. They said no they needed me to bring it up. It took me a long time as I had to take two rest breaks to prevent asthma attacks. When I got to the door I found the order was for a couple of college age jocks! I am in my late 60's with asthma, you think they could have met me half way. What did I get for this $8 and a complaint that the food was cold because I took so long.…
Not worth the time and effort.
Accept the order, drive to restraint, wait for order [not getting paid]. Get the order and drive to the delivery [now getting paid], try to find a place to park and get the stuff to the door [getting paid]. Usually all for $5-7 and it can take over 30 minutes to do. The last one I did was a large food order that I had to wait 20 minutes for -- then when I got to the house there were 36 [no I am not kidding] steep steps up to the front door. I called and asked if they could come down for it as it was 90 degrees out and I had asthma. They said no they needed me to bring it up. It took me a long time as I had to take two rest breaks to prevent asthma attacks. When I got to the door I found the order was for a couple of college age jocks! I am in my late 60's with asthma, you think they could have met me half way. What did I get for this $8 and a complaint that the food was cold because I took so long. After that experience NEVER will I do food delivery. At least Uber makes it optional to take food or not. and I am a definite NOT. Not enough money to make it worthwhile and hazardous to my health.
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Another possible benefit of UberEATS is that they hire drivers 19 and older, with vehicles 1998 or newer. It's a decent option for younger drivers or those with older cars who don't want to rent or buy a newer one. Souce: My blog on UberEATS, and Jobs for people too young for Uber
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They are the same tightwad Jerkoffs who do not tip . I would rather collect bottles and cans in between rides and it's non taxable too.
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Me too. I can see Uber doing it too. I would cancel every one of those requests.
I think we are safe though. There have to be enough restaurants participating in order for Uber to need more drivers. If they pull such a move, it'd be when there is a huge surge in demand.
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Pool is not forced on drivers, it can’t be turned off like Uber eats, but you can decline every single pool ride, like I do, unless I am on destination filter heading home, then I do not care if it is a pool or regular as I am just trying to subsidize my trip home ;)
eats I just turned off.
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Uber Eats is horrible. It's worth it only if you aren't getting enough rides.
You have to also remember...during meal times are when the drivers are the busiest, people going places to eat! Obvious, right? So we'd rather be driving passengers than fetching food for people.
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I live in the burbs. I haven't tried uber eats yet. I hope it takes off. We dno't have a lot of food options nearby but I'd be willing to pay extra to have food from ~20 minutes away delivered to me.
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I prefer Uber Eats because more people in Denver tip people who bring them food vs driving them home safely. Also, you can get double orders and make faster money during busy times. Also, when the it rains / snows you can make faster money. The only thing is, I recently hurt my back getting in and out of the car so frequently. Now it fucking sucks and I can’t do it because it’s painful.
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Hi - Portify is an app that helps you manage your finances and get access to small savings on deals and discounts. We are building some new features soon that focus on helping people budget and manage their income. We want to hear from Uber drivers/riders on how you currently do this and the ways in which we can improve our app (it doesn't matter if you don't have the app).
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Totally depends on when and where. I hear in the suburbs this works out pretty well. Not like the boonies but a bit outside the city in a populated areas. No problem parking, plenty of participating restaurants, and medium distance trips. (remember, we like longer trips.)
