Have you ever wondered after ordering food what it's like to be on the other side of the spectrum? Delivering instead of being delivered ? Well I chose to dive in and explore !!
In October 2020 I had my go at working for Deliveroo
Signing Up
I think this was the hardest part of the whole week (if you can call it a week). Indeed I created my account, filled out all my details and everything was going fine. The website is nice and simple to use, and in general the process is very straightforward.
Then came ordering the kit 😒 No offence Deliveroo but your online shop is ABSOLUTE rubbish. I mean the url simply didn't work and for some reason I couldn't login with my rider account even though I could to track my application progress.... super useful 😑
I sent multiple emails to support and had to wait a whole MONTH before rider support came back to me. A real pain. I started my application on September 12th and actually got my stuff October 24th. Great....
First Day
Even though signing up was tedious, I must say my first day went pretty smoothly. When the first order came through, I got a little buzz and started racing towards the restaurant, only to discover the order wasn't ready yet. Very common occurrence, restaurants are always late... Luckily it doesn't affect your stats until the moment you actually pickup the order.
Once I secured the package, off towards my first client! I think I've never pedalled that fast in my life. (yeah i was delivering with a bicycle). Honestly very good experience, the lady I delivered to was very nice, polite and she even tipped me!!!
I think I ended up working 4 hours straight on my first day because the app is just so addictive, especially during peak times. As soon as you complete an order, another one comes up and you can see how much it'll pay before accepting or declining. You also see how far it is, which is extremely useful if you want to be efficient and the peak time boost is just amazing!! (once i had a 1.6x boost). In the end I delivered 9 orders for a total of £42.41 including tips, not too bad...
Rest of the Week
I'm not going to detail my whole week 'cos that would be just boring. Here are a few notable things I realised when delivering:
1. Going online at off peak times really isn't worth it, especially with a bicycle. You get an order every 45 min and in between you're on the streets unable to do anything productive. If you have a car, it might be worth a try as you can get stuff done, like writing an essay on your laptop, while you wait.
2. DECLINE ORDERS ! Declining orders actually doesn't affect your stats, so whenever there's a super far delivery or just a very long wait restaurant (KFC👀), taking the order is just a waste of time and money. It takes a while to get to know your town and all the different restaurants, but after 2-3 days you'll know exactly what decline.
3. Position is key. Yeah, the algorithm automatically selects couriers close to the restaurant receiving an order. So try and position your self in an area with a lot of them. In my town, there's a commercial center with about 10 restaurants in a 100m radius. Every time I complete an order I go back there and it's almost a guarantee of an order.
4. Sometimes you get 'double orders', meaning you pickup 2 orders and deliver them to 2 different people that generally live in the same area. Except most of the time it's more of the same direction, and regularly the second order is a mile away. You have to accept the double order and you can't choose just one, but what you can do I accept it and then got to support and cancel the one of your choice. Very useful tip trust me.
5. Be prepared!! Especially when cycling, take some water and eat before going out, 'cos cycling around is super tiring.
Overall in 6 days of work, 2 hours every lunch and 2 hours every evening, I delivered 67 orders and made £347.40 (tips included). Not too bad for a student side hustle, especially when you can literally go online and offline whenever. It averages out to about £10 - 12 an hour so honestly pretty good!!
If you are ever interested in joining, use my referral link : https://roo.it/CH435503
If you complete 30 orders you get a 150£ bonus and I do too so why not give it a go? I would really appreciate!!!!
