Postmates: Food & Merchant Delivery Service App and Tips to New Drivers

Postmates is a delivery service which provides delivery from places such as Restaurants, Fast Food, Grocery Stores, and Retailers such as Wal-Mart. It's couriers are called "Postmates" who can log on at any time to queue in for receiving a pick up order. 

The service is primary focused on food.

Requirements: 

• At least 1 year of drivering experience
• Owning a Car, Bike, or Motorcycle
• Smart Phone (Android / Ios)
• Bank Account for Deposits
• Mileage Book
• Food Bag(s)

What do I need?
Primarily, you'll need a form a reliable transportation that isn't probably on death's door, but also has a enough miles on it that you really aren't concerned about deprecation of your car's value.



Where do I start?
To start the  application process, go to: https://fleet.postmates.com/

From there, if your area has the service, you should be able to apply for an orientation day, where you will learn the process of running the Fleet App and where you can ask questions and get supplies, which you'll have to ask about. You'll also receive the Postmates card for paying for transactions.

Once you go for an orientation, you'll go through a background check process which should take 3-5 days on norm. Once that finalizes, you should be able to log on to the app or on to the courier website and submit your banking info for deposits: https://postmates.com/courier/login?next=/courier



The Pay
Pay is based on the distance from picking up food (or merchandise) and to deliver said items to the customer. You also get paid per minute while waiting (or shopping) at the pickup location after a certain amount of time. Tips come in either automatically or when the customer decides to look back on the app to rate the delivery and provide said tip. Keep in mind, some folk don't tip or don't believe in tipping.

Depending on the area you deliver in, base pay for a pick up / delivery in a 2-3 mile drive is around $4.10 - $4.80 from what I've personally seen. The further the destination is from the pick up location, the more you'll receive.

There will be times when there are not enough drivers for orders in the system and that is when a "surge" will go into effect and pay rate will increase depending on the number. Keep in mind, there will always be a Surge of 1.5 during 12am to around 7am.

You can get paid for canceled orders, however you need to be at the location already and checked in (via your gps coordinates) for a few mins for it to be giving to you.

Finalized Deposit + "Surge Multiplier"

Pending Deposit with Pending Tip

Green text means the pay from that day's deliveries is in the process of being deposited into your bank account. Its still possible to receive a pending tip from a day that was already deposited.

Grey text means its still pending and usually takes about 3-4 days to begin the deposit process.

When a deposit does begin, $0.15 is subtracted from the total of a days work. This amount does not change wither the deposit amount is from a $1 tip (from a pending tip) or from a $200 delivery work day. The $0.15 is the charge for depositing the money to your bank account. Ideally, as a 1099 IC, you should be able to apply this to your expenses.


Keep It Cold / Hot! 
You might be doing this as a side thing or for a little extra money, but in the long run, you'll need food bags to maintain the freshness of your food pick ups and the "Professional" look when you deliver. Worst thing to see is hot food chilling on a passenger seat in an air conditioned car. It really looks weird to a customer.

You might want to ask when you have you're orientation about supplies / bags. Though, you'll most likely have to buy bags out of pocket as they might want to charge you.

If you're stuck on cash, investing in a "Hot / Cold" bag from the local grocery store will start you in the right direction until you have some cash flowing in for a more "professional bag".

Lastly, make sure your bags are kept clean! Germs and such can in non-clean bags can create very unsafe and unhealthy delivering. You never know who is allergic to what or has a weak immune system. Just because you don't have a food handlers certificate, doesn't mean you shouldn't act like you have one.


Contact your Customer
There will be times when there will be questions needing to be answered. Such as a request for a coffee drink, but it comes in Hot or Iced variants and the customer didn't state when they wanted exactly.

Other times are to inform the customer, when it comes to food, about any delays with a restaurant. Sometimes an example text stating works wonders:

"This is your Postmate Driver Brian. Just got to the restaurant and I just found out its going to be an extra 15-20mins before I'll be able to take the food from them. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you need anything else from here, let me know."

Not letting your customer know why you've been at the pick up location for 30 + mins helps resolve any negativity towards you, but it might help get that tip.


Drive Safe! Invest in a Car Mount and Phone Charger

iRing with Hook

This should be a no-brainer. Driving to locations you're not familiar with can be challenging, even worse if you're trying to do it while juggling with a steering wheel and a phone in hands. It is so much safer to have a mount, in general, then looking down at your phone to figure where you're going. Plus you could write it off too!

There are many brands of phone mounts on the market with different ways to use them, but personally, I use the attachable mount called the iRing. Bought it from Frys Electronics (which can be also found on their website too). A hook with adhesive on it can be applied to your car's dashboard and the ring (also with adhesive) applies to your phone or phone case.

Though there are some phone cases that have odd designs on them that might prevent the adhesive to stick, such as my phone case. In that case, I just used gorilla glue and its permanently attached to my case (unless I want to chisel it off... )

Aukey 4 Port Car Charger with Quick Charge 3.0

However, this iRing has made leaving and getting ready to head out to my next destination easy and simple without the headache of dealing with spring loaded phone holder. Plus, it keeps the phone jack clear so I can keep it charged with my car charger. 

Speaking of car chargers, I use the Aukey 4 Port Car Charger with Quick Charge 3.0: http://a.co/hLMFCn8 

I primarily use it for just my phone, but It has become beyond valuable on trips or when I have people in my car such as friends or when I've done Uber / Lyft. Even better, I can charge multiple electronics at once very well with it on said long trips; tablets, tablet laptops, phones, and portable batteries.

You name it. Its worked great and hasn't failed me since getting it in 2016 (its now Mid-2018 with this edit)  


KEEP TRACK OF YOUR MILEAGE!
The best thing you can do for yourself is keep track of your mileage. Keeping track of your mileage should be simple and you can find mileage books at most office stores (example: Office Depot, OfficeMax, or Staples)

When its time to do your taxes, you'll want to add all the mileage you drove while picking up and delivering orders and submit those numbers to your tax service. These piled up miles will lower the amount you need to pay in taxes.

Keep in mind though, mileage from finishing an order, signing off, and heading home, doesn't count as traceable, "business" mileage.


Investigate getting a Credit Card with Rewards.
When I first started to do deliveries, the one issue I ran into was a budget to purchase gas. Without gas, I couldn't make much needed money. So I investigated credit cards.

Most CCs (credit cards) have different rewards. Either being a kickback from making purchase or collecting points / miles for plane tickets. I went with a percentage kickback CC from B of A and that gave me 3% back from gas station purchases.

The one thing that I found most valuable about the card at the time was that it provided 0 Interest for roughly a year from opening the account. That helped provide a flow of money for gas without being "punished" with interest until I could get a solid flow of income coming in and I strictly only used it for gas to keep its usage under control.


Seems so Perfect! But...
The Postmates App is simple to use and understand. It makes picking up deliveries and drop offs simple. The only problem is their support team.

In the past 6 Months since posting this, Postmates made a change to their Fleet app which made it almost impossible to get help from the Fleet Support Team. Its come to the almost conclusion that you're out there on your own and if something happens, you won't be able obtain assistance from Postmate Support Team efficiently.

That means if there is a major issue with the order, its between you and the customer. Menu items are not available, its between you and the customer to figure out. Customer wants to cancel the order, they have to do it on their end.

You used to be able to summon a support member to call you and get help, but that option, at the moment, is deader then the dinosaurs.


Conclusion
Postmates, in general, is a easy to use delivery platform. Many more options then just food are available for you to pickup and Postmates seems to be busier then most platforms in major cities, at least currently. The lack of support hurts new comers to the delivery service, but practice and learning will make you or anyone more confident on what to do when the challenges come to pass.

Some days its going to be rough, but majority of the time its smooth sailing. Its easy to mix in with normal work and life or if you have free time, which makes it valuable.

I've been doing delivery services for over a year now and I've been lucky enough to be able to pay my bills, housing, car maintenance, and other stuff doing this along other car app services. I'll continue to work Postmates and these services until I found an even better source of income.

(Last Updated 9/4/2018)