I've always wanted to try out UberEATS just for fun. I'm not sure why. Anyhoo. Here are 3 tips I can share with anyone who wants to be an UberEATS delivery rider (on bicycle). The second part of the blog post contains boring detailed stuff of my actual experience.
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Three Tips for an UberEATS delivery rider
- Bring along a water bottle, and refill it whenever possible. This is essential, you're going to get dehydrated pretty fast as it is fairly physically taxing. Do try to look out for possible places to refill your bottle, as that water finishes faster than you think. I was riding in the late afternoon/evening, and I finished 1litre of water in 3 hours.
- Go 'Online' close to the hour. I'll elaborate on this later on, but basically, to maximise your chance of getting the hourly incentive, be in the hot zone and only go Online at about the start of the hour (e.g. 1.01PM)
- Don't over-rely on the in-app navigation system. As you will read later on, the native navigation system led me to the wrong places a few times. I also saw several times on my trip when the directions are a bit weird (I was heading down a main road, and it asked me to go on a detour into a minor road before coming back out to the main road instead. I ignored it and kept on the main road, and there were no issues. Oh, the app crashed very often while navigating as well. You should generally try to navigate in advance via the map, and lookout for any shortcuts.
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My Personal Experience as an UberEATS delivery rider
or
A day in the life of an UberEATS delivery rider (on bicycle)
1. Signing Up
2. My delivery experience
1. Signing Up
To sign up, you have to go down to one of their onboarding centres. I think there are a few more now, but I went to the main one in Ubi.
The Ubi outlet is kinda out of the way, with only one public bus that goes there, or you could stop a distance away at the main road and walk 10 minutes in.
The sign-up process is pretty fast, you just take a queue number, then an UberEATS employee will talk you through your onboarding process which involves going through some simple steps like watching a video, filling up bank details, etc.
Within 30 minutes, I was equipped with my hefty UberEATS bag - it contained a raincoat top and bottom which was pretty heavy, one insulated bag inside the bigger insulated bag, a handphone holder, and Halal bag. The bag itself is actually pretty heavy, maybe 2-4KG? This makes a difference when you carry it for a few hours on bicycle, with the food orders..
2. My delivery experience
I originally planned to ride from 4pm to about 7pm, to try to nail the juicy 5-7pm bonus hourly incentive. Little did I know how difficult it is. More on that later.
I had some delay as I was fixing on the phone holder on my bicycle and preparing myself, and ended up leaving house at about 4.15pm. I went 'Online' immediately hoping to get a delivery order asap. I planned to head to one of the hotspots listed on the UberEATS website, Bugis. It was about a 20-25 minute ride, and I glanced at the app every few seconds hoping to get a hit. There were none.
4.40PM (the timings henceforth are approximate timings. I can't remember the exact timings)
I reached Bugis Junction, and I began to wonder if the app was working. I restarted it and went Online again. I decided to head to the ATM to draw money, after locking up my bike at a random fence railing at the fountain area.
After drawing money, I decided to head up to get some Capitaland Vouchers as I was buying a gift for a friend.
DING!
4.50PM
Or beep, I can't remember what the sound was. But a big green circle popped up on my phone screen. Finally! A job! I quickly clicked accept. I was excited. Yay! Time to deliver food to a hungry person! I half ran, half walked back to my bicycle.
When the map loaded, I silently cursed as I realised it wasn't a food outlet at Bugis Junction, but at City Square Mall (Popeyes). That's about 2KM away, or about 8 minutes for me to ride. I excitedly pedaled hard to the destination, as I wanted to make the trip fast.
5.05PM
Upon arriving at City Square Mall, I was like, fuck, where do I park. I went about 20 metres down the side of the building and coincidentally stumbled upon the bicycle parking lot. Praise the Lord! I quickly locked up my bike, and literally half jogged into the building.
Popeyes... popeyes... the helpful UI indicated it was on the 2nd floor, so I walked/jogged up the escalator to the 2nd floor. I missed it at first, but found it after checking out the shop directory.
I arrived at Popeyes, and thankfully there was no queue at all. The staff looked up and seemed to be expecting me. She bagged a few items, and then passed them to me all in one bag. Nice. I loaded the items into the heavy UberEATS thermal aluminium heavy bag (did I just say heavy twice? oops), thanked the lady, and went down to my bicycle quickly.
I swiped the 'Start Delivery' button, and found out my destination was over 2KM away, in Whampoa. Ah damn. Why didn't some lazy ass nearby order this??
I pedaled hard again, and reached the area in about 15 minutes. However, the UberEATS GPS was screwed up, and led me to the wrong block! I had to pull up my Google Maps to locate the actual location, which added another 5 minutes.
5.25PM
I passed the food to the young lady, flashed my best winning smile (need to get those 5 star ratings amiright?) and said 'enjoy your food!' in the most enthusiastic voice I could. She muttered a thanks and retreated to her house.
Ok, whatever. On to the next trip? I decided to head back towards City Square Mall, hoping to reach the mall and enjoy the airconditioning. I was about 3 minutes away when ...
DING!
5.46PM
Hooray, another order. I accepted quickly, and realised I passed this place on my way from the previous venue. Damn, why didn't this order come in earlier!? I backtracked and went to Hungry Heroes in Tessensohn Road.
5.55PM
Upon arrival, the nice owner / staff was actually waiting outside for me.
"No need to lock your bike! I have the food here." He held up the plastic bag of food.
I thanked him profusely, glanced at the receipt, and peeked into the bag. "This is it?" He nodded.
As I loaded the food into the big heavy piece of s... UberEATS thermal reflective heat protective bag, the guy offered a helpful comment: "Looks like it's going to rain."
I looked up. "Yea it does. I hope not."
I jumped back onto my bike, and off I went. This time it was nearer, about 1KM away. Hooray for lazy people. It turned out abit further than expected, as the GPS directions were again a bit wonky.
6.05PM
The destination was some condominium, and I strode in with my bicycle only to have the guard run over to scold me. "You can't do that. Later people complain. Where you going? Must tell me"
After apologising and settling him, I locked up my bike at the guardhouse, and went up to deliver the food. My overenthusiastic politeness was met with muted pleasantries again, and I began to realise that this was going to be the norm.
On my way back down, I got lost as I went out the wrong door. The condo was one of those which every door requires card access, so I was hopelessly lost. I wandered in circles inside for about 5-10 minutes, before finally making my way out.
I rode towards City Square Mall again, hoping to catch a breather. As I pulled up to the same bicycle parking lot...
DING.
6.18PM
I accepted it, then cursed. It wasn't from City Square Mall. I had to head back to Bugis to Jinjja Chicken. Another 2km ride. Great.
6.30PM
Upon arrival at the place, the staff appeared a bit confused. The order wasn't ready, so I had to wait for about 5-10 minutes. Time is ticking guys! I was still trying to hit the elusive 1.2 trips/hour (TPH)(if I did, I get a juicy bonus for that hour), which basically meant I needed to finish this and start a new trip before 7PM to have any chance of that.
The destination was not too near this time...somewhere around Rangoon Road... 3KM away! Ugh. It took me 27 minutes according to the app, and it was because I got semi-lost when I arrived at the venue.
Firstly, the address had no block number, and was just a postal code. I had to key it into Google Maps to find roughly where it was. Secondly, it was one of those irritating old HDBs where one block is very wide, and a lift may not serve all the units. I went up the wrong one the first time, and took about 5-10 minutes to find the correct venue. What made it more annoying was the person wasn't picking up my calls, despite my numerous attempts trying to clarify the venue.
The moment I completed the trip, I immediately got a next request.
DING!
7.04PM.
I was pretty tired at this point, but I wanted to get the 1.2 TPH bonus so I immediately accepted. The food venue was about 2km away though... omg. And the traffic was getting quite bad around the venue. It was some indian stall in Dunlop street.
7.20PM.
Upon arrival, the shopkeeper took out 5 boxes and put them in a plastic bag and handed them to me. FML! They were heavy. So I was tired, slightly dehydrated, and I get my heaviest order yet. I loaded them into the super shiny reflective heat trapping heavy annoying UberEATs bag, and off I went to my...
WTF it's 4KM away.
The destination was some atas condo near Orchard, which was made extra shitty because the area was hilly and I had to pound up some steep slopes. It took me about 30 minutes.
7.50PM
A meek but polite maid opened the door at this house, and the lady of the house was right behind. They seemed happy to see me, and I smiled and gave my standard greeting of 'enjoy your food' with whatever energy I had left. I was pretty drained.
At this point, I had a choice. I could attempt to continue delivering, and if I got an immediate hit, I would get the 1.5TPH bonus. However, I was worried it would bring me further and further away from home, and I wasn't relishing the long ride home (it was already a 6KM ride home from that point. And this is after almost 4 hours of riding). I decided to stop at this point, because I was downright exhausted. I went 'Offline'.
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What are my learning points from this?
1) The 1.2 TPH bonus during peak hour is not that easy to hit
Their website cheerfully claims that 'our top riders make 3 trips in an hour!', and I'm wondering if they have hoverjets or something.
The thing about delivering on UberEATS is that you need to be in the vicinity of food outlets, otherwise you won't get a hit. This means after each delivery, you may need to backtrack to the 'hotspots', which takes up at least 5-15 minutes of your time.
This catch was a big hindrance in trying to hit the 1.2 trips per hour that was required to earn the hourly incentive during peak hours.
Here's the math:
After completing a delivery, head back out to a hotspot - 5-15 minutes (depends on luck)
On the way, you get a hit; you need to make your way to the food place - 10-20 minutes
Waiting for the food to be prepared / loading the food / locking /unlocking bike - 5-10 minutes
Delivering the food - 15-30 minutes
On average , it's about 50 minutes per delivery. It's really hard to hit 3 in 2 hours if your very first delivery doesn't start close to the hour
For me, I started at 4.15pm... these were my 'delivery accepted' timings, which roughly show how long it takes for each delivery. I took no breaks.
4.47PM; 5.46PM; 6.18PM; 7.04PM
This meant I rode for 3h 45 minutes, and only managed 4 trips.
Was I riding too slow? Maybe. I don't boast an elite cycling pace, maybe 15km/h only. Maybe if you pedal hard and average 20km/h, you can squeeze in those trips more easily. Maybe you will be making those '3 trips in an hour' (though I really don't see how this is possible unless you get super lucky)
2) The earnings aren't that great (even with the hourly bonus)
Each trip gives you about $4, on average. There's some formula that's based on distance, but that's about the average trip.
During offpeak hours, the requirement is 1 trip/h to get an hourly incentive, which is a pittance of about $6-7. This works out to be about $10/h.
During peak hours, the requirement becomes 1.2 trip/h, and while the hourly incentive is better ($15?), as elaborated above, it's not easy to hit it. This means you may end up getting only $4/h during peak. I think the key point is to plan your trips, to start your first trip (i.e. be in the hot zone) close to the hour, and not towards the later half of the hour.
It is not an easy job, as you are cycling non-stop for hours. If you are in extremely good shape and love to ride, I guess this is easy money for you. If you don't mind a physically taxing job, then I guess this is fine. I'm not sure how well Deliveroo / Foodpanda pays their riders, but you should go check it out and do your own comparisons.
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Alright! Hope this post was informative and useful. Stay safe!
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