A day in the life of an UberEATS delivery rider (bicycle)

Have you wondered what it's like to be an UberEATS delivery rider? This post will tell you all about it! (or at least my experience).

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

1. 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.
2. 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)
3. 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!

How Clash Royale is so successful

Clash Royale is one of the best mobile games I have ever played. I have played it ever since its debut in Mar 2016, and it is still going strong with millions of players today.

What makes the game so successful? I believe the game creators, Supercell, have done a fantastic job in designing the game. I will be exploring what I believe to be the key reasons why the game is so successful (and addictive)

What is Clash Royale?

Clash Royale is best described as a hybrid of collectible card games, tower defense, and multiplayer online battle arena.

Without going into TOO much detail, the basic premise of the game is as such:

- Players build a deck of 8 cards, which they bring to battle other players.
- The aim of the game is to destroy your opponent's outer towers, and/or 'King' tower.
- Your opponent will be trying to stop you from doing that, and likewise is trying to destroy your outer towers and/or 'King' tower.
- You immediately win the game if you destroy your opponent's King tower.
- Upon winning a game, you are rewarded with a chest, which contains more cards.
- You collect more cards to upgrade them to become higher level and thus stronger.
- Rinse and repeat.

Why is this game so damn addictive and successful? There are a couple of reasons.

Clash Royale is a pretty darn fun game

You can't have a successful game if it isn't fun and has decent replayability value. With over 30 different cards at launch, there were endless permutations to build your 8-card deck to battle others. There's a simple ladder system using 'Trophies' - you win a game, you get some trophies, which accumulate. The game's matchmaking system pairs you up with opponents with similar trophy-levels as you. It's all about real-time tactics and improvisation as you decide how to best send your units across the battlefield to take down your opponent's towers.

Game sessions are well-managed

Every mobile-game developer knows that the 'average session time', or how long a player needs to spend playing the game to accomplish something of value, is extremely important. Too long, and you turn away casual gamers. Too short, and the experience is not sufficiently immersive. Supercell keeps the average game session at about 4-8 minutes, which is about 1-2 games. Perfect for the quick work break.

You are incentivised to return to the game

It wouldn't be sufficient to have players login once a day to play 1-2 games.There needs to be some 'hook', something to keep players coming back - and that's in the form of the 'Chests'.

In Clash Royale, every game you win grants you a Chest, which contains random cards. Certain chests give more cards than others, and the types of chests you get are on a fixed rotation. To get the cards within the chest, you have to 'unlock' the chest, which takes anywhere from 3 hours to 24 hours. You can only unlock one chest at a time, and you can store up to 4 chests.

This sets up a system where players are encouraged to return to the game every 3 hours or so to 'unlock' their next chest. And hey, since you are in the game, why not play another quick match? Brilliant.

There is also a 'Free Chest' that refreshes every 3 hours, as well as the ability to request for cards in your Clan, which has a cooldown of 8 hours. More time-triggered events to get you to return to the game.

Finally, there is also a daily 'Crown chest' where you have to get ten crowns (or take down ten towers) to unlock the Crown chest which gives you more cards. This forces players to play a little more than 1-2 games, yet seems so organic and natural that players just play the extra few games to earn the rewards.

Upgrades exponentially become harder to get

Your initial few upgrades are quick and cheap - after all, they need to give new players a sense of progression. As you get higher and higher in your card levels, it takes much more cards to upgrade your units, and thus correspondingly it takes more time to upgrade them as you collect the cards.

Enter monetisation

There are two main reasons to monetise in this game, in the form of in-game 'Gems'. First, if you spend real cash to buy some Gems, you can use the Gems to speed up the unlocking of your chests. More unlocked chests, more cards, more upgrades. Progress! You can also use Gems to buy unlocked Chests from the shop, though this is the more costly option.

Second, you can spend cash on the in-game currency 'Gold', which allows you to upgrade units, as well as buy cards off the shop, which shows a different batch of units/cards daily.

Basically, if you want your cards to be higher level quicker, you can spend some real-life cash to help yourself.


Social game is strong

The game's initial social element, the 'Clan' system, was slightly lacking. You could get into a clan of up to 50 people to donate / request cards, and chat and play friendly matches with your clan mates. However, there was no way to play with your real-life friends if they weren't in the same clan as you, nor was there a proper tournament system in place.

Over time, the game introduced more features, with the Tournament feature being an initial hit, but fizzing out quickly as many expected. Thankfully, Supercell eventually did add the ability to fight with your friends if you linked up your game to your Facebook account.

Keeping things fresh

Although the game is undoubtedly fun, it will get repetitive after a certain point, and the game makers know this well. Thus, they keep it fresh with regular card updates in the form of balance changes, and even adding in new cards every few months.

A recent addition was also special game modes, which add a twist to the way standard games were played. Together with these were 'Challenges', which played exactly like Hearthstone's Arena mode - pay a token sum to join the Arena, and you play to win as many games as you can. After you have lost 3 games, you are out of the Arena, and you are rewarded based on how many games you have won.

The cool thing about Challenge mode is that it is catered to the F2P players - cards are capped at 'tournament standards', which is well-achievable by someone who has played the game for a few months. This mode finally provided a level playing field, in which it is truly skill and deck-building skills that would allow players to triumph.

What next?

Supercell will have to keep things fresh and introduce new modes and features to keep players engaged. Some have speculated about future clan wars mode, and new and interesting twists to the game modes, so I'm excited to see what this behemoth of a game company has for us :D

Highlights of 2016!

Completed one cycle of NS!

After somehow avoiding reservist for 5 years, I got called up this year :( The 2 weeks was pretty tough mainly because of the lack of sleep (waking up at 530 every day wth), but glad I made it through. One down, nine more to go -_-

Cleared IPPT during reservist, despite running like a tortoise

Watched a live soccer match for the first time in my life

As part of the perks of my company, got 2 free tickets to an S-League match so decided to check it out. Was a pretty boring match, but oh well.

I switched jobs (again).

I still question myself on whether this was the right decision, but I guess I'll find out in 2017 when my 1-yr contract ticks to an end. If I had stayed on where I was, I would have a cushy office and perhaps clocked '2 years' at a company to look better on my resume, provided the company didn't continue to cut people which it seemed like it would. Oh well.

Started riding to work!

Because my new job was within cycling distance, I bought a bicycle and began cycling to work. Now I've grown fairly attached to my bicycle, and can't imagine not cycling anymore (which is likely to happen in 2017). I'm gonna miss the 15 minute journeys to/fro work :(

Met an old friend

My exchange in the US was one of the best periods of my life, and whenever I get to re-live any aspect of it I'm glad. This year one of my Asian American friends Melody from Boston actually came to SG because her cousin was getting married. Of course we had to meet up!

Got to hang out with her and her cousin which was a pretty good time. Forgot how bubbly and talkative she was, and so was initially nervous about meeting up, but turns out the worry was for nothing haha.

Went to Timbre for the first time and discovered 53A

Decided to tag along with colleagues who went to Timbre (Substation), and discovered the super talented local band 53A! The frontrunner Sara Wee is so cool <3 haha

Performed in a band

Even though I've been playing for church service for years, I've never actually performed for people. Got the opportunity to do so for a work event this year, and I must say we sounded pretty damn good! Quite a pity that nobody videoed it :( My favourite piece was our medley of Rude - I'm Yours. I learnt a tribal beat on the cajon for it and thought it was pretty cool.

Got married!

In spite of the difficult circumstances leading up to it, it turned out pretty damn well. Everything was pretty smooth, my best man Darren handled any hiccups flawlessly, Pity I could't invite more, but we wanted to keep the event small and cozy.

My favourite shot

In relation to this, I also enjoyed our full day pre-wedding photoshoot. It was very tiring but very rewarding to see how the pictures turned out.

Watched a musical in Singapore for the first time in my life

In quite a last minute decision, we caught Wicked in one of its final runs. Turned out pretty good! Though the only song I knew was Defying Gravity haha.

Started and stopped WoW

The expansion, Legion, came out this year, so I wanted to try it. Went back to playing one of my favourite games of all time, and had some pretty damn memorable moments, such as our first Mythic Ilgynoth kill which was very dramatic. Unfortunately, life caught up and I decided it was better to stop playing. Oh well, good bye WoW forever.

Went for honeymoon in Germany and Prague!

The trip was fairly eventful, with its highlights and lowlights (is this a thing?). The bell-clanging demons will always be THE story I tell people if they ask about the trip. Our car clipping the pavement and busting its tyre was especially memorable too. All in all, an interesting trip that was very cold. Made a blog psot on it here: http://crazerk.blogspot.sg/2016/12/honeymoon-trip-to-germany-and-czech.html

Went sailing for the first time in my life

Was jioed by churchies to go for a free sailing event organised by DBS, and was glad for it! Went on a small sail boat and was out at sea (well, the Marina waterfront) for half an hour. Got to control the sails and steer the boat. Pretty cool!