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Door Dash Diaries (now with Uber Eats)

Yinzer Moto

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Jan 25, 2022
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Pittsburgh
I am starting this thread in hopes that there are some others using 2 wheels for this gig. There are some FB groups but they are dominated by car drivers. They are also 49% about people bitching about bad tips, 49% about tin foil hat conspiracies about DD stealing tips, 2% helpful content, and 0% about doing it on 2 wheels. There seems to be some nuances to doing this on a moto where it might be helpful to have some people discussing different strategies.

My story:

A few years ago, I looked at some of the other delivery companies and they prohibited motorcycles, so I gave up on that idea. Recently, I had seen someone mentioned they were doing DD on a motorcycle. To take advantage of some nice weather, I downloaded the app and signed up, just as a experiment. I bolted a milk crate to the back of the Honda Trail 125, installed a phone charger and cradle, off I went to see what this is all about.


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That day, I rode for about 3 hours and cashed out at around $32/hr. A couple days later, I got 5 hours in again, and cashed out at $28/hr. A couple more shifts resulted in right around $28/hr. There seems to be an algorithm at work here but it is all speculation on how it works exactly. Lots of people say to be picky and turn down orders that have low pay, my first day, I took every order unless it was taking me real far away. Following days, I only took higher dollar orders and my hourly rate went down. It is an ongoing experiment and this small sample is far from conclusive.

Yesterday, I contacted DD directly and asked what would happen if I changed my mode of transportation to a car. They said I would get bigger orders. Bigger orders equals higher tips. So I told them to add the car. Then last night, I went out in the car, just to see how big the orders might get and what might happen if I “forgot” to change my mode of transportation back to the scooter. All of the orders could have fit on the bike, no problem. The dollar amounts were a good bit higher, but it was a time of day that I had not worked before, so not sure if that is a factor. I don’t know how people manage this gig in a car, the scooter is so easy, just pull up and park almost anywhere. Because the car took more time to maneuver, I cashed out at $25/hr for a few hours. I really don’t know the maintenance costs on the scooter and per mile costs. It gets 125mpg, so fuel is not an issue at all. I’ll see how long the tires last, and the drivetrain.

So far, this seems like a fun thing to do if I have a little free time on a nice day. It is slightly addicting, it is almost like playing a video game, trying to work the system, trying to get orders done quickly, taking short cuts around town, while the app is dinging new orders In my headset. I should mention, some type of headset is almost mandatory. The phone is on my bars and it will ding with a new order. I will have 20-60 seconds to respond and accept the order. I get a ding and have to quickly pull off the road to respond.

The weather has gotten chilly again and the next 7 days do not look good for getting out. I’ll take this time to try and sort out a better system for carrying items on the bike. I am looking at a catering bag, it is insulated and of a big size.
 
Sounds interesting. How is your geographical area defined?

I don’t know how they designed it. This is a screen shot from the app. I have been focusing on the are to the left of the blue dot, basically downtown. It is more urban and better on the scooter. The area to the right might be better on a larger bike. What is odd is the town of Oakmont is in a northern area and contains a lot of restaurants. Which would exclude deliveries to people checked into the north area. The area to the far left, that is busy, is odd too. Right under the U in Pittsburgh, is an area that is packed with restaurants and that is probably the only reason that zone is busy right now.

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Interesting what you can do with data.

Is it a disadvantage to be limited to sub 55mph rds?
 
Is it a disadvantage to be limited to sub 55mph rds?

I am not sure, it is pretty easy to avoid the highways in this area. Even the area to the right, that I said would be better on a bigger bike, would probably be ok on the scooter but more attention would need to be paid to where the directions are going, as there are some really large hills where the scooter might not be able to do the speed limit.
 
Sounds like DD makes it very easy to get involved. Does DD treat you as a 1099 contractor?
 
We have had a couple weeks of awful weather, so the bike has been parked. Last night, I gave this a shot again. I also opened an account with Uber Eats. Running both at the same time is what people call multi apping. I was able to load up with more delivery at once, or take deliveries that I would normally decline because the restaurant is notoriously behind filling orders. I would accept an order from the slow restaurant, while I deliver on the other app. Then after a while, I would go to the slow restaurant and the order would be ready. Multi apping was the boost I was looking for. Macdonalds was still slow but I made that wait worthwhile by picking up several orders from there at once. Finished up the evening by nearly cracking $40/hr. I think that is pretty close to the ceiling. There might be lucky streaks where people tip really well. I have mentioned it previously but it is pretty entertaining, it is kind of lime playing a game.
 
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I don’t know how they designed it. This is a screen shot from the app. I have been focusing on the are to the left of the blue dot, basically downtown. It is more urban and better on the scooter. The area to the right might be better on a larger bike. What is odd is the town of Oakmont is in a northern area and contains a lot of restaurants. Which would exclude deliveries to people checked into the north area. The area to the far left, that is busy, is odd too. Right under the U in Pittsburgh, is an area that is packed with restaurants and that is probably the only reason that zone is busy right now.

07C74E51-4CCD-4FC0-985B-00F94C3EFE76.jpeg
mmmmmm, I saw a Popeyes in Monroeville.
 
We need an update please.

I have not gotten out with them in a few weeks. I have been busy riding my trials bike and a bunch of gardening around the house. The gardening pretty much wrapped up yesterday. Then I have a roofing project I need to supervise on one of the rentals. Long story short, it could be another week till I ride with them again.
 
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