In this article, we will review the option of making Postmates a full-time job. I work for Postmates full time now, and my income is pretty decent. Just before we start getting into the details, here is something important to know. Postmates will invite you to an onboarding session; this is a great way to understand how Postmates operates it won't teach you how to be a successful delivery person. The actual driving and delivery process is entirely up to you, and you have to find out how to be successful all by yourself.
Postmates is a door to door delivery service providing deliveries of all kinds of items from stores and shops, such as office supplies and snacks, as well as food deliveries from restaurants. Usually, the deliveries are in small quantities.
Postmates is an easy job to perform. All the driver needs to do is open the Postmates app and wait for orders to come in. There is no shift or scheduled work, and once the app is opened, the driver receives requests and picks up the delivery from the merchant. The delivery can be pre-ordered paid for when the driver arrives with a special Postmates credit card that is used to pay for the orders. The driver takes a picture of the receipt and sends it to support via the app and delivers the order to the customer.
I will present here 10 tips on how to improve your blocks and how to succeed.
Tip #1: Delivery Bag
Make sure your delivery bags are in good condition, clean and can contain both hot and cold foods when necessary. Do not mix foods, make sure the hot and cold are separate, you want to deliver good food. Otherwise, you are not doing your job, and your customer will also be upset. I also have an ice box which I take for delivering really cold drinks. That
Tip #2: Condiments and Utensils
Make sure you take enough condiments, this means adding more salt, pepper and whatever is needed per delivery type. For instance, if you are delivering Asian, then add soy sauce, if its Japanese then make sure you have enough wasabi and ginger if its Indian make sure you have enough curry sauce and poppadums. For Mexican, I add every kind of salsa and if the restaurant offers mints or candies, take a fistful. You get the drift, match the condiment with the delivery and make sure you have double what is needed. This always makes for a happy customer.
As for utensils, make sure you have more than enough, double is better, and make sure there are enough napkins and wet wipes for after the meal.
Tip #3: Greeting Customers
This is a major game changer. Always greet the customer with a smile and offer the food in a kind way. Always state you made sure of double condiments and utensils, this goes a long way to the customers. Keep your interaction with the customer to a minimum, no more time than it takes to hand over the order, say hi and smile, state your additional service, it adds up to about one and half minutes and then leaves. Always keep it short, but not too short, don't just hand over the food and go, ask a question like how was your day? Or, I hope you like Salsa because I grabbed more for you and when they reply, answer briefly and then say goodbye.
Tip #4: Communications
Always maintain open communications with the customer during the pickup process when dealing with slow preparations or specific culinary decisions. There might be different sauces to choose from or an item that is missing and can be replaced by another one off the menu. Do not decide for a customer what you think they might want, call them up and tell them of the options to decide from. Also, if there is a delay, immediately contact them and update the ETA. The last thing you want is an irate customer, especially if it's not your fault.
Tip #5: Dash Mount
This is very important for safety during driving. You are going to be doing a lot of driving, so you want to keep your hands free as much as possible for holding the steering wheel and not handling your mobile device. Buy a good mount and place it on the dash in an area that is easy to reach as well as to see without moving your eyes too much off the road. You will need to check out your ma position, look at incoming notifications as well as sometimes have to call your customer during a long ride or when you are facing a challenging drop of the zone that is either hard to find or hard to park near.
Tip #6: Merchants
The merchants are just as important as your customers. The more you appreciate their hard work and interact with them, the quicker they will respond to you in future deliveries. It's best to wear the same things when delivering and to have a signature item that merchants will associate with you, like a personal brand item. Once merchants get to be your friends, you can offer marketing them to your customers too. After all, there are so many Mexican and Asian restaurants around, if you have a preference for one over the other you can tell a customer if they ever tried out the new place, and then you know the next time they order out they might order from the merchant you suggested. Once merchants feel you are also helping them increase their business, they will go an extra mile to help you out as well as offer you the occasional meal.
Tip #7: Ignoring Blitzes
Ignore these periods, they don't add much, and they frustrate the natural order of things. My personal opinion is that they added it because Uber has it. I ignore them unless I happen to be in a blitz area. I don't chase blitzes, and I only concentrate on delivering as much as possible at my scheduled time.
Tip #8: Scheduling
This is a very important tip; this is highly income related. Schedule yourself for Lunch and Dinner on Thursday through Sundays. Most of your work will be delivering food from restaurants, and these are the hottest times to deliver. I don't do late nights; I prefer the lunch and evening meal crowd. It's safer, they tip well, and you get to deliver rather than sit about waiting for orders to come in.
Tip #9: Don't Pay Personally
If your Postmates Credit Card doesn't work, then checks to see if the order was prepaid; there is no point in trying to pay and waste time trying, the card will not work for a prepaid order. Run the card as a Credit, Postmates cards will only work if Credit is chosen and they do not have a pin number.
For any other reasons, no matter what they are, you do not use your cash or cards to pay for an order. You try to top up the card via support. If the card still doesn't work after additional funds have been added, check to see if the merchant is a Postmates partner, maybe the order was prepaid.
If you cannot pay for an order, don't leave the merchant site until you have tried out all options. The worst-case scenario is to cancel the order. Do not photograph the receipt until it has been paid. This will disable your ability to add funds to the card. Always double check how much funds you need, if your order is $40 and you only have $25, then your card will not be accepted. Check to see that the card is not worn out or damaged in any way. If it is, then you need to order a new card, and one will be delivered to your home address for free.
Tip #10: Car is Office
Your car is your office, and you are also sitting in it for hours every day. Make sure you invest in comfort, in entertainment, and in good maintenance. There will be days when you will wait for deliveries, and this means you need to keep busy. I like to read up on podcasts and YouTube ideas that help me improve my performance. I am also considering adding another delivery company for the quiet days, such as DoorDash, UberEats or Amazon Flex.
Tip #11: Change how you think
Stop counting the cash. These delivery jobs are low income, so no matter how much you do the math you won't get rich being a Postmates driver. What you have to do is concentrate on getting as much work as possible in one day, enjoying the time you make it and enjoying the time you are free. If this is going to be a full-time job for you, then also consider adding another company to your list, so you can work for more than one and maximize your work hours.
Here is a quick breakdown of what a Postmates driver can make on average.
Postmates get paid a flat fee for an additional fee per minute and a calculated fee per mile between the pickup and drop-off destinations. You get all the tip amounts tipped by a customer through the app after the delivery has been completed. There is an hourly guarantee (bonus) for Postmates that accept all the requests (100%) within an hour. Peak hours, known as Blitz pricing (like Ubers Surge) gives a higher rate during peak hours of the day, but as I mentioned, I don't run after them.
The earnings made from deliveries are paid to the Postmates after four to seven days.
The average income per hour is around $8.00 to $15.00 in most cities. For instance, in LA, the flat rate is $1.35 which is automatic the moment a request is accepted. The per minute rate is $0.10 for waiting at a store or restaurant. The per mile rate is $0.13 when delivering the order. If an order takes seven minutes to prepare and is six miles away and it takes five minutes to ride on a scooter, then the income will be:
$1.35 + $0.70 + $0.78 + $0.50 = $3.33
The overheads of this ride are the scooter fuel, insurance and mobile phone cost per minute. Taxes do apply, but they are calculated at the end of the year and depend on all the other income and expense factors.