Jayme So there’s the age old delivery-gig driver question; do I cherry-pick the orders I take or just take them all? Now both have merit, for the most part, but I’ll try to break down my thoughts on it, and which method I use.
Premier/Pro
First lets start with Premier/Pro/whatever they are calling it on your platform (I have experience with GrubHub & DoorDash), basically taking every order they throw at you to keep your ”acceptance rating” as high as possible. I did this when I started delivering for GrubHub. My thinking was take as many orders to get as much money as possible. After a bit I did some reading and thinking about it and came to the conclusion; that this was like being in an abusive relationship, where you do everything you’re told to do for fear of reprisal. However it doesn’t have to be that way, they aren’t our bosses, we are contractors, and have more say in how we run our own businesses!
So they say you get better privileges with higher acceptance rates, such as first pick at scheduling and first offer of catering orders (which I’ve never even seen). Now every market is different but it has been my experience that if I allow them too, they will have me driving from one extreme end of town to the other, with little incentive. Yeh it’s a $10 order but I’m driving 10 miles out of town, and then 10 back! This isn’t just unfriendly to your bank account, but to your car and gas tank! We put our rides through enough, so this brings me to…
Cherry-Picking
ahhhh this is where it gets fun! Your in control, acceptance rate be damned, no one gonna push me around! So the idea here is take only the orders you want, only the best for you!.. but how do you know what the best orders are, how can you make sense out of all the chaos! Quick, you’ve got an offer! Take it or decline, ahhhhhhh, the clock is ticking decide now or… oh its gone, whatever I didn’t want that order anyway! So to deal with the mad dash of figuring out what a good order is, or not, I use a little know magic called:
Math!
Ok, so not much of a secret. I basically lay down some rules for how I decide wether an order is trash, or worth my time, before I even start.
First thing first is what do you want to make an hour, whats your goal? I tend to aim for $25/hr which makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, and I’m not wasting my time.
Secondly I set a minimum I’ll take for each order which for me is $5. I know my worth, GrubHub (or DoorDash) should too! I’m not hitting the road for less than $5 damnit! Now I know DoorDash doesn’t tell you wether an order has a extra tip or not, they like to dangle that in front of you like, ‘ohhh the generous customer might give you more money, but you’ll never know if you don’t commit now!’ I never rely on this, if the order doesn’t meet my minimum, decline! I don’t really trust in the kindness of strangers.
Next I set a minimum per mile I am willing to accept; I usually go with $2 a mile. So if an order is $10 and the miles are somewhere around 5, I’ll take it, but if the miles are like 8 or 11, nah I hiss at the order like an angry cat and hit decline!
”Shitty orders” are everywhere, either people don’t tip, or… people tip poorly! (ahh tipping, a rant for another article). And so my acceptance rate has become trash, but my car and bank account thank me!
So every market is different and you have to figure out what numbers work for you. Play around with it, have fun, pick some cherrys and if you end up with a ”shitty order” ah well, your still getting paid.
