How to Start Working in Food Delivery Service

Working in food delivery has its pros and cons. It is definitely hard work, but it pays off most of the time. It is the perfect gig if you’re a student or are simply looking for an additional job to boost your income on the side. When working with most intermediary food delivery companies, there are no hour limits or other requirements that will prevent you from combining this gig with other responsibilities.

If you want to become a driver for Ubereats or any other food delivery company out there, you will need to familiarize yourself with a few things before you can get started. Although getting the job itself is fairly easy and requires little to no previous experience or training, you should at least learn how to get around the city quickly and efficiently. Additionally, you should keep other aspects of this job in mind, such as how tipping works and how to choose an employer that will suit your needs the most. You might also need a car, which is no problem as you can rent it from services like hyrecar.com.

Delivering food to other people’s homes can be an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience if you get all of the starting points right. If not, it might quickly turn into an unbearable nightmare that you will scramble to get out of. Keep on reading to find out how to get started in this business and what you are going to need in order to make it as a delivery driver.

Pick your vehicle

Have you recently noticed the influx of people on bicycles carrying giant square packages on their backs? They’re delivering food. Cycling has become incredibly popular within the community of food drivers, with apps like Doordash or Grubhub incentivizing riders to pick out the quickest possible routes, as well as advertising themselves as environmentally conscious.

Before you hop on that bicycle though, you should ask yourself a couple of questions first: are you fit enough? It is not as easy and seamless as it seems to spend the whole day riding around the entire city, sometimes with more than one order on your back.

Even if you’re only delivering part-time, you should definitely consider whether the biking option will not tire you out too much. There is no shame in driving a car in order to get the job done — in fact, the majority of deliverers still do, contrary to what you might conclude from looking at the streets.

On the other hand, even if you are a little out of shape, but you’re not afraid of the challenge, choosing a bicycle might prove to be beneficial for your health, as well as your rating. Remember, with a bike, you can drive via routes inaccessible for cars and there is no chance that you will get stuck in traffic!

Learn the city

Regardless of which food delivery service they’re working for, all of the best drivers do not rely on GPS or Google Maps to get from point A to point B on time. You need to learn the ins and outs of your city. This includes crucial general information like the peak hours for food orders, where the main business centers are located, as well as the back alleys and main arterial roads, for optimal route planning.

The basics are great for starters, but they won’t be enough if you want to really make the most of your adventure as the food delivery guy. In addition to all of the aforementioned aspects of your city, you should also find out the hotspots when it comes to the best dining experiences as well as hip, new restaurants that have just opened up.

Staying up to date with the restaurant scene in your area will ensure that you will always be in the right place, at the right time, ready to snatch up those most lucrative and pressing orders. It’s also worth noting that the higher the profile of a restaurant you’re delivering for, the bigger the chance that customers will tip you.

Choose the right company

Although they all might seem the same to you (and in many aspects, they actually are the same), there are some fundamental differences between the various food delivery intermediaries which you should dig into before getting started at one.

First of all, pay. This is probably the most important part of the whole deal — after all, you’re not going to be delivering burgers just for fun. Be sure to check what percentage of each order you will be getting as your salary, find out whether they also pay by the hour, and how the in-app tipping system works.

If you’re a foreigner in the country you want to deliver in, find out their policies that relate to foreign workers. Don’t let yourself get screwed over just because you come from a different country!

Final Notes

Finally, you should double-check the vehicle requirements — most of these apps nowadays will take you in even if you don’t have a vehicle at all, but some of them have stringent policies that you will need to comply with if you want to get started. Usually, these rules are intended to serve the driver’s own safety, as well as the efficiency of their work, so you can expect things like technical check-ups of the vehicle or having to provide copies of all the necessary documentation on the list.

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