I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
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I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
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Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#2This seems very much like a prearranged PR event. He says:
"... but to be honest, I’m not sure what I would have made for the deliveries themselves. Postmates recently changed its pricing policy to charge users based on the difficulty of the job, and it declined to disclose how much it pays its couriers for those jobs."
So it is pretty clear that the company is not treating him as an employee, but is giving him special treatment as a journalist.
If he really wanted to show how it feels to be a psotmates employee, he should just get the job as an ordinary joe schnoe, like the lady that wrote "nickel and dimed".
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#3> Based on my limited experience, delivering for Postmates means you spend more time waiting in line than doing anything else.
Isn't that why people hire someone else for errands? So they don't have to wait in line?
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#4> To be honest, $8.00 in tips isn’t a lot for three hours of biking around town. But I got stiffed on my last delivery, it was pointed out… And I was told by Postmates HQ that couriers typically do multiple jobs simultaneously, which increase the amount they receive. I was just unlucky in that I had to wait in line for ridiculous amounts of time at two of the locations, otherwise my tips would have been higher.
So what exactly is going to prevent couriers from taking multiple jobs they know they can't do in a fast time but can do in an okay time? Doesn't this encourage couriers to take on more jobs than they can do to make more money? A mediocre experience for consumers.
> I probably won’t be quitting my day job and becoming a courier anytime soon. I do, however, have a lot more respect for those guys, and will be sure to tip well whenever I order something from them in the future. (You should, too.)
A very American thing. Here in England we tip people when they do a great job (or not at all) tipping just because they delivered something is rare. It seems Postmates is copying the normal (American) delivery model: pay your couriers the minimum allowed and expect the customer to pick up the slack, even when they're already paying you a premium for the service. Pretty shameful really.
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#5> To be honest, $8.00 in tips isn’t a lot for three hours of biking around town. But I got stiffed on my last delivery, it was pointed out… And I was told by Postmates HQ that couriers typically do multiple jobs simultaneously, which increase the amount they receive. I was just unlucky in that I had to wait in line for ridiculous amounts of time at two of the locations, otherwise my tips would have been higher. So wh…
> So what exactly is going to prevent couriers from taking multiple jobs they know they can't do in a fast time but can do in an okay time? Doesn't this encourage couriers to take on more jobs than they can do to make more money? A mediocre experience for consumers.
One the one hand, couriers are doing more jobs in the same amount of time. On the other hand, customers have to wait longer. Something doesn't add up here.
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#6So no pay for wait time. I know from being a bike messenger you usually got paid for wait time, I guess this isn't the traditional messenger job.
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#7This seems very much like a prearranged PR event. He says: "... but to be honest, I’m not sure what I would have made for the deliveries themselves. Postmates recently changed its pricing policy to charge users based on the difficulty of the job, and it declined to disclose how much it pays its couriers for those jobs." So it is pretty clear that the company is not treating him as an employee, but is giving him speci…
Hristov,
the only thing we didn't disclose is how much commission Ryan would receive per job - but if you look around a little you will see that our Postmates receive between 60%-80% of the delivery fee as commission. A Postmate makes money even if a customer does not tip. The tipping is just a bonus.
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#8> To be honest, $8.00 in tips isn’t a lot for three hours of biking around town. But I got stiffed on my last delivery, it was pointed out… And I was told by Postmates HQ that couriers typically do multiple jobs simultaneously, which increase the amount they receive. I was just unlucky in that I had to wait in line for ridiculous amounts of time at two of the locations, otherwise my tips would have been higher. So wh…
> So what exactly is going to prevent couriers from taking multiple jobs they know they can't do in a fast time but can do in an okay time? Doesn't this encourage couriers to take on more jobs than they can do to make more money? A mediocre experience for consumers. One the one hand, couriers are doing more jobs in the same amount of time. On the other hand, customers have to wait longer. Something doesn't add up her…
The answer is technology and a very clever dispatch Jules ;)
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#9So no pay for wait time. I know from being a bike messenger you usually got paid for wait time, I guess this isn't the traditional messenger job.
Since we call in most of the orders there is very limited wait time. Ryan got extremely unlucky. Our dynamic pricing however, models the costs and the fee to be paid by the customer, by keeping all these things in mind.
Re: I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day
#10> To be honest, $8.00 in tips isn’t a lot for three hours of biking around town. But I got stiffed on my last delivery, it was pointed out… And I was told by Postmates HQ that couriers typically do multiple jobs simultaneously, which increase the amount they receive. I was just unlucky in that I had to wait in line for ridiculous amounts of time at two of the locations, otherwise my tips would have been higher. So wh…
I should start by pointing out that the article does not make it very clear that all Postmates also receive a commission for every delivery they are doing. Currently this commission is between 60%-80% of the delivery fee.
To answer your question about what would prevent Postmates from taking on too many jobs i would need to explain our dispatch in all details but the answer lies in great software.
Finally, the tip is not required on our platform and all Postmates get compensated very, very fair, even without any tip.