The Best Gig Economy Delivery Jobs

I had to write a blog post about our experimentation with various gig economy jobs to minimize your learning curve. Keep in mind this was just our experience, and yours may vary but if I can save you some time and effort these learnings might help you! Each of these sites takes about a week to go through the process of signing up,

downloading the app, getting a background check, getting mailed a welcome kit and then doing your first job. Keep in mind I have a plug-in hybrid so my gas mileage is low and it's efficient, but any delivery jobs are wear and tear on your car and can add up over time with insurance and puts you in risk of possibly more accidents.

Instacart

My partner has been doing Instacart for many years, but I just signed up a few months ago to handle some of the influx of people that are CO-VID wary and would rather have someone else do their grocery shopping and have contactless delivery. Instacart has a new collab with Walmart, so it has opened up many more job opportunities and there are many new customers that are open to grocery delivery going forward. I feel like Instacart is a good respite once in a while, but it's time intensive and sometimes a lot of hassle. I've started a job and had to pee or become really hungry and disoriented in a huge messy store like Smart&Final.

Pro tip 1: Fresh produce, dairy and bakery items are often sold out and have to be replaced which is headache. Do early jobs from 8AM to 2pm to get the best selection and therefore a more streamlined shopping experience

Pro tip 2: Stick to grocery stores you know well. If you know the layout and you can follow a route to find things together an in order you will be much more efficient. A shopping trip that normally takes 45 minutes can be down to 20.

Pro tip 3: Do the larger jobs that pay $$ at Costco, for example. Doing 3 orders that are heavy, but just having to venture into a not crowde

d Costco at off-peak times. has proved to be lucrative (sometimes up to $50)

Hourly rate: $17-$22/hr (tips are included in the rate you accept)

Sign up if you're interested with my referral code EENG671A8

Postmates

By far my gig economy delivery system of choice after a lot of experimentation. I like how you don't have to expend too much brain energy, there's not very many complications with orders and people seem to tip a bit more for tiny/shorter jobs. The fact that you can make $4-$10 per delivery with possibility of a tip in 5-30 minutes, just gives me that positivity boost that i'm accomplishing something. There are always jobs available right now usually within a 6 to 15 minute drive from where you're located. Right now with CO-VID, a) little traffic b) very little wait times c) higher percentage or amount of tips. I feel like Postmates is a more elite service that higher level clientele will pay for and tip better, even after a few days.

Pro tip 1: Stick with places you know don't make you wait and will have the food ready and waiting for you to just run in and grab (ie: Chipotle, 7-eleven etc) Stay away from doing full shopping jobs unless you like that, and places that have you order when you get there, it adds to the wait.

Pro tip 2: The higher the bill, the better the restaurant the more likely someone is to tip bigger (ie: if you deliver $100 worth of sushi instead of $.99 spicy nuggets from Wendy's it's probably a better gig)

Hourly rate: $15-$22/hr (tips are included in the rate you accept)

Sign up if you're interested with my referral code FL-CSEBT

Task Rabbit

Personally, I never followed through with any tasks here because I didn't like as much structure as having to set schedules and replying to clients.

It's just like running your own business but Task Rabbit acts as the connector between clients and taskers'. My partner has created a pretty substantial Handyman business by building up good reviews over time. He's very personable, does great work and goes over and beyond what the actual tasks are including moving heavy things and hanging up TV's on wall mounts. Over time, he's gotten several positive written reviews and 5 stars allowing him to be able to raises his prices because he sets himself apart from the other taskers' that perform the same duties.

Note: Task Rabbit makes you pay $25 fee to make sure you're serious about actually doing this work. Also, there's a more arduous onboarding process because you have to fill out all the jobs you can do and set how much you will charge.

Pro tip 1: If you can do things that are harder for other people or take more skill like smart home installation you can be pretty valuable right now

Pro tip 2: This is still a relationship oriented way to start a "business". If you can focus on a particular niche, grow your clientele and positive reviews you can start charging as much as you want within the range that task rabbit tells you other people are charging.

Hourly rate: $17-$30/hr (tips are included in the rate you accept)

No referral code, but if you want 10% off your first task on moving or wall mountings check out Danny B's skills here.

Door Dash

I don't like DoorDash, I feel like it's as basic as you can come by and is designed to be like a nagging micromanager. It goes as far as to remind you to have a full

tank of gas, and to make sure you don't have any other time commitments. It doesn't feel as "flexible" or easy as turning it off and on as other apps. The only positive is that Door Dash bought Caviar and Grubhub so they have a huge customer and restaurant base that probably uses them frequently, thus plenty of jobs wherever you go and whenever you turn on your phone.

I'm a UX Designer, and I still don't understand how to use this app. It's often confusing to me, when you don't get a job and the maps are telling you to head toward a certain area. Also when you turn the thing on and you have to schedule or commit to certain time blocks. There's no way I could turn on two apps at the same time and be able to handle the confusion, especially when driving.

The flexibility of just turning on and off Postmates on a whim has me spoiled, and the interface of DD was kind of limiting and confusing for me when I tried it.

Pro tip 1: Lunch (11:00 to 3ish) and dinner rushes (3pm to 8pm) are the most lucrative, you can have back to back delivery jobs for 5 hours straight in certain areas

Pro tip 2: If you want less autonomy, thinking and mistakes this app is for you. It even reminds you to have gas in your car and lets you schedule shifts so you can plan your time better.

Hourly rate: $15-$20/hr (tips are included in the rate you accept)

Apply for doordash here!

Shipt

Shipt I thought was a Target only exclusive delivery service, but turns out Safeway and Smart and Final are also retail partners. Personally, I have only done shopping and deliveries with Target which I thought would have more integration with their fulfillment. There was still some replacements or snafoos I ran into (like the whole refrigeration section being cleaned and cordoned off) or like the last bottle of honey that was requested was all sticky. Those are situations which will always come up but have to be well communicated with the customer. Like in all real life situations people are more likely to understand and pay for a service like this when you take the time to explain to them what happened. This of course can eat into the efficiency of how much time it takes to actually finish one of these shopping trips depending on how complicated it is.

Most of the items on a typical customers list will be groceries, with a few other toiletries or home products thrown in. The great part about Shipt is that they give you detailed information on what aisle the product you are searching for is in, which other apps (like Instacart will not tell you). It makes hunting through a huge store for numerous items less time intensive and is super helpful. The first shopping trip I ever did was super easy, everything was found, the communication with the customer went smoothly and they gave me a $15 tip making me think this was my choice for best gig economy app. Subsequent jobs weren't so smoothly so I don't know if something was rigged the first try to get you hooked, or if I was just lucky.

Pro tip 1: Make sure to text and communicate with the customer manually about any replacements or questions. A lot of this stuff is not built into the app so there's more onus on you to do this.

Pro tip 2: Watch your performance on every single job. Unlike other apps, even if you do 1 or 2 jobs the reviews and "opportunity" areas are sent you and public. If someone gives you a low rating for mistakes that you made this can quickly add up and effect your future work if you continue to shop for them.

Hourly rate: $17-$22/hr (I feel like this is a little higher than other apps)

Sign up if you're interested with my referral code Dd97298

I really hope this helps on the journey to living a life you love, whatever that may be. Good luck!

All the best,

Erin

#doordash #shipt #postmates #gigeconomy #instacart #taskrabbit