DELIVERY TIMES
Most times it's not your drivers fault,
but sometimes it is.
And the app is always changing the time
on the customers end.
How do you know if the drivers at fault
Well you really can't
All you can do is understand A LOT
of things can impact delivery times
There's a whole lot going on you would never think of
I tried to keep this brief
Didn't happen
The quick prep restaurants usually don't receive the order request until after a driver accepts your delivery
So a long arrival time, shouldn't always impact food quality
Drivers select their runs
You may order at 2pm, a driver might not accept it until 2:15. The accepting driver has no clue you ordered at 2pm. Yep, we know your tip before accepting the order.
The apps try to double and triple up orders when it's busy. Or if there's not a lot of drivers signed on
And a lot of times the logistics don't make sense. First your off to the furthest end of Shanghai Bend, Then out to Olivehurst.
They will offer the delivery as a double,
so you have to do both
Or, after a driver accepts a delivery. The app will offer other delivery's it "thinks" works well
If you don't accept it, on some apps your penalized a little bit. Even though you made the decision that improves delivery times
The second order it offers might be at a restaurant that is routinely late
Thankfully there's only a handful of those in the Yuba / Sutter area
RESTAURANTS BE LATE AND JUNK
A handful of restaurants in town can be notoriously late. When you don't respond to our messages about the restaurant being late. Some drivers get worried you will take it out on them. Using those overly punitive ratings surveys, and dish out a bad rating.
Some will just unassign the order so it goes back into the offering pool. If their not the one to deliver it, you can't give them a bad rating. It's way easier to clear a canceled order off your record, than a bad customer rating.
A driver accepted the order
then unassigned it
This ones a little long, but educational
This is almost always the cause of those
"it took two hours" story's you hear about
The new driver has NO IDEA another driver canceled, they just catch the customers wrath
When the driver unassigned it changes how much extra wait time is coming
And it's really hard to give exact time estimates
When the driver unassigns makes a difference
On the way to the restaurant
This isn't usually a big deal
Unless it takes awhile to find a new driver
Because the restaurant has started the order now
So it may sit waiting for awhile
At the restaurant, immediately on arrival
This can be bad
Maybe there's a 20 minute wait, so the driver bounces
They find another driver and when they gets there
They think OK only a 10 minute wait
But actually by the time they get the order
Really we're 30 minutes in, plus drive time
On the way to the customer
This is a nightmare, but things happen
legitimate emergency's can happen
Like a vehicle breaking down
Or a driver is just being a scum bag
And cancels so they can keep the order
Thankfully that doesn't happen as much as Tik Tok makes us believe
But now 30 minutes have already passed
And the app has to resend the order request to the merchant so they can make the food again
And they have to find another driver to accept the order
And that poor sap driver HAS NO CLUE about what has went on. They think it's a freshly dispatched order offer
The app doesn't tell you it's a super late remake order, Because no driver would accept it
And to boot, sometimes....but not always
Your original tip, doesn't always forward to the new delivery
I've seen it happen both ways
So now your delivery is being offered with company pay only, no tip
(company pay sucks)
So now getting a driver to accept it might take even longer
So maybe they offer it as a double delivery
So it's now profitable for a driver to accept it
But the other restaurant is one of those notoriously slow ones we talked about earlier
Sometimes things combine in the most unfortunate ways
Finally, and least likely
It was purely your drivers fault
Even though it's all GPS, it's still possible for some to get lost
Or maybe their multi-apping, delivering orders for more than one app platform at a time
Since we're independent contractors they can't prevent it
But honestly Yuba / Sutter isn't really busy enough for the opportunities to pop up
There's two ways you can multi-app
One way is OK, the other can be very troublesome
The OK way
( I do this all the time)
So you contract for multiple app platforms
Have em' all running, and accept the best order that pops up. Then pause the other apps, go handle the one delivery
The Troublesome Way
( I don't do it this way)
You accept a delivery on one app, and while handling that delivery. A order pops up on another app that may fit well, but maybe not
So you accept it and got yourself a double, more money
But customer delivery times are going to suffer a little, maybe a lot if you don't know what your doing
Having old school pizza delivery blood in me
This type of multi-apping just doesn't sit well with me
Most times it's not your drivers fault,
but sometimes it is.
And the app is always changing the time
on the customers end.
How do you know if the drivers at fault
Well you really can't
All you can do is understand A LOT
of things can impact delivery times
There's a whole lot going on you would never think of
I tried to keep this brief
Didn't happen
The quick prep restaurants usually don't receive the order request until after a driver accepts your delivery
So a long arrival time, shouldn't always impact food quality
Drivers select their runs
You may order at 2pm, a driver might not accept it until 2:15. The accepting driver has no clue you ordered at 2pm. Yep, we know your tip before accepting the order.
The apps try to double and triple up orders when it's busy. Or if there's not a lot of drivers signed on
And a lot of times the logistics don't make sense. First your off to the furthest end of Shanghai Bend, Then out to Olivehurst.
They will offer the delivery as a double,
so you have to do both
Or, after a driver accepts a delivery. The app will offer other delivery's it "thinks" works well
If you don't accept it, on some apps your penalized a little bit. Even though you made the decision that improves delivery times
The second order it offers might be at a restaurant that is routinely late
Thankfully there's only a handful of those in the Yuba / Sutter area
RESTAURANTS BE LATE AND JUNK
A handful of restaurants in town can be notoriously late. When you don't respond to our messages about the restaurant being late. Some drivers get worried you will take it out on them. Using those overly punitive ratings surveys, and dish out a bad rating.
Some will just unassign the order so it goes back into the offering pool. If their not the one to deliver it, you can't give them a bad rating. It's way easier to clear a canceled order off your record, than a bad customer rating.
A driver accepted the order
then unassigned it
This ones a little long, but educational
This is almost always the cause of those
"it took two hours" story's you hear about
The new driver has NO IDEA another driver canceled, they just catch the customers wrath
When the driver unassigned it changes how much extra wait time is coming
And it's really hard to give exact time estimates
When the driver unassigns makes a difference
On the way to the restaurant
This isn't usually a big deal
Unless it takes awhile to find a new driver
Because the restaurant has started the order now
So it may sit waiting for awhile
At the restaurant, immediately on arrival
This can be bad
Maybe there's a 20 minute wait, so the driver bounces
They find another driver and when they gets there
They think OK only a 10 minute wait
But actually by the time they get the order
Really we're 30 minutes in, plus drive time
On the way to the customer
This is a nightmare, but things happen
legitimate emergency's can happen
Like a vehicle breaking down
Or a driver is just being a scum bag
And cancels so they can keep the order
Thankfully that doesn't happen as much as Tik Tok makes us believe
But now 30 minutes have already passed
And the app has to resend the order request to the merchant so they can make the food again
And they have to find another driver to accept the order
And that poor sap driver HAS NO CLUE about what has went on. They think it's a freshly dispatched order offer
The app doesn't tell you it's a super late remake order, Because no driver would accept it
And to boot, sometimes....but not always
Your original tip, doesn't always forward to the new delivery
I've seen it happen both ways
So now your delivery is being offered with company pay only, no tip
(company pay sucks)
So now getting a driver to accept it might take even longer
So maybe they offer it as a double delivery
So it's now profitable for a driver to accept it
But the other restaurant is one of those notoriously slow ones we talked about earlier
Sometimes things combine in the most unfortunate ways
Finally, and least likely
It was purely your drivers fault
Even though it's all GPS, it's still possible for some to get lost
Or maybe their multi-apping, delivering orders for more than one app platform at a time
Since we're independent contractors they can't prevent it
But honestly Yuba / Sutter isn't really busy enough for the opportunities to pop up
There's two ways you can multi-app
One way is OK, the other can be very troublesome
The OK way
( I do this all the time)
So you contract for multiple app platforms
Have em' all running, and accept the best order that pops up. Then pause the other apps, go handle the one delivery
The Troublesome Way
( I don't do it this way)
You accept a delivery on one app, and while handling that delivery. A order pops up on another app that may fit well, but maybe not
So you accept it and got yourself a double, more money
But customer delivery times are going to suffer a little, maybe a lot if you don't know what your doing
Having old school pizza delivery blood in me
This type of multi-apping just doesn't sit well with me