Since taking on what I saw as a run-of-the-mill, nothing kind of job, I have been taken aback by the fascination friends, family and acquaintances have with the job. So, to the question I have encountered time and again: is working for UberEats worth it?
I have been working as an UberEats driver for 11 months, yet I still cannot answer that question with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The best response I have to date is that it is situational.
Relying on UberEats as your primary income source is dangerous. Orders are unpredictable on any given night, and when you finally think you’ve discovered a pattern when it will be busy (like me being convinced Friday nights are goldmines), you’ll earn $47 over a four-hour period and be questioning why you signed up at all.
I would recommend UberEats work for anyone in search of extra pocket money, or, like myself, university students, as there is such flexibility – working whenever you want – that makes it so appealing. (For reference, I work approximately five hours a day, six days a week – earning roughly $600 a week).
It is extremely simple work, requires no training, is completely stress-free, and honestly, can be kind of fun. That sounds ridiculous, I know. But you will encounter some wacky characters, rock out to music, podcasts and audio-books on your travels (this is essential if you want to maintain your sanity!) and take joy from bizarre orders (my personal favourite was an order for three onion rings valued at 75c).
Though generally there is much less enthusiasm than seen in the clip above, there is no exaggeration on how smooth the delivery process is. I found in prior jobs that my mind was always fixated on the task at hand, whereas with UberEats, it is so easy that I have time to think for myself. Like, really think. Don’t underestimate the value of that, it is rarer than it sounds.
The biggest piece of advice I have for anyone starting out or considering it, is to find a decent sized area (perhaps within a 10-15km radius) with many partnered UberEats restaurants in the vicinity and stick to it. Time is your enemy. Orders are most prevalent during standard mealtimes (approximately 11am-2pm for lunch and 5.30pm-9pm for dinner) and you’ll strive to deliver as many orders as possible in that time-frame.
Learning the ins and outs of a specific area is crucial as you’ll soon learn which restaurants aren’t competent, where the best (sometimes hidden) car parks are, short-cuts that GPS doesn’t recognise, and so on. They say, ‘time is money’ and that couldn’t be truer in this industry.