Rideshare Shootout
Rideshare Gig Comparison – People, Fast Food, Groceries
1. Lyft and Uber – People. Picking up passengers from one location and dropping them off at another.
2. Door Dash and Grub Hub – Fast Food. Picking up food from a restaurant and delivering to the customer’s home or place of business. Full disclosure… I’ve delivered Uber Eats, but I haven’t signed up for Door Dash or Grub Hub. More on that in a bit.
3. Shipt and Instacart – Groceries. This entails going to the store, shopping for groceries, and delivering them to the customer’s home or place of business.
Lyft and Uber
My first excursion into the world of rideshare was Lyft and Uber. I’ve been doing it off and on since November of 2017. Now I’m not going to compare them to each other. There are lots of videos on Youtube if you’re looking to compare Lyft with Uber, you can find a lot of comparison videos out there if you do a search of them.
PROS
1. Good Money. If you learn how to schedule your time within these apps, you can earn some pretty decent bank in some markets. It used to be a lot more lucrative, and if you watch some of the older driver’s Youtube channels from a couple years ago, you can see that it was once a highly lucrative gig. Now that the market has become saturated, there seems to be a lot more dissatisfaction among the drivers these days. Still, there are those who continue to do well and are not leaving Uber or Lyft anytime soon.
2. Social interaction
For me, this was just as important. I was a bartender for 28 years, so the transition to driving people around seemed natural. Rideshare is still a big part of the service industry, and I enjoy the social interaction ti often affords when I transport a passenger who enjoys conversation.
3. Networking
You never know who you’ll meet during the course of your day. I have a friend who always likes to say, “One life touches another”. And it’s true. You never know who you’ll connect with or where it will lead. When you’re taking someone to their destination, you are sharing a little piece of your life with them, and they with you. I’ve had the opportunity to exchange business cards with a passenger on many occasions.
4. The Sheer Enjoyment of Driving
Many times, you are driving without a passenger. It may be a slow time of day without any ride requests, or you may be heading home for the day with your app tried off. During this down time, you have a chance to be alone with your own thoughts, enjoying the scenery and listening to your favorite music or podcast without any concern for what anyone else wants to listen. Ahhh, serenity.
5. Autonomy
This actually applies to the other gigs as well… Autonomy means you’re basically working for yourself. there is no one looking over your shoulder constantly micromanaging every move you make. Yes, there are review, and certain failsafes built into the apps that monitor you to some degree. For instance, if you accelerate too fast or brake too hard too often, you’ll get a summary of your driving habits in a weekly email summarizing your performance. So you are kindly reminded to keep any bad habits in check when you drive for the company. But for the most part, you are your own boss.
6. You Choose Your Own Hours
One of the best things about the gig economy, really. Most jobs allow you an amazing amount of flexibility in your schedule. You decide when you want to work and when you want to clock out. No penalties.
7. Bonuses
There are some caveats to an open schedule, such as times when you want to pick up a bonus along the way and you have to do several consecutive runs, or accept a certain number of rides within a defined time period, but no one twists your arm and says you have to. Nevertheless, those added incentives are a nice perk.
8. Nice loud alert notifies you when a passenger is available. You can rest your eyes, check emails, watch videos, etc. You’ll know when an opportunity pops up.
CONS
1. Not as Lucrative as they used to be. If you’ve been following any of the rideshare channels, you will notice how many of the longtime Youtubers have gradually lost their enthusiasm for Uber and Lyft. Though most are still at it, it’s obvious to me that the earnings were MUCH higher back in 2015. A lot of people invested in brand new, expensive cars only to find themselves having to drive a lot more hours to keep their wheels rolling today.
2. Sitting for hours. When you’re a drive, you spend a lot of time in your car seat, sometimes on pretty long trips. For me, this can become pretty uncomfortable – even painful for me at times, as there is no reason to get out of the car for anything in particular. I have to force myself to pull over and get out and walk around to get the circulation in my lower extremities going again.
3. Probably the most wear and tear on your vehicle of the three services. Many folks are not aware they are in your personal car and they can be fairly hard on your seats and interior. Passengers with kids are the worts, especially those who choose not to discipline their kids or teach them any manners or consideration for others property at all. Even some adults will thoughtlessly enter your car eating greasy food or spill drinks on your upholstery. And forget the drunks. If you are out picking up passengers when the bars are closing, you are at a much higher risk of having someone throw up on your seat.
4. Drunk, belligerent, demanding or rude passengers. Not very often, but they’re out there.
5. Judgmental folks who rate you fewer than 5 stars and drive your rating down. It only has to happen one time and can happen for any reason – or no reason at all. It takes a lot of 5-star ratings to bring your average back. The policy is usually no adjustment given by the Uber or Lyft. You pretty much have to live with it.
Uber Eats, DoorDash, or GrubHub…
Okay, I’ll tell you why I’ve chosen not to do food deliveries:
Even though there are PROS –
1. You probably make the most money in the least amount of time.
2. People tend to tip better for food delivery people
3. Most deliveries are very local, so you’re not very likely to have to pick up an order from a restaurant in Norristown and have to deliver it to the Philadelphia International Airport.
4. If you don’t feel like talking to anyone or having your driving judged, doing a food run is a nice break from people. You can listen to whatever you want on the radio.
However the CONS, at least for me outweigh the pros.
1. There is a much greater sense of urgency. You want to get the food on time and if it’s hot food, you want it to be as hot as possible.
2. You have to depend on others to get the order correct. If you double-check an order only to find it’s incorrect or something has been left out, you have to wait for the rest of the order to be made or corrected and completed.
3. Parking. You often have to deliver to places where you’re double parked while you run into a building where the person is still in the office. Sometimes they come out to meet you, but other times you’re greeted by their coworker outside the building having a smoke break. They be like, “Oh, yeah, Ralph… I know him. hang on, I’ll go let him know you’re here.” BTW – This actually happened to me during an Uber Eats delivery, AND it was a very hot day, but I had to turn the car off because I had no idea how long it would take Ralph to get back. The next ride was for an actual passenger, so I had to get the inside of my car cooled back down before I picked him up. You do NOT want a passenger getting into a hot vehicle when they hold your rating in their hands. Fortunately, Ralph didn’t take too long (but long enough)… and he tipped 5 bucks, so it wasn’t that horrible an experience.
4. The names. Uber Eats. That one’s okay I guess, It’s just part of Uber services, but I can’t get past the name Door Dash. It sounds like you literally have to beat the clock, and, well, I’m just not into dashing from my car, to the restaurant, out the door aback to my car , then dash to the door to deliver someone’s meal. Especially lunch. because oftentimes, a customer one has so much time for their lunch break and you just KNOW they’re clocking your speed. So, no Door Dash for me.
And Grub Hub? Puhleez!! Something about a delivery service with the word “GRUB” in the name. Uh – Uh. Again, I just ain’t feeling’ it. When I was in my teens, I had a younger brother who insisted on saying grace one evening at the dinner table. He bows his head and goes, “Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub! Yeayyyyyy, LORD!!!!” Every time I hear the word “Grub” I think about that.
Anyway… isn’t that how they refer to food in prison? “Hey, Bone Crusher, you haven’t touched your grub. You gonna eat that?” So, no, I’d rather not do restaurant deliveries.
This brings us to option number 3 Groceries. The top two apps are:
Shipt and Instacart
Now before I get into the pros and cons, let me quickly point out that I have only recently started, so I can only tell you Why I personally think this is the best option out of the three types of gigs. I think with the shopping apps, you get the best of both worlds.
Pros
1. Less driving – I think you still do a lot of driving, but you’re mission gives you ample opportunity to get out of the car and stretch your legs. I often found, when driving for Uber and Lyft, after a few hours, my butt and legs were sore and my circulation was cut off. By the time I took a break, I could barely walk for a few minutes and had to work out the kinks. Some days are more painful than others, but there was definitely a level of discomfort.
2. More chances to use the restroom. Again, since you’re not just going from point A to point B, and having
1. Money. I can’t say for sure yet, but I don’t know if it’s as good as doing Lyft and Uber. I’ll get back to you on that after I’ve done it for a while. The pay, I think works out okay, depending on our market and you’re resilience…
Cons – So far not loving Instacart. You can’t just turn the app off and on and get an order whenever you’re ready. You have to schedule yourself and wait. Also, unlike Lyft and Uber, there is no audio alert. You have to stare at the screen until one comes in. Nope. Not doing it. (I do like Shipt, though. Shipt allows you to pick up promo orders that aren’t picked up by the scheduled shoppers. If the shop sits there too long, you can even make bonus money for accepting them.)
Well! That about covers it. If you like my fireplace chats, please subscribe to my channel and please use my codes which are listed below if you sign up to do any of these gigs , or use any of the services.
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