So about the gig, I work with two - DoorDash and Instacart. For the past couple of weeks I have worked more with the latter because the former is getting lame with base pay push.
Not to say Instacart is paying much better than DoorDash -- if anything, they seem to be competing for the race to the bottom.
Today, for example, was a 5-delivery challenge for $64...basically guaranteeing a whopping $64 for five deliveries, when there was a time not so long ago, that would have been payment for one delivery...or a double with low mileage if the orders were small.
I took up the challenge, completed five orders, got the barest thread close to said $64, and ended the day with about $90 for the "bonus" of completion. Which I find odd.
Another thing I find odd is that there is a $9.95 "delivery fee" for each and every order, and yet not a dime of that goes to the person shopping and delivering the order. So I asked Instacart about that, and was told that we (shopper/delivery folk) earn a batch pay. Yes, I know this, and that batch pay that used to be the amount of the challenge is as low as Instacart can get away with. So I asked about that and was told that the batch pay is determined based on the time and effort a batch might take.
I screenshot the exchange, because while I don't fault the person attempting to answer my questions, they are seemingly oblivious to the fact that they're also on the receiving end of Instacart's bullshit.
See, the time and effort involved in just one order I took today belies the extent to which Instacart pays for those things. At first blush, a single order (meaning just one customer in my cart instead of two or three, which is also typical) with 54 items (but 74 units) had an initial base batch pay of $7, plus $1 for heavy, a $6 tip and a drive of roughly 3 miles from the store seems like it should be reasonable.
Except, in this example, there were two 12-pks of selzer water, two 2-liter bottles of flavored seltzer water, two gallons of spring water, one 2.5-gallon jug (with a spout) of drinking water, five 1-liter bottles of club soda, six cans of sardines, four cans of evaporated milk, plus ALL produce items were organic with specific instructions on appearance/feel expectations, plus ALL frozen food items were organic, AND a trip to the complete opposite end of the supercenter to go into the garden area to get extremely specific fertilizer/food spikes for hanging plants...on top of all the various and sundry miscellany ordered.
In total, after $21.95 in store savings, the total spent on this cart came to $290.26.
But wait...it gets better.
All these groceries, except for the different waters, required a dozen paper bags...and then, multiple trips carrying these bags and bottles and cans up to a 3rd story apartment. Nope, no elevator for this. I have a dolly, but it wouldn't accommodate this much stuff without the same number of trips (seven). AND SHE WAS HOME.
I knocked on the door, but she didn't initially answer, until she thought I was finished and shot out a quiet "thank you" while I was descending the stairs. I shouted up that I wasn't finished bringing stuff up...and she, in her shy mask and gloves appeared quite surprised at the sheer number of bags I brought up.
I asked her if she was aware that the $9.95 delivery fee doesn't go to the deliverer, and that heavy pay for her order was a single dollar (making the batch pay $8)...and that her tip, while appreciated, probably wasn't what she thought it was. She said that after the $9.95 delivery fee, which she incorrectly assumed went to the person/people delivering), it just got "really expensive."
She commented on how nice it must be to be so healthy as to be able to do this work. I remarked that I have a bad back, bad knees, and emphysema...so I don't know how healthy that makes me, but that receiving $14 for two hours of my day, gas, and multiple climbs up to a 3rd floor at the very least saves me the cost of a gym membership. I think she expected because of her health I would somehow be more forgiving -- but that isn't my job.
My job is independent contracting gig work...in this case, Instacart. I don't mind shopping and delivering, and today my job was to educate a customer who thought a $6 tip somehow was tacked on to a $9.95 delivery fee. She asked what a good tip would be, and I told her I wasn't asking for a larger tip...just making her aware of the reality for people delivering to her door. She can do with that what she will...though if I deliver an order like this to her door again, she'll get removed from my rotation, regardless of how nice she is. And she is.
My venom is for Instacart, that has dropped its batch pay to damn near slave wages and expects shoppers to just be okay with it because they've estimated our efforts...lol...fairly.
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