Delivery Drivers: Tricks To Get More Orders On Door Dash, Postmates, Uber Eats, and GrubHub

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Working as a gig driver can offer countless benefits, in many cases. However, if you’ve been looking to earn more with your deliveries, it’s well worth considering how you could increase the number of orders for your deliveries – and this is something our experts can help with. As such, today, we’re looking at some key tricks for increasing orders for delivery drivers on Door Dash, Postmates, Uber Eats, GrubHub, and more.

After all, in many cases, it can seem tough to get high-paying, fair orders on these platforms – but today’s tricks should help optimize your earnings! So, don’t just accept low-paying jobs as a fact of life. You deserve more for your time, and we’re here to make it a reality.

FIVE KEY TRICKS FOR INCREASING THE NUMBER OF ORDERS FOR DELIVERY DRIVERS

Did you know that increasing the number of orders you receive for deliveries isn’t that hard? However, if you have been considering this, it’s critical to start with the right approach. Luckily, the following eight tips could help here, boosting the number of orders you receive as a delivery driver

#1 Drive During Peak Times

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the best tricks for increasing your orders as a delivery driver is to make sure you’re driving at peak times. That is to say, try to be around at breakfast, lunch, and dinner rushes to make the most of the higher-order volumes around these times.

While there will still be outliers ordering food outside of peak times (for example, many families still enjoy dinner later at night), the majority of households have dinner between 6 PM and 7:30 PM. As such, if you can be around during these times, you’ll likely get far more orders coming in.

#2 Choose the Right Days to Deliver

Driving at the right times is crucial. But driving on the right days is also vital – however, unfortunately, many people overlook this point. This can leave a surprising number of people driving on days that are unlikely to give good value.

Generally speaking, the slowest days to deliver are usually on Mondays and Tuesdays, and potentially Wednesdays in some regions. While we’ve gone a little more in-depth into the reasons behind this in our full guide on the worst days to work as a delivery driver, in short, this may be because many restaurants give their staff time off on these days.

It’s also worth noting that the bulk of restaurants and orders on slow days may be from fast food chains. Often, fast food deliveries are the most common orders on slower days; however, this does present the risk of being less profitable for deliveries.

#3 Focus on the Right Areas

There’s an old saying about “being in the right place at the right time.” Of course, this varies based on many factors. And, sometimes, it’s hard to judge where you should be focusing your efforts as a delivery driver. However, by focusing on the right areas – namely, in areas with high populations or near popular restaurants – you may win far more orders through DoorDash and other delivery apps.

Of course, the reasoning behind this is simple. If you’re near customers or the restaurant, you’ll be able to take on more contracts for deliveries in a set period of time. After all, even driving an extra two minutes on a ten-minute delivery job would take 20% longer, cutting the number of orders you can fulfill accordingly.

So, if you’re planning on delivery driving, it’s worth making your “base” of operations near these areas. Areas with good access to local restaurants, for example, may help you get to the restaurant on time; meanwhile, staying near highly populated areas will increase your chances of getting local orders.

It’s a simple change, but you might be surprised by how much difference it could make to your earning potential. After all, if we assume a higher DoorDash average of $25, an additional 20% would also increase your hourly rate to $30 per hour – that’s massive!

However, if you’re planning to implement this strategy, it may be worth scheduling your work times if you know you’re likely to be working in a busy area. Sometimes, DoorDash can prevent more delivery drivers from taking work in a certain busy area if it’s already at capacity. By scheduling a shift in this area a few days in advance of when you plan to work, you’ll have a much more chance of earning a good income through DoorDash and other delivery apps.

#4 Work on Multiple Apps

Multiapping is an excellent tip to increase the number of orders you’re likely to achieve. Indeed, if you notice that there aren’t any worthwhile or valuable orders on DoorDash, be sure to check out other platforms such as GrubHub or UberEats. Notably, in many cases, certain areas may have a higher number of restaurants using less common apps.

#5 Don’t Be Unprepared

Idle time is a killer when it comes to DoorDash and delivery earnings and the number of orders you can take on. For example, imagine you had to waste five minutes doing a detour to fill up with gas and pay. In this case, you could lose out on an entire order – making it a big waste of time!

However, it shouldn’t have to be this way necessarily, and by ensuring you start your shift well, you can help overcome this issue. As such, before you begin driving, we’d recommend the following at least:

1. Always ensure your phone is fully charged before leaving the house. Ideally, charging your phone in the car while driving may also help prevent idle time to charge later.
2. Fill your car’s tank up to full before you begin delivery driving to reduce the risk of needing to fill up while on the road.
3. If you absolutely have to fill up while driving, try to look out for a local gas station and plan to fill up when nearby or (ideally) passing the gas station already. Overall, this simple change might go a long way towards ensuring you’re getting the most from your delivery driving endeavors!
4. Make sure your hot bag and space blankets are ready to go before picking up orders. This helps reduce the chances of having to fiddle about while loading the delivery, ensuring you’re as efficient as possible. Plus, it’s well worth considering that this also ensures your customers’ food stays warm, reducing the risks of getting poor results, refund requests, and the like from customers. Remember, you need to achieve a rating of 4.7+ to maintain a “Top Dasher” status.

THREE SIMPLE METHODS FOR INCREASING THE VALUE OF DOOR DASH, UBER EATS, AND POST MATES ORDERS

So, you’re getting more orders – but you’ve noticed that many of your orders aren’t offering an overly great pay? In many cases, delivery apps offer a rather uninspiring average pay. This can be as low as $20 for DoorDash, $20.48 for GrubHub, $14.90 for Uber Eats, and just $9.67 for Postmates. Fortunately, though, there are ways to increase the value of orders and increase the number of orders. These might include the following tips.

#1 Look for Larger Orders

Generally speaking, when accepting deliveries, you should ideally try to look for larger orders that constitute a full meal, rather than snacks or treats. While snacks can come with a generous tip, often, customers are unlikely to tip well on an order that’s only worth $10 to them.

By contrast, for larger orders with a full dinner menu, potentially valued at around $100 or more, a tip of $10 is often highly likely, and some people even achieve massive tips of $20, $30, or even $50 for a single delivery. Suddenly, it’s easy to see how you can start increasing the value of your orders just by choosing the right orders.

Of course, you often won’t know what you’re picking up until you arrive. However, we’d recommend considering whether the restaurant in question is likely to deliver higher-value meals. Plus, with certain driver utility apps, you may also be able to see order predictions before accepting a gig.

#2 Offer a Great Service

When delivery driving it’s important to remember that tips aren’t always a set rate – customers may also tip with hard cash at the doorstep if you give a great service. So, always try to deliver with a smile to increase the potential value of your orders; greet customers by name, if you can, and try to be chatty while giving them their food. Allow just a moment for them to reach for a tip, too – but don’t loiter if they don’t make an immediate move to give a tip, as this could simply come across as annoying or needy.

#3 Integrate the Para App to Know Before You Go!

Generally speaking, the base pay for delivery apps is pretty low. For example, Base Pay on DoorDash deliveries can be as low as $2 and is largely based on the order’s desirability.

With this in mind, it’s easy to see how a “know before you go” strategy could be valuable to help you take on just those orders that offer a valuable option for your own delivery driving goals.

Luckily, this is where the Para app comes into the picture! Para is one of the most reliable and effective delivery driver app options on the market. With Para, delivery drivers can get a much clearer picture of the value of an order before they accept it. In turn, this can help you ensure that you’re taking on deliveries that are likely to give you the best returns for your time.

Some of the most notable features of the Para delivery driver helper app include:

• Tip transparency to know how much tip you’re likely to receive before you go
• Expected delivery times and distances, helping you take on the most valuable deliveries
• Pay per mile predictions to help inform your final decision
• Blacklisting and flagging of customers and restaurants with previously poor experiences
• Food ready by times to help you plan your driving times with as little idle time as possible
• Order list, so you can see the type of orders that you’ll be delivering. Remember: meals are more likely to give bigger tips than snacks and treats!

These are just several of the excellent features you’ll enjoy while using the Para app. So, if you’ve been looking to boost your earning potential – why not give it a try?

WHY AM I NOT GETTING ANY OFFERS?

Sometimes, you might notice that you’re not getting any offers for deliveries at all. This can be a frustrating position to find yourself in, but fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. Most likely, this is the result of an error or issue, so the following troubleshooting tips may help you begin receiving orders again:

1. Make sure your WiFi or mobile data is working
2. Ensure you’re signed into the relevant app
3. Check your deliveries aren’t on pause
4. Consider whether you could be in a greyed-out “at capacity” area

If the above issues don’t seem to be the problem, you may want to simply consider whether you could be driving at the wrong time of day. For example, the number of orders at “awkward” times of day, especially during the week when many people are working, may be substantially lower. 10/11 AM, 2/3 PM, and after 9 PM may be among the slowest times for many drivers to get orders. So, it may just be a case of coming back at another point.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Looking to find out more about increasing your orders as a delivery driver on Door Dash, Postmates, Uber Eats, or GrubHub? This can often seem difficult, and it’s perhaps no surprise. After all, even though apps such as DoorDash have grown by around 30X and others by up to 10X over the past few years in value, they still often only pay a low base pay.

Fortunately, with today’s tricks and tips, you can hopefully boost the number of orders and increase order value. In turn, hopefully, this will help you get the most from your deliveries on average.