How Does Uber Eats Assign Drivers?

Have you ever wondered about how Uber Eats trips are assigned to their driver teams? In many cases, it can feel frustrating to log on to the Uber Eats app only to find that there aren't any offers or deliveries available to make. However, it doesn't necessarily have to be this way. As such, today, we're outlining a few key questions you might have had, such as 'how does Uber decide which driver to ping to get the order,' 'how are Uber Eats trips and work assigned,' and 'do customers choose their Uber Eats driver?'

Hopefully, this information will help ensure you're in the right position to get more orders through Uber Eats. Plus, we'll also be looking at a few key tips to help you make the most of your earnings through Uber Eats. So, why leave this to chance; find the most effective solutions for your own delivery driving goals today ' we're here to help!

HOW ARE UBER EATS TRIPS ASSIGNED?

Have you ever wondered how Uber Eats trips are assigned? If you've been looking to earn more with gig work, this is a vital question to ask. Luckily, our experts can help with this because the Uber Eats designation system is fortunately quite straightforward (even if it's not 100% understood in many cases).

Unfortunately, as with Google's SEO algorithms, no one fully knows exactly how Uber Eats trips are assigned. However, the app itself assigns trips; as such, customers do not directly choose their Uber Eats delivery drivers.

The Uber Eats algorithms will consider multiple factors when selecting a delivery driver. These might include the following points. Understanding these may be valuable to increase the size, value, and regularity of your orders through Uber Eats.

Location

At the end of the day, it's Uber Eats' goal to get food to customers as quickly as possible. As such, one of the first factors that influence how drivers are assigned is location. While this is not always the final deciding factor, location significantly increases a driver's chance of being assigned work. After all, if the driver is in the vicinity of the restaurant, they'll be able to pick up the order more quickly ' keeping it fresh for the customer.

We should also point out there that you'll only receive delivery requests if Uber Eats is available for your specific region. Plus, if you have already picked up an order and another offer comes in locally for the same or another restaurant, the Uber Eats app may be more likely to ping you to collect the second order. This is completely optional; however, delivering multiple orders in one trip is a great way to substantially increase your pay.

Reputation

Did you know that one factor that could increase your chances of getting order requests is your reputation or status with the Uber Eats app? Indeed, you achieve a rating based on the deliveries you've made, and this allows you to understand how your customers rate your service. After all, at the end of the day, that's why you're there!

We highly recommend taking steps to improve your reputation, where possible, as it is likely that your rating may influence your chance of getting orders through Uber Eats. After all, higher-rated drivers are more likely to deliver food as expected to customers. So, if you allow your rating to drop, you might find you get fewer orders. In some cases, your account could even be deactivated.

Log In Status

If you're not logged into the Uber Eats app, you'll likely not receive any orders other than notifications reminding you to get involved. Luckily, one of the main perks of the Uber Eats app is that you can enjoy a flexible working schedule, allowing you to work when you want rather than being confined to your desk all day.

Working Time

One feature worth noting when driving for Uber Eats is the working time restrictions. As such, if you have reached your maximum working hours for the day, you will no longer receive any orders from the Uber Eats algorithms. You will need to allow at least a six-hour break between these windows before the Uber Eats system will assign you more orders.

Batched Opportunities

A further factor that influences how Uber Eats assigns orders to drivers is the 'batching' system, which works to ensure every customer gets their order in a satisfactory amount of time. Notably, this system means that drivers are paired with orders based on the quickest option for all orders, rather than assigning one driver to one order with a very fast delivery time and another driver to another order with a much slower delivery time.

The easiest way to explain this is as follows: if there were two orders and two drivers, the app would assign the drivers based not necessarily on which delivery is closest to them. Instead, through a series of calculations, Uber Eats assigns drivers in a way that ensures every customer receives their order with a roughly comparable waiting time.

Other Factors That Determine How Uber Eats Trips Are Assigned:

1. How long you've been on the app
2. Your time leaving when getting a new ping (do you stall before heading to the pickup location)
3. Your total payout so far. If you have earned $450 for the week already and it's Thursday - then they will likely prioritize someone with lower earnings.
4. Your Cancellation rate
5. Your Acceptance rate
6. How much you've made today

DO MORE ORDERS EQUAL MORE MONEY?

At this point, we've outlined some of the key things you need to know about working on Uber Eats and how Uber Eats delegates work. However, while this is a valuable bit of knowledge to retain, it should not be the 'be all and end all' goal of your delivery driving needs. After all, while getting more orders can result in much better income, this is not always the case.

Why is this? It can be easy to assume on the surface that more orders will always give more pay. After all, you're probably thinking, Uber Eats' pay structure pays based on several metrics:

• Pick up: As an Uber Eats driver, you'll get paid a flat rate for collecting the order from the restaurant in question. You should collect all orders in your Uber Eats insulated bag to keep them warm for customers, even on short trips! Uber recommends you should still let the restaurant staff know when you arrive to pick up your order to prevent delays.
• Drop off: Once you have delivered the order to your customer, you will be given a 'drop off' payment. The drop-off payment is also a flat rate and does not change.
• Per-mile payment: A further metric considered in Uber Eats' payment is the per-mile rate. This impacts how much you'll be paid based on the distance you'll need to travel. As such, a 5-mile journey will have a higher price here than a 1-mile journey.
• Time spent: An additional metric that's often factored in is time. While we all like to hope our deliveries will go smoothly, sometimes, things go awry. In these cases, if you need to take a detour, for example, you may receive a slight bonus payment to account for the time.

With the four above metrics in mind, it's easy to assume that there is a direct correlation between the hourly rate and the number of orders completed. However, this may not be the case.

How Much is the Hourly Rate on Uber Eats?

Unfortunately, one drawback of working for UberEats is the hourly rate. Indeed, on average, most Uber Eats drivers report average hourly rates of between $12 and $15, which isn't exactly inspiring. As such, taking a mid-way average of $13.50, even if you were able to increase the number of deliveries you complete per hour by 50% - which takes a lot of efficiencies ' you'd still only be earning around $20 per hour. By contrast, the average hourly rate for DoorDash is about that without the stress of working at peak efficiency all the time!

What does this mean for your delivery driving efforts, then? Well, it's worth considering here that increasing the number of orders you receive through Uber Eats may not always translate into vastly better payments. However, there is a way that you can increase your income through Uber Eats; that's by considering tips.

How Tips Influence Hourly Rate

Every order on Uber Eats has a slightly different value. Indeed, while earnings with UberEats tend to be more stable thanks to the payment structure than some platforms such as DoorDash, it's worth noting that every order still varies in value. That's why Uber Eats directly pays a piece rate rather than an hourly rate. As such, the amount you earn per hour with Uber Eats will vary based on two factors:

• The number of orders you complete
• The value of tips you receive from your orders

Tips are one of the biggest sources of income for many delivery drivers. Unfortunately, though, you won't be able to see how much tip you'll receive until after you've accepted the delivery. This means that you could be accepting deliveries with no or very small tips. And, of course, these might impact your final hourly rate drastically.

But did you know that you can streamline your earnings by integrating an app such as Para? As your gig HQ, you can see valuable information about your delivery before you accept it. This includes the dollar per mile estimates, total drive time, drop-off address, and the total mileage use. This can help you make the right choices for your deliveries. What's more, as a leading driver helper app, Para also allows you to flag restaurants and buildings that are difficult to get to, slow to serve, or don't tip well.

And, as an added bonus, new features ' such as tip predictions ' are in the works all the time. Thus, when you choose to deliver using apps such as Para, you can reduce the chances of taking on low-paid deliveries and bolster your potential earnings overall.

For Uber, the Para app shows you delivery address, pickup address, drive time, $/mile, and driving distance among other things.

Does Para Actually Work?

It's easy to be skeptical about a tool that sounds too good to be true. However, don't just take our word for it! Numerous past users have also had great results with help from the Para personal dispatch tool, including the following reviews from the App Store and Google Play:

Dave Nesbitt: 'It works beautifully. I simply wouldn't be able to do my gig without it. Update: well I've been running this app for about 2 months now and it really is a life-saver for DoorDashers. And I have to say that the people who provide this application are very very helpful and responsive to user needs.'

Anonymous User: 'Para has helped in estimating countless amounts of tips especially recently when DoorDash made base pay vary on distance, which made [it] extremely difficult to predict hidden tips on the fly. But other than that, Para also shows me things such as items being ordered or the subtotal which is a wonderful and useful feature for orders like CVS and Walgreens!'

Jordan Aves: 'As a Doordash driver, I've constantly had to rely on my instincts and past experiences to choose whether or not to accept an order, especially in cases of sold by the merchant. Far too many times, I've received little to no tip even on some of the biggest orders I've carried. Para allows me to have insight into my routes and possible income and it gives me peace of mind to know I can immediately decline a no tip order.'

FINAL THOUGHTS

Have you ever wondered: how does Uber decide which driver to ping? This often depends on many different factors, so it's important to be aware of this to increase your chances of getting trips on Uber Eats.

However, if you are still struggling to get orders and trips through Uber Eats, don't panic! There are plenty of other excellent delivery apps out there, too, such as DoorDash and Grub Hub. So be sure to check out our comparison of DoorDash vs. GrubHub vs. UberEats vs. PostMates to see which app offers the best rates of pay and opportunities for your needs.

And remember: getting more orders does not always necessarily mean more money. Thus, while it's valuable to know how Uber Eats decides which driver gets the order, a smaller number of higher-paying orders may be more valuable.