
I Was A Postmates Courier For A Day - seanplaice
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/02/postmates-courier-for-a-day/
======
citricsquid
> To be honest, $8.00 in tips isn’t a lot for three hours of biking around
> town. But I got stiffed on my last delivery, it was pointed out… And I was
> told by Postmates HQ that couriers typically do multiple jobs
> simultaneously, which increase the amount they receive. I was just unlucky
> in that I had to wait in line for ridiculous amounts of time at two of the
> locations, otherwise my tips would have been higher.

So what exactly is going to prevent couriers from taking multiple jobs they
know they can't do in a _fast_ time but can do in an _okay_ time? Doesn't this
encourage couriers to take on more jobs than they can do to make more money? A
mediocre experience for consumers.

> I probably won’t be quitting my day job and becoming a courier anytime soon.
> I do, however, have a lot more respect for those guys, and will be sure to
> tip well whenever I order something from them in the future. (You should,
> too.)

A very American thing. Here in England we tip people when they do a great job
(or not at all) tipping just because they delivered something is rare. It
seems Postmates is copying the normal (American) delivery model: pay your
couriers the minimum allowed and expect the customer to pick up the slack,
even when they're already paying you a premium for the service. Pretty
shameful really.

~~~
jules
> So what exactly is going to prevent couriers from taking multiple jobs they
> know they can't do in a fast time but can do in an okay time? Doesn't this
> encourage couriers to take on more jobs than they can do to make more money?
> A mediocre experience for consumers.

One the one hand, couriers are doing more jobs in the same amount of time. On
the other hand, customers have to wait longer. Something doesn't add up here.

~~~
bastian
The answer is technology and a very clever dispatch Jules ;)

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hristov
This seems very much like a prearranged PR event. He says:

"... but to be honest, I’m not sure what I would have made for the deliveries
themselves. Postmates recently changed its pricing policy to charge users
based on the difficulty of the job, and it declined to disclose how much it
pays its couriers for those jobs."

So it is pretty clear that the company is not treating him as an employee, but
is giving him special treatment as a journalist.

If he really wanted to show how it feels to be a psotmates employee, he should
just get the job as an ordinary joe schnoe, like the lady that wrote "nickel
and dimed".

~~~
bastian
Hristov,

the only thing we didn't disclose is how much commission Ryan would receive
per job - but if you look around a little you will see that our Postmates
receive between 60%-80% of the delivery fee as commission. A Postmate makes
money even if a customer does not tip. The tipping is just a bonus.

~~~
hristov
I believe you. I am just saying that it would have been a better article if he
did not let you know he was doing this and applied as a regular person to get
the real experience.

------
ars
> Based on my limited experience, delivering for Postmates means you spend
> more time waiting in line than doing anything else.

Isn't that why people hire someone else for errands? So they don't have to
wait in line?

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auston
Postmates is really interesting - especially the get it now service. The
people I know definitely earn more than $2 & change per hour. I've seen
upwards of $30 in a given hour delivering food, with an average of about
$12-14.

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pgrote
I miss kozmo.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo.com>

~~~
juan_juarez
Maybe these guys will do better by underpaying couriers rather than paying the
cost of automobiles.

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jtchang
Postmates has a lot of similarity with Uber: they are both moving toward the
grail of an on-demand logistics platform.

Where I am really excited is to see these companies figure out all the
logistic hurdles and then provide an API on top of it. By doing this they will
abstract away all the crazy complexities of having to move a real world object
to real world destination.

You could build entire companies off these platforms.

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fluxon
At the risk of being Mr. Obvious, Postmates badly needs three things:

1\. An Android app (I saw only the iOS app listed), with a direct download
link, just for giggles.

2\. A page on their website which replicates the app's functionality. I mean,
it's HTML5/CSS/JS, right?

3\. Smarter vendors, which accept and acknowledge orders by text, web, or (a
different) app, to help the couriers earn, and to deliver the goods faster.

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gergles
It would be nice if the website contained more information about the
providers, service area, fees, you know... anything that might actually help
me decide whether I want to use the app or not.

Currently it's just a very slick ad for "download the app! trust us, it will
fulfill all your wildest fantasies!"

I don't want to download the app just to find out "Sorry, the world stops
existing outside of Market Street/The Embarcadero/Church Street".

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funkdobiest
So no pay for wait time. I know from being a bike messenger you usually got
paid for wait time, I guess this isn't the traditional messenger job.

~~~
bastian
Since we call in most of the orders there is very limited wait time. Ryan got
extremely unlucky. Our dynamic pricing however, models the costs and the fee
to be paid by the customer, by keeping all these things in mind.

