Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Roadie: The On-The-Way Delivery Service



The On-The-Way Delivery Service

You're already going that way, why not get paid to do it?  Roadie is an economical service that is similar to the original intent of Lyft / Uber.  The idea is that you're already heading in that direction, why not go a little further out of your way to take another item with you.  Current delivery services pay their drivers a wage to deliver, but those services are already created for that purpose.

How does it work?

  1. Sign Up for Roadie
  2. Download the App and Create your profile
  3. Find local cargo to take with you
As previously noted, the idea here is not that you go out of your way to carry cargo to another destination, but that you should already be heading that way.  Of course not everyone will look at it that way and see the dollar signs are are much greater than an Uber or Lyft driver would normally get for a trip.  

By cutting out that middle man, Roadie saves the customer that cost, which gives the Gig-worker most of the pay.  Certainly, Roadie is bearing some of the cost in insuring non-truck drivers and cargo, and doing some of the logistics of coordinating the shipment. But Roadie is almost not requesting that Gig-workers do work that requires a hand-truck and a flat bed.

Shipping large cargo is VERY costly if it is just one small piece in the back of a tractor-trailer truck.  The bare minimum can be around $200 to go any distance.  It can be even more if you need to the lift-gate or do not have a loading dock.  

Why Do This?

Can you make money at this? Yes, you can make money, but the idea takes planning.  You are now the middle man.  Typically, and it is still going on today, a person in charge of logistics is handling all the logic of the shipments and sending drivers out who are paid a wage to drive.

It is yet another Gig-job in the economy opening yet more options to people who would rather work on their terms than the 9 to 5 grind.  If you are good with planning, you can probably do very well with Roadie.

Tricks to get more out of the App

  1. CHECK THE APP whenever you are about to go somewhere
  2. GRAB tasks QUICKLY.  They tend to disappear quickly too
  3. Get as MANY DELIVERIES that are going to the same general location as you can
  4. DO NOT RETURN to your home location UNLESS you have a return delivery
  5. Consider FACTORING in the cost of a HOTEL 
  6. ALWAYS request a bit more on the FIRST delivery

Check out the App on

          



2 comments:

  1. Nice article, thanks for posting. I had no idea about this! Any example rates you have seen for simple trips?

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    Replies
    1. Very short trips seem to pay the best. But if you can. I recommend getting multiples per #3 in the list at the end of the article. Here are some examples (Link to Google Photos Album in SF Bay) https://photos.app.goo.gl/hLRTcUhHBXzErUY17

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