HOST INTRO: As the Covid started spreading massively around the globe the whole world was under the threat of Coronavirus. There was a worldwide lockdown where people were advised to stay at home while being restricted to go outside. As the pandemic situation started to ease a little bit, lot of people were afraid to go outside because of Covid even though the lockdown got over. The food delivery industry was booming where people could order food online. The whole world was moving online.
TRACK: Door dash and Uber Eats are the most popular food delivery business where it had widely used by food delivery drivers to earn extra money as side hustle or main income. I interviewed a Door dash driver, Jarif Akif, who recently started as Doordash driver for few months.
ACT: JARIF: My name is Jarif Akif and I have been doing door dash for almost four months five months
TRACK: Door dash could be done by bikes or any vehicles. All you need to do is sign up on the Door dash app as a driver. Once your identity is verified through I.D and social security you would be notified that you are eligible to start delivering food for Door dash.
ACT: JARIF: I started Door dash because I needed some money and I have seen it is a good easy way to make some money and it was going popular that time. So, I was like you know why not. I have a car it just sitting down every week. I say you know why not. Maybe I just go for some little like one and two hours and maybe make some little money. And then it was actually going good until like summer.
TRACK: Many people, who needed extra money or a sustainable income, started as food delivery driver because there was high demand on online orders of food to be delivered through Uber eats or Door dash. The hours are flexible, and the pay is good for the hours of work the drivers apply.
ACT: JARIF: It was quite a pandemic time and then people were in their house. And then well Door dash is like basically a food delivery app. So, I was like you know what it is easy. Maybe going to get some good tips. And some people like sitting in home sick. So, it is like humanity. Maybe I could just help people out and make some money easy way. So that’s Why I started Door dash.
TRACK: But there was not only a growth in the customers of Uber Eats and Door dash but there was an increase in the number of Uber drivers and Door dash driver making the market really saturated. There are new drivers joining Uber eats and Door dash through word of mouth and recommendation.
ACT: JARIF: One of my friends told me. He is like, “Yo why don’t you do it, you have a car. It is an easy way to make money. I was like ok.
TRACK: There is no fixed pay or income for the food delivery drivers, but the income could be high or low depending on the hours or the time of that day the delivery drivers work. The Door dash driver, Jarif explains further about the income.
ACT: JARIF: Yeah, he was making good money because he worked in Manhattan and like every week, he was making like 500 600 or more. Maybe in a good day he could make like 300 dollars. So, when I heard that I was like “oh damn”. Some of the day I made good money. Within like two three hours I made 100 dollars more than. So, it was good.
TRACK: There higher chance of One drive switching from Door dash to Uber eats and vice versa. Drivers do use both apps to earn extra cash on a slow day. It is possible for the driver to use both Uber eat and Door dash on the same day. Jarif has only done Door dash, but he is planning to Join Uber eats as food delivery driver too.
ACT: JARIF: Well, I signed up, but I haven’t had the time to do any Uber Eats but I am planning to do it in winter. Maybe after November or like middle November because I have a car, it is going to get cold. People going to stay home and then order. I have heard good things about Uber Eats like you know I feel like Uber Eats is the next way to go. I am not saying Door dash is bad but let me give it a good try on Uber Eats. Maybe I will benefit more than Door dash so.
TRACK: I also interviewed Jonathan Whitney who recently joined Uber Eat as a driver and he explains how he earned in a day working for around three hours. He drives Mazda 3 to deliver the food for Uber eats.
ACT: JONATHAN: As of Right now fifty bucks for five orders that’s about 10 bucks an order and I haven’t had a lot of maintenance expenses other than oil changes. You know its at the end of its life but I haven’t had to do much maintenance on it so I am thinking that I actually had lower expenses than that which makes uber eats a pretty good option if I had factored in last order, I think I would have been closer to 65 70 bucks in the three hours which is pretty good, pretty reasonable. I am going to keep trying with this app I am thinking its looking pretty good the tips are better than expected I always heard tips on uber eats were pretty bad. But seeing those come through on app was a real booster.
Host Outro: This is how the Pandemic and the covid had given a boost to Food delivery business where there are new driver joining as food delivery drivers for Uber eats and Door Dash. The question is will the food delivery business have the same flow and momentum when the pandemic is completely over and everything is back to normal.