A buddy of mine drives Uber a few times a week for something to do. He drives a brand new Ford F-150 and is quite wealthy. He is 76 and is a retired appraiser and accountant.

He delivers food from various restaurants with the majority coming from —- you got it, McDonalds.

Last week he got a notice to pick up from McDonalds and deliver to a local address. The pickup was for a $1 Coke with no food.

Yep, he delivered a $1 coke for about $12 to a young girl.

File under ‘Why am I broke’.

Was talking to the nice gal at the local gun shop while she worked a transfer for me.

She relayed a fairly similar thing, she works late, goes home wide awake & gets hungry around midnight so orders Uber eats quite often.

I will say that the temptation to overspend on fast food wouldn't be my issue if I worked at the gun shop though. It'd be guns and boolets.

I was at Red Robin one night grabbing a take out order and there was a Uber Eats driver there to get one order of fries for someone, he said the delivery charge is 2X the order amount

Just nuts.

quote:

File under ‘Why am I broke’.

Who's broke?
If you can afford this - you aren't broke - just lazy or stupid.

woke broke!

quote:

Originally posted by Neva:
Just nuts.

Which one.

If I was rich and lonely I would volunteer somewhere.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 1s1k,

Perhaps the "young girl" was expecting an equally youthful Uber driver? Or have I been watching too much porn lately?

Naw, they're wearing ankle bracelets and can't go themselves.

Jim

Or she's doing a "secret shopper" gig and to get her $15 or whatever, she had to order SOMETHING.

Nuts, but she could be a rookie that didn't read the fine print (they'll pay you, plus cover the cost of the food up to whatever.)

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
...
Yep, he delivered a $1 coke for about $12 to a young girl.
File under ‘Why am I broke’.

And I quote: I'm sorry if I hurt you feelings when I called you stupid - I thought you already knew - Unknown"

Also uber takes 25% from the restaurant owner, besides charging the customer the delivery fee. Now sure how much the driver gets. However, the restaurant owner of a busy pizza/sub/Italian food place told me they get a ton of business through uber and he has to employ less drivers so it’s a win.

I drove for Uber and Lyft for about six months. The stories were worth more than the money. Drove a porn star, a bounty hunter, an F-35 mechanic, lots of super nice people, scorching hot women in bikinis going to Casino pool parties and on and on.

Now I sell final expense insurance and those stories are even better. First appointment was with a woman in a halfway house, HIV positive, terminal and selling single cigarettes to supplement her disability income. Met a guy this week with 13 houses, millions in the bank and millions in life insurance, but wanted a measly $15k policy on himself for his wife, as his other policies all paid his business partners and creditors.

I was at the local 5 Guys the other day and a GrubHub person was in front of me which got me wondering a bit. The manager usually makes his way around when folks are eating asking how things were.
I mentioned I noticed the Grubhub person in front of me and asked how that was going for them. He said that since adding Grubhub, the only official delivery service they use, there are pirates out there that will post a menu and order take out and deliver they have added $6-$8K PROFIT a month!!!

I have a retired friend that does uber/lyft on weekends,
basically nights, taking folks from bar to bar then home,

he tell me the interesting stories,

one was a woman, out bar hopping with friends that got just a bit tipsy,
he picked her up to take her home, and she got in the back seat, took her top and skirt off, rolled them up and used them for a pillow,, and went to sleep,

he said it was a bit awkward when he rang the bell at her home to get someone to come help him get her in the house,,

so far, he has only had to put one group of riders out of his car,, seemed they did not like the fact that he was an old white guy, and started giving him shit from the git go,

quote:

I mentioned I noticed the Grubhub person in front of me and asked how that was going for them. He said that since adding Grubhub, the only official delivery service they use, there are pirates out there that will post a menu and order take out and deliver they have added $6-$8K PROFIT a month!!!

I suppose anything is possible, and there are always exceptions, but consider two things.

Profit margins at a restaurant are usually less than 10%. So using that 10% number, Grubhub would have to have given them an additional $60,000 to $80,000 a month in sales. More on that in a second, but that's $2,000 a day or $200 an hour in increased business.

Grubhub and similar also don't work for free. These online delivery services usually get 5% to 30% of the ticket. That certainly changes that math above doesn't it?

Many of these online delivery services are unethical, pull all sorts of stupid stunts, and cause problems that are ultimately laid at the feet of the restaurant. I haven't met many in the restaurant business that are enthusiastic about them. It can certainly work for some, but it a big can of worms for others.

Before ordering online through one of these outfits, I suggest calling the restaurant you're ordering from first to get their opinion.

I don't understand the economics of the coming Drone Delivery Systems.

Kids are too damn lazy nowadays.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Many of these online delivery services are unethical, pull all sorts of stupid stunts, and cause problems that are ultimately laid at the feet of the restaurant. I haven't met many in the restaurant business that are enthusiastic about them. It can certainly work for some, but it a big can of worms for others.

The vast majority of the driver-meal apps are controlled by financiers who're disconnected to the actual service provided ergo, while the service is appreciated, there's all sorts of fine-print, sliding scales and word games that are used to squeeze the clients. Third-party travel sites like Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak and others ran into a lot of issues with motel/hotel operators early in their infancy. They're tolerated and the business activity is appreciated but, the grumbling and constant policy updates grinds them.

$1 product for $12 of service....that's dumb economics combined with entitled idiocy. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.