I am sure many have wondered if a gig hustle is worth it?
There is time on your hands, maybe a need to supplement your income and you are keen to give it a go but still unsure. You need a bit of guidance and some confidence. The usual question is one able to make a decent income for the effort and time spent.
With the gig economy firmly at our front door are there opportunities and if the barrier to entry is low.
One possible approach is to look at a typical day of someone who has actually done it. The focus will be on Adelaide and primarily on food delivery.
Why food delivery?
Food delivery is in high demand from those keen to provide the service as well as those that consume the service. The people that consume the service are F&B outlets, fast food chains etc and people like you and me who order meals on line.
Adelaide has an advantage.
Adelaide has a distinct advantage compared to most other cities in Australia.
The city is small and compact. Its called the 20 minute city because everything you need is up to 20 minutes away.
Adelaide also has a grid or grid iron layout like many great cities of the West. Take a wrong turn and you recover quickly in a grid layout city. The city is relatively flat, another plus.
So geography and layout wise it is a boon to delivery workers. With the physical aspect out of the way, lets get into the details to get going.
YouTube and Google
The primary sources of helpful information and details are YouTube videos and blogs that cover this topic as well as googling for answers and contacts.
YouTube has hundreds of videos done in Australia and elsewhere. They mainly fall in the 2 common and pioneer genres of the gig economy – ride hailing and food delivery.
Here is good starter video on food delivery side gig netting AUD 1K a week. More than basic with valuable context.
The areas of interest
From the comments posted on YouTube, the commons concerns raised are;
- How does it work?
- How do you enrol?
- What to do and not to do to maximise opportunities
- How much can one make in a day?
- And overall experience during the day
For this post, I will leave out the enrolment process as there are many helpful guides online. They cover popular companies such as Uber, DoorDash, Menulog etc..
Past enrolment and the best instructional videos are those that provide phone screen shots of the apps and their progress thru the day doing deliveries.
It starts with order acceptance, drive or ride to the delivery destination, delivery completion to the fees received. These are indeed helpful as the screenshot evidence is there. One is able to form a more objective opinion of the process and gauge the value to them.
Here is an excellent YouTube video of a side gig. It is in Adelaide during one particular shift in a day. And it comes with helpful screenshots.
Renai, the YouTuber operating out of Plympton suburb surrounds, south of Adelaide CBD, did 4 hours of work in the evening.
She works with a DoorDash and a Menulog app. She earned a slightly over AUD 100 making it AUD 27 per hour.
Its Friday evening, its peak period and she gets her first order around 6pm. She will get AUD 9.82 for this DoorDash order. Shortly after she gets a Menulog order at 6.28pm for AUD 7.24.
She accepted a total of 12 orders, 6 for DoorDash and another 6 for Menulog. For Doordash she earned AUD56 while it was AUD48 for Menulog. And she rejected some.
And there are more details
As you start covering the topic, you realise there are proven hacks to maximise time and effort in gig hustle. The very essence and value of the gig economy comes thru when you look at the finer details.
Here are the key ones;
Creating your own mental algorithm
Just as Uber, DoorDash and all others brands have their own sophisticated algorithms working digitally behind the scenes to maximise returns, every individual needs their own customised version.
Nothing sophisticated, just a simple matrix or scorecards of 3 key attributes such as
- Ideal operating hours and the days in the week to pick
- Best operating areas and your staging post to receive orders
- Type of orders to take and not to take
With a simple matrix or scorecard of key attributes, fine tuning over days and weeks, and with discipline, you should have a running start.
Ideal operating hours
There are the usual peak hours in the day and peak days in the week. There are also holidays when more people order food in. If you operate in the city servicing the office sector it will be quiet during the holidays but busy in the suburbs. Maybe you can be a holiday hound.
Remember you can pick your availability right down to the hours. Moment you turn on availability in the app and specify your start and end hours, orders will begin to flow if you are in the right area.
There are also surcharge incentives and promotional rates etc to consider. For those who are looking for supplemental income, your possible operating hours are restricted by your main job so you will have to work around this.
Best operating areas and your staging post.
In Renai’s gig hustle experience on the Friday evening, she operated around Plympton area over 4 hours, got a total of 12 orders.
You can’t cover the whole city and there is a clear need to identify consistent hotspots.
Within the hotspots you need to find a staging post where you return continuously and wait for next orders. Remember the app works on proximity, applied by food delivery companies for obvious reason.
A good feature is the ability to accept or reject an order if it not worth it. All of them have % of order acceptance rate on the app clearly displayed so you do not go over the tipping point. The algorithms will punish those that are overly picky.
Here is an interesting hack when it comes to hotspots. Like others I assumed that Chinatown bordered by Grote and Gouger streets with its array of Far East cuisine eateries and restaurants plus cuisines from other regions would be a natural hotspot. We were all wrong.
Yes there are orders but these are not handled by the well known brands. The orders are either delivered by in-store staff or delivery services set up just for that area which businesses consider cheaper.
Usually carried out by overseas students. Hence you will not see the usual livery colours of DoorDash, Uber or Menulog in that area.
Concentration of fast food outlets at suburb malls are clearly a plus. They also tend to go late into the night. The other good staging areas are food kitchens who provide a waiting room with amenities including TV , charging points and beverages to look after delivery staff between runs.
The last possible staging area and a possible compromise is your home. Convenient and your time idling is not wasted. It is not a surprise that students thru word of mouth find digs near hotspots.
Bear in mind that hotspots by their very nature attract other delivery riders so supply might exceed demand. A common issue in small towns in the UK. You will notice lots of delivery riders waiting in numbers at the town’s only hotspot. There have been stories and complaints about not receiving a single order for that day despite waiting for hours. This is no gig hustle.
Orders to accept and not to accept.
This is tricky hence it is the last area of coverage. This is where the opportunity to maximise your returns when you make yourself available.
Note the orders below which came within a minute of each other. The order with the higher pay was rejected as the distance was 11.7kms while the order with nearly half the pay was accepted because it was only 4.1km away.
Cost of fuel, effort and time are key deciding factors. There is also the opportunity cost in missed new orders while the longer delivery is done.
Give it a try
With the help of others who have shared their gig hustle experience, it is worth a try.
Having a car is a major plus as the opportunities are much better. Plus all weather protection and comfort.
It also makes sense to sign up with more than one operator to increase offers and to have choices.
Good luck!