Point Pickup

What is Point Pickup?

Point Pickup is a last-mile delivery app that enlists freelance drivers to deliver orders from Walmart and other retailers.

How it works

Drivers, who must be over age 18 and able to pass a background check, fill out a short form and download the app. They’ll be asked to provide a driver’s license and Social Security number, and fill in the times and days that they’re normally available.

The app promises to provide notifications when it has deliveries that fit your time availability.

Point Pickup review

At least in theory, what makes Point Pickup different is that it allows freelance drivers to schedule their deliveries in advance. That should make it an attractive alternative to other delivery companies, such as GrubHub and DoorDash, which offer deliveries only on the fly.

However, driver reviews of the app are increasingly poor. That appears to be largely the result of changes made in the past year that have cut delivery pay and turned the app glitchy. Worse, when drivers have a problem, customer service is nowhere to be found.

Complaints

The biggest complaint is that the app is glitchy and can stop functioning when you’re in the process of accepting jobs — or even when in the middle of completing one. If the app malfunctions, your pay is at risk.

And, while Point Pickup purports to let you pre-schedule your work, drivers say they are only able to schedule the day’s deliveries between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. Deliveries start at 7 a.m., so that gives you precious little time to sleep.

Poor pay

Apparently, pickup fees went from good — $12 to $15 per pickup — to not so good — $7 to $9 per pickup —  too. That’s soured many drivers on the app. It also appears that most of the pickups are from Walmart stores. And Walmart customers are reluctant to tip, which makes the guaranteed delivery fee all the more important.

Additionally, some Point Pickup drivers say that the app will not allow them to accept more than one delivery per hour. If true, that makes hourly pay well below minimum wage after accounting for the expense of using your own car.

Finally, Point Pickup’s terms say that you are officially on the hook for any costs, including the site’s insurance deductible, if there’s a loss. While we didn’t find any drivers complaining about this, it’s a red flag.

Drivers are paid once weekly via Stripe.

Recommendations:

Other delivery apps, including GrubHub, DoorDash and Amazon Flex appear to be better options.

If you’re strong and have a truck, you may also want to check out moving apps, such as UShip, CitizenShipper and Dolly.

What their users say: (From Google Play)

“During my deliveries, the app stopped working. Wouldn’t let me confirm pick up and drop off. I uninstalled and reinstalled many times. Doesn’t fix it. I’ve sent emails for help, no response back. THIS IS CRAZY!”

“We’re only allowed to schedule one delivery per hour. If you’re lucky and its busy enough, they will let you accept an ASAP delivery, but only one per hour. I have experience and I am very good at delivering and should be allowed to take more than 1 delivery per hour.”

“If you don’t wake up at 3AM and have the fastest fingers in the world, you literally have to keep the app open all day and even then you may get beat to the punch. If you need cash, it’s decent. But at times they want you to drive 15-18 miles round trip to make a delivery for $8:41. And not everyone tips. I haven’t been able to reach customer service in 3 months.”

Bad update

The recent update has added the mileage to the first screen, which is great, but they have removed the location. The mileage and location are key components when deciding if you will take an order. They both should be on the first screen. Otherwise, we are spending a lot of time clicking on orders just to see those details

I’m sick of this. Your new update also took away all reasons for a failed attempt, so it’s blank, and you can’t do anything but go back to the order and proceed with drop off. And I can’t find the address or reach the customer. Second problem, the customer name and number is only at the top of the list, but it doesn’t change per order, meaning it’s not the right customer or number for the order you are currently on. Updates are supposed to improve apps, but these just make them worse.

This new update is trash… Everytime I get to a drop off the app blanks out and starts over. And it’s mad annoying especially when I hv 17 drops and it starts over at every drop… Also they have you going back and forth thru different cities instead of letting you do all the drops in one city before heading to the next city. You’re burning unnecessary gas and mileage that we don’t get paid for.

From Apple App store

“When I first started, I was being paid $15 per order, then it went down to $11, then it went down to $8, and now the orders are $7. They expect you to drive 7 miles for $7, then lug up 6 packs of 48 bottles of water to the fourth floor for a lousy 7 bucks? Definitely not worth it.”

“I love that you’re allowed to make your own schedule and the sign up is very easy and hassle free; communication has also been decent if I have a problem. I did however, notice they were paying a little over $10 per order to begin with and now it’s only $9.”

Hard to get orders

“You have to be up around 2:00 AM to start getting orders for that day. Since everyone is up trying to accept orders, it is soooooo hard to get even one. If you read the details, it’s gone. Think about whether that order will fit into your schedule? It’s gone. If you hesitate for just 2 seconds, it’s gone. And if you do get an order, it’ll most likely be at 7:45AM so you don’t even get a full night of sleep.”

“Orders are usually $8.99-$9.57 in my area. Even if you have an order 20 minutes away from the store, it’ll still be $8.99. So 20 minutes there and back is 40 minutes… for only 8 dollars?”

“Just started with this platform about a week ago. I haven’t picked anything up because the payments are so low. Minimum of $7.35 and the maximum I’ve been seeing is $9.72. Plus you don’t even know what you are picking up or how many items.”

“Originally I thought that the order pay out was determined by the amount of stuff in the order. But it’s not. The person who commented that you could have 1 item or 7 cases of water is correct. You never know what you’re picking up until you get to your pickup.”

Updated 1/23/2024