Point Pickup

What: Point Pickup proposes to pre-schedule deliveries so drivers can take charge of their time and earnings. But it doesn’t work as well as advertised

Expected pay: $7 – $9 per delivery, plus tip (if any)

Husl$core: $$

Commissions & fees: NA

Where: Select US cities.

Requirements: Be over 18, have a valid drivers license, auto insurance and a vehicle that’s less than 20 years old. You also need a smart phone, bank account for direct deposit, and a Social Security number.

Review:

Theoretically, Point Pickup allows you to pre-schedule a day — or a few hours — of deliveries, with advance knowledge of how much you’ll earn and where you’ll be driving. That should make it an attractive alternative to other delivery companies, such as GrubHub, DoorDash and Amazon Flex.

But, in reality, drivers have nothing but complaints when working with Point Pickup. 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. 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.

Apparently, pickup fees went from good — $12 to $15 per pickup — to not so good — $7 to $9 per pickup — over the past year, 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 Truxx, 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.”

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.”

“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.”