Postmates

Postmates Review:

Postmates offers independent contract work delivering food and alcohol in major cities across the U.S..

Purchased by Uber in 2020, the site has essentially melded driver terms of both Uber Eats and Postmates. That gave people working for Uber Eats the ability to deliver by bicycle. And it gave those delivering for Postmates easy access to delivery jobs with Uber Eats.

Flexibility vs. pay

These jobs are flexible, allowing you to turn on your app and work whenever you like. However, you get no guarantee that you’ll earn money when you do. Pay is per delivery. And, while the pay formula appears to vary by city, it’s generally made up of a pick up fee; a delivery fee and a mileage fee. Each of those is a small amount, so the combination often adds to $2 or $3.

In other words, the only way to make a decent living — particularly when accounting for your expenses — is to get good tips. And Postmate’s parent, Uber, doesn’t appear to encourage generous tipping like some of the other food delivery apps.

Recommendations

You may be better off working with DoorDash, GrubHub, or Amazon Flex

What their drivers say (from Indeed):

Jobs like these are great for some extra cash here and there but definitely not a reliable source life sustaining income on its own.

Nice to make quick $, work when you want to. You’re able to pick when you want to accept another order, never did I have any issues when working w/ Postmates.

Working for Postmates is fairly straightforward. All you do is through the Postmates Fleet app, you’ll receive orders for pick up with details. Also displays map and route. Your success will vary with location and time. Overall its decent. But don’t expect to make as much as a more mainstream job.

Good hours, bad pay

Liked the hours, because they were what I wanted to work. If I wanted to earn some quick money, it was as easy as logging into the app, and I’d have an order within a few minutes. The pay was ok, tips were better. The only problem I had was when an order was cancelled, sometimes after id driven across town to pick it up or when I was actually in the store selecting the merchandise. I had to spend some time on the phone for a day or two convincing them to pay me for my time and mileage.

Did not earn enough to get even minimum wage. Sometimes I waited about an hour for an offer. Not worth the wear and tear on your vehicle. Gas is also too high!

Mixed bag

Working for Postmates is a mixed bag of both good and bad. I like that I can work whenever I want and that I can pick and choose which order to accept. The tips can also be good some of the time. But I didn’t like paying for gas and worrying about wear and tear on my car.

If you’re looking for some extra cash and a part time gig, you can make some money here and there although I would not rely on this as your main source of income. It’s nearly impossible to make anything livable through this app.