So what exactly is going to prevent couriers from taking multiple jobs they know they can't do in a fast time but can do in an okay time? Doesn't this encourage couriers to take on more jobs than they can do to make more money? A mediocre experience for consumers.
> I probably won’t be quitting my day job and becoming a courier anytime soon. I do, however, have a lot more respect for those guys, and will be sure to tip well whenever I order something from them in the future. (You should, too.)
A very American thing. Here in England we tip people when they do a great job (or not at all) tipping just because they delivered something is rare. It seems Postmates is copying the normal (American) delivery model: pay your couriers the minimum allowed and expect the customer to pick up the slack, even when they're already paying you a premium for the service. Pretty shameful really.
To answer your question about what would prevent Postmates from taking on too many jobs i would need to explain our dispatch in all details but the answer lies in great software.
Finally, the tip is not required on our platform and all Postmates get compensated very, very fair, even without any tip.
One the one hand, couriers are doing more jobs in the same amount of time. On the other hand, customers have to wait longer. Something doesn't add up here.
"... but to be honest, I’m not sure what I would have made for the deliveries themselves. Postmates recently changed its pricing policy to charge users based on the difficulty of the job, and it declined to disclose how much it pays its couriers for those jobs."
So it is pretty clear that the company is not treating him as an employee, but is giving him special treatment as a journalist.
If he really wanted to show how it feels to be a psotmates employee, he should just get the job as an ordinary joe schnoe, like the lady that wrote "nickel and dimed".
the only thing we didn't disclose is how much commission Ryan would receive per job - but if you look around a little you will see that our Postmates receive between 60%-80% of the delivery fee as commission. A Postmate makes money even if a customer does not tip. The tipping is just a bonus.
Isn't that why people hire someone else for errands? So they don't have to wait in line?
Where I am really excited is to see these companies figure out all the logistic hurdles and then provide an API on top of it. By doing this they will abstract away all the crazy complexities of having to move a real world object to real world destination.
You could build entire companies off these platforms.
1. An Android app (I saw only the iOS app listed), with a direct download link, just for giggles.
2. A page on their website which replicates the app's functionality. I mean, it's HTML5/CSS/JS, right?
3. Smarter vendors, which accept and acknowledge orders by text, web, or (a different) app, to help the couriers earn, and to deliver the goods faster.
Currently it's just a very slick ad for "download the app! trust us, it will fulfill all your wildest fantasies!"
I don't want to download the app just to find out "Sorry, the world stops existing outside of Market Street/The Embarcadero/Church Street".
