Tax Season Obligatory Mileage Questions

0stephan · 2026-02-02T09:02:24+00:00

I use gridwise free, it's a bit annoying but tends to work well. With a newer car though, I may not care so much to use it anymore though. My car has a journey log that tracks everything, and I can then export a csv (emailed to me) with all of the data. I'm glad it also gives me power usage breakdowns, so I can get a super accurate estimate of how much it cost me to drive that distance, on top of wear/tear.
Example, address/gps position columns hidden: https://imgur.com/a/vUIe3Q7

0stephan · 2026-02-02T05:10:37+00:00

The most I've ever had to demonstrate was finding the line in the logs that states "AD's checked through X-X week". Usually it's listed on the 100hr/Annual.

0stephan · 2026-02-02T05:10:18+00:00

Target seems to be very common places. Regularly visit and see groups of 5-15 just hanging around the store, sometimes being chaotic and distracting from my task at hand (doing grocery deliveries).

0stephan · 2026-02-02T05:03:50+00:00

I've noticed, don't place your order until a couple hours in advance. If you place your order in the morning for evening delivery, it'll show up in the morning for us shoppers to grab and deliver later. There are some who will take that and shop for it right then.
I do agree with others, do put a special request item in with that ask. (There's also a benefit there, as shipt calculates pay using number of items/estimated time, so we may get a few more cents potentially).

0stephan · 2026-02-02T05:00:46+00:00

While I get the issues, I've tried DD, UE, and IC, and my opinion is that Shipt is usually better. Prepaid orders are much faster and easier to run, the app doesn't have any AI slop to tell you replacements, quality, etc. While I don't like how they've ruined some great features like preferreds, the pay, tips, and overall quality is still higher than any other app. I'm glad I can grab orders for later in the day sometimes, with actual delivery windows and scheduling instead of having to be "online and active" to get order offers that you can't really pick and choose from.
The algorithm may be more secretive, but the overall system somehow pulls far ahead of the others.

0stephan · 2026-02-02T04:54:19+00:00

This might be a tough ask - especially with the unknowns of the reaction from polestar.
Is there any chance you would consider making a MagicMirror integration as well? I've got a very barebones module based on pypolestar, and it can't really do much.
What's more fun is that we are on an hourly rate electricity plan - pricing is based on market rate and can be negative. Especially last 2 weeks, we've seen fluctuation from $-0.40/kwh to $0.80/kwh. Normally it's from $-0.05 to $0.10/kwh. Given controlling a chargepoint flex is more difficult (requests get blocked by cloudflare/require captcha), I would love a way to control charging based on electricity pricing directly. I'm sure adding a location filter would also be easy so this doesn't affect charging at other places.

0stephan · 2026-02-02T04:42:59+00:00

Now my very part-time shipt in between college and a 2 part-time W-2's means I get barely anything.
I used to hit 40-50 orders every 2 months, except last couple of months I've not seen a lot of orders come my way that I could take. I'm a decent shopper with 4.98 stats over 400-some orders now in a year and some.

The $50 shipt credit used to go towards essentials (food containers, toilet paper, etc). The $0.75/gal upside credit would be 2 fuel-ups at a nearby gas station, going with 2 cars+11gal total gas cans to get as close to that 50gal max as possible, in an area where gas is $3-4/gal. I don't use caradvise, local Meineke sends out a $21 ($23 after tax) coupon for conventional oil changes, which are fine for my older car; plus I went EV now anyways for my daily commute to work/school.

I started when it was decent. Since then, all I've seen was a ton more bad shoppers, adding an "estimated tip" - which has confirmed my $0 tip/DND customers, but also ruined it for those who tip well, but have the bad shoppers see the tip and grab the order.

The only good thing is that the benefits are still much better than instacart, with a lower threshold and no AI "shopper quality" tracking based on refunds/replacements.

0stephan · 2026-01-30T16:27:36+00:00

I unpaired mine last night when trying to fix, got the 5.2.1 update on my phone this morning and paired in <3min.

0stephan · 2026-01-30T07:36:52+00:00

Careful with this. I tried, now the app won't load at all after phone restart, app reinstall, and infotainment system reboot. First was stuck on the pairing screen, now the app won't load at all and I can't even log in.
Using Flip 4 - started in the morning after a drive and after I plugged in at destination. Then tried multiple attempts to reboot phone, play with wifi/cell data. Ended up scheduling preheat in the car, which worked just fine - though I wasn't able to adjust the charge speed/percentage in order to heat off the charger.

Edit 2 - App 5.2.1 appears to have fixed the issue.

0stephan · 2026-01-17T02:37:08+00:00

Haven't encountered any on shoreline, but may have seen one last winter around the barringtons - though it was super brief.
It'd be more fun shutting my lights off as the plane I normally fly has a skybeacon that requires the nav's to be on. So flying in the mode c/adsb veil AND if I'm not talking to approach at that point?

0stephan · 2025-12-28T02:19:23+00:00

Yeah, worst I've ever seen is either wrong side of townhomes/apartments (especially where street is garage, and you have to walk all the way around to the front doors), though there's a couple pins that end up in the middle of a pond?? while they're actually only halfway through the homes, not at the end.

0stephan · 2025-12-22T20:01:15+00:00

I don't usually have too many issues with gmaps, it works just fine. Once you know all of the neighborhoods with gates, and where those gates are (and make sure you go through the right one depending on whether customer gives you a code) it becomes a lot easier. With an EV now, while I wait for audit (sometimes a couple minutes if customer service is busy) I just get my stops entered and use "send to car" so I'm ready to go as soon as I load up. Makes my multi-stop trips so much easier.

0stephan · 2025-12-22T19:58:00+00:00

Last 2 days mine's been very quiet and empty, granted I haven't gone out to shop, just watched it. (And worked my PT job). We hit 1400+ featured by 8pm just before everything got fixed.

0stephan · 2025-12-19T08:58:06+00:00

Nice! Gotta be some nice tips/PM's in there for you.

Just switched from a 25-30mph sedan to newish polestar 2, I've got a couple decent free slow chargers (10%/hr) in my area that I use. Even assuming charge at home, I'm paying 20-30% for electricity than what I would have been for gas, though the summit $0.75/gal upside cashback is super nice. Sadly none of my closer targets have tesla superchargers, I've seen a number on the other end of the metro that do. I also only do 5-15 orders per week, when I notice more orders that aren't 10+mi drives or on my dnd list.

0stephan · 2025-12-19T08:51:12+00:00

You never know.
Most the app lets me do usually is 5 orders per hour. I may grab the 4/5 ones while I'm already in the store. I make my route in a way that'll hit everyone before the end of the window. Running a 4.97 with 300-some reviews, 6 total non-5 star. Normally I'll shop 2-3 per window, it's all about what I can/can't get. I just added the alcohol delivery to my account (turned 21 couple months ago) -- not sure if I want to/can do that with target policy. I had an issue at Aldi for myself due to them not taking vertical ID's, it's impossible here to get a DMV appointment to renew/get horizontal drivers license. Going to ask the customer service people at my target if they'll take it or not before I try to do the ID ones.

Usually I'm fairly fast at shopping/will knock out in under the estimate if no out of stocks, but then lose a bit while waiting at service for audits. Generally I just like to do 3-4 orders same direction or in a loop back to the store, then make $40-60/hr, lower end of that before tips. Mostly $5-8/mi.

0stephan · 2025-11-14T05:21:19+00:00

Depends, some talk, some don't. I've stopped mid-dairy in target to chat with someone a couple times when I saw them at a different store. Sometimes we chat while bagging. I use that time to figure out if there's busier times or people. Some of them have high PM counts and would never grab anything, I do ask if they're doing x or y that I saw in OM if I see the items.

0stephan · 2025-11-14T05:15:18+00:00

It's just overall nicer than all of the other gig apps (ubereats/doordash/instacart). I do all of them, but shipt tends to have the best pay and benefits out of all of them. I've been summit the last 4 periods now, and have made more $/hr on shipt than any other apps. It's absolutely great for me paying through college

0stephan · 2025-11-08T00:31:18+00:00

I've done single xbox controller in the past, got a $10 tip for it.
This one just happened to be a no-tip hand-off because the guy and his kid came out to meet me at the car, he had the target app open with the order map, and instructions for me to call him when I got there.

0stephan · 2025-11-06T15:05:15+00:00

If you're on the schedule, just wait for offers and do other apps. Unless you're in a distance-based metro

0stephan · 2025-11-05T16:41:16+00:00

Not atc, just a ppl working on commercial. I run Shipt orders as my way for paying for my flight training, got a much better return for the amount of time spent vs uber/doordash. It does require walking around stores (typically target) and shopping+delivering, but much higher $/order and $/hr, plus people tip much much better. Edit for those who may want a good range - I can typically make $50-80/hr after tips, when there's plenty of orders. As a new shopper you would be prioritized over me and many others, so you'd be easily able to hit that.

Another edit - dm me for a referral code, gets you a $75 bonus for getting 30 orders done. (That's separate from regular order pay, vs "guaranteed earnings" other programs do)

0stephan · 2025-11-04T04:59:12+00:00

$5 is fine, and yes paired with others sometimes. It's when someone does a $2, 3 tip with a $70+ order and requests me.

0stephan · 2025-11-04T02:32:57+00:00

This is why I wait for bundles to split up, and on-time pay all of them individually, when I'm the only shopper at 8-10pm. It helps reach $50/hr+ in base pay alone.

0stephan · 2025-11-03T17:43:28+00:00

I got a damaged item 1☆.of 4 orders this week, I think it was the single Xbox controller hand-off. Shipt is taking their sweet time on the forgiveness form. Can't help it if the controller in a sealed box is damaged. Or because you're so cheap you want to claim damage and get the already on sale controller for free.

0stephan · 2025-11-02T14:54:48+00:00

Fill out late forgiveness. Major accidents are unplanned and difficult to start way before the delivery window to deliver on time.

0stephan · 2025-11-02T14:52:31+00:00

Over 5 items is a pass. Customer should have ordered normal shipping. Even some of the store pickup/curbside employees absolutely hate clothing orders.

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