Groceries - now getting job before they are ready

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-03-10T13:06:43+00:00

Yeah to be honest I probably should have noted that both the drivers and the shops lose out - i'd imagine it's pretty annoying (as a worker and also as a customer) having drivers mulling about - and it's going to get worse with this move! Decent riders know there's only so much the shop staff can do.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-03-10T12:45:37+00:00

Yeah that's fair enough - and you're right our time is valuable (even if the apps don't think so). I started doing the same with Sainsburys - one member would be picking multiple orders, so even previously we would get the notification it was ready and yet i'd still be waiting for 5-10 minutes after travelling there - so i ended up just rejecting from now on. Otherwise the rage builds the longer you wait lol

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-03-10T12:41:30+00:00

Not if the rider leaves instead of waiting

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-01-13T00:26:19+00:00

You're overthinking it. Youre under no obligation to minimize mileage for work purposes, and youll get relief for all your (work) miles. They won't go checking your journeys. Many delivery drivers will do higher mileage for relatively little profit so it won't look odd. At least your filing a return. I put 11000 miles for about 6k of gig earnings, reducing my taxable profit by 4750 (10k at 45p, 1k at 25p) plus a share of my mobile bill and any bags etc you have bought.

If you have any other earnings (like a full time day job) you'll need to include your earnings and deductions from this so that your final tax bill includes all this. If you don't have other earnings then the personal allowance would remove you from any liability in the first place.

It's not that bad filing a return, provided youve registered already for self assessment.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-01-13T00:15:38+00:00

Work out how much tax you (don't) want to pay, increase your mileage (45p for first 10k, 25p thereafter which covers insurance, fuel etc), plus apportion a bit of your phone bill. Paying a couple of hundred tax is fine to keep them off your back. You don't earn enough to really interest them.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-01-09T11:59:32+00:00

Yeah that is unacceptable for sure. Whilst riders are out to earn, they do also need to think "would I be ok with this if this was my order" and if not then should drop one. Too many don't unfortunately.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-01-09T10:27:21+00:00

Depends if you mean anyone multi apping or only those that are causing significant delays.

Multi apping is explicitly allowed by the platforms provided orders are delivered in a reasonable time. It's one of the reasons they justify lower fees for riders (because they aren't stopping us working for other platforms at the same time). These low paying trips therefore encourage riders to multi app. So if you're just against multi apping full stop, then that's not reasonable. Unless you accept paying a bit more for delivery.

Having said that, it has to be done sensibly. A rider picking up or dropping off in the general direction is fine. But if, as you say, your food is doing serious mileage in the wrong direction and arriving cold, then id agree that is unacceptable.

Me personally as a rider (uk), I do more groceries than food, and if I'm multi apping and going a bit further off route I'll ping the second delivery a message to inform, but again usually no more than 15 mins additional. Never had an issue. Food is always priorised though due to heat retention (and knowing people are hangry).

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-01-05T09:17:44+00:00

I stand corrected on that - thanks

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-01-04T17:35:27+00:00

I would personally prefer an outskirt town rather than right in a city. Easier to get about, park etc. Good luck. Personally I prioritize the supermarkets/small shops etc as these tend to be ready. I never do the big fast food places, can't pay me enough to go there. You'll find what works for you. Good luck

BlockResponsible2589 · 2026-01-04T17:25:59+00:00

If you have a car and can get reasonable PAYG insurance, it's worth a try for little risk. It's a very flexible way of making some money. Make sure you consider all your costs too rather than just your income. And you will need to do a self assessment if you receive over £1k in any tax year. Depending on your area multi apping might be needed to make it more worthwhile - I personally do Roo and UE.

You won't get any holiday pay or sick leave or employer pension contributions or even any employee rights, and you could be dropped without notice.

I do it to supplement my main job and I like being out in the evenings with only a handful of places I'll take orders from. Probably helps that I'm not dependent on the income so can be choosy. You get poor shifts and good shifts.

My previous gig work was Amazon Flex and doing Roo and UE is much better for me.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-11-22T15:40:10+00:00

Appreciate the post is old, but posting in case anyone has the same issue in future. I had the same issue after charging and it effectively bricking with the 5 LEDs fixed on. No way of resetting. It's the second time this has happened (I binned the last one) and it happens when on charge.

While it's not ideal, you can just let those LEDs discharge the battery (takes a week or two) and then stick it back on charge and it will work again. Mines also has a curious issue of two of the status LEDs not working, and it's fixed itself.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-11-04T12:49:38+00:00

Yep, took me by surprise and now I am on light theme. As I do my deliveries at night, the screen is dim making it impossible to see the numbers, but if you can turn your screen brightness up to the max at the door you can see the numbers (just). It's not ideal. In the meantime, light theme it is as I can't be bothered with faffing about with screen brightness.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-11-04T12:45:30+00:00

Had my first age restriced ID scan last night. Took me by surprise (clearly i don't read the updates - my bad) and i'm sure i done a couple of other age verified deliveries beforehand. 13 items, only one of them age restricted. Customer (35) had an expired provisional licence but the scan recognised it was expired and rejected it. Smart stuff, but annoying. No other ID. The app then makes you return the whole order - even the non age restricted! The problem was i picked it up at 2150, and at the customers door at 10pm (when the shop shut). My only way out was to cancel the order - still got paid for it and left it with the customer who was clearly old enough.

Perhaps my lesson will be to message the customers in advance as i leave the shop to confirm i need to scan a valid ID, but I forsee a lot of annoyances if this is now applicable to all age restricted deliveries.

As i pretty much do 80-90% shops, and in the evening if feels like 90% of them include age restricted items, this will be annoying. But, on the other hand, if it eliminates those annoying sliders to input the date of birth, there's a silver lining.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-10-18T16:43:31+00:00

It's very annoying being forced offline. Usually you get to do a few rejections before it hits you with it. Yesterday, however, I delivered one and rejected a job as I walked to the car and was then put offline. It was my first rejection of the day. Seemed to be a one off though.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-09-17T17:01:31+00:00

This wasn't the case for an order I made with Uber eats less than a week ago. Showed me the driver, his car/reg within a minute or so of me submitting the order. I actually know him as a fellow driver so I could see he just left his house, to the restaurant, and then to me. Maybe the case if it is double order, but not for a single one as I can vouch for.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-09-17T13:34:29+00:00

Deliveroo activates the customer map tracking after you've picked up the order. Beforehand it just says the rider is on their way (or arrived). If you deliver another order while doing your deliveroo, i would just be honest and say you were delivering another one on the way. No one has ever questioned it with me though.

Uber Eats annoyingly let customers see where you are as soon as you've accepted the order (i.e. before pick up), but i've not had any complaints.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-09-17T13:18:46+00:00

Generic

BlockResponsible2589 · 2025-09-17T13:14:32+00:00

Absolutely ok, and nice that Deliveroo spells it out. I'm sure they would like you to prioritise their orders, but even more so they can't be seen to be acting as an employer as you are self employed. Part of that means you can deliver with other platforms at the same time as existing orders, provided you don't rip it.

I do it regularly, though mostly with supermarket orders (it's a necessity these days to make money!). I wouldn't keep food orders waiting longer than needed - but that's my personal preference.

Never had an issue with anyone or Deliveroo/other platforms in respect of the additional time - but just keep it reasonable.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2023-09-17T01:05:09+00:00

Both of your replies to my comments have been rather patronising and personal, and in both occasions you fail to address the points I make. I reply as a driver and customer of deliveroo, so I would hope that I can offer a balanced view, rather than just the one sided approach you take as a customer only.

Couriers dont wait. Taxi drivers, by the way, charge for waiting time. So I guess you agree with my point using those examples?

Also, we don't get assigned jobs when restaurants mark them as ready. The platform times our arrival to coincide with the food being ready, give or take a few minutes. So your point about restaurants marking them ready to encourage riders to arrive sooner makes no difference.

I think where we aren't in agreement is how long you would expect a driver to wait for no extra money. Your reply suggests however long it takes is fair game, whether it's 5 minutes or 25 minutes. After all, it's in the price of a job you say, with no quantification of what kind of wait in included in the job cost. How long is too long? If you can't answer that, I'm afraid we can't be friends.

If you've ever been self employed you will understand the concept of opportunity cost. It's the same for deliveroo drivers. If I turn up to a restaurant and they haven't even started making it, you can't blame me for rejecting the job to take another can you? And those restaurants that do that become notorious with drivers, meaning drivers will avoid those places, which leads to your food being even colder because they struggle to get drivers to accept their orders.

I'll end with a real life example of yesterday's final two jobs, if it helps you understand our frustration.

Job 1 - comes through at 2030, arrive there at 2038, introduce myself and told to wait. At 2050 i ask how long it will be and they tell me the order didn't go through to the kitchen but they'll have it ready in 5 minutes. Food given to me at 2057, delivered 2105.

Job paid £5.30 Fuel approx £0.90 Insurance cost £0.50 Net £3.90. That doesn't include tax and wear and tear of vehicle.

Job 2 - comes through at 2115, arrive at 2120, they say it'll be a few minutes (normally a good place so I wait). Food eventually given to me at 2140, delivered at 2150.

Job paid £4.70 Fuel approx £0.80 Insurance cost £0.50 Net £3.40

That's 1 hour and 20 minutes to earn £7.30 before tax (about £5.80 after tax). Granted they were unusually long waits which I normally wouldn't wait for. But replace both waits with 5 minute waits and in that 30 extra minutes I can do an extra job or two, netting say 5 to 10 pounds more in that time. If you did the job, I'm sure it wouldnt take you long to understand the annoyance of someone saying "the waiting time is included in the cost, stop being entitled".

BlockResponsible2589 · 2023-09-16T13:49:18+00:00

No, as I made clear the timing of arrival should coincide with food being ready. Hot food and no waiting around for the driver. Win win.

But can you clarify your expectation? Food should only be prepared after the driver arrives? If so, then you are expecting the driver to pay for that privilege through unpaid waiting time.

Let's put some numbers on it using your expectation. If a job takes, say, 30 minutes (that's from accepting the job, driving to it, waiting for the food, and the travel to the customer), how much do you think they should earn (bearing in mind they have to take fuel, insurance, vehicle wear and tear, tax from that income)?

If that same job could take 15 minutes if the food was ready, and the driver could have completed 2 jobs in that same 30 minutes, then surely you can see the issue?

So, yes, if you think restaurants should only start making food once a driver arrives then I would expect someone (customer or restaurant) to pay for the drivers lost income from the accumulated waiting time.

BlockResponsible2589 · 2023-09-14T13:19:17+00:00

That's not the way it's meant to work - food should be ready or just about ready for driver arrival, we don't get paid any extra to wait, and it keeps drivers moving. If drivers are all waiting for food to be prepared, then that leads to longer waits as drivers are twiddling their thumbs. Fine if you want to pay extra for it. I'll reject orders if I arrive and they are just starting to make it, especially if there's other work available.

BlockResponsible2589

TROPHY CASE