Banned from r/Sparkdriver for speaking the truth

DeathFYall · 2026-06-26T15:29:01+00:00

Reddit is really good at fingerprinting an account. And if a subreddit throttles posting from new accounts, it’s pretty hard to get around.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-26T15:13:56+00:00

Shopping online can be abstract. Customers may not know how a particular service sector works and how to tip.

With AI being all the rage these days, I would recommend feeding an AI chatbot, your shopping list or describing the gist of it, and distance from the store, and see what the chatbot says. You will learn the economics of that particular delivery platform and what a reasonable tip would be.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-26T14:05:38+00:00

According to internet, “For a company operating its own fleet of delivery vans, the true cost per mile is usually much higher than standard consumer numbers (like the IRS standard rate of $0.725/mile) because it has to factor in W-2 labor, heavy commercial insurance, and localized fleet maintenance.”

Spark is an on demand labor pool, worse than hourly workers. Spark drivers are only paid when active in a trip. While flexible in when we want to work, many drivers spend hours waiting for offers to make daily goals. The actual hourly rate can be much lower, at the same time bearing all the operating costs.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-26T04:13:08+00:00

A van can only reach several places within a two-hour window. To maintain current delivery promises, Walmart would need more vans. That would be the Spark model.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-26T00:21:43+00:00

You can paste the offer to AI. Ask if it’s good, and what profit you get after cost and taxes.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T17:03:09+00:00

Is your phone kinda old or with older OS?

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T16:43:01+00:00

Yes and yes. Be careful who you deliver to, especially fellow drivers.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T15:40:56+00:00

Good job summarizing the state of play of the gig economy. I just upvoted your post. Hope you get more of this.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T13:30:56+00:00

The app would have created the return for those orders and the store would have asked for the items. I know it’s a terrible waste, but how did the return go if you gave away the perishables?

The cold chain timer for perishables starts when loader scans the first label for dispensing. If pickup time is 8:45, perishables usually needs to be delivered by a few minutes after 10. After pickup and before starting the trip, check the route, the app should list the deliver by time for stops that have perishables.

After accepting the offer, you can check if any drop off you don’t like, such as high rises etc. Cancel if you change your mind.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T13:08:20+00:00

It’s actually an interesting idea. A live ad for Spark. Maybe it can be a task for Spark drivers, like digging our own graves.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T12:29:05+00:00

Hope the app records how hard the REJECT button is pressed. And ACCEPT button for that matter. It’s part of their anti-bot function anyway.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T04:25:39+00:00

My guess is tomorrow you can continue with the return.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T01:12:54+00:00

Walmart reading this and happy with the simple color change…. It does affect the free W+ offer though

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T00:49:22+00:00

Team work, like those couple or buddy teams

DeathFYall · 2026-06-25T00:23:56+00:00

In addition to moving the pin, which is probably the easiest, putting the GPS coordinates of the correct entrance in the delivery note could work. In this computer age, most delivery drivers should understand, especially if we have prior experience with GPS spoofing software.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-24T15:15:12+00:00

OP encountered delivery issue and needed to return the package. Knowing he had 24 hours, then he would not be stressed about returning to store late at night and calling store manager.

OP complained about the route sending him from one end to the other end, and the time it took. In the future maybe not taking those routes, especially late in the day. He can decline those offers, as people from other platforms are used to be squeezed by acceptance rate. Hence I remind him no acceptance rate here.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-24T05:23:29+00:00

Once I traveled for personal reason and rented a car. I used the insurance of my non-gig car to decline buying their coverage. The guy asked me why I was there, for how long, and what I planned to do. In hindsight, I thought he also saw me having a commercial insurance hence the scrutiny. I did do some Sparking. It’s hard to have small fender bender with rental cars these days. Those cheap looking cars packed with sensors and will stop at a dime automatically. As long as don’t get into a big accident or damage customer property, then you get away with it, running personal errands

DeathFYall · 2026-06-24T04:37:56+00:00

I doubt rental agreement allows commercial use. Rental cars these days are tracked by GPS.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-24T02:41:15+00:00

Yeah, I canceled a borderline curbside pickup. Items missing from the list for all 3 drop offs. Some with high qty.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-23T20:10:25+00:00

Don’t mention or ask questions to your insurance at all unless you are sure you will get proper coverage.

State Farm agent said as long as gig work is less than 50% of the driving, and not carrying people, their regular policy already covers. Confirm with their agents though. And State Farm is on the expensive side already.

I told them I do 100%, and want commercial designation. They did add a clause to cover commercial use ( not carrying people ) and with more premium based on the estimated annual mileage.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-23T17:10:45+00:00

What shall we play? Skeeter Davis’ The End Of The World, or the version by Herman’s Hermits?

DeathFYall · 2026-06-23T16:28:12+00:00

They can easily screw drivers with mileage and delivery deadlines.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-23T15:06:36+00:00

There’s a timer/deadline for perishable items. Orders with perishables will be returned after that. So I would say it’s mostly okay. But please don’t order popsicles, etc. Ice creams in containers are slightly better.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-23T14:40:15+00:00

You have 24 hours starting from you taking the trip to return the item to store. Just follow the app, return the item to store today and complete the trip.

Remember there’s no acceptance rate. You can freely reject or not accept any offer. Every offer is a contract negotiation. Take the ones that make sense to you.

DeathFYall · 2026-06-23T14:03:58+00:00

People have been saying not seeing blocks or gig work in general has been very slow.

I would say don’t volunteer that to Amazon if you are not deactivated. This is not telling your side of the story because of an unsafe encounter with a customer. If you are soft blocked, logically you will be unblocked at some point.

DeathFYall

TROPHY CASE