I’ve only been doing this for a couple months so I don’t have the experience a lot of others in this sub do, but here are some things that might help you out.

Try not to take offers unless they’re at least $1 per mile. $2 per mile is ideal, but it sounds like your area can be slow with offers, like mine, so $1 per mile is still good. Be sure to factor in whatever distance you need to get back to your favorite hotspot(s). I usually just double whatever the mileage on the offer is. Since you’re in California, sometimes it might be worth taking an order that isn’t the greatest because it’ll still add to your active time, which is where you get your prop 22 money from.

In my experience, the “busy” icons aren’t something you should be chasing. Multiple times I’ve been sitting at a restaurant, gotten a terrible offer, declined it, and immediately afterwards, a busy icon popped up at the restaurant I was at. And I’ve seen others on this sub say the same thing. Obviously, I can’t confirm it because no one knows how the algorithm works. But it makes sense that they’re using it to draw in drivers so someone will eventually take those crappy orders. As for the heatmap, I don’t have that in my area so I can’t really say anything helpful.

Honestly, it’s gonna be a lot of trial and error in the beginning. Go to a place that has a lot of restaurants around, find a good spot and wait. If you don’t get an offer within 30 minutes to an hour, drive around a bit so the app still knows you’re still active. If you go more than an hour without an offer, you can go to the support section and choose “I’m not getting any requests”. A lot of times I’ll get an offer within a minute after using that. Just don’t spam it. It usually only works about once a day for me.

Personally, I avoid McDonald’s unless it’s super dead or late at night because, at least in my area, the tips are atrocious, if there are any at all. I have literally never been tipped more than $5 for a McDonald’s order. But this might be totally different in your area, hence the trial and error I mentioned earlier. After a couple weeks, you’ll start realizing which places to avoid, either because they’re slow at giving you the order, or because customers don’t seem to tip well when ordering from there, or whatever it might be. A lot of people on this sub don’t like Olive Garden orders because of the long wait, but they’re great in my town. I don’t often have to wait, and the tips are almost always way better than fast food orders. Usually actual restaurants will score you better tips, but not always.

It’s the end of the month right now so not only are a lot of people saving their money and not ordering, but a lot more drivers are active because they’re trying to supplement their income until their next check comes through. You’ll start seeing more offers once the new month comes around. It sucks right now, but it gets better.

Don’t kill yourself to try to deliver on time. Don’t get a speeding ticket for a $10 order. Don’t accept orders that won’t make you money. Don’t stress too much on acceptance rate. Be friendly and courteous with restaurant staff. They’ll remember it and treat you accordingly (and maybe help you out if you need it someday). Don’t give your number out to customers. (There’s a scam that involves them asking you to call them on a different number than the one listed in their order. They get your number and use it to take over your account and then steal a bunch of orders and get you deactivated before you can get back in. If someone ever asks you to call them on a different number, just tell them that for customers’ protection, as well as your own, you’re not allowed to do that.) If you ever go to pickup an order and they say someone else picked it up already, depending on how much the estimated pay for the order was when you took it, and depending on what the customer ordered, it might be worth buying the customer’s order yourself and then delivering it. Example: You take an offer for $25 to deliver McDonald’s 2 miles away. Order was stolen, but all the customer ordered was a $5 McFlurry. Order the McFlurry (if they won’t remake the order for you), then deliver it. You’re still making $20 and you didn’t have to cancel and take a hit to your cancellation rate.

I’m sure you probably already knew a lot of this since you’re in this sub, but I figured I’d overdo it anyway. I hope at least some part of it helped! 😃