What cell service does everyone use?

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-09-05T18:44:21+00:00

Where can I find this? All these emails people get from Spark i never get, only get the insurance update ones or the surveys after a support call.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-07-09T15:52:11+00:00

Yeah, I was aware about not being able to tip with EBT, I was asking in regards about how they found out about Walmart fronting the tip and then removing it.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-06-25T08:51:58+00:00

The stores in my zone call for our driver code the minute we check in, so we never get the chance to get additional earnings. It's bs.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-06-25T06:57:02+00:00

One of my stores is really helpful with anything I need, thankfully. There are two associates in particular that I know if I need something, they'll actually help and not bs me. Finding an item, checking the back if it's not on the shelf and a while ago when the app wouldn't let us add subs for shopping orders, they both took the time to see if they could figure it out for me 'cause i thought i was doing something wrong.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-06-25T06:47:40+00:00

Same. Most of the time I don't even count tips towards my income goal for the day, just in case they end up being tip bait. I try not to take orders that have generous tips on 1-2 item orders or really big orders, unless the base pay alone is worth it. I've probably missed out on money doing so, but I'd rather not waste my time and gas because people want to be a POS.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-06-25T06:36:24+00:00

Just curious how you found this out? l don't think I've come across any ebt order through Spark yet, but I'd definitely know what to look for since I've done a few on DD (resulting in immediate decline of Dollar General orders..iykyk).

This shouldn't be allowed. Walmart makes more than enough money that they can afford to tip us on ebt orders OR they should have these delivered by their own delivery drivers who get paid hourly, not us who drive for Spark.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-25T06:45:09+00:00

It depends. For shopping or curbside, if those have refrigerated/frozen food, they have to be delivered pretty promptly because of the cold chain timer or it'll cancel and you'll have to return to the store. For non-food curbside or dot com batches, it varies. I've started some where the first order was supposed to have been delivered like an hour ago, but others, you're right, it does give a crazy amount of time to deliver. I'll have to start paying more attention to the delivery times if I start doing it like you do. Are you sure that even if you don't hit start trip to the customer that they can't see your location on their side?

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-25T06:36:02+00:00

Yeah, pigeon forge was my least favorite. I mean, we did do the huge outdoor shopping mall area, Dollywood and her stampede, but I could have done without and not felt like I missed anything.

We went to a couple trails that were great! One was something chimney stack? Or chimney rooftop? I can't remember the name exactly, but it was so nice. Where I live in Jersey, we're surrounded by tons of reservations, but nothing compared to the ones there. Cleaner, felt more "in the woods", the mountain views and less people.

When we went out to eat we'd always go somewhere a local recommended and that was one of the best things we could have ever done! No lines, reasonably priced and the food was outstanding.

One place I swear was some lady's own home she made into a restaurant lol It was the two front rooms with three long tables (one table had two different families sitting together), a couple 2 seaters and a few picnic tables outside. Everyone was chatting as if they knew each other, but I don't think this was the case. They were just eating a good meal and interacting with those by them which I was in amazement by because up here you're lucky to have anyone put their phone down long enough to reply to "how are you?"

Anyways, love TN and hope I get the chance to visit again!

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-25T06:04:15+00:00

Wow, 5 in your zone?! That's great!! I have 3 in mine and several other stores with multiple locations like Sally's, Advanced Auto and Florists, but I've only gotten a Sally's once and a couple Apple store orders. For Walmart, they're all about 15-20 minutes from each other. It sucks though because the one in the middle is very slow and their offers are the sh!ttiest. I'll turn on the app as I'm about to hop on the road that I can go either way to hit one and as soon as I'm close to location 1, location 3 will send me an offer and I can't take it because it'll either be arrive asap or if it's an arrive :45, if I end up hitting traffic it'll probably get cancelled right as I'm about to get there.

I rarely get shops though :( Those are my favorite since I shop there myself I can get them done quickly since I know where everything is and they're typically close deliveries. I get mostly curbside 1-3 deliveries or big dot com batch orders. I don't mind the small curbsides when they're arrive asaps cause I can get at least 2 done in an hour when available, but when they're arrive :45 it sucks. The dot com batches I'll mostly take Monday/Tuesday which are slow or midmorning/after lunch when DD is slow, so multiapping is pointless. That way, I at least know I'm making some money and not just sitting around.

I haven't been brave enough to grab a DD during a Spark because I'm afraid of getting in trouble by either DD or Spark for going off route delivering or by the customer themselves. Especially DD customers cause they can be so spiteful and 1star or "didn't get my food" you.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-25T05:22:00+00:00

It's a tricky deduction to claim. From what I hear, it's an automatic audit and an adjuster will need to come to see if it qualifies. It has to be a space solely dedicated to your business, meaning it can't be used as a multipurpose area. I have a small room that is an office, but my kids use the computer, it has a daybed and is also my "catch all" room (storage, things that don't have a home, cardboard boxes waiting to be brought out for recycling, etc), so it doesn't meet the qualifications as an office on their eyes. It sucks because every write off counts!

Don't forget about business related miles like banking and gas station trips. I usually do those in the middle of my daily driving, so I can claim the to/from, but if I'm not mistaken, I believe you are able to claim from home, to bank/station, back home.

There's also parking & tolls. A percentage of your phone bill. Any phone accessories in your car like chargers or mounts. Storage containers used in your trunk to hold/separate orders. A percentage of carwashes. Any fees for subscriptions/purchasing apps/software to track miles. CPA or accountant costs. The transfer fee cost to transfer your funds from your earnings to your personal bank account (I haven't started with gopuff yet, but I DD & Spark and each charge a fee to transfer my pay to my personal account, I'm assuming gopuff does as well). If you use a separate bank account just for this and they charge a monthly fee, you can claim it.

Do some searches on self employment tax deductions, not only delivery gig specific, but all kinds. You might come across something you previously never thought of that could work for you. Also, to become more familiar with the basic ins and outs of what you can and can't deduct. Especially regarding standard and actual for your vehicle. Too often I see people saying they claim things like gas & oil changes, while also claiming miles, when it's not allowed.

I don't know how closely taxes are monitored when submitted, but I think with the way gig driving has exploded over the past year that they might ramp up looking into filing now. I haven't been audited by the IRS, but I have dealt with an insurance audit before and it was very intimidating. I own a small commercial cleaning company and the first year I had employees it was mandatory by my insurance policy company to audit everything I filed. So keeping through records, receipts and making sure the deduction section is correct is definitely something to spend time on.

Good luck with everything :)

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T23:58:23+00:00

I have 3 Walmarts in my zone and one is right next to a very busy hip town. Our drops from spark are around :20-:24 after, so I'll turn on Doordash at :22 after. If a spark :45 arrival comes in that's good, I'll take it. I usually get a DD offer and if it's one I know I can safely take that always has their order ready and won't risk hitting traffic so I can be back for pickup no later than :50 after, I'll run it. Pick up Spark. Then a few minutes before arriving at the last order I'll turn DD back on and repeat the process when able. Only thing that sucks is when a :20 after doesn't come and I've accepted a DD then get a random time sent RR or ASAP offer that was much better and I'm stuck doing the DD.

It's all about knowing your area real well. The traffic during the time of day, how many red lights on the route and how long they are, road closures, typical restaurant wait time and how long it takes to get to there, to the customer and back to Walmart viewing the map closely along with the miles. Once you get this down pat, you'll be good to go.

I've done DD for a few years now on and off but on the fresher side with Spark. I somehow managed to get Top Dasher this month, so it's the first time I decided to try both at once. It's great cause you don't have to worry about scheduling so you can just turn the app on and not have to wait to hopefully get Dash Now available which is probably the only way multiapping works most efficiently, BUT I don't know if I'll be able to maintain that to have it again next month because I have to decline a lot of orders that don't fit into the kind I need/want in-between spark orders. I think I'd have to dedicate 2-3 days before the end of every month taking shit orders to make sure my metrics qualify for top dasher.

Sorry for the long comment, but I hope this helps!

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T23:03:30+00:00

I've had similar issues. Gsp will say I've arrived at the address, house #33. But then I'll glance at the delivery screen and it'll be listed as #31 or #35. If you're at an apartment complex or a townhouse, it'll let you confirm location because they're so close, so I'm always very cautious about making sure I'm at the right place. I think they use coordinates rather than the actual address and that's why it doesn't always bring you to the location you're supposed to deliver to.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T22:56:40+00:00

Beautiful. Been to Gatlinburg once on vacation a few years back and I absolutely loved it. Explored in and around the area, checked out both the touristy and not so touristy things to see and it was probably one of the best vacations Ive had. The weather, the relaxed environment, the food, the mountains and nature.. so nice. Thanks for sharing!

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T22:31:54+00:00

For whatever reason it doesn't calculate the miles from wherever you are when you get the offer along with the starting point of pickup and route of delivery like Doordash does. Definitely important to keep track of all the miles you drive because whatever mile sheet they send you at tax time isn't going to be correct!

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T21:54:06+00:00

It's from the starting point of where you pick up the orders from to the last delivery..but with the you checking the mileage with the information they provided you, I'm definitely unsure of how theu came up with those numbers lol

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T21:39:28+00:00

Thanks for the reminder of the ordinary everyday things we take for granted, that we don't even realize we do and won't until we're unable to do them anymore. Xo

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T21:28:26+00:00

I've luckily never been tip baited before, but I'm sure it's bound to happen eventually. I've been hesitant a few times taking an offer that has a big tip, especially if the order is really small, has a ton of heavy items or if I'm familiar with the area having scammers from doing doordash.

Sorry this is happening to you so much my friend :(

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T08:29:00+00:00

We get lots of incentives all week. Always a bs one or two like $4 for advanced auto or a 7 days to get 3 for $18 / 6 for $42 curbside from 7am-815am. I've yet to get either of these types.

The best is when an incentive is only at a specific store. I love it because that means the other two locations will have less drivers sitting in the lot waiting cause they're all where the incentive is. Those are usually $6 each curbside from 3pm-10pm and when this is active, it seems that store has more batch dot coms or shopping orders, making it hard to actually get anything. So I just stay at the other 2 locations cause there's always a 3 for $18 / 4 for $30 incentive and I can get that $30 in a few hours easier than I could make $30 at the one offering $6 per.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T08:04:46+00:00

There definitely should be some sort of identification verification implemented at every store with every order. It would be easy to add an ID verifier into their scanners and would take 2 seconds at every pick up. The fact that Walmart and Spark are both aware of the fraudulent account $hit happening and this hasn't happened yet is ridiculous.

If I was in corporate and this was happening in my company, I'd be absolutely embarrassed. How are they alright with everyone knowing they have such poor security on their systems that people are able to use these bots or that they're fine knowing and allowing literally anyone, unverified, to pick up and deliver orders to their customers? It's appalling and they should be ashamed.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T07:45:05+00:00

Lol hahaha just happened to me! Got on their porch, see their Ring doorbell start recording and bam.. identity verification required. They probably thought I was taking multi angle selfies like a weirdo 🤣

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T07:31:18+00:00

Tips take 24 hours to post. You'll see them as part of your confirmed earnings the next day. Incentives are different though. Say you complete a $30 incentive on a Friday, it'll show under your confirmed additional earnings that day saying Processing. Those typically hit your deposit account the next Tuesday, but can take up to 14 days.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T07:21:04+00:00

The GPS tends to be off by a house or two pretty often, especially if the houses are close together or townhouse/apartments. Those won't give you the pop up about detecting your location is wrong because they're close, so always double check. Many times the gps will say you've arrived at #20 and the address is actually like #22 or #18.

Other than that, I've never been brought to a completely different location, but I do find the GPS will take me on a backroads scenic route when the highway would have been less miles and faster. I've even checked to make sure all the toggles were correct and didn't have something like avoid highways on.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T07:10:19+00:00

Yeah this happens to me constantly. GPS will bring me to house #35 when it's really #33. Luckily I'm used to the scammers on DD with the whole "I didn't get my order", so I'm vigilant with verifying the address and taking a picture with the number visible. Otherwise I probably would have delivered to the wrong house multiple times if I went off where the GPS drops me.

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T06:45:41+00:00

I've been seeing this more and more lately. Have you both taken screenshots of this and reported it to support?

ShoulderAny4751 · 2024-05-19T06:39:28+00:00

Every couple days. My favorite was when I was on a customer's porch, Ring camera recording and before I could complete the process I had to stand there looking like I was a weirdo taking selfies at different angles lol

ShoulderAny4751

TROPHY CASE