It was just a year ago when Uber purchased Postmates. It was promised at the time that the two companies would continue to operate independently, and that was certainly the case for a while. As the months passed, things started looking not so good for Fleet drivers, and Postmates drivers surely felt the end creeping up on them.
Around the beginning of 2021, the Postmates app would randomly announce that many Postmates orders were now being moved over to Uber Eats. That didn't mean that they all were. There was still orders for Postmates drivers to fill, but it was a warning that Postmates orders would become less and less as time went on. These orders were now going to get delivered by Uber Eats drivers.
In May, Postmates drivers really seen the end coming. The Fleet App would let drivers know that it would probably be a good idea to sign up with Uber Eats. With that said, Postmates Fleet drivers were still able to bypass this message and continue working as they normally would.
Then sometime at the beginning of June, the Postmates Fleet was killed. That's it! No more Postmates drivers on the road picking up and delivering orders. Now, when a Postmater logged into the Fleet app they had no choice but to click on the Uber Eats sign up button. They no longer had access to their Postmates Fleet driver's account.
Is Postmates really officially gone?
As far as Postmates deliveries go, yes, Postmates is no more. As far as the customer app is concerned, it is still working and probably will for a long time. Yes, Postmates customers can still place orders from the Postmates app. The only difference now is that Uber Eats delivery drivers will get the ping and deliver their orders to them.
What does all of this mean to Doordash?
Nothing really. Nothing will change. Doordash will still continue to dominate the food delivery business in the United States. Speaking of Doordash here. We might have to compare this Uber Eats - Postmates thing to Doordash and Caviar. When Doordash purchased Caviar, the Caviar driver app was dropped and all of their drivers had to sign up with Doordash. These days, customers can still place Caviar orders through the Caviar app. The only difference is that now Doordash drivers are getting the ping and making the deliveries.
Will food delivery drivers miss driving for Postmates?
I don't think so. Especially for those that are not in Los Angeles; which for some reason was an area that Postmates dominated. When comparing food delivery apps, most food delivery gig drivers seemed to report that Postmates got them the least amount of calls.
Personally, I wont miss Postmates, but I would rather have them around as it gives more options. To me the more options gig drivers have the better. We should never like any company dominating too much. Monopolies are never a good thing.
Things I liked about driving for Postmates
Postmates was unique in some ways. For example, Postmates Fleet drivers never had to worry about getting a bad rating. The customer's tip basically was basically your rating. Thumbs up or thumbs down and that's it. There was not pressure of having to worry about ratings like most of the other food delivery apps.
I also liked that I was always a top rated driver on Postmates. When Doordash came out with their top rated dasher program, I would sometimes joke with others how every driver on Postmates is a top rated driver. Why? Simply because the main benefit of being a top rated dasher is that you can log on to work anytime you want. Regular dashers have to schedule. With Postmates, all Fleet drivers could log on and work whenever they wanted. That privilege never had to be earned.
The thing I hated most about Postmates Fleet
The absolutely worst thing that any food deliver gig driver could experience came with the Postmates food delivery app. Driver support! Yes, Postmates had the worst driver support imaginable. basically, there was no support, and you were on your own.
Postmates and tipping after the food is delivered
When I first signed up with Postmates in 2017, in my opinion at the time, they were the only ones that did things the right way as far as tips were concerned. Postmates seemed to be the only food delivery app out there that had customers tip after service was rendered. They would tip accordingly based on the service that they were provided by their delivery driver.
Tipping after service was rendered is how most of us grew up, but Doordash and the other food delivery apps were training a new generation a whole different way of tipping. The new generation was learning to tip beforehand; during check out. At the time, this didn't seem like a good thing for drivers. This is especially true if you were around during all of the tip stealing scams that the top food delivery apps were practicing.
With Postmates, Fleet drivers would receive their tips from customers hours or days later. Sure sometimes these Fleet deliveries only paid $3.50 or $4.00 from Postmates pay, but most Postmates customers would leave $5, $10, $20 or more tips which would make the earnings great.
I will say that my opinion about tipping has changed. I'm still old school and understand anybody that believes that tips should come after delivery, and in anything else besides food delivery, I still believe in tipping after. In the long run though, with these food delivery apps, I believe that tipping during checkout is best.
Why? Because the driver will see a higher paying call and be more enticed to accept the call and make the delivery. When a person orders from a food delivery app, the drivers will get a good sense as to whether that customer tipped or not. Those $3 order offers out there that food delivery drivers are getting will be passed around for quite some time. They will know that this customer did not tip.
Drivers are waiting for the tippers. When orders come in for $10 or more, the drivers know that the customer tipped and will accept the call knowing that they will receive an acceptable amount of money for their effort. Most drivers will even accept those $7 or $8 orders which usually has a customer tip attached to it.
All in all, tipping during checkout is great for the customer and the drivers. The customers that tip will generally get great service and the driver will get paid decent. On the other side of the token, a customer that does not tip at all will most likely have a long wait for their food. Tipping during check out is great!
Postmates drivers and transferring over to Uber Eats
Many Postmates drivers will transition over to Uber Eats with no problem, but those that have worked for both companies in the past know that Uber Eats can make things quite difficult for drivers when they want to. Uber Eats will require a bit more information than Postmates did.
After onboarding, Postmates never bugged or pestered their drivers about anything. Once someone joined the Postmates Fleet, they were never asked again about the make and model of their vehicle, registration, auto insurance or anything else like that. As long as they could make the deliveries they were good.
Uber Eats will want copies of all of this. You must have current registration and auto insurance as you should, and you will have to send this information to them. When your registration, auto insurance or even your drivers license is expiring, be prepared to send in new documents to Uber Eats. They will send you a reminder as the time approaches.
Even when you have all of your act together, be prepared to have many documents rejected for no apparent reason. Worse yet, watch out for the Uber Eats random background check. Yep! They periodically do background checks. Just because you past the initial background check during onboarding, you may not pass the next background check.
Let's say that you work for Uber Eats for a year, and during that year you received a ticket for not making a complete stop at a stop sign. You may find yourself failing the next Uber Eats background check and have to watch your Uber Eats account suspended. This is terrible for an individual that is dependent on Uber Eats.
For these people, or any others that had their Uber Eats account suspended in the past, the transfer to Postmates will not be that easy. Uber Eats knows who you are, and they are not just going to forgive about the past suspension because an individual is coming from Postmates. The Postmates drivers will not be able to work for Uber Eats.
Postmates - Good Bye, Adios, Au Revoir, Arrivderci, Paalam, Vaarwel
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