When you work as a delivery driver, you have the freedom to set your own hours, choose what days you want to work, and change the amount you work depending on your own needs. Being independent comes with a lot of perks. However, it also means that you are responsible for your own vehicle upkeep, insurance, and gas. This makes it imperative that you look for ways to increase what you earn without taking on an excessive amount of work.
One of the ways you can optimize your work is by being intentional about what deliveries you commit to completing. In this guide, we’ll take a look at why you need the freedom to accept or decline deliveries without penalty and how this can benefit your driving strategy overall.
To Maximize Profits
Every time you open up an app and start accepting delivery jobs, you have one goal—to make your work profitable. It is important to look at your work the same way you would view running any other business. You are not an employee of the driving platform, which means you should have the freedom to make your business day as profitable for yourself as possible.
When you are penalized for not accepting specific deliveries, it can be more challenging to ensure every delivery you accept is profitable.
Conversely, when you have the freedom to pick and choose which delivery matches your needs, you can focus on increasing your earnings. The following are key ways to make more money by not accepting every single delivery offer that comes your way:
- Focus on a specific geographic area: When you stretch yourself too thin, you can wind up driving too many miles to deliver small orders. By focusing on a specific area that you know well, you can work faster and spend less money on gas and less time stuck in traffic. This frees you up to accept more jobs in the same area, earning you higher profits during the same period of time.
- Accept higher-paying jobs: The reality is that not all delivery jobs pay the same. Being able to reject low-paying jobs or jobs that will take you too far out of your driving range allows you to focus on the best paying gigs.
- Line up jobs at a steady, manageable rate: When you are forced to accept every single job that is offered to you, it can be hard to keep up. This can cause you to miss delivery deadlines, leading to penalties or a loss in tips. Accepting the right jobs makes it possible for you to have a steady flow of work that you know you can handle.
To Be Efficient
Lining up jobs that will allow you to transition easily from one to the next is key to operating efficiently as a delivery driver. Doing so requires the ability to reject offers that will not match up with your outlined plan.
For example, if you accept a delivery and another offer pops up on your app that is nearby with a similar delivery destination, it will make sense to accept both jobs and complete them in an efficient manner. However, if a job pops up across town, it will be highly inefficient to attempt to complete both jobs simultaneously.
Additionally, many jobs have other considerations beyond just their physical location. For example, if a job requires you to keep something hot or cold for a specific period of time and you don’t have the right equipment on hand, this job won’t be an optimal choice for you.
Keeping your workflow efficient means choosing the jobs that best fit your specific situation and your plan for the workday.
To Deliver for Quality Merchants
As you get to know the area in which you commonly handle deliveries, you’ll probably also learn which merchants in the area deliver the highest quality orders. Working with merchants that deliver consistent quality is highly beneficial.
For starters, if you notice that a particular restaurant or business crafts high-quality food or products, you will probably also realize that they have happier customers. This, in turn, can lead you to earn higher tips due to the quality of the orders you deliver.
Similarly, you might notice that certain merchants in your area have well-trained and responsible staff members. These employees never miss a beat, and the result is that when you deliver an order, everything a customer expects to be there is. This, too, can lead you to earn higher tips.
On the flip side, if you have to accept every offer sent your way, you might be forced to deliver for a merchant that falls below customer expectations. Through no fault of your own, this might cause unhappy customers to take out their frustration on you, leaving you with a poor tip.
To Meet Customer Expectations
One of the best ways to increase the amount of money you make on each delivery is to earn a higher tip. While you can never guarantee that a customer will tip you well, when you meet their delivery speed expectations, you increase the likelihood of a higher tip.
By accepting and rejecting jobs according to your capabilities, you can better meet customer expectations, earning you better compensation. Over time, this can also allow you to establish quality relationships with repeat customers. As a customer gets to know you and sees that you consistently deliver on time, or possibly even faster than they expected, you can increase the amount you make each time you work.
To Be Independent
At the end of the day, you should have the freedom to accept or decline deliveries because you are not an employee. One of the best things about being independent is the ability to make your work what you want. Rather than feeling obligated to accept all deliveries, you should feel empowered to pick the orders that you enjoy and will make you the most profit.
The moment a platform or app begins to take away your independence, it is time to step away. Think about it like this: you give up on benefits that employees receive in exchange ultimate freedom in your work. If you don’t have that perk, it isn’t worth the trade-off.
Join Ally Today
Ally is a software company that believes in empowering drivers with ultimate flexibility. We never penalize drivers for rejecting deliveries, allowing you the freedom to choose what work meets your needs and provides you the highest profits possible.
Not only that, but with Ally’s driver-focused mobile application, you can connect directly to the source of orders: businesses and their customers.
Say goodbye to gatekeeping middlemen who charge you high commissions and cut into your earnings. Unlike most delivery platforms, Ally is simply a payment processor. You keep 100% of driver fees and tips, and the use of the platform is free until you earn at least $1,000 in a given month. At that point, you only pay a flat rate fee rather than commissions on your work. Join Ally’s delivery platform today and take control of your work.
Looking for more ideas for increasing your earnings? Check out our recent guide: Top 10 Tips for Delivery Drivers.