What I usually do after I wait too long is I would press start trip and then cancel so I still get paid. Then put the reason for canceling that the food was never ready. Uber has told me To do this a few times

 

Whaaaa....? That sounds like sketchy advise but I rarely ever wait long enough to try this. Feels like a good way to get deactivated though.

 

The official wait time before cancel is 15 minutes. It used to be 10 minutes.

You’ll have to e-mail uber for the fee though, in my experiences, it has never been automatic.

 

Okay thank you for the replies. What if I just cancel right away if it is not ready? I know I won't get the fee but I'm thinking I could make more money back out on the road versus sitting there waiting.

 

I'd still suggest waiting a minimum of 5 minutes. Sometimes that's all they need, or if it's not ready just ask them how much longer and if it's past 5 minutes tell them that's too long and to request a driver when the food is ACTUALLY ready.

Be sure to empisize the ACTUALLY, hopefully they'll get the hint

 

I'd still suggest waiting a minimum of 5 minutes. Sometimes that's all they need, or if it's not ready just ask them how much longer and if it's past 5 minutes tell them that's too long and to request a driver when the food is ACTUALLY ready.

Be sure to empisize the ACTUALLY, hopefully they'll get the hint

Careful... They can complain and cause issues. I accept UE intending to cancel. Sit more than a cycle at a light? Cancel. Parking inconvenient? Cancel. Restaurant doesn't acknowledge me? Won't give a firm eta? Tell me to sit? Miss an eta? Tell me I need to package self serve food? Cancel. Delivery end... Start timer. Wrong address? Tell me to walk somewhere? I'll send screen shot of "Stay in car" and either pass out the window, have dinner or the next customer gets a bonus. $40 of Thai food free with McDonald's value menu.

I expect to gross $3. I'm also not available to do anything else on 4 platforms once I obtain the product. I'm not putting much thought or effort into it. I'm not tolerating anything other than respect and courtesy. I say nothing when I cancel, just stroll outside.

 

Whaaaa....? That sounds like sketchy advise but I rarely ever wait long enough to try this. Feels like a good way to get deactivated though.

Tempted to on my last day of eats to pick up tons of orders, drive to destination and if pax isn't out waiting start the 5 min timer after no pick up and hope for free food. Maybe I will maybe I wont

 

Does anyone else cancel right away?
Does calling the restaurant ahead of time work?
Should I just wait?

It depends.

If I get a ping from a restaurant that's only two minutes away, I'm okay with waiting for up to five minutes.

However, if I accept a ping from a restaurant that's nine minutes away, then spend another five minutes in the drive through/looking for a place to park/standing in line, and then I'm told that it still isn't ready, I cancel immediately.

I don't see any reason to wait at a pickup location on food for any longer than I would for a passenger. It makes sense to wait on a passenger for five minutes in order to collect the no-show fee, but makes no sense to wait on food for five minutes, because there isn't a not-ready-to-go fee to compensate you for the wasted time/gas etc. Best to just cut/minimize your losses and cancel immediately.

You do have to be judicious about which requests you cancel though. If you cancel too many, you'll end up being deactivated. You'll have to keep track of which restaurants make a habit of not having the order ready upon arrival and just stop accepting their pings.

 

You do have to be judicious about which requests you cancel though. If you cancel too many, you'll end up being deactivated.

My cancelation rate ranges between 60-80. I've never once had a communication from Uber regarding my UE activity.

Opportunity costs matter. UE tipping statistics matter. No pay for 19:59 detected on site waiting time matters. If I'm waiting and get a Lyft ping, I'm gone. I'll even leave for a Postmates order depending my prediction of payout potential.

UE is for easy no hassle, basic move item from a to b service. Uber charges 35% from the restaurant plus $5.99 from the customer and they pay me $3.

I've learned the orders that are the most work and time consuming are close to a 0% tip rate. Doing what I'm doing I am available on other platforms until food in hand so I have next to $0 opportunity cost and the orders I do I'm moving so it's gravy.

If UE decides to change policy and pay better, I'll upgrade to the same service I give Postmates where I'm up to 85% tipping and most tips higher than the delivery fee.

 

All of this is super helpful and I really appreciate it. I'm going out today to do some deliveries on Christmas Eve and I'm going to try the call-ahead method first and then I'm also going to implement the no longer than 5 minutes waiting before I cancel. Merry Christmas to everyone!

 

Let us know how it works out for ya

 

So I went out and made 10 deliveries on Christmas Eve with my new call ahead and 5 minute cancellation policy. I called ahead to let the restaurant know I was on my way. 9 out of 10 we're ready when I got there. The 10th only took 2 minutes. When I called, the restaurants seemed happy to hear I was on my way and it kind of made me feel more proactive.

This will be my method going forward.

 

I am noticing more restaurants clicking "Order Ready" when it's not. Not sure why. I call them on it.

 

just wait half the orders and all mcd's are never ready, if you cancelled them, youll just end up spending more time starting a new order and risk deactivation......

 

Anyone here been deactivated from Eats for too many cancellations?

 

Yep. I don't think they will for just straight cancellations. I did that all the time when the food wasn't ready and I waited 3 minutes. I would put in notes was still at the restaurant. I also took food to leasing office at apartments. But I also would cancel after 3 minutes if I have already called and texted, which I always did, and you don't respond. Go f yourself for that 10-15 minute BS. Everyone is so generous with couriers time that they get for free.

They told me to head down to the greenlight hub and see if I can get reactivated. Not wasting my time. I was barely doing any since they killed all the 1.3 boost areas. Also they did call me 2 weeks before to ask how to get my rates up. Told them to start no fast food and quit trying to get me to drive 5 miles to pick up food. She was really nice and didn't try to pressure but was just looking for info.

 

Keep in mind my strategy is based on my market, my existing status on multiple platforms and my interpretation of the contractor agreement. If any of these things were different, my strategy would be as well.

The Uber acceptance, cancelation and customer satisfaction are completely different. My Uber Eats rating is 100% customer satisfaction. With currently 60% cancel.

 

just wait half the orders and all mcd's are never ready, if you cancelled them, youll just end up spending more time starting a new order and risk deactivation......

... and if you always allow restaurants to waste your time with no compensation, then you're only encouraging them to just continue to waste drivers' time with no compensation. If all drivers did this, then the restaurants have no reason to change their behavior.

My cancelation rate ranges between 60-80. I've never once had a communication from Uber regarding my UE activity.

Okay, thanks for the info. I was assuming Uber would deactivate drivers with too many cancellations.

 

I was chatting with a restaurant owner the other night while waiting for an order to be bagged up. I was asking him how their side of the platform worked on the tablets. He explained to me that once they accept and order that a timer starts. He says that this timer is based on the average time that it generally takes them to prepare an order. He indicated that once the timer runs out that UE summons the driver to the restaurant, whether they have marked the order as being ready or not. I asked him if they mark orders complete before they are truly done and he explained to me that they never do that but that sometimes the timer runs down and the driver is requested before they have a chance to complete and pack the order.

 

I don't think it works this way at every restaurant. Some of them must have an auto-accept feature enabled in their app for all incoming orders. Sometimes I'll walk up to the counter to let them know I'm there to pickup an Uber Eats order and they look surprised. They then go look at their tablet to confirm, and then tell me it's going to take a few minutes.

 

Regarding my observations at restaurants on how they handle UberEats and other delivery platforms. Knowing the restaurant pays approximately 35% of the gross receipts to the platform, they have less control over the customer experience, they have to deal with the platform support to correct issues, handle customer inquiries, and deal with drivers. In many cases participating in the platforms degrades the in house customer experience by task saturating the staff and constant in and out of the drivers creating a more rushed experience, thereby reducing ticket amount.

Many places are running 4 tablets, all with different policies, all have to be manually transferred to the internal order process.

It appears that many restaurants make the typical small business error of seeking higher order quantity and exposure at any cost. If a platform can't prove and guarantee a substantial % of customers would transition to dine in or selling pick-up within 30 days, most restaurants shouldn't bother.

It's the equivalent of Uber and Lyft being busy with 4x everywhere, but you keeping doing base rate pool rides with no quest for riders with 3.7 ratings. You have lots of customers, and your busier than ever. It's not sustainable for the restaurant. It's wonderful for the platforms.

 

I cancel every now and then when a restaurant takes too long. Make sure to hit the "order not ready" button just so its documented (if that button even does anything) before you cancel. There is a McDonalds I go to regularly that used to always take long getting my order ready. I canceled on them once and havent had a long wait since. Prob a coincidence but you have to let them know that your time is valuable too