Something a bit different this week! I worked last night for a standard three-hour shift and recorded the when and where of my delivery routes.
Walking around London you’re bound to see delivery riders, but you often don’t know where they’re going and where they’ve been. Whilst I worked, I had the app Strava running in the background to record my location and speed throughout the night. This post is all about that shift, with a visual element too.
Before we delve into where I went, some basic shift stats are in order. It was a standard three-hour shift on a Saturday evening, where I delivered 7 orders. Saturday is usually quieter than Friday or Sunday. My average number of deliveries for a Saturday three-hour shift is 6.75 so slightly above average yesterday. However, I earned less under the ‘fee per drop’ system than if I’d been working under the ‘hourly’ pay structure (£26.25 vs. £28). No tips last night, either.
Here’s a quick video of the route I took over the entire shift, sped up 340x. Over the three-hours, I travelled 15.8 miles and climbed over 1,000 feet in elevation. My average speed was 9 miles per hour (mph), with the max reaching 21.7 mph. If I could consistently cycle at 22 mph that’d be some quick deliveries for customers and very quick money for me!
As the video shows, it’s very common to cycle through the centre of the zone repeatedly. This was particularly true last night, as I had no deliveries in the east of the zone around Clerkenwell. Normally a shift is more spread out, including deliveries around Euston, the Barbican and out to St Paul’s.
Interestingly, for a three hour shift, my total moving time was one hour 45 minutes. It’s not clear whether Strava counts walking through an apartment complex as moving or waiting. Therefore, yesterday I was cycling for 58% of the shift, with the other 42% comprised of waiting at the zone centre, at restaurants, and navigating flats and houses. There was a particularly long wait towards the end of my shift (beginning at 0:28 in the video). Normally, waiting for food at a restaurant takes one to three minutes so to be waiting for around 15 is rare.
The shift itself was somewhat different from a Saturday night shift. It wasn’t slow to the extent I thought of going home but it took longer for orders. I did find myself waiting at the zone centre, as you can see in the video at 0:17, 0:23 and 0:27. What was particularly interesting, however, was that no one else was waiting there. Usually, there’s at least three other riders waiting for an order. Demand for riders as shown on the app was considered ‘normal’ so the slight waiting is to be expected. However, riders received an email saying the Bank Holiday weekend should mean increased demand. Also, the Mayweather-McGregor boxing fight meant I expected more deliveries than there were.
I’d expect to cycle for longer and more widely in a normal shift. In the future, I’ll be sure to record where I’m going on a Friday or Sunday and then compare. Look out for that post in the future!
The Delivery Gig 