So #today I made the rather bizarre decision to jettison my scheduled package route that would've paid up to $150 for an on demand $50 order.
This was a gamble, I mean I could wind up with $50 and nothing for the return trip, but I got lucky. It started with this one, fifteen gallons of paint down to Crystal City, somewhere me and @Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe had been to tour the caves down there, but that's about all we did down there, so I figured this'd be a more fun to do than my usual package route.
After that, we did start heading home, only to score a decent gig in Arnold at WalMart. Cool, but we still have a long drive home, right? Best Buy stepped up with a route ending about two miles past my home.
Yeah, that worked well, a wandering route home that in the end paid $115 for 116 miles. Usually you have enough wasted miles that you don't get anything near $1/mi, but there we go, almost spot on.

Yep, fun work, good money, and there's still plenty of time to do more. Today was a good day.

#work #gig #driving

So, #today was a good day, first part was actually pretty great. Decent weather, 19/43°F today, bit cold in þe morn obviously, but considering þat we went from 16/59 on Wed to 14/26 yesterday, definitely a much nicer day. Heck, yesterday I had to break out my old Þermal overalls from when I used to ride a scooter between Florissant and Maryland Heights, MO.

Þe day started wiþ a small run from the Dispatch app, $10.50 for 10 miles. Sure, a little light on pay, dollar a mile is my minimum after all, but it ended me on Dorsett down the street from Tony's, a donut shop where I like to grab a gyro, egg & cheese on an asiago bagel, so that's fine.

My main gig, Better Trucks, had delayed þe start from 9 (realistically more often 9.30) to 10.30, so I swung by þe credit union to take care of closing an account. On the way I noticed a CVS order on Roadie that looked pretty good, and surprisingly when I got out, not only was þat one still þere, but it was joined by anoþer order on þe way to it. Shockingly I got boþ, $6.80 for one, $6.40 for þe oþer, and a mere 3 miles of driving. Yes please.

From þere it was a quick trip home for a half hour of charging while trying to get two more email changes sorted out. After þat, off to þe usual gig, and a typical if'n slightly smaller package route, my night vision sucks these days, normal for my age, so I wanted to avoid being out much after dark.

I guess þat brings up þe car, my 2020 Chevy Bolt. Only real negatives are þat it's an LT, so base model, lacking features like heated steering wheel, and heated seats, boþ of which would likely help keep me warm without as much impact on þe battery. Speaking of battery, since it's one of þe battery fire years, it's in 80% jail, so my range is a bit more limited þan normal. Still, despite þat, it works fine for þe job. Sure, gotta charge a bit extra, but þat's just a winter þing... Maybe summer too, we'll see, not sure how much AC drains þe battery.

#gig #work #driving #food #STL #stlouis #mo #missouri #chevybolt

So, been chatting with @Range Bear 🔜 MFF about gig work, and figured it was a good time to put up a few details about what the options are out there, and there are a fair number.

When you say gig work, most people think DoorDash, which isn't surprising considering the amount of marketing they do, however there's a lot more, basically you can deliver people, packages or food.

People
Uber and Lyft are the best known, though if'n you look around you might find something local or regional in your area. I believer there's also companies dipping their toe into child transport and/or non-emergency medical transport as well.

Food
Like I noted, we all know DoorDash, UberEats is about as well known, and then there's GrubHub, but once again, look around for regionals which is often easier with food as companies put up signs, stickers and other marketing at restaurants they serve. There's also GoPuff which is sort of a virtual convenience store

Packages
Now here's my niche, and the biggest problem here is that nationwide companies are rare, I primarily work for Better Trucks, but they're based in Chicago and have about two dozen warehouses, so less than half the country covered. Like them, Jitsu and Veho do package routes, and nationwide there's of course Amazon Flex. And that's assuming you want route work, if'n you want packages on demand, there's more, DropOff, Roadie, Dispatch, GoShare, Senpex, Frayt and Courial off the top of my head. They all work much DoorDash, offering the order to the nearest driver, but they also list the unclaimed orders on the app.

How does package route stuff work? Well, it varies from company to company, but except for Flex, typically you pick your work days ahead of time, go to the warehouse, and pick up your load. In the case of BT and my warehouse, as I'm not sure all warehouses do things the same, I show up, tell them where I'd like to work, how long, and what I'm driving, and they try to accommodate as many of those as they can. I'm only familiar with BT and Flex, and with Flex, you show up, check in, and it gives you a route. No offer, take it or leave it, and the only things you know ahead of time is how long it should take, and what it'll pay, where is random and can be far if you're working out of a Flex aka Same Day warehouse as opposed to a standard delivery warehouse, which is where you'll usually be working. And that's about it, the software will guide you stop by stop, and you go home when done. Pay is usually lower than the on demand work, but you're trading pay for guaranteed income, so you have to decide which is better for you.

#gig #income #work #drive

So, here we are, still not working as they try to get the truck fixed, well into the second week, joy. Oh well, we're planning on replacing it any how, should've done that months ago, but like always, been dragging my heels on it.

Plan was to sell it and buy something that would leave a couple thousand in the company bank account, and that something not being a super nice vehicle since the job is hard on it. I had my eye on a Caravan, but after today, I might need to see if'n I can stretch the budget to afford a Chevy Bolt.

I drove @Vik-Thor / Lirleni Hankeshe 's car home, big event going on at the office, so he figured it'd be better if'n he didn't take up a parking space. So, minimum range, 71 miles. Drive home via I-64, Lindbergh and a side run to Wendy's for breakfast, 21 miles. Range when getting home? 60 miles. Thanks to rush hour traffic and the route I used, this was very similar to what kind of driving I do for work, and this is with me being less than smooth as I don't often drive the Bolt, so with time I could do better. Let's see, no more gas, minimal repairs (and Crosstrek repairs are expensive and parts are often special order), yes please. Heck, I think I could get as much as 300 miles out of a Bolt, even though it's rated at 250 or so. Yeah, this might be worth doing.

#bolt #chevy #electriccar #work #gig #driving