In June this year, we held our bi-annual Delivery Person Advisory Forum in Sydney with 14 Delivery Person Advisors from across Australia to discuss the topics ‘Earnings‘ and ‘Maps & Navigation’.
This was our first forum with the new group of Advisors and we’re very excited to hear from and collaborate with them over the next two years.
To start off the Forum, Advisors told us what they enjoy most about delivering with Uber Eats. Some of the highlights discussed include;
âž” Helping those who need it most and delivering excellent customer service
âž” Being your own boss
âž” The flexibility to deliver on your own time
âž” Having an earnings opportunity outside of usual employment
âž” Learning more about your city and local area
‘Have Your Say’ Survey Results
Thank you to the more than 7,000 Delivery People that shared their views on Earnings and Maps & Navigation via the Have Your Say survey before the first forum. Sharing these insights helped the Advisors to better understand and elaborate on the experiences Delivery People like yourself face in regards to the chosen topics and how we can best work to help improve the experience and alleviate app issues where possible. In Forum 1, the Advisors brought your diverse perspectives to the discussion and helped provide context and real-life examples for the Uber Eats team.
Feedback from the Have Your Say Survey showed that:1
- ➔ The cost of living is increasing and this is felt particularly in fuel prices, maintenance and vehicle insurance.
"Per Kilometer price needs to be reviewed. Fuel price is going up every week. Payment for delivery is not so good. And not enough delivery requests make it worse."
“More money for trips as fuel gets expensive and car maintenance is also expensive”
- ➔ Quests sometimes feel unachievable, with high trip thresholds to complete.
"Sometimes promotions are too hard to crack..."
- ➔ Long wait times at merchants impact Delivery Person earnings and the delivery experience for the customer.
"Some restaurants take lot of time to prepare food even more than 30 minutes which is major wastage of time for delivery to customer"
“Long wait at restaurants kills the momentum and it also impacts the earnings.”
- ➔ Maps are often not correctly updated to reflect new features and construction changes.
"Some restaurants take lot of time to prepare food even more than 30 minutes which is major wastage of time for delivery to customer"
“Long wait at restaurants kills the momentum and it also impacts the earnings.” - ➔ Avenues for reporting mapping issues are lacking and Delivery People would like to raise these issues so that they can be promptly updated.
"I think the maps and navigation generally run very well. My only problem is there’s a glitch in the pinning of one of my local restaurant and I’ve tried reporting it to the support team but they never do anything to change the glitch ie the location of the restaurant on maps"
- ➔ Pick-up and Drop off Pins sometimes contain inaccuracies and make it difficult to find the correct locations at pick up and delivery, sometimes delaying the experience.
"The fact the maps are so inaccurate is an absolute painful process. How do they end up being so wrong? And shopping centres, you have to google where you’re going to get an actual accurate address.”
"More accurate, especially at units and apartments. Usually you arrive at the back of the apartment. Put the map at the building door/entrance not the person”
1 Verbatim feedback has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Forum discussion on Earnings
The results of the Have Your Say Survey helped lay the foundation for the discussion on Earnings during the Forum. Advisors were able to provide real-world examples and bring context to some of the problems faced while delivering and helped to explain how promotions, cost of delivering and long wait times at merchants impact earnings when delivering.
Some of the key pain points and suggestions for improvement included:
- ➔ Quests
Quests are sometimes too difficult to achieve and there are multiple external factors impacting achievability including demand, closing times etc. Advisors also highlighted that this is felt more greatly by those who have been delivering longer. The Advisors suggested that making shorter, quicker Quest promotions that reward smaller trip tiers would feel more achievable and feel worth their time.
- ➔ Upfront estimated earnings
With the introduction of upfront estimated earnings, calculating Boost has become confusing. Advisors suggested retiring Boost and investing in more useful promotions such as daily Quests.
- ➔ Inflation
Inflation has impacted Delivery Person costs like fuel and other vehicle and personal expenses. Advisors explained that they do not feel like current earnings have risen in line with the cost of living and with increasing prices, they do not feel like this is sustainable. Advisors suggested that Uber Eats should look into additional partnerships (potentially via the Uber Eats Pro Program) including vehicle maintenance and insurance to help manage these costs.
- ➔ Wait times
Wait times at merchants can be unpredictable and have many flow on effects including consumer satisfaction and overall earnings for the Delivery Person. Negative consumer feedback due to wait times is often reflected on the Delivery Person when they have no way to impact wait times. Advisors suggested continued education for merchants on best practices and encouraged the Uber Eats team to improve batched order dispatching and penalise merchants with continued excessive wait time.
Maps & Navigation Discussion – Forum
Forum discussion on Maps and Navigation
Additionally, we discussed Maps & Navigation, focusing on reporting of mapping errors and updates and pick up / drop off location issues. Advisors highlighted issues with ongoing city changes and a lack of ability to report updates or errors themselves. Advisors were also able to highlight problems with pick-up and drop off pins, taking up Delivery Person time and increasing the effort required to complete the delivery.
Some of the key pain points and suggestions for improvement included:
- ➔ Maps
Maps suggesting incorrect routes or not updating alongside infrastructure changes such as road closures and changes to permitted turns. Advisors highlighted the need for continued mapping updates to reflect changing road conditions (including temporary ones).
- ➔ Offer cards
Offer cards are not user friendly - the decline button is too small, and clicking anywhere on the offer card accepts which results in accidental accepts. Advisors suggested redesigning the offer card.
- ➔ Report mapping
Advisors also raised that there is no avenue to report mapping and navigation issues in-app. This can include temporary routing issues such as roads being closed due to road work and more permanent updates. Advisors workshopped ideas around ways to report in real-time and suggested that Uber Eats provide a feature in the app to facilitate this safely.
- ➔ Merchant pins
Merchant pins, particularly those located within shopping centres, can often be inaccurate, taking up additional time and effort in locating the actual pick-up location. With the added stress of parking the vehicle, this can be very frustrating and create a negative experience for all parties.
- ➔ Drop off pins
The same issue is reflected in drop off pins, where they occasionally default to the closest location to the consumer (e.g. on the road behind), rather than the correct street address. Advisors suggested that Uber Eats add the requirement that consumers in apartment blocks manually select their pinned location to help reduce inaccuracies at drop off.
Members of the Uber Eats Operations team were present on the day of the Forum to listen to the feedback from Advisors and work to digest this into actionable recommendations. We also had Jaewoo, one of the Maps & Navigation Product Managers from Uber’s Head Office in San Francisco join us for the discussion on the day to gain valuable insights on the pain points and concerns felt by Delivery People.
Since the Forum, we have already begun work on some key changes, focused around the pain points shared on the day and we have already been able to make some tangible improvements. This includes changes to Quest promotions, where we have increased the use of single-day Quests and lowered the maximum trip targets on multi-day Quests, giving you more choice in the days and areas to earn that work best for you.
Closing the Loop: The Pit Stop
We want to thank all the Delivery People that participated in the first forum, from the Advisors who provided their time and perspectives to those who provided their feedback during the ‘Have Your Say’ Survey. These insights contributed greatly to the discussion and helped us better understand the challenges faced and what we can work on to improve the earning experience.
We are working to continue to prioritise the insights heard and there are still lots of exciting updates coming in the next few months and throughout 2023. We are eager to continue finding opportunities to improve the delivery experience and have shared updates on our progress through the recent Pit Stop 🚗, a quarterly newsletter that focuses on the actions we’ve taken to address feedback from you.
Learn more about the Advisory Forums here:
- What are Advisory Forums?
Advisory Forums were introduced in 2021 as a way to foster open discussions and collaboration between Delivery People and the Uber Eats Operations and Leadership teams. The forums will occur twice a year and aim to be a source of insight for the different issues that Delivery People consistently face while delivering with the Uber Driver app.
- How can I participate in future Advisory Forums?
Stay tuned for further communications on how you can share your feedback by filling out the Have Your Say survey or by booking and attending an Open Hours session to speak to one of the Advisors directly on the selected topic(s). There will also be opportunities to apply to be an Advisor in 2025.
Get a ride when you need one
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Get a ride when you need one
Start earning in your city
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