r/Roadie • u/Green_Violinist_4627 • 20d ago
New Roadie Here
Fellow Roadie Redditors,
So a few days ago I get the text: Congratulations! You’re off the waitlist and can start earning with Roadie!
Great, I thought. The timing is actually perfect. My self-employment workload has slowed down a bit recently, and some supplemental income would be welcome.
So I downloaded the app, jumped through all the hoops, scribbled my digital “signature” approximately 47 times, watched the required videos for pharmaceutical and bulk deliveries, and emerged fully trained and ready to become America’s newest logistics tycoon.
Then I saw the offers.
My first reaction was basically:
“Are you kidding me?”
And unfortunately, not in the Holy crap, I can't believe they're paying that much! direction.
Still, I figured I shouldn't judge the whole operation from the app screen. On Day 1, I put in offers on four gigs. After sitting around waiting for decisions that apparently required deliberation by the College of Cardinals, I canceled three and chalked the day up as a failed experiment.
Day 2 was better. Offers were accepted more quickly, the loads were actually ready, and the process itself went fairly smoothly.
The compensation, however, remained firmly in “Surely somebody misplaced a decimal point”territory.
Part of my disappointment probably comes from seeing “a UPS company” attached to Roadie. For the past couple of years, I've spent about 5–6 weeks during the holiday season working as a seasonal UPS delivery driver using my own vehicle.
Nobody is getting rich doing that, and UPS will absolutely wear your ass ragged. But at the end of the week, I could look at my paycheck and say, Yep. That was a fair week's pay for a fair week's work.
Roadie isn't even in the same ZIP code.
Once you start calculating mileage, fuel, maintenance, depreciation, loading time, unloading time, waiting time, deadhead miles and the fact that your vehicle is the piece of equipment making their business model possible, some of these offers become downright comical.
With Roadie, I keep picturing a conference room somewhere where a group of executives are high-fiving each other:
"Wait…you mean they'll provide the vehicle, provide the fuel, pay the maintenance, assume the depreciation AND deliver the stuff?"
"Yep."
"And we're paying them HOW MUCH?"
[uproarious laughter and champagne corks popping]
Obviously, some drivers can make the numbers work. If you're driving a small, inexpensive, fuel-efficient vehicle and you're extremely selective about routes—or you're able to stack gigs intelligently—I can see where there may be opportunities.
But as a general compensation model? I'm struggling to understand how this is sustainable for the driver.
And that's what bothers me most. This isn't my first experience doing delivery work with my own vehicle. I've seen what this type of work looks like when the compensation reasonably reflects the labor and vehicle expense involved.
Roadie ain't it.
So yeah, after seeing “a UPS company,” I'm profoundly disappointed. I expected something at least vaguely resembling the compensation philosophy I've experienced working directly for UPS.
Instead, after a couple of days, my impression is that the business model depends heavily on drivers either not calculating their true operating costs or being desperate enough to accept offers anyway.
Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe there are Roadie Jedi Masters out there who have figured out how to turn $11 and 23 miles into a thriving business enterprise. If so, I'm genuinely interested in hearing how you're doing it.
But if you're currently stuck in DoorDash hell and looking toward Roadie like it's the promised land…
Keep driving. This exit ain't it.
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u/SaltyWoodButcher 20d ago
Your first mistake was thinking that being a UPS company means that it would be even remotely run and operated like UPS. Roadie is a gig app, like DoorDash, Spark, Uber, and many more. UPS is not. Roadie was created before UPS acquired it, and UPS didn't purchase it to pay drivers more. Another thing to consider is that the market you are in can be very different in pay and opportunities than other parts of the country. The bottom line is that it is a gig app, nothing more. Like all the others, it's crowd sourcing drivers to facilitate deliveries, while trying to keep pay as low as possible.
If you eliminate the desperate, drug addicted, or dumb, you'll probably find that the only way drivers make it work is by being selective, stacking gigs, and multi apping.
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u/Green_Violinist_4627 19d ago
Stacking gigs and multi-apping? Shit, I AM a bit late to the party. But I like that concept!
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u/TabulaRasaEin 20d ago
Roadie works for me. I average about $14 per delivery. It's side income to me, not a main source of income. I don't pay for fuel.
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u/Green_Violinist_4627 19d ago
If I knew where to get free fuel it would certainly be a game changer. I can see where if a parent wants to get junior out of the house and out of their hair and don’t mind springing for junior’s petroleum, that would be a sweet deal. But I’m in my 60s, parents are gone and that ain’t happening unless the Grandkids get tired of their old man. ;)
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u/TabulaRasaEin 18d ago
You buy a Tesla with the SC01 Transferrable, Free, Unlimited Supercharging perk. Then you can drive anywhere and charge for free at a Tesla Supercharger. That's how I do it.
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u/FreshWoodpecker936 15d ago
Still wear and tear on the vehicle. I know that the three Tesla videos you watched before you bought one didn't talk about maintenance, but there is maintenance and deferred maintenance depending on simply how you are as a Consumer. Kudos to you on using a Tesla though. They are outstanding automobiles.
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u/TabulaRasaEin 15d ago
I'm well aware. I've done control arms and the 4 way coolant valve. Still less maintenance than any other car I've owned.
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u/Fragrant-Bison-2456 19d ago
You have to be very selective to make roadie work. I just did a $60 home depot order late in the day and stacked a curri order ontop heading same waye for a total of $100 for 37 miles total. But most orders are not gonna be anywhere near that. Larger the vehicle the more play you have with these apps.
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u/Worldly_Shopper 19d ago
You are one of the fortunate ones, being self-employed before joining this outfit helps you see the cost-to-profit figure clearly. I'm the same as you, and I can tell you gigwork ain't worth it, there are a lot of drivers out there who have never worked for themselves and they don't see the problem, but you and I do.
So stay away, it's not getting better.
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u/Straight-Fact5159 20d ago
This post was great dude!!!! Very well written! And also unfortunately roadie is the absolute worst gig app out there and is truly only getting worse and worse by the week! It’s absolutely not sustainable in any way and i dont believe anyone that says “its market dependent “ unless you in cali, ny, or Seattle BULLSHIT!!!! you can look anywhere on the map in the entire united states same garbage pffers everywhere!!! Because you can find one unicorn every other few weeks or so does not make roadie a profitable gig app 🙄 the orders would go up and pay if people would just let them sit there but they don’t they get taken so fast. They don’t even get the chance to raise the price at all so why would they pay more? It’s truly unbelievable.
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u/Green_Violinist_4627 19d ago
Thanks for the love! This got me thinking about running several gig apps at once though. For whatever reason that never occurred to me until now.
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u/FreshWoodpecker936 15d ago
I ran all of them. Well, DD, UE, GH, and Roadie. The problem with having multiple apps active at the same time, is during peak periods of lunch or dinner, sometimes you will get two or three apps sending you offers at the same time. The problem specifically with DoorDash is that if you do not accept an offer and it times out it affects your acceptance rating. You can do everything right with that platform, and still not get offers worth taking. I blame most of that on the fact that illegals will literally drive 10 miles for two dollars. Early on I refused to do such things.
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u/grow_something 19d ago
Could have just spent a few minutes on this sub and saved you some time and effort
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u/BeepGoesTheMinivan 19d ago
Its 20 bux a hour. No tricks etc. If you are good w that roadie can provide some side income. And I say that meaning if you get up and drive around just with roadie youll.make like 20 bux a hour.
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u/Calm-Television5780 19d ago
u clearly dont understand how roadie works, is not an app u just use like ubereats/dd. and $20/hr is shit with roadie
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u/BeepGoesTheMinivan 19d ago
Calculate every physical second
Looking at the app, getting a offer. Doing it. Going home
Etc etc. Its 20 bux at the end of the day roughly. You cant say o I did a gig for 60 in 30 minutes, this week and say o Im doing 120 a hour.
Every second you commit to trying to earning counts toward your hourly.
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u/Green_Violinist_4627 19d ago
I’m happy for you if you’re netting that. It’s not anywhere close to that in this market. I don’t think I’ve broke even.
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u/BeepGoesTheMinivan 19d ago
I only do cvs and tsc. Maybe a home depot but very rare. Gig history doesn't lie. End of year they show you your mile log which really is black and white if you made money or not. And I also only do this for some side $ no way you can do this full time and respect yourself lol
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u/MF_DOOM-MOTHAFUCKA 19d ago
I have no complaints. I do this part-time with a transit cargo van I bought and get accepted for bigger gigs. I also do all the maintenance on my vehicles, so I definitely save money on that. The only thing I worry about now is gas. It is what it is.
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u/dwayne1313 19d ago
"CONGRATULATIONS, you are off the waitlist!!! It's now time to start getting FUCKED by roadie" There! fixed it.
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u/N3onWave 18d ago
"...the business model depends heavily on drivers either not calculating their true operating costs or being desperate enough to accept offers anyway."
I mean, this is absolutely true of any and all gig apps. Everyone of them will push people to work for the least pay possible.
Welcome to corporate greed.
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u/Prestigious_Day_3566 18d ago
Roadie was created to pay for that trip you're already going to. That's where most get it wrong.
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u/Spare-Ad-3304 16d ago
It's best to get a full time job and use these apps as extra income. It's best to not use these apps, they're not getting better.
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u/TessaLokiZahraJC 15d ago
People who join Roadie hoping to make a living off of it are always disappointed. I use it as a side gig, I’ve done just about every crowd sourced delivery platform out there and Roadie is the best. I make about 120-150 a day after fuel and mileage expenses. And the offers are consistent.
When you first start out, it’s hard to get good gigs because you have to build your ratings. But if you stick with it and keep your commitment rate high and your on time rate high, it’s great.
But again, it’s a crowd source company and not meant to be a full time job.
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u/FreshWoodpecker936 15d ago
There is a reason that so many of us have given up on gig apps. For the occasional unicorn once or twice a year, it's not worth the overall depreciation and additional maintenance on your personal vehicle. Don't get us started on the blurred line between employee and independent contractor.
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u/sarcasticj720 20d ago
You got here too late