8 ms·

i'm surprised that more gig work delivery folks haven't tried to 'go independent' and become a new sort of personal assistant: select a handful of good clients

i'm surprised that more gig work delivery folks haven't tried to 'go independent' and become a new sort of personal assistant: select a handful of good clients and get them pay a retainer for you to drive around doing their busywork all day. for the driver, consistent pay and the ability to weed out bad clients. for the client, you'd get a trustworthy assistant that should be able to take on a wider range of things that a single app wouldn't do. it may not be as fast as an on-demand delivery apps, but for most things that doesn't really matter.

windowsrookie 2y ago
These are primarily people delivering food orders at lunch time for less than $10. The people paying for these services will not pay what it would cost to have a “personal assistant”. Also they can only deliver so many orders at a time. If all of your clients order lunch around the same time, it’s not possible to deliver in a reasonable amount of time.
- parpfish 2y ago
  most of the folks getting ubereats delivery are not the target demo for being a PA client. but you don't have to be super wealthy for the economics of it to work out. most tech employees make enough that they could pay 10-15 hrs of low wage work every week to do stuff like pick up your laundry/groceries, pick up a food order that you've called in, take stuff to the post office, etc.
  - trumbitta2 2y ago
    most tech employees in SF
    - ryandrake 2y ago
      most very high staff or director+ level tech employees of a handful of top FAANG companies in SF
      - kridsdale1 2y ago
        L7 is where you get servants? Ill keep that in mind.
      - filoleg 2y ago
        I mean, really? An L5 at FAANG is making close to $450-500k/yr in total comp. Let’s assume the minimum wage is $15/hr, and the people doing the tasks get paid $25/hr (on the higher end). With 15 hours of simple errands a week, it comes out to $375/week or $1500/mo. Maybe it is a bit of a stretch for an L5 to spend that much in a month on helping with chores (gotta consider taxes, after all), but it doesn’t seem that wild at all to have $1500 in spending on getting chores taken care of. And it is definitely very doable for an L6. No need to be at L7 to be able to comfortably afford that at all. No need to live in SF for that either. Seattle pays pretty much comparably, no state income tax, a bit cheaper cost of living, and all big FAANG companies have a major presence there. At director level, you would be able to afford much more (been to a director’s house once for a team bbq, and yeah, the gap between director level and L5/L6 is rather large; and it wasn’t a director of one of the higher-paying FAANG-tier companies either).
- jwagenet 2y ago
  For food delivery, I imagine going back to pre-apps and have restaurant employed couriers for local takeout could be beneficial for both parties.
  - rob74 2y ago
    Well, you can also - shock horror - drive (or bike, if possible) over to the restaurant and pick up your order yourself! That's of course assuming that the restaurant has another means of placing orders than through the delivery apps (e.g. a phone number)...
    - nullstyle 2y ago
      [flagged]
    - ebiester 2y ago
      While I personally make 95% of my food, I order delivery when I am so busy that if I don't, I will not eat.
      - reaperducer 2y ago
        While I personally make 95% of my food, I order delivery when I am so busy that if I don't, I will not eat. Sounds like a problem that solves itself. Or at least a wake-up call that you're doing something wrong. Unless you're safeguarding nuclear launch codes, there's no such thing as "too busy to eat." It's just people trying to make themselves and others think they're important. Guess what? You're not. The actually important people do eat. It's their lackies who pretend they're too busy to do the same. Yes, I've owned my own company. Yes, it required extensive complicated international travel. It's still true. If you can't plan meal breaks, you can't plan. And even the nuclear launch people get lunch.
        InsideOutSanta 2y ago
        "Important people" eat because they can afford to pay people to make eating convenient for them. "Unimportant people" are busy because they have to actually work to pay their bills and do their laundry and dishes and clean their homes and take out the trash and do all the stuff that "important people" magically don't have to do, because "unimportant people" do it for them.
dacryn 2y ago
big companies care more about how easy it is to automate the labels, the accounting, the scheduling, ... Saving 2 euro per delivery but requiring a few hour of human effort is typically not worth it
darreninthenet 2y ago
My (wealthy) father in law does this, he has a handful of people he can call upon day or night to do whatever he needs, anything from pick something up two hours away to put some additional overnight security on one of his sites/properties... most of them are ex-military Eastern European. I've no idea how he compensates them but they seem happy with him and stick around, and the couple I've spoken to over the years seem nice enough. To be honest I wouldn't want to know more details, he's a dodgy fuck
- ruined 2y ago
  this sounds like the kind of thing you shouldn't post on the internet :)
- MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
  Some years ago, I met a guy at a bar in New York who said that he was Donald Trump's personal courier. He rode a bike around the city, and he'd deliver things to Trump in person, who would always give him at least $100 cash on the spot. I didn't believe the guy's story, and it offended him. Maybe he was telling the truth.
  - korse 2y ago
    This is not unbelievable. I don't even live in a coastal city and I still know a handful of active couriers. They're faster than drivers in congested areas and pretty much get a pass on all traffic control/regulation if they don't truly endanger pedestrians. Not to mention that they don't need parking, can carry their vehicles up stairs and into buildings etc. Plenty of people know these guys exist and having someone known to you and reliable on speed dial is worthwhile. The $100 also makes sense because it isn't just a tip, it is the 'retainer' to make sure the calls get maximum priority.
    - dfxm12 2y ago
      Trump paying the courier is what makes the story unbelievable, tbh. Further, if we take this story at face value, a "personal" courier, by definition, has no other clients to prioritize.
InDubioProRubio 2y ago
Could even make an app for that.
pavel_lishin 2y ago
> i'm surprised that more gig work delivery folks haven't tried to 'go independent' and become a new sort of personal assistant: select a handful of good clients and get them pay a retainer for you to drive around doing their busywork all day. I think you might be over-estimating how much of a personal connection gig work delivery drivers have with the people they deliver to. How many do you recognize? How many do you even know the names of? I'm not even sure if I've ever had a repeat delivery person, except from one restaurant that does delivery in-house instead of farming it out to one of the services.
- parpfish 2y ago
  they don't have connections to them because they're still gig workers going through the app. but all they need to do to start those relationships would be to drop off a business card if doordash/ubereats/etc sent them to somebody that seemed pleasant/tipped well/etc. then network effects from their as they recommend among their (presumably wealth) friends
robertlagrant 2y ago
UpWork would let people do this today.
btilly 2y ago
It depends on the gig. Attempts to farm out housecleaning as a gig fail in exactly that way - people find the cleaner they want, and they arrange to make it permanent. Making the gig app as a discovery mechanism. That's why none of the attempts at making housecleaning part of the gig economy have succeeded.
- reaperducer 2y ago
  It depends on the gig. Attempts to farm out housecleaning as a gig fail in exactly that way - people find the cleaner they want, and they arrange to make it permanent. That used to be considered a success, not a failure. When agencies like Kelly place someone in a position like that, the person is required to work for Kelly for x number of months/years. Once that obligation is complete, they are free to jump to working directly with the Kelly client. Been there. Done that. This is a solved problem. And solved a hundred years ago.
  - btilly 2y ago
    Part of that solution is to either sell a cleaning service that people only use occasionally, like deep cleaning of your floors, or to lock the client in to a contract that allows you to detect those private deals. But the basic, "I'd like someone to clean my house once a week" doesn't work so well. People sometimes stop the cleaning after a bad experience. And sometimes hire the cleaner after a good one. And from the company's point of view, those look exactly the same. Customers will refuse 6 month contracts, and so there is no real recourse.
emchammer 2y ago
Don't get on Uncle Enzo's bad side though.
freejazz 2y ago
> select a handful of good clients Probably because the gig worker's client is Doordash, not the individuals ordering delivery, to which they have little to no contact and most likely wont ever see them again. As a delivery-orderer in NYC, I cannot recall ever having the same delivery person more than once, let alone so often that we developed a client-relationship.
bongodongobob 2y ago
That's already a thing, it's a just a normal courier service.

windowsrookie 2y ago

These are primarily people delivering food orders at lunch time for less than $10. The people paying for these services will not pay what it would cost to have a “personal assistant”. Also they can only deliver so many orders at a time. If all of your clients order lunch around the same time, it’s not possible to deliver in a reasonable amount of time.

parpfish 2y ago
most of the folks getting ubereats delivery are not the target demo for being a PA client. but you don't have to be super wealthy for the economics of it to work out. most tech employees make enough that they could pay 10-15 hrs of low wage work every week to do stuff like pick up your laundry/groceries, pick up a food order that you've called in, take stuff to the post office, etc.
- trumbitta2 2y ago
  most tech employees in SF
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    most very high staff or director+ level tech employees of a handful of top FAANG companies in SF
    - kridsdale1 2y ago
      L7 is where you get servants? Ill keep that in mind.
    - filoleg 2y ago
      I mean, really? An L5 at FAANG is making close to $450-500k/yr in total comp. Let’s assume the minimum wage is $15/hr, and the people doing the tasks get paid $25/hr (on the higher end). With 15 hours of simple errands a week, it comes out to $375/week or $1500/mo. Maybe it is a bit of a stretch for an L5 to spend that much in a month on helping with chores (gotta consider taxes, after all), but it doesn’t seem that wild at all to have $1500 in spending on getting chores taken care of. And it is definitely very doable for an L6. No need to be at L7 to be able to comfortably afford that at all. No need to live in SF for that either. Seattle pays pretty much comparably, no state income tax, a bit cheaper cost of living, and all big FAANG companies have a major presence there. At director level, you would be able to afford much more (been to a director’s house once for a team bbq, and yeah, the gap between director level and L5/L6 is rather large; and it wasn’t a director of one of the higher-paying FAANG-tier companies either).
jwagenet 2y ago
For food delivery, I imagine going back to pre-apps and have restaurant employed couriers for local takeout could be beneficial for both parties.
- rob74 2y ago
  Well, you can also - shock horror - drive (or bike, if possible) over to the restaurant and pick up your order yourself! That's of course assuming that the restaurant has another means of placing orders than through the delivery apps (e.g. a phone number)...
  - nullstyle 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - ebiester 2y ago
    While I personally make 95% of my food, I order delivery when I am so busy that if I don't, I will not eat.
    - reaperducer 2y ago
      While I personally make 95% of my food, I order delivery when I am so busy that if I don't, I will not eat. Sounds like a problem that solves itself. Or at least a wake-up call that you're doing something wrong. Unless you're safeguarding nuclear launch codes, there's no such thing as "too busy to eat." It's just people trying to make themselves and others think they're important. Guess what? You're not. The actually important people do eat. It's their lackies who pretend they're too busy to do the same. Yes, I've owned my own company. Yes, it required extensive complicated international travel. It's still true. If you can't plan meal breaks, you can't plan. And even the nuclear launch people get lunch.
      - InsideOutSanta 2y ago
        "Important people" eat because they can afford to pay people to make eating convenient for them. "Unimportant people" are busy because they have to actually work to pay their bills and do their laundry and dishes and clean their homes and take out the trash and do all the stuff that "important people" magically don't have to do, because "unimportant people" do it for them.

dacryn 2y ago

big companies care more about how easy it is to automate the labels, the accounting, the scheduling, ... Saving 2 euro per delivery but requiring a few hour of human effort is typically not worth it

darreninthenet 2y ago

My (wealthy) father in law does this, he has a handful of people he can call upon day or night to do whatever he needs, anything from pick something up two hours away to put some additional overnight security on one of his sites/properties... most of them are ex-military Eastern European. I've no idea how he compensates them but they seem happy with him and stick around, and the couple I've spoken to over the years seem nice enough. To be honest I wouldn't want to know more details, he's a dodgy fuck

ruined 2y ago
this sounds like the kind of thing you shouldn't post on the internet :)
MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
Some years ago, I met a guy at a bar in New York who said that he was Donald Trump's personal courier. He rode a bike around the city, and he'd deliver things to Trump in person, who would always give him at least $100 cash on the spot. I didn't believe the guy's story, and it offended him. Maybe he was telling the truth.
- korse 2y ago
  This is not unbelievable. I don't even live in a coastal city and I still know a handful of active couriers. They're faster than drivers in congested areas and pretty much get a pass on all traffic control/regulation if they don't truly endanger pedestrians. Not to mention that they don't need parking, can carry their vehicles up stairs and into buildings etc. Plenty of people know these guys exist and having someone known to you and reliable on speed dial is worthwhile. The $100 also makes sense because it isn't just a tip, it is the 'retainer' to make sure the calls get maximum priority.
  - dfxm12 2y ago
    Trump paying the courier is what makes the story unbelievable, tbh. Further, if we take this story at face value, a "personal" courier, by definition, has no other clients to prioritize.

InDubioProRubio 2y ago

Could even make an app for that.

pavel_lishin 2y ago

> i'm surprised that more gig work delivery folks haven't tried to 'go independent' and become a new sort of personal assistant: select a handful of good clients and get them pay a retainer for you to drive around doing their busywork all day. I think you might be over-estimating how much of a personal connection gig work delivery drivers have with the people they deliver to. How many do you recognize? How many do you even know the names of? I'm not even sure if I've ever had a repeat delivery person, except from one restaurant that does delivery in-house instead of farming it out to one of the services.

parpfish 2y ago
they don't have connections to them because they're still gig workers going through the app. but all they need to do to start those relationships would be to drop off a business card if doordash/ubereats/etc sent them to somebody that seemed pleasant/tipped well/etc. then network effects from their as they recommend among their (presumably wealth) friends

robertlagrant 2y ago

UpWork would let people do this today.

btilly 2y ago

It depends on the gig. Attempts to farm out housecleaning as a gig fail in exactly that way - people find the cleaner they want, and they arrange to make it permanent. Making the gig app as a discovery mechanism. That's why none of the attempts at making housecleaning part of the gig economy have succeeded.

reaperducer 2y ago
It depends on the gig. Attempts to farm out housecleaning as a gig fail in exactly that way - people find the cleaner they want, and they arrange to make it permanent. That used to be considered a success, not a failure. When agencies like Kelly place someone in a position like that, the person is required to work for Kelly for x number of months/years. Once that obligation is complete, they are free to jump to working directly with the Kelly client. Been there. Done that. This is a solved problem. And solved a hundred years ago.
- btilly 2y ago
  Part of that solution is to either sell a cleaning service that people only use occasionally, like deep cleaning of your floors, or to lock the client in to a contract that allows you to detect those private deals. But the basic, "I'd like someone to clean my house once a week" doesn't work so well. People sometimes stop the cleaning after a bad experience. And sometimes hire the cleaner after a good one. And from the company's point of view, those look exactly the same. Customers will refuse 6 month contracts, and so there is no real recourse.

emchammer 2y ago

Don't get on Uncle Enzo's bad side though.

freejazz 2y ago

> select a handful of good clients Probably because the gig worker's client is Doordash, not the individuals ordering delivery, to which they have little to no contact and most likely wont ever see them again. As a delivery-orderer in NYC, I cannot recall ever having the same delivery person more than once, let alone so often that we developed a client-relationship.

bongodongobob 2y ago

That's already a thing, it's a just a normal courier service.