Summer holidays pt 1
It’s now the six week summer holiday, which means it’s time for me to go full-time with the Uber delivery service again. Between Easter and the summer, I’d been doing deliveries in the evenings and on weekends, whenever I had a free moment. Typically, I’d be out delivering from 17:00 to 20:30 each evening, earning an average of £20 to £40 per session. Of course, some nights it’s less, some it’s more, just like trying to guess the weather here, you never really know what you’re going to get! Over the past few months, I’ve started to know my town’s streets like the back of my hand, which means I’m getting pretty good at picking and choosing my deliveries.
When I first started working for the delivery service, I was worried that turning down orders would be like saying no to a free drink at the pub, you feel like you might not get offered one again, but I’ve since learned that cancelling an order doesn’t always mean the end of the world. Sure, it might knock your chances a bit of getting another order straight away, but it’s not the end of the line either.
I’ve also built up a decent rapport with the pickup points, which means I don’t spend my life standing about. They even sometimes offer me drinks or food, which I’m not going to turn down. Chatting with the other delivery drivers has been a big help too. We swap tips and tricks, like which restaurants to avoid if they’re taking longer than a Sunday drive and trust me, some places are slower than others. If you notice a pattern of long wait times, it’s best to skip them. After all, you’re paid per delivery, not per "watching the sea dry up" session.
Now, the summer holidays. The first week was busier than a coffee shop on a Monday morning, with orders flooding in from the moment I started in the morning until I finished in the evening. I was making around £150 to £200 a day, nothing to sneeze at. But I’ll tell you, that kind of earning requires peak fitness. I was out from 08:00 until 21:00, taking breaks for meals and to charge my gear. Cycling all day long sounds exhausting, but honestly, it was great fun. Biking around, listening to podcasts, and delivering food? I honestly couldn’t believe I was getting paid for it.
Week two followed a similar pattern, but I made the rookie mistake of accepting an order that took me out of town. It paid £17 and was estimated to take 35 minutes, so I thought, "Why not?" Off I went to a nearby village with a McDonald’s. The trip was lovely, and with my shiny new official Uber bag (which, by the way, is worth its weight in gold), I knew the food would stay hot and the drinks wouldn’t end up all over the place. Delivered the meal, and got a £5.20 tip, bringing my total to £22.20. Not bad for a short trip.
But then, disaster struck. On the way back, I got my first flat tyre. I blame the dodgy roads, felt like cycling through a field of potholes. There I was, sitting at the side of the road, changing an inner tube. If there’s one thing I’ve learned the hard way, it’s this: always carry spare inner tubes. Don’t even bother trying to patch it up. It’s faster to replace the tube and get back to delivering than spend ages trying to fix it.
By the second week of deliveries, I still had plenty of energy (and my legs hadn’t turned to jelly yet). The weather was lovely, and I couldn’t complain. Cycling in the warm sun, feeling like I was part of the town, I was in my element. I even started to notice people waving at me or offering drinks and snacks. If I had known how many freebies I’d be getting, I might’ve just worked for the snacks.
