Back in 2024!

 It's been 2 years! Wow time flies.

Food delivery to Sentosa

I've always rejected orders into Sentosa because I assumed it would be lengthy and time-consuming, but this evening, after a heavy thunderstorm, the air was cool and crisp and I got an order assignment picking up from Vivocity and delivering to Sentosa Cove. I thought "what the heck, I'll just give it a shot", so I accepted.

Made my way from Telok Blangah Crescent to Vivocity in peak hour traffic. Braved the right turn into Vivocity from Kampong Barhu Road into West Coast Highway and feeling the cars zip past me from the left and right, but kept on pedalling. Finally arrived at Vivocity and picked up the order from LeNu.

The distance from Vivocity to the customer's destination was 5.7 km - definitely much longer than a regular order. The order paid $11+, with surge fees of $2, and additional $2 for deliveries to and within Sentosa, the total payout for this order was around $15.

Two things I learned: first, entry to Sentosa is free till September 2022, and second, there's a bike lane on roads within Sentosa. Sweet.

Anyway I think the whole trip took about an hour. It was my last order of the day as it was already close to 8pm, so I stopped by the path along Ocean Drive and took some photos. It was a breathtaking view of mainland Singapore the stretches from the Pasir Panjang port to the skyline of downtown Central Business District (CBD) and a peek of the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands. 

I was glad I accepted that order, it eliminated the biases I had and made me more confident to deliver to Sentosa in the future.

Happy and safe riding!

❤️ Bernie

Delivering in the SGBK zone with Deliveroo for 4 days

 I decided to try out the Bukit Merah zone, aka SGBK last week. Started on Mar 8, 2022 and continued for 4 days to Mar 11, 2022. The first day was quite over whelming with riding on new roads and dealing with new locations and directions, but after a day the distances didn't feel too far any more, e.g. from Great World City to River Valley area, Orchard area to Scotts Rd and even parts of Bukit Timah. My deliveries took me to Tiong Barhu Plaza, Great World City, Tanglin Mall, Ion, Far East Plaza, Orchard Gateway and even Scotts Square. Customer locations included River Valley, Oxley Road, Bukit Purmei, Jalan Bukit Merah, Tanglin Road and Alexandra Road. I had a great 4 days. I'll plan another out-of-zone adventure soon.

Check out my shift on Mar 11, 2022, which I recorded. Enjoy!

❤️ Bernie

I'm taking a break from Foodpanda. Here's why.

 As of today I've completed 711 deliveries since August 2021, 631 of which were with Foodpanda (FP). I quite liked FP for their clear shift schedule, high surge feed during peak hours, and I got familiar with the stalls that they assigned me to.

However, since I got approved on Deliveroo last month, I've been delivering less with FP because of the following reasons:

1. Inability to control schedule - Once you book a shift you have to stick to it unless you are able to swap it out. This doesn't work well with the unpredictable weather these days. If you request for break during your shift to wait for the rain to stop, you get penalised and your Actual vs Planned (AvP) percentage goes down. I don't like how FP doesn't care about safety of riders and create such a rule that inadvertently puts riders in harm's way in order to keep their ranking.
2.  McDonald's - I've realised that Singaporeans eat a lot of fast food, and more during the weekends. McDonald's is by far the most popular, and during peak hours, the wait time to pick up an order from McD could be crazy. I've waited 60-90 mins for McD orders before.
3. Pandamart and other marts - FP sometimes assigns crazy stacked orders at Pandamart or other grocery stores. I've encountered situations where I had to reject one of the stacked orders while at Pandamart because of weight. There has to be a way to assess the contents and assign riders accordingly. Many of the heavy items that customers order, e.g. 1.5L sodas, waters, 6-pack beer cans, ice, etc. should be automatically assigned to car drivers because riders get penalised if we reject an order. This doesn't make sense right?
4. Cash orders - I've not encountered prank orders or people not willing to pay for their deliveries, but I just do not like to collect cash. Period. lol. When will FP stop allowing cash orders? I don't know.

So now with Deliveroo, I don't have such issues. I'm able to reject orders, start delivering without booking shifts, and there's no McD or heavy grocery items to deal with.

Rain has stopped, time to go delivering! 

❤️ Bernie

Delivering food in the SGBK zone with Deliveroo, Day 1

Hello friend. Yesterday I attempted to deliver food in a completely new zone. Why did I do this? A couple of reasons - was getting too comfortable with the Jurong East roads, so I needed a new challenge; and I was thinking I might be able to get more pay per hour in this zone.

Although the zone is new, this area of Singapore not new to me. I grew up in the southside, so I'm familiar with the roads there.

Some initial thoughts:

1. There were more hills than in Jurong East - Paterson Hill, Jervois, Cuscaden Road comes to mind. 

2. Delivering in the Orchard Road area was ... "interesting". Had to figure out how to ride in one-way streets, and make sure I get familiar with where to park.

3. Orders were surprisingly slow. The morning was horribly slow. I started my shift at 9:30am and got ONE order. Then, no orders up to 11am. Lunch was pretty good, but Deliveroo was assigning me jobs that were so far, e.g. delivering from Orchard to Balmoral area, up to Bukit Timah. I had to reject those orders. I'm prefer to stay in the south. My calculated Pay Per Hour (PPH) for yesterday was lower too, at close to $15/hour. PPH at JE would be around $16-$17. 

I'm pretty tired today, thanks to the intense workout. But am not giving up the zone yet. Will check back soon after this week.

❤️ Bernie