About PDS
Byron founded PDS seventeen years ago (2005). A dedicated service, we have been open every day since the beginning except for Christmases and Boxing days. We have completed approximately 500 000 deliveries and have, over the years, as they say, “seen it all”.
After taking a bit of a beating from the delivery apps, PDS has partially recovered, as well as added some flower and pharmacy clients to what was previously a near 100% on-demand food and personal delivery service.
After a lot of research and systems design work, I am finally adding an excellent technology solution to “get us up to date to year 2023”. This will begin sometime in February. Over the next few months, I will be advertising and growing and looking to add drivers in various roles (independent/ freelance, full-time day drivers, full-time day/ evening drivers and part-time drivers).
About the job
(This provides information specific to drivers wishing to do deliveries as an independent driver. However, anyone is welcome to discuss and apply to take regular PDS shifts)
The way independent drivers can earn money with PDS is by “claiming” deliveries that our dispatchers post in this Whatsapp group chat: PDS Surge deliveries. You view the deliveries there but claim them/ chat/ ask questions in PDS Claim and chat (in Whatsapp, read the description of each groupchat to learn the purpose of each)
We don’t expect drivers to accept a minimum amount of deliveries. You can take 1 delivery per month or 20 deliveries per day (all deliveries posted to the PDS Surge are optional).
We post deliveries when it’s busy, or when we are short-staffed and looking for help to get deliveries done in good time. As well, we post long-distance deliveries and catering deliveries; some of which are scheduled in advance if we aren’t sure about how we will be for staffing for those days.
Our delivery management and dispatching decisions are based on timing coordination and customer satisfaction. Therefore, the quality of the deliveries posted to PDS Surge is entirely random. In fact, the dispatchers are not aware of which deliveries have good tips ahead of time or which restaurants have customers who tip well. There is little difference between the earnings-per-delivery for independent drivers and for our regular drivers. In fact, sometimes we may offer an extra $1-$3 per delivery that comes “out of my pocket” for PDS Surge if we want to get help quickly or if it’s an extra important delivery.
Driver pay (delivery fees and tips)
Delivery fee
Like most local courier, taxi and delivery services, the driver is paid a percentage of the delivery fee that the company charges the client or customer. With PDS, the driver gets 60-70% (Byron will decide/ discuss the amount with you). PDS is not a food-ordering ecosystem. We don’t take a percentage of the restaurant’s food sales. Our sales are strictly from the transportation/ delivery fees. That said, the driver portion is comparable to the apps and in some cases it’s more I believe.
Delivery fee examples:
Thai House to Briceland, fee: $7 plus tax. Driver gets $4.20, $4.55 or $4.90 (60%, 65%, 70%)
Darbar to College St. Fee: $5 plus tax. Driver gets $3, $3.25 or $3.50
Mango to Woodbine road (West end) $16.50 plus tax. Driver gets $9.90, $10.73 or $11.55
Wine Rack (3 bottles) to Ontario St. Fee $9 plus tax ($10.17). Driver gets $5.40, $5.85 or $6.30
We may offer more than 1 delivery at a time. Also, it is acceptable that you take a delivery app delivery and a PDS delivery at the same time if it will be delivered in excellent time.
Tips
80% of PDS food delivery customers tip and drivers receive 100% of tips. The average PDS tip is more than $5 and will range from $0 to $15 generally.
Receiving your pay
The PDS dispatchers will input your deliveries in a log; a Google Sheets document that will be shared with you. The log will automatically do the calculations eg. add up any fees that Byron owes you or calculate the %30-%40 percent commission on any delivery fees that you may owe him if you collected cash for a delivery. The log will produce the current balance owed to you.
PDS is happy to pay you next day by cash or etransfer (as you prefer). If you want cash, you will meet another driver (whoever is the cash man/ woman for the day, or Byron).
Occasionally, the balance on your delivery sheet will show that you owe PDS some money. For example if you had only a few orders, and they were all cash-paid orders in which you got paid your fees at the restaurant or at the customer’s door, you would owe Byron the tax and his 30-40%. For this case, there isn’t a rush to balance money. Byron or the dispatcher will arrange a time with you that is convenient, and when you are already downtown. Or you can send him an etransfer.
The different kinds of deliveries
The deliveries that we put in the groupchat will be deliveries that do not require the wireless debit machine.
There are a few different kinds of deliveries, and ways the customer will pay for their product that may or may not involve the driver. But each kind of delivery is fairly easy and straight forward. We will let you know these details when we post the delivery. Kinds of deliveries:
- A food order has been paid for online. Restaurant gives the driver the delivery fee and tip in cash when they pick up. For some restaurants, the money will just be in a tray beside the delivery package.
- A food order for which the customer will pay cash to the driver at the door. For these, ideally the driver pays the restaurant cash for the food at pick up but if you don’t have enough cash or don’t want to do that, it’s no problem. PDS can settle the amount with the restaurant after. (if you don’t pay the restaurant, you will have extra cash with you after the customer pays you. Again, you can balance this cash with Byron later).
If you want to do cash-paid deliveries, you’ll need to carry some change on you to give the customer change. (Keep, perhaps, $50 made up of 10s, 5s and coins with you so you are prepared)
- Deliveries for which the customer pays PDS by etransfer, or with credit card, on our website payment gateway. Fee, tip and possibly the product price is added to your delivery log and PDS pays you.
- Flower deliveries in which no payment is needed. Fee is added to your delivery log. (there is a training page to learn about flower deliveries). Sometimes there are far flower deliveries with $30-$35 delivery fees. Flowers are fun. Customers are happy and appreciative when they receive flowers.
- Pharmacy deliveries in which no payment is needed. Fee is added to your delivery log. (there is a training page to learn about pharmacy deliveries). Sometimes there are routes of 10 pharmacy deliveries (with a time limit of 3 hours)
How to get started
Join the group chats linked above or text Byron at 6135616861 to get a link or ask him questions. Any delivery app driver can try this out for a few deliveries. After trying it, if you’d like to continue, there are some basic steps to be “confirmed”.