Favor:Another Delivery App
Favor is an Austin based company that delivers just about anything in an hour. More or less. My first night it was all restaurant runs. I did six ‘Favors’ in four hours. That’s not a lot, from what I understand, but it was enough to keep me busy the entire shift. They call it running a Favor for a reason.
None of these App Based side gigs are big on training. But Favor put a tiny bit more effort into it than say, Uber or Postmates, who pretty much just say ‘Go For It!’ once you’ve past the background check. With Favor there is an online interview/Q&A and a three hour ride along with a Mentor. During those three hours you are told about messaging the customer, calling in orders, given a list I soon forgot of places not to call orders into and taken on a couple of runs. It’s still not much, but it’s more than I got from the other places. To be fair, Amazon Flex and Instacart both have a number of videos you can watch. That’s better than nothing, but not much.
Since Favor is based out of Keep Austin Weird, the company ‘uniform’ is a Smurf blue t-shirt with a tux printed on the front in white. For those of us who are, what do they call it? Adults, well, there is no other option, such as a Smurf blue polo or button front shirt. The t-shirt must be about 50-thread count and might be good for polishing your fenders.
Favor has an active, perhaps over-active, Facebook group where people talk about shops that are closed, roads that are closed, and tell the tale of their big tips or their not so big tips. In the Gig Life, Tips are King. For my six Runs I made $45.57. $32.97 of which was tips. This is downright amazing, since I was running behind the whole night and constantly had Favors stacked up on me. I was in the weeds all night and I’m not sure I delivered anyone’s order in the time window I was supposed to. And yet, I still got more than the required minimum $2 tip on all but one order.
About that one order.
My first Favor was a double Favor. One was for a single sandwich and the other was for a larger meal. They were both at the same restaurant and I got the orders at the same time. The sandwich and I waited around as the larger order was prepared. The App sent me to deliver the larger order first. Then the App gave me the wrong address for the person who ordered the sandwich. Even after I was in the general area, it took me another ten minutes to find the guy and give him his sandwich. He called me several times wanting to know where his sandwich was. He tipped $2 and gave me a 1 Star rating. While that was going on, I got another Favor. A Favor I was unable to refuse…which meant it would be late as well…and so on and so forth. I later learned you have to call the Help Line to refuse a Favor…good to know.
Like all App Based businesses, Favor doesn’t have any employees in the field, we are all Contract Labor. This means we can work 100 hours a week if we want to and they don’t have to worry about things like collecting taxes or paying overtime. That’s the price of admission and I really have no problem with it. What I do have a problem with is the Rating System these companies all use.
The system usually works like this. If you have a 5 Star rating, everything is cool. Anything less than a 5 Star Rating and you are viewed as something less than desirable for the Company. Uber and Lyft want 4.7 or better Ratings.
The Favor Facebook Group is a mostly upbeat and happy lot. Most of them have swallowed the Koolaide and look down on anyone who is not marching in lock step with the company line. A frequent comment is older Runners griping that newer Runners don’t want to wear their Smurf shirts. It would be nice to have an option, such as a lanyard, you could wear over your normal clothes.
I’ve seen several of the Runners shopping for customers at Central Market and I have to wonder how that works. I’m much better at shopping than I am at delivering fast food. But then, I’m pretty used to the way Instacart works, having to get used to another App for shopping might be a bit of a challenge.
I’ve never been the gregarious type and prefer to keep to myself. Several of the Runners appear to hang out at certain spots and BS the day/night away. That’s not me. And there’s no rule that says it has to be. Just as there’s no rule that says you HAVE to wear the t-shirt.
I haven’t had the time to give Favor a fair shake. My regular job suddenly got busy and I have been doing a lot of Instacarting. Favor has an hourly guarantee, if you can find hours on the schedule. If not, you can just head out to the Zone and log in and hope for the best. That’s not an option with Instacart. If you don’t find hours on the schedule, you don’t work.
I was a bit discouraged the first couple of times I shopped for Instacart, but now I feel pretty good about it. Just need to get out there with Favor and put in the hours to figure it out.
