What does it really take to make a living in the gig economy? Strap in as I recount my firsthand experience navigating the world of DoorDash delivery - the good, the bad, and the truly surprising. From shedding light on the intricate workings of the DoorDash algorithm to a deep dive into the realities of tipping, I'll share my journey of completing 18 orders in three days, earning a grand total of $150. The gig economy extends beyond just picking up and dropping off meals, it's about the hustle, the grind, and the people you meet along the way, like the fellow Dasher who considers this his full-time job and travels from town to town just to make ends meet.
But this discussion isn't just about DoorDash and the gig economy. We're also exploring the ever-changing landscape of our society and how it's evolved since my youth. Hear my thoughts on the state of our country, from the inflationary pressures making a dent in our wallets to the policies hampering young hunting enthusiasts like my daughter. It's an episode that blends personal anecdotes, real-life experiences, and reflective conversations, designed to make you pause, ponder, and see the world through a different lens. And as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, I extend my wishes for a safe and happy holiday season to all my listeners. Let's continue to support each other, and remember to generously tip your DoorDash driver this festive season.
What does it really take to make a living in the gig economy? Strap in as I recount my firsthand experience navigating the world of DoorDash delivery - the good, the bad, and the truly surprising. From shedding light on the intricate workings of the DoorDash algorithm to a deep dive into the realities of tipping, I'll share my journey of completing 18 orders in three days, earning a grand total of $150. The gig economy extends beyond just picking up and dropping off meals, it's about the hustle, the grind, and the people you meet along the way, like the fellow Dasher who considers this his full-time job and travels from town to town just to make ends meet.
But this discussion isn't just about DoorDash and the gig economy. We're also exploring the ever-changing landscape of our society and how it's evolved since my youth. Hear my thoughts on the state of our country, from the inflationary pressures making a dent in our wallets to the policies hampering young hunting enthusiasts like my daughter. It's an episode that blends personal anecdotes, real-life experiences, and reflective conversations, designed to make you pause, ponder, and see the world through a different lens. And as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, I extend my wishes for a safe and happy holiday season to all my listeners. Let's continue to support each other, and remember to generously tip your DoorDash driver this festive season.
music, music, music music. Well, hello everybody. It's me, steve Mann, your host, project 8 podcast. Just to go over a little bit. I've been away, I've been doing some hunting. I have not gotten a deer yet, but I'm working on it. So I thought I might jump on today because I did a social experiment over the last three or four days and I wanted to jump in here and talk about it.
Speaker 1:
We're not gonna do anything that political today, but but anyway, I just want to say if you're an artist in a band, shoot, shoot me an email at Steve man at project 8 podcast dot com. Okay, if you want to get on the show, we'll set up a time. All that good stuff. You can interview me as far as before we go live. All my shows are live. I don't do anything pre-recorded because you see what you get, that's what you get. Okay, you see me, that's what you get, you get me. So if you want to promote yourself and all that good stuff on my show, just shoot me an email. Again, that's Steve man at project a podcast calm. If you would like to donate, you can go to my website at project eight podcast calm. I'm not gonna do that WDB that anymore. I was told that it was unprofessional. So if you'd like to donate, there's a QR code on there support the show or go to my website at project 8 podcast calm. So anyway, times are tough and, by the way, we're silent. We're silent casting on Instagram live, so I have not been able to add that into my restream, to add that for a live stream yet, but I'm working on haven't really had the time, but anyway.
Speaker 1:
So my project was to go out and do a gig on the on the gig economy, to see how it was. So I picked or dash and I was very surprised what I experienced and saw being a new guy right out of the gate on door dash. And I'm not knocking door dash, okay, I'm not. It's a good side hustle. I had it, I enjoyed it. I could not record any of it due to privacy issues, but I do want to share my experience. So I did it as a social experiment. Okay, I wanted to see exactly what these gig guys do and how they do it and how much they actually make, because when I door dash, I door dash for a family of six, so I always and they got a big order right, so I always try to tip at least 20% and if they got to go way out of their way, I'll flip them something out of, I'll flip them something a little extra to compensate them. I'm really generous when it comes to that. I don't always door dash a lot, but when I do, it's always a big order and I live five miles no, I don't even say five miles, I'd say I'd say two miles from the nearest Sonic, right.
Speaker 1:
So one night we decided to have Sonic milkshakes, so we went out, or we. I ordered it thinking it was coming from the one down the street. No, it came from two towns over about ten miles away. And I'm like, wow, why didn't they just put ship it to here? But anyway, their algorithm does not make sense to me and I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1:
To begin with, for one, it took what would? It took in five minutes, tops to get that order to me. Okay, to get that order to me, tops, five minutes. It took 20 minutes to get that order from where they took it from, okay, and brought. Not the dashers fault, it was just something. And door dashes algorithm that said, hey, pick and take it. You know what I'm saying. My battery is running low, oh god. So anyway, okay, instagram, I will try later, when I got a good battery, check us on Facebook live, twitter live or YouTube live. I'm really excited. That's why I'm stuttering, so I'll see you then I will end video. So anyway, I can't believe I was that unprepared to not charge my phone before I got on Anyway. So it took 20 minutes for us to get that one order.
Speaker 1:
The dasher came to the door. I had a $10 bill in my hand other than already chipping them online of $15. So this guy made $25 for that delivery off of me. He did his thing, he used his gas. He deserves some compensation in my eyes, true or false, you know, I think it's true. So anyway, I did 18 orders in three days. I made a whopping $150.
Speaker 1:
I had three reviews, two five-star, one four-star. Why, I don't know. I mean, I'm polite, I'm a people person. I'm like is so-and-so. Ok, yeah, thank you, have a great day, got your order. But I was looking at the tips. At the tips, I wasn't expecting to get rich within the two days. I was looking to make a little bit more money. So my average tip was probably about $2.50.
Speaker 1:
I delivered a pizza for a pizza company. I guess they were slow on drivers, so DoorDash took it or whatever. They could have got it off the app, whatever. So I delivered a pizza, no tip, wow, ok. So my thing is, if you're going to order something, at least a couple of bucks you don't have to do a percentage. But something means if you can't afford a 20% tip on a DoorDash order, then give them something, a little bit. Just give them something, don't just not give a tip. They only make a certain amount of money for that actual dash and depending on where it's at if it's like five miles away they could only they would probably only make $2.50, $3 on that ride To go from where they were at pick it up at the restaurant, go three to five minutes to you and only make $3. Now if you would have gave them three, let's say you gave them $3. Sorry about that. Let's say you gave them $3. Right, then they would have $6. Right, $6. Hold on, let me check my messages. For that, one trip which five minutes, six bucks, that's not bad, that's not bad at all. Oh, my wife thinks I'm mad at her, but anyway, that's not bad at all. I'm not saying you need to tip them 100% of what the dash is. I'm not saying that. But these guys they use their own gas, they pay their user on car, they pay for their own insurance. They probably got a car note on there. They probably got some other bills. They're just doing this to make some extra cash, probably for Christmas. Some of them do it full time.
Speaker 1:
I talked to a guy. That's all he does. He goes from town to town doing door dash. Ok. So he says he can make a pre you know, if he really hustles and hits the hot spots he can work 14, 15 hours that day. He can probably bring home 250. Ok, but he's got to hustle. You know $250 a day, night, whatever, but that's working like 15 hours. Now that might not be 15 consecutive hours, but that's still 15 hours. Do the math on that, you know 15. To fit my pencil broke, but anyway, I'm not going to worry about it right now, but it's still a good chunk of change. If you're making making two fifty a day, excuse me, that's pretty good, but again, you're hustling.
Speaker 1:
And how much did you actually Did? Did you cash out that or is that after expensive? I would say that would be cash and out, because if he made that I would think that he would spend at least $60 in fuel. Fill it up, depending on what kind of car he had. And if you got a Tesla, forget about it, because you're going to have to stop and charge that thing. I don't even know what they can get on a day Three, four hundred miles, you know that's, that's. That's a lot.
Speaker 1:
So all I'm saying is you know if, if your dasher pulls up and you know I and a nice ride or something, he's probably dashing to pay for it or Just doing this as a part-time gig. You know what, like I said before you, you, you don't know what their story is and if you can afford to do a door dash, you can afford to tip a couple of bucks, then it. And if you can't afford that to tip, then you don't need it. You drive down to McDonald's yourself and pick it up or take a bus to McDonald's, whatever. Whatever your situation is, but I don't think the door dashers should, should come to your door Without out tipping. You know what I'm saying if you're delivered for you, he, you ought to tip them. It's just fair. I'm gonna believe it.
Speaker 1:
Ice and ice. For that hundred and $150 I Spent 40 and fuel. So really, after the fuel, I Only made $110. That's. That's a lot of when you're going back and forth.
Speaker 1:
And then I pick up an order in the town that I live in and Take it About 13 miles away In a in a hot zone as far as the app says it's a hot zone. So I look by the time I deliver it. I don't have another delivery going back to where I was at. So I had a, but I had to go back without an order to my area that was busier. Then the then the area that I was, that I that I was in, that it said that it was, that it was busy and that I would receive an order out of there to go back or to go some another part of town. But I didn't. I had to come all the way back to the town that I started because it was in it. So I did that and I picked up at least three or four years of during the lunch yesterday.
Speaker 1:
So so I mean, it's really easy to sign up and and do you could? You could do it it with a scooter, you can do it with a bicycle, which which I, you know, I live in a somewhat rural area. I can't really use a scooter to do this, I have to use my car. But it was fun. I really enjoyed it. I Met different people. I wish I would have made a little bit more money, but you know that's. But it just to see the experience and see what these guys go through on a day-to-day.
Speaker 1:
What really I? My brother did it for full time for for about six months and he was bringing home about thousand dollars a week. No shit, and but that's, that's Before the fuel. You know he'll cash out like, hey, man, would you cash out this? Like a thousand dollars, what? But that doesn't count all the times that they filled up during the week. So what did he spend to make that thousand dollars? A hundred, two hundred dollars in fuel? I mean, gas prices are high. I Think they're 325 right now from where I'm at, which is up from Before the pandemic and all that.
Speaker 1:
It was like to something. So I Like debate. It's just Nicotine, it ain't an ATHC, it ain't marijuana, it ain't the Mary Jane, it ain't the devil's lettuce. Okay, so anyway. But yeah, I know there's a lot to go on. Inflation is up. People are trying to make a living with Full and part-time jobs. I mean they literally got a full-time job and then they got to go out and make more money to support their family and they take on a second job usually a gig or or some other part-time means Because their dollars aren't as going as far as what they did three years ago. Inflation is killing us. That's why I'm glad I'm set with all this. All the expenses For the show is all set. I pay a monthly fee for everything and it's set. It doesn't go up or down. You know it's set you so I can afford to keep the show going. It just adds a little bit more bills to my budget and I know I haven't been on in a while. It's probably been about a month.
Speaker 1:
I've been hunting with my daughter and my dad and I'm just having a good time. The first time I took my daughter out we saw five deer and where we had her in the deer stand, there's no way she could have got a shot and there's no way we could have got a shot off of it, because it's youth weekend, we can't really use her gun to shoot a deer. So this is what happened youth weekend. This is what happened then. So we get her set up in the biggest window and she's there. She's got a new gun, she loves it. She's all camoed out, got her orange on, got her orange hat on, cute.
Speaker 1:
So a couple hours went by and there's three deer over to the right where I was sitting. So out that right side window, three deer and there's no way she could have went to the front and got a shot, because there was three trees hide in those deer so they ran off. So we leave. About an hour later we didn't see anything. We leave. We get something to eat. Come back, set her up front or set her in that. Excuse me, set her up in that window, dang, excuse me, set her up in that window that we saw those other three does. Right, we're sitting there.
Speaker 1:
Hour later, this, this big dough, comes right in front of me where I, where she was sitting, just happened to broad. She was broadside and I had the window closed, so there was no way for me to. I tried to open up the window and it's it's spooked her, of course, so she could. So she couldn't do anything on that. And then there was another one that came up after that one, but her again, her angle, she would have probably missed the shot being a and I my daughter's pretty good on the range. If you've seen the the Instagram channel there, there is a picture of her shooting her at the range, shooting her new gun, practicing in the four deer season. So we were. You know we didn't get a deer that during youth that seed that round of the season.
Speaker 1:
So then last last weekend we went to, we went out again, the three, my, my dad, my daughter and we were out there maybe 45 minutes and a spike deer come up and I just happened to look over and there he is just standing there. I I took my dad on the shoulder and like, hey, and he got it. He got it. So we, we, we field dressed it and took it to the processor, which was probably about, let's say, a half hour, 40, 40 minutes away. But we got back at 1030 and we got up into the stand for about four more hours. We didn't see anything after that, after that first year that that was the only deer we saw and my dad shot it. So we took it to the processing. They are so booked up that he will not be getting his deer until after the first of the year.
Speaker 1:
It's like deer season is deer hunting is getting more and more popular in our state every year. So and I love, I love deer jerky, I love deer sausage. That's why we did it. And while my, while my dad was getting the truck, me and my daughter was there with the, with the deer, and I I rubbed its shoulder and its side and I said thank you for your sacrifice. And my daughter's like what are you doing? I said I'm thinking the deer for its sacrifice to feed us, because that's what it's going to do. We didn't go out there just to shoot at something. We went out there to get substance. We are going to eat that deer. So therefore, we have to give thanks to that deer for sacrificing itself or to feed us. And when I get my next deer, when I, when I go out deer hunting and I get a deer, that's what I do Thank you. That gives me peace of mind that, hey, I'm thanking you for your sacrifice because you're giving me this blessing. So, and I hope it taught my daughter something in that moment that you just don't take what you want. You know you give thanks when thanks is due, like they just had.
Speaker 1:
You know, we just had Veterans Day and she had Veterans at her school. I'm not a Veteran but I support the Veterans. And she came home and I'm like, did you all have a lot of Veterans at your school? Yeah, yeah, my friend's dad is, he's in the Air Force, and then my other friend's dad's in the Army. I said, did you thank them for their service? She said, of course I did, because you taught me that. Okay, good job, I'm proud of you, I'm really proud of you. So she's coming up and you know she's young but she does the girlies, she does the girly things. But I didn't have to remind her to give thanks to those Veterans that she saw at her school, not because they were, not because they were her friends, the fathers of her friends, it's just that they were Veterans and they sacrificed their time and they could have, you know, lost their lives and are, you know, daring service. So they gave up their time to join the Protect Our Freedom. So always, always, give thanks to a Veteran, always.
Speaker 1:
And, if you can, I do the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. I love them. I do give to the Gary Sinise Foundation. It's a one-time donation every year, but I do subscribe to the $11 a month for Tunnel to Towers. Okay, because I like what they do and 95% of the proceeds go to the Veterans or the mortgage payments and all that stuff of the fallen families to pay their mortgage off, and I can get behind that. 95% of all proceeds raised goes to the cause and I love that. I absolutely do so, and that's not an endorsement. They're not a sponsor. That's just my personal feeling on that. Okay, I try to give when I can. I give to the Salvation Army every year of Christmas. I just like to give back for those who gave so much.
Speaker 1:
So again, if you're in a band and you want to get on the show, I have 35 followers on Facebook. I think I have like 35 followers on Twitter X and then I have other Other podcast sites that I post my videos on. If you want to come on my podcast, shoot me an email at Steve dot man at Project eight podcast calm. That way we can get, we can talk a little bit. I'll give you my phone number or you can just message me on messenger, on Facebook messenger, whatever you, however, you want to do it.
Speaker 1:
We had Gil faction on not too long ago From single brass faction. Hey, gil, if you see this man, I love you, brother. I hope you're doing well. We had. I talked to Rick Phoenix. He's on Facebook too. He's a really cool guy. I talked to him over the phone. You'll if you're on my Facebook page, you'll see. You'll see me share some of Rick Phoenix's stuff again. Two of the nicest guys I've ever met and so far I love them. They're good guys. They play really good music.
Speaker 1:
You don't have to be in a rock band. You can be. You Can be R&B Can be any genre. I just let it happen to like rock metal, alternative, some rap, if you want to like. I said, if you want to get on the the podcast, just Steve dot man at project a podcast. If you like to donate, you can go to the website at project eight podcast, calm. There's also a QR code at the top of this video. If you want to scan that and Donate, you can as well. It all goes to the same. I Do. I did have a couple of new donations last month. Thank you for for everyone that did that. If you want to shout out, send me an email. I'll give you. I give you somebody out there. Shout out, make sure they're they're on.
Speaker 1:
I like to do the podcast every Saturday at 7 pm, but with deer season Arise, I'm trying to miss it or I have to miss it because I'm out hunting. We're not gonna have a podcast this Saturday at 7. No podcast this Saturday at 7. I'll try to do one. If I get a deer Saturday, I'll do one Sunday morning, maybe around 11 central time. So I really, I really miss doing this. I love, I love talking to you Folks and telling different stories.
Speaker 1:
There's a, there's a lot going on in the world Today. I mean, we have inflation. We got a renegade president that's doing whatever he wants to do. We have Patriots suffering and in solitary confinement or what they're calling an insurrection. I Don't see, you know, any other rioters getting Prosecute, sentence to time in jail. I know I I'm not gonna do it, but I just had to say that I didn't really didn't want to do a political today, but it just pisses me off the way this country Is headed and I don't know when. Enough. So that is enough. But I've had enough. Just you know, if you want to talk about it, just just send me an email or a messenger that you know. Maybe we can get in contact with each other and talk about what's going on, maybe support one another. It's just. It's just sad.
Speaker 1:
I, this, this is a. This country is not the country that I was raised in. I will tell you that this is something different. This something is out there that's pulling at me. I don't know what it is, but something's not right, something doesn't smell right, and I've had this feeling for the last two years. And when I get that feeling, it's up, bad does Happen. I'm not saying it's cool, but man, I got this. I got this bad, bad, bad feeling that we're gonna be, we're gonna be hurting.
Speaker 1:
So, anyway, again, I'm gonna plug everything again. So we're on YouTube live, we're on Twitter live, we're on Facebook live. I do everything live Because, you see, this, this is what you get and I want to do it. I want you to see me for me. I don't want some edited bullshit. I Want you to see me the way I am, the way I talk, and yeah, so I support the show. Scan that QR code at the top left corner or you could go to Project eight podcast calm. Go all the way to the bottom of the page, click donate To support the show if you're a band you like to get on the podcast or would like for me to give somebody a shout out, to Send me a text on Facebook messenger or Send me an email. Steve man, I'm sorry, steve dot man, in in, in at project a podcast. Calm, all right, everybody, stay safe, have a happy Thanksgiving and I will talk to y'all real soon. God bless you, you, you.
