Many of us are staying home right now, but not everyone can. Essential workers are leaving home to go to work. One essential worker is a delivery driver. These unsung heroes bring food to people when they need it. Who are they?
What is it like being on the front lines of food delivery? I reached out to three different delivery drivers, drivers for Rainbow Garden, Black Dog, and InstaCart, to find out what they are experiencing right now delivering food in a pandemic.
Smile Politely: Hello! What’s your name and what do you deliver?
Photo by Jonathan Lee.
Jonathan Lee: Hi, my name is Jonathan Lee, owner of Rainbow Garden Urbana. We deliver freshly cooked Chinese food, using the freshest ingredients available. Nothing is pre-cooked.
Photo by Nicole Cravens.
Nicole Cravens: Hi, my name is Nicole Cravens, and I deliver Black Dog BBQ — along with the awesome craft beer we have at Black Dog.
Photo by April Purcell.
April Purcell: Hi, I’m April Purcell. I deliver Instacart.
SP: What is a typical delivery like from start to finish? Order to delivery?
Lee: A typical delivery starts with an order taken over the phone or through our tablet for orders from Grubhub. For phone orders, we ask for the customer’s phone number and confirm the customer’s address. Once we get to the payment part of the order, we ask the customers if they would like to pay over the phone, to try and lessen the amount of contact as much as possible with customers.
For contact-free customers, once we’ve arrived at the location, we leave the orders by their door, and call or text them to let them know the food has arrived. We also wait in our cars to make sure someone comes out to bring their orders in. We’ve been pretty busy during this time, and we greatly appreciate everyone’s support and understanding of why deliveries may take longer. To make sure our customers get the food as fresh as we can get it to them, we’ll wait for the driver to be gone for like 15 minutes before we cook the next batch of orders, so nothing sits and waits in the cold.
Cravens: So our orders come in from our online store through Square. We only do delivery with a days notice; you cannot order delivery day of order. Delivery times start at 11 a.m. and go to 6 p.m. I get an hour window to make my deliveries. On busier days, we have two drivers, and usually we just split up the orders between Champaign and Urbana. We also do delivery to Mahomet. We have a 12 mile radius for delivery.
Generally, I have anywhere from three to five deliveries an hour. When I have all my deliveries for the hour, I put all the bagged up food in a delivery bag to keep things warm or cold if that was chosen. We use a website called Speedy Routes to give us our fastest routes for each delivery hour. So I put my first address in my GPS in my car and off I go. When I get to the place, I look for any special instructions for the delivery, like no contact, just leave the food on the porch and ring the doorbell, or text. I try to make sure someone gets the food before I leave but sometimes I just have to leave. If I wait, I stay a safe distance away from the door I delivered to and wish them a good day. Then it’s on to the next.
Purcell: I accept an order. Then, I drive to the grocery store at which the customer has shopped online. I arrive at the store, then put on my mask before exiting my car. I walk into the store. (Side note: Instacart has a free mask for us delivered to our house. It is reusable.) The app for Instacart shoppers has the order details, and I either find the aisle number or I have to find it myself. Usually, Instacart wants me to be done in about an hour or less. It is harder than I thought. I check out and place the items in bags. I don’t mix cold items with the warmer temperatures. When paying, I have an Instacart card or I use my Google pay digital card. Then I select “Done shopping” in my app and head to deliver the order to the customer’s house. If alcohol was purchased, I have to ask for an ID to verify the person. Then, I carry in the items for the customers.
SP: What do customers do that you appreciate as a delivery driver?
Lee: First and foremost, it’s the fact that customers are understanding of how busy we’ve been and don’t get mad about the wait time. But the other thing that we appreciate a lot, as well, is how generous everyone’s been tipping us.
Cravens: So one thing I really appreciate is having the notes from the guest to help me get their orders exactly where they are supposed to be. I like places with clear addresses on the house or building. Some of the address on places are hard to read or find. When people give us extra instructions, it helps. Also putting the address in the notes helps a lot. We all appreciate the funny and loving messages we get on the orders.
Purcell: I haven’t had appreciative customers yet, but I hope I do soon.
SP: What’s something that makes the process difficult?
Lee: There’s really been nothing that’s been overly difficult. It’s mainly trying to give our staffs and customers the adequate amount of time to prepare orders, and let customers know the wait may be longer.
Cravens: Well, sometimes on the bigger apartment buildings on campus, those building are key card only or lock so we have to call people to come down and get the food. It’s tough when people don’t answer the phone because I’m using my cell phone: it’s an odd number, and people don’t answer. I have to leave a voicemail, and sometimes I have to leave the food in a common area for them to get. It makes me nervous because I want to make sure the right person gets the food. Also, I hope people start to read our instructions online for orders. We put those on there to help with the confusion of our website, but sadly, most people don’t read (me included). I know I’m guilty of that when I order things from other places.
Purcell: It’s difficult when I am not familiar with the grocery store.
SP: What precautions do you take to protect yourself while delivering during a pandemic?
Lee: We always have masks on and have hand sanitizer on us. But the most important step is where we ask if the customers would like a contact-free delivery. If they agree to a contact-free delivery, everything’s really simple. If they want to pay in cash or want us to deliver to them, that’s where our hand sanitizers and masks come really helpful. As soon as we get in our cars, we use hand sanitizers and disinfect.
Cravens: So we wear masks all day while working. I wash my hands everytime I enter Black Dog, and I keep hand sanitizer in my car as well. We try to drop food off on porches or doorways, so people can grab their food, and I will stand at least six feet away or I’m already back in my car.
I always washed my hands a lot as a server, but now I am so conscious of touching surfaces and myself that I wash my hands even more. We have a joke to ask who is going pay for all the lotion we all need to keep our skin from falling off. Some of the other drivers are wearing gloves that they change after each delivery, but I don’t like the way the gloves feel. If they tell me I have to, I will wear gloves, but for now, I just wash my hands a lot.
Purcell: The precaution I take is wearing a mask in the store and when delivering the grocery items to the customer.
SP: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our C-U readership?
Lee: We really appreciate all the support we’ve been getting, but one thing I know is a lot of customers like using Grubhub. The thing is: a lot of people don’t know how much Grubhub actually hurts local businesses. They charge you 30% to deliver for you, and then charge you processing fees that add on another 3% or 4%. So calling in your orders or ordering on your local business’ own website, actually help us local businesses more.
Cravens: The last thing I want to share is: we are in awe of the love and support from C-U. Thank you so much, Champaign and Urbana. And please remember, we know our website can be confusing. We will honor the date and time selected when you place the order NOT the automatic response time that the website sends out as an email. We can’t stop the system from saying a different time than what you selected, so just know when you select “Please bring me food,” or “I will pick up,” we go by that, not the time and date it gives you in the checkout.
Purcell: Not that I can think of!
Rainbow Garden Urbana
202 E University Ave
Urbana
11 a.m. to 8:45 p.m., daily
Black Dog Smoke & Ale House
320 N Chestnut St
Champaign
M-Th 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 to 7:30 p.m.
F 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 to 8 p.m.
Sa 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 3:30 to 8 p.m.
Su 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 3:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Top image by Anna Longworth.
