If you are a Caviar courier, you might have noticed there’s a ‘()’ after your name in their app that wasn’t there when you first started driving. If you don’t see it, it’s not the end of the world (more on that later). This parenthesis also will appears in the automated emails you get from Caviar. At first, I thought the Caviar team had botched my name. It turns out that wasn’t the case.
What does it mean?
Well for starters, it’s not a glitch or bug in the software’s programming. The tag is actually a way for Caviar to designate their VIP couriers. The parenthesis is a tag on ‘couriers who have a preference on bigger orders, ability to handle multiple orders and batched orders more frequently. It lets the dispatch know who the top performers are’. Those are verbatim words I got from a Caviar Logistics Associate. Booya!
Who gets it?
Given the purpose of the parenthesis, it makes sense to assume Caviar couriers who use a car are more likely to have this tag than Caviar couriers on bike or scooters.
Bigger orders will requires more space to transport the food. You can get from point A to Point B faster with a car so you can handle multiple orders at once. Batched orders will involve more food and also longer travel distance. A courier on car will be able to meet these demands much better than someone on a bike.
But this probably isn’t 100% true. I’ve met couriers who have attached an electric battery to their bike as an add-on and get up to 30 mph on two wheels. Talk about courier hacking. These guys are probably VIP couriers.
Is it a form of favoritism?
Some cynics would be concerned about favoritism and missing out on orders and potential earnings because of a lack of VIP designation. This is probably not true.
Keep in mind that Caviar (and all other on-demand food delivery platforms) has, off the top of my head, five group of people they need to keep happy. These are their employees, investors, drivers, restaurants, and customers. That’s a lot of people to please.
When a delivery goes wrong, every party is unhappy. The restaurant’s reputation is tarnished, the courier have a bad experience, the customer is unhappy, the investors are pissed (maybe), the company has to do damage control with PR – like hiring people to write fake reviews on Glassdoor. Yada yada yada.
So, it doesn’t make sense to assign a courier on bike to deliver an order so large that a car is required. Dispatchers shouldn’t assign you a delivery that you can’t perform. It doesn’t make sense to assign someone on bike a delivery that requires crossing busy bridges or going into hilly areas of town. It doesn’t make sense to assign a courier on bike a batched delivery that will require transporting more food than a bike can handle.
I think this VIP courier designation is so dispatcher knows who to assign which delivery such that everyone is happy—couriers complete deliveries successfully, restaurants don’t get complaints about food being cold or spilled, and customers get food in a timely manner.
What if you don’t have it?
It means you suck. Just kidding. There are some things you can do to get this VIP designation.
- Accept every job that you get assigned. Especially the ones that has a long commute to and from the pick-up location.
- Accept multiple or batched deliveries whenever they are assigned.
- Position yourself for success — camp out in locations where there are a lot of restaurants so you’ll be able to stay busy. Use the interactive map page to do this.
- If economically reasonable, switch from using a bike to a car. Prius for the win baby!
- Get an electric scooter if you can’t afford a car (or hack your bike!).
Last Words on VIP Caviar couriers
Keep in mind, this designation doesn’t necessarily mean more income. Ever since I’ve been given this tag, my earnings haven’t exactly skyrocketed. I don’t get more orders per shift than I did before. It just means I’m more likely to get assigned to East Glisan Pizza Lounge, Pollo Norte, Buffalo Gap or Tamale Boy. These are restaurants that are on the perimeters of the Portland delivery territory. Additionally, if I get assigned to a restaurant that’s in central Portland, the delivery location might be a long drive away. I’ve had deliveries that took me to the West Hills.
So, there are real tradeoffs.
The parenthesis or VIP designation is more to help Caviar dispatch the right couriers for the right jobs and ensure everything goes smoothly and everyone is happy.
