Here’s a recap of my second day in Seattle.

Afternoon

I drove up to Seattle around 2:00 PM to see what the afternoon shift was like. I was in the Southeast Area of the Caviar’s Seattle zone day one so I thought I try the West side today.

I assumed that Capital Hills and Downtown would be congested during rush hours, and stayed away from the I-5 highway.

At 2:34 PM I was dispatched to the Old Ballard neighborhood to Li’l Woody’s on Market St. I crossed the Ballard Bridge and parked in a 3-minute parking zone (more on this later) when I arrived.

The dropoff was in the Magnolia neighborhood. As I drove into this neighborhood I felt Magnolia was the equivalent of Northeast Portland where I’m from. There were parks. The neighborhoods were calm and peaceful. The sidewalks were clean and you can tell the homes were expensive.

After one delivery (I made $8.77, no tips), I checked out Magnolia. At this point, I knew it was unlikely I’d get assigned a job anytime soon. I haven’t mapped out the Seattle restaurants yet but I can tell there’s not going to be a lot of restaurants in Magnolia using Caviar. Traffic was picking up so I went off-duty and enjoyed the scenery before my oligations of the day come up.

I visited West Magnolia Playfield, then checked out the view ocean from Magnolia Blvd. I had a view of Elliot Bay Marina. After that, I went to meet with some friends.

Evening

Later that day, I did a delivery with Postmates.

At 7:43 PM I accepted a job. The restaurant was Honeyhole on the corner of E Pike St. and Boylston Ave. The food has already been placed and I just had to go pay and pick-up.

I got there, paid for the food, and informed the customer, Kyle, of the order’s status.

Personally, I think this is something every Postmates courier should do on every order. You’re going to be waiting on the food with nothing to do, so you might as well let the customer know and improve your chances of a tip.

I knew I wasn’t going to make a lot of money on this order since Blitz Pricing wasn’t active and the distance from the pickup to dropoff was short. I made $5.15. After I delivered the food, I switched back to Caviar and freelanced (I wasn’t scheduled for a shift).

However, after 21 minutes of cricket chirps, I went off duty. It was already slow  so I didn’t want to be a jerk and take away jobs from couriers who were actually scheduled. Courier courtesy, you know?

Thoughts

Remember that 3-minutes zone? They don’t exist in Portland.

These are very handy in Seattle when parking is scarce. So if you’re ever switching to Seattle to drive, look out for these.

I didn’t do a lot of jobs (I had other plans that took up much of the day) but I had the feeling that Caviar’s commission is going to beat Postmates in Seattle just like in Portland.

I left with the impression that Postmates deliveries are shorter in distance than Caviar deliveries —so the commissions are smaller. This was true in Portland and I don’t believe Seattle will be any different. It makes me wonder how Postmates will be able to keep couriers happy long term.