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6 Things to Do When You are Not Getting Order Requests on Uber Eats

If you’re not getting any order requests on Uber Eats, there are a few things that might be the problem. Here are 6 potential reasons why Uber isn’t sending food delivery requests and how to fix it!

Click here to start delivering for Uber Eats

Quick tip: you can get cash back every time you fill up your gas tank by using the Upside app. It's free and pays out straight to your bank.

While the details of how Uber assigns delivery requests are probably a closely held secret, there are a few things you can try to get more order requests coming your way.

Change the Time of Day Your Are Going Out

Are you delivering during hours when people don’t usually eat?

If so, change your time slot to match the busiest mealtime of day for orders in your area.

When you open the app you’ll see a map of your location often with areas in yellow and red indicating demand.

You might also see numbers like $1 or $1.50, this means there’s a premium being paid to delivery people. Uber puts these up when they think there’s more demand than people to fill the orders.

Of course, the idea is that more delivery people will log in when they see there’s more money to be made. And of course, they do, meaning that you really want to make sure you are online and “available” before them.

As you do more delivery you’ll figure out when those times are.

Generally, you can expect a rush around 12 pm till 2 pm (lunch), another starting before 5 pm and going sometimes till 7 pm (dinner) and sometimes another later in the evening. To get in early you want to probably want to start at least half an hour before the rush.

The only way to know when the busy periods are in your area is experience, and you’ll probably figure this out in a week or so of doing Uber Eats.

Change Your Location

While the details of how Uber assigns delivery requests are are probably a closely held secret, we can guess that Uber factors in the distance you are from the restaurant along with your vehicle (including if you’re a walker or riding a scooter).

So you need to be closest to the restaurants that are getting orders.

One idea is to think like a taxi driver. Taxi drivers will either park near a spot where they know people will need lifts (like a sports arena when a game is ending or a bar near closing time) or doing circuits along the main drag when there is a good chance of picking up a fare.

You can apply this strategy to Uber Eats delivery too.

Depending on your area, there’s going to an area where there’s a lot of restaurants that are doing delivery. You could do loops around this area that bring you close to the busy restaurants. This way you’re hopefully closer to a restaurant when Uber is looking for a delivery person.

Stake Out a Spot Near a Restaurant That You Know Is Busy

This is the other approach, and the reason you might see a lot of Uber Eats delivery people near fast-food restaurants.

Basically, you find a place that’s close to a busy restaurant and just wait for an order to come through.

Personally, I prefer to switch between the two methods.

When I finish an order I usually walk back towards a particular area or restaurant but take a route that passes a lot of restaurants – usually the main street in hopes that I pick something up on the way.

Avoid Areas That Have a Lot of Uber Eats Delivery People Already There

If you’re not getting any orders, avoid areas that have a lot of Uber delivery people in this area. There’s no sense in being somewhere with plenty of competition when there are other places to go where it might be less crowded or more likely for an order request to come through.

Try Going Offline and Back Online

Pressing the Go Offline button and then going back online a second or two sometimes seems to help get orders flowing again.

I do this if I haven’t got an order for maybe 20 minutes or so, and sometimes you get an order within a minute or less. 

I’ve heard people say that this will put you at the back of the line for order, but other times I’ve found the app seems to forget you’re there.

So, yes if you’ve tried some of the other things here, do try to “reset.”

Bad Weather Is Good Weather for You

Not everybody wants to do delivery in a snowstorm or pouring rain. Of course, people inside are going to be less inclined to go out to pick up too.

Enter you, who walked to school (uphill both ways) in a blizzard.

Obviously, don’t put your safety at risk during extreme weather, but you’d be surprised how little snow or rain can make some folks decide to stay in. And that’s money for you to pick up if you’re feeling hearty.

Also, Be Ready For the Unexpected

Fun Fact: Keep in mind without cell phone service, there’s going to be no deliveries.

This past spring the dominant cell phone carrier network in Canada was knocked out for almost a whole day.

So guess who benefited? Basically, any delivery people who weren’t using that company’s network had a huge increase in orders!

In my case, I was one of the unlucky ones, but this goes to show it pays to check the news in the morning.

Take A Break

Maybe if things are just too slow, this is a good way to get a break and rest your feet while waiting for an order request.

You can also take the opportunity to do something else like eat, go on social media or even sleep if you’re really lucky!

Once you come back online it’s possible that there will be new orders so don’t give up too easily just because things are slow at first.

In Conclusion

You might be getting frustrated and fed up with Uber Eats, but it’s not worth giving up on the app altogether.

There are a number of ways you can get better results from your experience using Uber Eats.

Start by avoiding areas that have lots of people delivering food for Deliveroo or other services like them (usually these will be near university campuses).

Bad weather is also helpful because fewer people order takeaway when there’s snow outside.

Click here to start delivering for Uber Eats

Save on gas & groceries: the Upside app gives you cash back when you fill up your tank, buy groceries, or eat out.

Finally, try turning the app off if you’re having trouble finding anything good nearby; this often works surprisingly well as sometimes all it takes is a few steps in another direction.

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