Side Hustle Tips: Postmates and other delivery apps

Postmates, UberEats, DoorDash, and Caviar are all great side-hustle options to make extra cash each month. But dead zones, lack of customer demand, a tip delays can slow down your dreams of fast-tracking your financial goals. Here are seven tips to increase your daily order count and make the most of your time on the road.

1. Delivery offers are determined by proximity to the restaurant location, and the courier with the fastest mode of transportation (ie. car over bike or walking.) The app runs on an algorithm that dispatches orders based on those two factors, so when you're looking for new orders it's best to linger next to the merchants you know are popular so you have the best chance of receiving incoming orders there. (Chipotle is always a good bet!)

2. Not sure which merchants are most popular in your area? It's always helpful to download the Customer's side of the app to scope out which restaurants in your market are offering deals like 'half delivery fee' or 'no delivery fee.' Those restaurants with deals tend to be more popular, so it'd give you an advantage to linger by those spots when looking for your next delivery offer. (And no worries, these promos don't affect your payout.)

3. Overall, you can focus on the colored hexagons on the map called hotspots (though hotspots are a reflection of historical data, not necessarily current demand) and note trends of what neighborhoods are most popular at what times of day. It can also be strategic to AVOID hotspots, since those areas can become over saturated with too many couriers all gravitating toward the same area.

4. Periodically you may want to force close and reopen your courier app, and make sure you're using the most up-to-date version of that app. It's also important to keep the app open on your phone without navigating to other apps. Sometimes if your phone or data service is running slow, the app can't send you delivery offers in real-time.

5. Track your miles! This will save you a ton come tax season when you need to list your business expenses. Save all your gas receipts, and have a mile-tracking app run in the background while you work. Some solid (free) ones at the App Store include Everlance, TripLog, Stride: Mileage and Tax Tracker.

6. Be kind to the merchant employees at pickup. Countless times I've been offered free coffee, free soda, free ice cream -- even a glass of champagne at a swanky Italian restaurant while waiting for a customer's order -- with a smile from employees thanking me for acting respectfully. The Front of House staff can't control how quickly the order is prepared, but they can make your life a little easier while you wait.

7. For Postmates exclusively: the black prepaid card can feel like a curse when you accept an Order-and-Pay offer that takes seemingly forever for the order to be prepared. But if you accept an order from a chain merchant that offers a loyalty program you're a part of, you can enter your information at checkout so those points go to you. I personally seek out these types of merchants to accept from -- especially 7-11 and Walgreens-- and enter my phone number to reap the rewards. Every so often I'm able to redeem these points for free coffee or sandwich at 7-11 or a $10 reward at Walgreens....all without spending a dime of my own money.

Hope this helps...now go out there and make that money!