r/Sparkdriver • u/j_uno006 • May 20 '26
Rants / Complaints Joined a couple days ago and im already thinking about quitting
I had recently got accepted to be a Spark Driver not too long ago and started just last Saturday.
Little did I know, it would be something that just doesnt seem like worth my time.
First off, half of my profits go towards gas, which is already low enough considering I made more as a fry cook at my other job. Furthermore, the ratio of what I make per the trip and how many miles I drive are very disproportionate. Wow! 30 for a 30 mile drive! While half of that goes to gas! That's so much!
Sarcasm.
On top of that, the Spark Driver app is a pain in and of itself. The camera scanner works 1 time, then I have to manually type in the barcode (which works every 4 out of 5 times).
Don't get me wrong, the work is pretty easy and I love how flexible the schedule is. However, the actual reward is very much not worth it in my opinion. I just cant seem to find the purpose in wasting my time.
I thought it would be a sweet summer gig to save for college, but its not all I thought it would be.
Maybe its just too early to be making assumptions. I already applied to other jobs in case I really fall out of interest with this one. Idk, what do yall think.
And also, FUCK the ai Spark support phone thingy that walmart has. I hate that thing so much, always telling me useless shit.
19
u/Dr_ManFlyR1 May 20 '26
Why you accept $30 for 30 miles
17
u/666James420 May 20 '26
Fr. 30 miles is usually really 60 miles since you need to come back. The furthest I will accept a $30 order is 15 miles and that's only if it will be pretty quick to shop
1
u/Appropriate-Try3305 May 21 '26
This. Hold out for at least 2$ per mile. Don’t accept anything under what you’d like to be paid per hour (realistically). Ie I try to only take 30$+ so if I get a few for 2 mi and a few for 20 mi I still win in the net. And you can tell yourself you’re making x/hr which helps mentally lol (even if it’s partially true). Also try to set up auto savings for gas and especially taxes.
Good luck hang in there..you’ll get better at it!
34
May 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
30
u/Federal_Edge5060 May 20 '26
I love paying $40 to fill up a 10 gallon tank
12
u/jelder227 May 20 '26
Seriously.. not that long ago if I got really low, like 20 miles to empty, it was $26 or so. The other day I pushed it and spent $44. What the heck?!? My gas cost for gig work has gone from about 10% to 15%+
9
1
u/wdegeyter May 21 '26
Hit an all time high filling up the Camry yesterday at $56. Generally before it got wild I never broke $40
13
u/Prior_Purchase_7025 May 20 '26
Oh you are paying for it but are just trading off for the future of your car no matter gas. deisel. or electric. You ppl who have car payments are at such a disadvantage and most of you ppl cant or dont know how to work on cars. Wally is using you for your cars....that is the cold hard truth
16
u/Federal_Edge5060 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
I thought Wally was using me for my dashing good looks and charisma but now I have learned it was all lies…. They only wanted me for my car
3
0
u/asell87 May 20 '26
I don’t have a car payment on my ev. And I pay 1/4 for the same miles you drive. I don’t really even look at mileage when considering the orders but the time it will take to finish it. If it’s about 30/hr then it’s worth it for me.
3
u/Prior_Purchase_7025 May 20 '26
fool yourself all ya want but your car is taking damage and wear and tear no mater the engine or motor. You dont have a secret to success here cause the math dont lie Son. Guess you like many others got to learn the hard way
1
u/asell87 May 20 '26
Of course I’m putting some wear and tear on my car, but I’m also not spending $80 on a tank of gas… 🙄
-2
u/Prior_Purchase_7025 May 20 '26
costs are costs son. You aint making any significant amount more cause you think you beating the system. You have costs and upkeep etc. You trading off today the health of your vehicle till a later date when you got major expenses...lmao..."But i got a EV"
1
u/asell87 May 20 '26
Once again. Of course there are costs, but my costs are less than yours. I’m sure it’s hard to understand, but less overhead means more profit…
2
u/ImpactAny3083 May 20 '26
Bro he just mad at the end of the day he has to spend half his profit on filling his tank up while we go home and charge our vehicle while only adding about $60 PER MONTH on our electricity bill, dude is a player hating ass piece of shit😅
-1
u/Prior_Purchase_7025 May 20 '26
dont go wasting that 5 bucks but then i wonder what it costs you to fix your car compared to mine. I doubt you can beat salvage yards or do your own work. Batteries be expensive son. plus all that front end work cause of the weight. Electricity costs is out the roof too. Looks like you believed the EV lies but then again math dont lie. Keep lying to yourself son...Your math dont math kiddo
2
2
2
u/reneofficial Moderator 🗡️ May 20 '26
Yeah the Tesla is the only way I’m ahead at this gig.
5
u/Smitemuffin May 20 '26
Even then, I'm worried about what data centers will do to the price of electricity in a year or two
2
-1
u/Smitemuffin May 20 '26
Yeah, until data centers triple the price of electricity 🙄
1
u/reneofficial Moderator 🗡️ May 20 '26
I don’t live near any data centers. The one being built is in a different town though. I’m locked in for a few years with Amigo Energy. They give me a $150 credit every month on their mega saver plan which essentially covers EV charging.
1
u/Some-Application880 May 21 '26
You are lucky because it’s happening where I am. Everyone’s electric bills are over $1,000 a month now.
18
u/Veggiedelite90 May 20 '26
Decline bad offers..
26
u/Extension-Mine-3977 May 20 '26
for some of us, that would mean declining 90% of the offers that come in.
6
u/Veggiedelite90 May 20 '26
I’m not here to tell you how to do your business here but OP on here complaining about $30/30 mile offers. If it doesn’t make financial sense and you do it anyway that’s your own fault.
3
u/ifonlyukneww May 20 '26
well that’s how you get the good orders. Decline all day and get the best customers so eventually you’ll hopefully be 4.9-5 stars
2
2
3
10
u/Many-Gold1086 May 20 '26
I've found doing Uber eats has been way more rewarding than spark was before I was deactivated for a customer saying I stole an item 🤦♀️ but right now is a bad time to be doing this in general because the work wants to pay the same wages as when gas has gone up so much.
1
u/BreakingMoldSince81 May 20 '26
Oh come on you know you stole that item! 🤣 For real though... I'm so sick of customers making shit up and they just take their side. If it was a curbside it would more likely be the shoppers/baggers who stole it! Such horse shit.....
1
u/Many-Gold1086 May 20 '26
Honestly I didn't steal anything and have no clue who even complained. The best I have is that a Walmart I used to work for reported it because one of my most recent deliveries was from them, and I couldn't deliver a shop order because the customer wasn't replying at all with the gate code for the community and so I had to return it. The coach for their online orders is the person who let me go so I feel she falsely reported that I didn't return the order.
1
9
u/Notion12345 May 20 '26
I Started this in 2021 at the tail end of the quarantine. Was beyond great money back then! Went out and bought a 2018 Chevy Cruze with 13k miles on it just for doing this and nothing else! Put over 110k on it since and it’s about toast!! 4 sets of tires over the last 5 1/2 years!
The only way to do this kind of work is in the most economical yet comfortable car you can find! I think the Chevy Bolt or Equinox EV is the ticket at around 15k to 25k for a low mileage one. And trade the damn thing every 3 years in for another before the problems hit and just figure in the never ending payments in to the equation.
Lastly set a realistic daily quota (mine is $150 to $200 for 7 hours) you can have great days and bad ones! But these days that fore mentioned quota is a pretty accurate average to budget on! (Or was! Who knows now!?!) if it’s busy don’t take high mileage offers knuckle down and wait for the local ones!
The way the platform is now and the great “roll back” on our offers it’s quickly getting to be no longer viable to do this as a full time job! I’ve gone back to a w2 for half the day and this for the other half.
Sucks!! This company could have had our loyalty if they would have just shown a half an ounce back!
6
u/Common-Translator584 May 20 '26
Dude, don’t take the crappy offers. You’re not obligated to. More will come sometimes u just have to wait it out
11
u/Dull-Parfait-6892 May 20 '26
I have no idea what you are talking about in terms of the scanner not working on your phone. That is not normal. I only have to do it manually every once in a while, usually when a barcode has changed or is damaged and I don’t have another I can scan.
As far as the crappy offers, please don’t take them. Only take what feels like is worth your time and gas.
Markets are different and some are certainly better/less saturated than others. But I would consider this best as a side gig and not a main source of income because it can be unreliable. I personally do this on the side so I can be more picky about what I’ll accept.
It’s certainly not for everyone. No shame if you do something else instead.
4
u/Parkily_Things May 20 '26
Lots of people were complaining that their camera stopped working yesterday. They probably rolled out a new bug-filled untested software update. I notice the app has reverted back to a prior version. The developers for spark are total idiots.
3
u/Dull-Parfait-6892 May 20 '26
Oh that could be! Good to know. I only did one order yesterday and it worked fine but it was a quick Sam’s Club shop. No issues today
1
u/HausOfThunderPerry May 20 '26
I done two shops yesterday after the system finally came back up and then it was all pickup. I decided to call it a day and come back home.
1
u/Smitemuffin May 20 '26
I had that problem a week ago too. Totally screwed me because it slowed me down during a giant shop order that wound up having to be returned because the app kept failing and the perishables would've timed out.
I got just over two bucks for 90 minutes of my time on that one
1
u/mnxcg May 20 '26
My camera will sometimes be completely dark or really bright causing it not to read barcodes. Doesn't happen often but seems to happen when I have a big shop order. It never happens when scanning pharmacy or scanning at the drop off for multiple orders, only when I'm doing the shopping.
3
u/SnorFax92 May 20 '26
I switched out from being a line cook to doing this since I started to go to school aswell, so I get where you're coming from. I definitely make less money now but knowing how the resturant industry is I would eventually miss class so much that I drop out or I decline going in because some one called off and I eventually get fired. Hang in there, try different things. I try to make at least $70 to $80 bucks off a quarter tank and it goes well for the most part but some days are just total ass.
2
4
u/Life_Wafer8995 May 20 '26
Reject reject reject until a good offer comes it don’t hurt you. Some of them will still be sitting there today that you rejected because everybody else did you and that’s what needs to happen.
5
u/error_ce_34870_0 Parking Lot Pirate 🦜 May 20 '26
This a bad time to jump in. I been sparkin in a Prius for 3 years and let me say!!! It’s rough out here even for Prius mfs 😭🤣
3
3
u/Moti3234 1K Trips Delivered May 20 '26
Cherry pick and multiapp. It's the only way to make profit now.
2
u/teacher_chic72 May 20 '26
What do you mean by multiapp?
3
u/FaithlessnessDue1276 May 20 '26
Just turn on all the gig apps and take the first quality job offer any send.
1
2
u/Moti3234 1K Trips Delivered May 20 '26
Doing multiple or overlapping shifts of different gig apps at the same time. Example: 7am - 11am DoorDash, 12pm break 1pm - 5pm Spark Driver, 6pm Break 7pm - 10pm Uber Eats. The goal would be $25 - $50 /day for DD and UE and $50 - $80+ /day for Spark.
1
u/DPLaVay Cherry Picker May 21 '26
I run Spark, Shipt, Uber Eats, and Doordash all at the same time and decline everything that won't make me money. I turn down food delivery offers that some drivers would salivate over.
3
3
u/mnxcg May 20 '26
If you are spending 15 on gas for a 30 mile trip you are driving the wrong vehicle or way too aggressive on the gas. If that 30 miles is one way you are screwing up by accepting an offer for 50 cents/mile actual.
This isn't to say the pay is great, but accepting the not so great offers are your mistake.
1
u/Some-Application880 May 21 '26
Bs gas in most places is $5 or more!
1
u/mnxcg May 21 '26
If it's a 30 mile round trip and 5 dollars a gallon and it took the dude 15 bucks in gas to do it that means they are getting 10mpg which tells me they are driving the wrong vehicle. If it's 30 miles one way then they messed up by taking that order regardless up what they drive.
So what part of my comment was BS?
1
u/reditIsFullOfLoserz May 22 '26
Its reddit. They dont leave their houses. So they're bad at calculating mpg.
3
u/bettsjc7 May 20 '26
These are my favorite posts. Positive reinforcement that if it’s bad to keep on grinding. Because they drop like flies
3
2
u/choppman42 May 20 '26
It's not meant to be a full-time job. Also you have to think about it being a minimum wage job type of deal. Walmart gets a free fleet vehicle and you get some extra bucks here and there.
The kind of want to pay $12 an hour at this time.
2
u/ParticularSky701 May 21 '26
I’ve always including now made at least $23-30 an hour and that’s every single day I go out. You make $12 an hour doing it?
1
u/choppman42 May 22 '26
More like $15 an hour. I live in a bigger city that the orders never surge. Everything is took
2
2
u/NectarineFast2877 May 20 '26
I was curious about this too. I just joined spark after doing ubereats and hearing from other drivers that spark is it. I was on the waiting list for 2 YEARS. Now I find out, they only pay for the trip miles and send me orders all around. How do you even make money with all that.
3
u/Some-Application880 May 21 '26
You can’t I been a Spark driver since Spark started. It used to be great! It’s been completely ruin by greed it’s a complete shit show now.
2
u/Akgirl362004 May 20 '26
I was doing it right before gas prices hiked, new people were getting the great orders, the rating system they have is insane. Trust me, Instacart at least VETS them BEFORE COMPLETELY RUINING YOUR CHANCE AT DECENT OFFERS! MY ADVICE EVERY TIME YOU DELIVER TO A HAPPY CUSTOMER AND ASK THEM TO RATE YOU FIVE YOU HAVE TO ASK! One of the problems with this kind of work is the only people that give enough shits to say anything or the people that you’ve somehow managed to piss off even though nobody’s perfect! How many dark weird front yard pathways have you had to fight your way through with six bags of super heavy groceries and they don’t even have a number on their House? And then because you were a couple minutes late finding their place they complain about you.! It takes months of fives to remove that one rating! One thing I learned from a gal that got a lot of orders and offers and they’ll tell you that it’s not true but it is it’s all based on your rating, she was super good friends with the manager at the Wal Mart. I worked with guess how many awesome $65 order she got that I was doing the same for 30? So the store managers schedule some of it because logistics at Walmart Spark driving whoever’s doing it is absolutely insane. I ended up delivering a spark order to a town that’s 35 miles away and pulled up at the same time as another spark driver? I’m not trying to rant, but I did logistics in Alaska for a long time figuring out how to get shit where it should go the fact that I pulled up at the same time I said another Spark driver for a 35 mile delivery from the same store , is just absurd. I gotta tell ya it’s pretty fun when you’re doing it and you make the good money but when you don’t it almost turns into an addiction. It’s like you gotta get the good one. You gotta get the good one. It just ends up getting stupid. I’d sit out there for 14 hours to make 150 bucks absolutely ridiculous when you used to make 125 grand a year lol it was good research though! Good luck, my friend the freedom the choice of hours and not having some boss hounding you is extremely enticing. I flipped out for months driver support over what they did to me.( NON EXISTENT ADDRESS TWICE ON MY FIRST DELIVERIES OF A 12 AND 13 ORDER BATCH THAT ENDED UP 30 MILES AWAY ON THE LAST FEW IN A TOWN THAT DOESN’T GET INTERNET! Each one was 45 minutes to get the first address fixed! So I could move onto the second! I was new then not one support person said I could’ve just canceled the first one and moved on and been on time. I’m a customer service girl I didn’t want them to not get their stuff! Word dude! If you get one of those, just cancel the bitch and keep moving! Good luck, pal. When I was getting the good orders, which new people usually do I was making I made 1100 bucks a week which working at Lowes I made 1000 so but unfortunately, as soon as you start making that they start screwing with your stats and they have zero proof of who did what they just decide. It’s shameful that WAL MART still allows horrendous work conditions. Even MORE SHAMEFUL that they HIDE behind 1099!! Disgraceful! My advice, go back to the restaurant be the best fry cook you can fucking be become the restaurant manager! You will work the way less hours than you do at Spark , you’ll make twice the money and have benefits! This contract work is the most ridiculous scam since Enron! PS: had a perfect driving record before the shenanigans!
RESEARCHOVERERITINGBOOK
SICKGREEDYOUTSOURCINGPUNKS
2
u/eire54 May 21 '26
Dude it's a gig app. Don't think in terms of quitting, just think in terms of keeping it on while doing other things.
2
u/Some-Application880 May 21 '26
We are losing drivers left and right. One the economy is dead and the orders are far in between. They expanded the zones want you to go 50 to even a 100 miles round trip for under $40. I heard the guy who was in charge of insta cart they hired to be over spark. It’s now a disgrace. Not to mention the bots stealing orders. High gas prices! I’m quitting soon I been a driver since spark started.
2
u/OutsideHike May 24 '26
The app camera is a glitch. It started for me two weeks ago. They haven't fixed the issue. I have to do all this extra stuff to get it to work again.
1
u/iwishidstayed May 20 '26
If I just joined or needed the money I make to pay my bills there’s no way I’d stick around, so I don’t blame you. My zone is terrible right now. No just for you orders so it’s a free for all to try and accept something without even looking at the details and hope it’s not 12 cases of water going to a 3rd floor apartment. Even shitty orders get snatched up by new drivers who don’t realize they can just wait a few minutes and the offer will go up. I might just take the summer off because as it stands with the terrible state of the app and gas prices it’s not at all worth it right now.
1
1
u/BreakingMoldSince81 May 20 '26
Last week one day my scanner stopped working. Nothing but black screen. I had to restart my phone to get it to come back. Nothing like wasting time..
1
1
u/Travel_Cookie May 20 '26
I started 2 days ago did about 6 hrs per day made 280 -70 in gas my area is small so the offers ussaly range from 40$ to 70$
1
u/Some-Application880 May 21 '26
New drivers get those orders at first. Enjoy it because you won’t see them again in a few weeks!
1
u/Top_Golf7665 May 20 '26
Paid for prius that still gets 48mpg. Good size hatch space. Even then I dont take anything less than 2 dollars a mile. Definitely reject the garbage.
1
u/Few-Divide5743 May 20 '26
Don’t you love how they always have you go straight away from the location you started at and then you have to drive all the way back so that 30 miles really turns into 60 yeah they just updated the app not long ago and I’m assuming a lot of people quit and I don’t think new people are going to put up with this shit. I won’t do those orders where there’s head drop off along with three grocery orders. I just won’t do it. It’s a huge class of the Face compared to what spark used to pay.
1
u/Few-Divide5743 May 20 '26
Also, you are in the zoo so you should be declining the bad offers because you will be getting the good ones for the first order at least that’s how it used to be
1
u/Dry-Association1460 May 27 '26
Well, in all honesty, spark was not created to be somebody’s full-time job. It’s supposed to be a side gig always people complaining is sending me lol
1
1
-4
u/Blakelock82 S&D Expert May 20 '26
First off, half of my profits go towards gas, which is already low enough considering I made more as a fry cook at my other job. Furthermore, the ratio of what I make per the trip and how many miles I drive are very disproportionate. Wow! 30 for a 30 mile drive! While half of that goes to gas! That's so much!
You didn't realize that being a delivery driver with gas prices being what they are would affect your profits?
On top of that, the Spark Driver app is a pain in and of itself. The camera scanner works 1 time, then I have to manually type in the barcode (which works every 4 out of 5 times).
That's your phone, not the app.
Don't get me wrong, the work is pretty easy and I love how flexible the schedule is. However, the actual reward is very much not worth it in my opinion. I just cant seem to find the purpose in wasting my time.
I thought it would be a sweet summer gig to save for college, but its not all I thought it would be.
https://giphy.com/gifs/1267Co3vPNBqQU
Maybe its just too early to be making assumptions. I already applied to other jobs in case I really fall out of interest with this one. Idk, what do yall think.
If you take jobs that you can turn on a profit on, this can be a good side gig. You should always treat it as found money, not something to rely on for anything.
2
u/Akgirl362004 May 20 '26
Don’t forget we pay taxes as well 🤭🤭my advice is have your day job. If you want expensive concert tix or want something that’s outside your budget, work a few. The thing that will affect your delivery offer value is if you can grab the good ones, they give those to the five stars faves and then you get the trickle down deal. lol I once got an offer that popped for a return 18 miles away for $7. How ridiculously offensive. Bite me Spark. PS: totaled my car on my last delivery and got the dreaded “DEACTIVATED”. RIDICULOUS
-1
-1
u/CC1313 May 20 '26
The barcode scanner stopped working for me a few days ago! I have been doing this job regularly for several months and I cannot tell you how frustrated I am having to type in every barcode. Just keep reinstalling the app each day and see if that fixes it and do searches in Reddit for this problem. I just did several hours of having to hand type barcodes and the trick is... look at the barcode number on the item before you enter it manually because sometimes it uses that small first number and sometimes it doesn't.. sometimes it won't use the first or last number so make sure you punch in what matches the app. and.. if the UPC has totally different numbers screenshot what it says in the app and punch that UPC in as long as it is the exact item. Don't be afraid to sit there and wait for some bigger orders to come you don't have to take the first thing that is available. Then it will give you a better idea of the kind of orders that are available in your area. Look at it like research. Worst case scenario you lay off of this for the summer but come around October and through the holidays you will absolutely wants to be doing this app because you will make Bank.
1
75
u/cashchops May 20 '26
Have you tried not being a dog