Key Takeaways
- Gopuff delivers a wide range of items, including groceries and alcohol, directly from local warehouses.
- Customers place orders on Gopuff’s app, paying a flat delivery fee for quick service.
- Independent drivers earn by delivering Gopuff orders, with flexible scheduling and immediate payouts.
- Gopuff operates across many U.S. cities, offering efficient delivery from centralized locations.
What Is Gopuff?
Gopuff is an online one-stop outlet for groceries, cleaning supplies, electronics, alcoholic beverages, and other product categories. It’s a neat way to get last-minute items quickly, such as a crucial weekend dinner ingredient.
Your Gopuff order is delivered to your doorstep straight from one of the micro-fulfillment centers in the country for $3.95. The process itself is seamless since Gopuff employs packers at those centers, freeing delivery partners to focus on customers.
For people seeking work, Gopuff is a grassroots-focused employer of independent, full-time, and part-time workers with access to employment benefits such as driver’s leave, paid sick leave, and safe time.
As a Gopuff worker, the short delivery distances mean less wear and tear on your delivery car, and you won’t have to worry about possible parking tickets.
The company stands out for its centralized pickup location and the availability of a vast range of items. For drivers, there’s the potential to earn more on trips that require more effort.
Brett’s Take: Thoughts From an Expert
One of the biggest things that separates Gopuff from other delivery services is that the company owns, stores, and sells its own merchandise.
They operate their own network of warehouses, and their network of drivers picks up the items to be delivered directly from there.
Other delivery services are simply a platform on which restaurants sell food and products, giving a cut for each transaction to the platform.
With this model, Gopuff can cut out the middle man, sell at lower prices, and make more money as a company.
How Does Gopuff Work?
You can join Gopuff via the official website, where you have to sign up for an account first. You can access the storefront and order snacks, drinks, and items in several categories.
How Gopuff Works For Shoppers
Using Gopuff as a customer is simple, and works similar to most other delivery services:
- Placing an Order: Check if Gopuff delivers to your area, then add items to your cart. Ensure your order meets the minimum requirement of $12.95. Enter your payment details and delivery address, then place the order.
- Pickup Process: After placing an order, a driver is assigned to pick up your items from a warehouse and deliver them to you.
- Delivery Time: Delivery typically takes 15 to 20 minutes, but this can vary based on demand and driver availability. The app will notify you of any delays.
- Delivery Dropoff: Gopuff offers contactless delivery for most items, leaving them at your specified location. However, for alcohol deliveries, you must be present with an ID.
- After Delivery: While there’s no rating system for drivers, you can tip them using your card during checkout or in cash at delivery.
While adding items to your cart, you can check the delivery location to see if the product is available at a nearby Gopuff warehouse. You’ll have to provide an ID when buying alcohol.
Order cancellation isn’t a hassle either; you can do it anytime before packing starts. You’ll only be required to contact support directly if it’s been an hour since your delivery was packed and you still haven’t received it.
After you’re done shopping, you can proceed to checkout and make payments using credit and debit cards, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Gopuff doesn’t accept cash payments.
It’s available in several cities across all 50 states, including Washington, D.C. Several micro fulfillment centers are operational 24/7, and even locations that don’t provide round-the-clock delivery still operate until late.
This makes Gopuff the emergency delivery service of choice for students and other users who often need access to delivery services at late hours.
How Gopuff Works For Delivery Partners
To use Gopuff as a delivery driver, head to a fulfillment center and get ready to complete the orders for customers’ grocery shopping.
Ensure you’re online on the app, wait to receive orders, and confirm their details before delivering them.
Then, retrieve the appropriate package from the binning area and deliver it to happy customers.
If you have to reach out to a customer via phone, rest assured that Gopuff takes privacy very seriously and will not reveal your phone number. The same applies vice-versa.
If there’s any issue with the order, reach out to the support team via the application. They handle cancellations based on the situation.
How Can You Earn on Gopuff?
Gopuff provides part-time, full-time, and independent contractor employment opportunities to prospects. There are two main ways to make money.
1. Prescheduled Delivery
Gopuff’s flexibility means you can pre-arrange when you’re available to take orders and work. Similar to Amazon Flex, this works through scheduling delivery blocks. To pre-schedule deliveries:
- Open the Gopuff delivery app and access your driver account options
- Go to “Schedule”
- View the available blocks for the present and coming week
- Choose your preferred block based on your work availability
- Swipe right to “Request Hours”
New driver schedules are updated regularly, so you can check if your block delivery request was successful.
Similar to Grubhub, drivers aren’t guaranteed to get all the blocks they requested. This is often because of competition from other Gopuff delivery partners for the same blocks.
In such cases, Gopuff considers your delivery, reliability, and consistency in completing gigs over the previous four weeks when assigning blocks.
2. Deliver On-Demand
Gopuff also works as an on-demand service, so if you want flexibility, this is the way to go. Whenever you’re free to work, you can go online on the Gopuff app and wait to receive orders.
You can also manage your weekly schedule, keep track of your earnings, and contact support if you’re in need.
How Much Can You Earn as a Gopuff Driver?
Unlike other delivery platforms that pay you per hour, Gopuff offers guaranteed earnings to its delivery partners that opt to run prescheduled deliveries in certain markets.
This is similar to the DoorDash guaranteed earnings incentive and ensures you’ll go home with a minimum cash amount each day, regardless of demand.
But unlike DoorDash, this incentive isn’t capped. With Gopuff, you can earn more than your guaranteed earnings amount and keep your tips as well.
The company also tops off drivers’ weekly wages—before tips—to ensure they can attain guaranteed earnings for their respective markets.
As for your earnings, they comprise a variable base pay, tips, and boosts. The base pay is what you earn on completed deliveries and is determined by the effort and time taken to complete them.
When demand spikes in your market, you may get bonuses called boosts, which are communicated via in-app notifications.
If you’re looking for a delivery service to work for and be capable of predicting earnings and planning for expenditures ahead, Gopuff is an ideal choice.
How Can You Become a Gopuff Driver?
The requirements to work for Gopuff are similar to those of DoorDash drivers and other delivery gig workers. You must:
- Be at least 21 years old
- Own a valid U.S. driver’s license
- Have vehicle insurance in your name
- Own a smartphone capable of accessing regular app updates from Google Play and App Store
- Pass a motor vehicle record and criminal background check processed through Checkr
Related: How to become a Gopuff driver
Other Gopuff Earning Opportunities and Reward Programs
As for extra earning opportunities and reward programs, Gopuff has several offerings.
For Shoppers
Shoppers can benefit from these:
Gopuff FAM
Gopuff FAM is a subscription-based plan for Gopuff shoppers. For $7.99 monthly, it grants access to several benefits, including:
- A guaranteed 30% discount on over 100 everyday items
- Access to exclusive weekend deals
- Free deliveries and zero-added fees
Puff Points
Gopuff delivers Puff Points to shoppers across different markets with special Puff Points Rewards Products purchases.
If you earn enough, you’ll be able to unlock rewards to be redeemed upon your subsequent order. You should note that these products don’t come with free delivery.
For Workers
As a Gopuff delivery partner, you can look forward to:
Tax Season Partnerships
For the 2023/24 tax season, Gopuff has partnered with various institutions to provide delivery drivers with resources and support.
The partnership with Upside means that you can save at least $0.15 per gallon on your next five gas fill-ups.
You can earn cashback at over 45,000 businesses with promotions at participating gas stations, restaurants, and grocery stores.
With OpenBay, you can save up to 25% on car maintenance and repair. There are also partnerships with Stride, Combined-Chubb, Block Advisors, and TurboTax.
Full- and Part-Time Employment
Presently, Gopuff offers an opportunity for its drivers, delivery workers, and just about any other qualified individual to work in high-level positions in a full- or part-time or temporary capacity.
Some of the open roles are available in:
- Distribution centers
- Corporate retail
- Field operations
- Finance and Accounting
- Marketing
- Merchandising
- Tech, Product, and Design
Wrapping Up
Gopuff is one of the most reliable platforms for shoppers looking to satisfy late-night cravings and get speedy delivery for essential supplies, including alcohol delivery service.
Unlike other services, Gopuff’s delivery partners don’t have to go to different stores, which only drives up the delivery cost. Instead, they pick up the items from one of Gupuff’s many micro-fulfillment centers.
For drivers, Gopuff is a flexible and convenient platform to work on: there’s no need to worry about which restaurant to go to or the location of your next ride, the onboarding process is easy, and you can quickly start earning.
As an ordinary user, you can count on Gopuff to bail you out of tight spots, especially if you’re on a budget.
