Our food ordering systems have become much more convenient, cost-friendly, and easier to navigate as the years progress.
Uber Eats and Postmates are no exception.
In 2019, the food delivery conglomerate added a new exciting feature to their app.
Known as Postmates Party, this feature makes bold claims that it helps users save time money and get their delicious food faster.
But, how does it work?
And how can you use it?
From understanding the ins and outs of this new feature to learning more about the Uber/Postmates acquisition and what this means for Postmates Party, we outline all of the details of this exciting new feature.
Read on to learn more below.
What Is Postmates Party?
Postmates Party is a feature on the Postmates app that allows customers to place orders in popular restaurants to receive lower fees and faster delivery.
Basically, if you are on Postmates Party, you can see if a specific restaurant is receiving many orders.
Postmates figures that since they have a driver there already, customers can jump on the party and place their orders with the others.
When you’re on the page, you have five minutes to complete the order from a customer standpoint.
Doing this ensures that you won’t put the other orders behind and guarantees a timely delivery for everyone involved.
Related: Uber Eats group orders and how they work for customers
Benefits of Postmates Party
There are various benefits to using the Postmates Party feature.
For one, it can help narrow down what restaurant you want to order from.
We’ve all been there, right?
You know you want to order food, but the sheer vastness of options overwhelms you, and before you know it, you’ve lost twenty minutes scrolling on your phone, and your rumbling stomach is getting even more rumbly.
With Postmates Party, users can go online and see the options narrowed down.
It’s the same idea as when Netflix assigns a random TV show for you to watch; sometimes, too many options are too many options.
Of course, the other benefits are a bit more obvious.
For one, opting into Postmates Party helps customers save money and time and can even help reduce carbon footprints.
Let’s explore these benefits in more detail below.
1. Save Money
Postmates Party helps users save money in one significant way: there are no delivery fees attached when you use Postmates Party.
And this is even the case during peak (otherwise known as Blitz) hours.
As any veteran food delivery orderer knows, apps rack up significant delivery fees, so wiping that off immediately reduces a large portion of the payment.
2. Reduce Delivery Time
Because drivers are collecting food from the same restaurant, theoretically, this should reduce your delivery time.
Often when drivers are on orders, they have to hop from restaurant to restaurant to pick up your item.
That means that if you place an order at a restaurant and the Uber driver picks up an additional restaurant, he may have to drive ten minutes all the way to the restaurant to pick up the second order.
With Postmates Party, your driver is only picking up from one restaurant.
In theory, this means that it will take much less time to get your order.
However, this does not account for times when the restaurant has fallen behind on its orders.
For example, say you placed an order with Postmates Party, and all orders except for one are ready.
That means the driver will have to wait for the final order to be completed before they can begin making the drop-offs.
Still, all of that is outside of Postmates control.
More often than not, you will see reduced delivery times when you participate in a Postmates party.
3. Reduce Carbon Footprint
Again, your driver does not have to drive around town to different restaurants to pick up his order.
That means that when you order from Postmates Party, your carbon footprint will be reduced because of the fewer miles that your driver will traverse.
How to Use Postmates Party
Postmates Party is only available during select times.
However, using the feature is relatively straightforward.
Simply go onto your Postmates delivery app, then follow the steps below.
- Open Postmates App
- Tap on the Postmates Party tab
- Discover trending restaurants
- You have 5 minutes to place the order, and you must join the party before time runs out.
- Complete your order with a $0 service fee
Because the Postmates delivery driver is already at the restaurant picking up other orders, Postmates Party capitalizes on this and allows you to sneak in another order to the bundle.
As a result, the delivery driver gets a more convenient bulk order, and you receive zero dollars in fees.
Postmates Party Availability
While Postmates Party is an exciting feature, unfortunately, it isn’t available at all times, nor is it available in every city yet.
Read on to learn more about the Postmates Party availability.
Where Is the Postmates Party Available?
Postmates Party is not available in every city.
In fact, the feature is not available in all cities where Postmates itself is offered, so just because you have access to Postmates doesn’t mean you automatically have access to the party feature and driver app.
For now, the cities where Postmates Party is available are as follows:
- Los Angeles
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Miami
- Chicago
- Seattle
- Las Vegas
- Phoenix
- San Diego
- Philadelphia
- Long Beach
- Orange County
Was Postmates Party Available at All Days/Hours?
Postmates Party is a feature designed to capitalize on busy restaurant orders and group orders.
As a result, the feature is not available during quiet hours.
Usually, people can access the party feature during blitz hours: lunch hours (11 am-1 pm) and dinner hours (5 pm-8 pm).
What Happened to the Postmates Party?
The Postmates Party feature is still available in select cities as per Postmates’ website.
Though Postmates Party isn’t available everywhere, it still is a feature available in some towns during specific times.
Again, because it is a feature that allows you to jump on trending restaurants, the feature is only available during peak hours.
Uber’s Acquisition of Postmates
You may have heard of the recent food delivery app Uber made an acquisition of Postmates in 2020.
This change brings many questions: will they keep the Postmates Party feature?
Will they use their Uber technologies to lower a delivery fee?
We can only wait and see how this affects Postmates.
Why Did Uber Buy Postmates?
Uber Eats delivery bought Postmates in 2020 to strengthen their delivery service and bring in much more revenue.
As the saying goes, if you can’t beat them, buy them.
What Will Uber’s Postmates Acquisition Mean for the Future of Food Delivery?
For one, it means that Uber Eats and the Uber platform will have much more delivery drivers at their disposal than they did before the merger.
As you may remember, Uber has struggled with driver shortages, and in this sense, the acquisition is a quick remedy.
On a greater note, the merger means much less competition in a somewhat hostile market.
And, if you’re a delivery driver, the new uber technologies and instant pay opportunities.
Whether or not the merger will be good for customers, we’ll have to wait and see.
Wrapping Up
The food delivery app Postmates Party is an excellent food delivery service that benefits both customers and ride eats drivers alike.
While the feature isn’t available everywhere, hopefully, it will expand into more cities across the nation.
Log into Postmates now to see if you can enter a Postmates Party today!
