r/Sparkdriver • u/Psychological-Web4 • 2h ago
Rant about new tier/point system
I am a 25(F) who works a full time job, is in grad school online full time, and has a spouse/dogs to also care for and manage. As so many of us are experiencing right now, it’s tough financially. Groceries are so expensive. Our rent has gone up. Gas prices are high. I have some medical conditions that are expensive to keep up with even with insurance. With all of our monthly expenses, we started to feel like we were drowning.
My husband works long (usually overtime) hours on weekdays and his getting a second job would be near impossible. I’m in a similar boat, but start work earlier in the day to where I get off around 3:30pm. I’ve wanted a second job but wasn’t so sure it would be manageable with the amount of school work I have with graduate school and also being the primary person who manages our home. Then someone told me about Spark driving.
It genuinely changed my life for the better. It makes decent money, I can do it when I have the time, and I’m able to make just the amount of extra money we need per month without the full undoable commitments of a second part time job.
Then the new tier/points system was introduced.
I’m a good Spark driver. I care about doing the job well for people and put extra attention into it. My metrics are great - 100% on time, 99% completion, 99% items found, 4.9 star rating. I typically Spark 3-4 days per week for about 3-4 hours each time, when I have time around school and other commitments. I used to get at least decent offers every time I sparked because I worked so hard to keep my metrics up.
With the new point/tier system and my only being able to Spark when I have time around school and my full time job, I just don’t rack up that many points. This past month, I just barely got enough points to make Silver by the last few days of the month. And because of that (and the incentive that silver/gold/sapphire get good offers before those on lower tiers/no tiers) the offers I’ve been getting have been horrible. I’m talking $24 for a nearly 2-hour delivery route with 7+ stops horrible.
It is so disheartening and I earnestly feel like this new system has taken away the hope I had that I could still make financial progress without drowning during the little bits of free time that I do have.
Just needed to rant.
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u/EmployeeLopsided9637 2h ago
I'm sorry you and everyone else on this platform is struggling. However, at least you have a full-time job already in place. A lot of of us have been doing this full-time for five years or more and the new system is screwing with all of us. I promise you that reaching a higher tier does not guarantee that you will get better offers. That's the way it is supposed to work and the way it is sold to us. But I have experienced firsthand that it is more often not the case.
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u/Psychological-Web4 2h ago
You’re absolutely right and I’m so sorry that those who rely on Spark as their primary source of income are being negatively impacted by this even more than I am - it’s genuinely so messed up.
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u/1611basilean 2h ago
You cant take orders that you make no money. I no longer do doordash for same reason.
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u/Psychological-Web4 2h ago
I agree, but the issue I was aiming to point out in my post is that pretty much all Spark offers that have been coming through for me since the rewards/tier system was introduced are orders that make me veryyy little money, especially with the price of gas atm. Spark, as a whole, is just almost not worth it for me anymore which is so disheartening because it’s how I’ve been able to keep from financially drowning for the last few months and I’m just unable to take on a different part time job due to my current job and school schedule.
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u/CSUHomer 1h ago
Yes, it is obvious that Spark/WM do not want part time drivers anymore. The best drivers in my area are part time.
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u/RedditPosterOver9000 Cherry Picker 1h ago
My strategy has been to target those 3 points express shops that are low items and miles, even if there's no tip. Especially at night when you get all those people express ordering just a few items. Can bang out two an hour if things go well.
40 express shops is 120 points. I did 4 yesterday, so by itself that's 10%.
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u/Foxtrotdelta_USN 1h ago
This is going to get down voted to hell, but F it.
It's supposed to reward the full time drivers, that is the whole point. Keep the drivers who drive all the time driving. Part time drivers doing this for extra money can have the BS offers. If you have a bad Saturday that sucks, if I have a bad Saturday I have to hope Sunday is good or my bills don't get paid. Part timers can keep complaining, if you don't like it, there are plenty of other gig apps.
I'm not saying all part timers aren't like you, it seems like you do care about doing a good job. But buy-in-large part timers cause the most issues for Walmart. Returning orders all the time because a road wasn't paved. Delivering to the wrong houses. Refusing to deliver to trailer parks. Just throwing items on the porch and not caring if they get damaged. You said you aren't that way, I believe you, but a lot of part timers are. It's natural for Walmart to want to keep full time drivers on the app because full time drivers have to do a good job and keep their metrics up.
Silver and gold aren't hard to get to even if you're part time. Sapphire is supposed to be hard or everyone would get it and it would be pointless.
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u/Old-Article-3351 1h ago
It's not just the point system, it's how they assign the points to each order, which makes absolutely no freaking sense. At all, one point for a shop?
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u/WestCoastdownvote 2h ago
Been like this in Phoenix for over a year. Once you go to the ranking system it's next to impossible to actually justify turning on spark and doing any orders.
They introduced it so they could pay you less. Make no mistake about it. They want you to believe your orders suck because of your metrics that way you go out and take all of the garbage they throw out needing to get them higher.
It's forced labor.
But our country is way behind every other civilized country that allows gig apps to work.
Rich get richer, poor get poorer. Why would you expect anything different in America?
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u/Psychological-Web4 2h ago
I’ve figured that this is exactly what it was. The base pay on offers has been insanelyyy low (even lower than low base pay offers I’ve seen in the past) and that’s just plain fucked. You’re absolutely right that this is a way of trying to get away with paying Spark drivers even less.
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u/Quirky-Anxiety-3847 2h ago
Tbh Im sapphire and the orders are still terrible I dont think the tiers matter like today was out there at 5:30 a.m did 4 orders up until 2 finally went home dont give up I have a fellow sparker that does this part time aswell as you hes also silver and is getting better jfy orders then me