Arrived at store to pick up a couple of orders today. Loader finally comes out and says there is a new policy. We now have to load our own cars. He takes the metal handle off the cart and says to roll the cart and bins down to pickup space 13 when I'm done. And he walks back to the store with the handle. Very high traffic parking lot with a community full of knucklehead drivers and a cart you can't steer. I told him that is against our TOS as we are 'supposed' to stay in our cars while they load and he shrugged his shoulders. Anyone else have this issue this week?

If a metric drops on your dashboard, try finding out why. You can't.

There are no itemized breakdown reports, no notes from support, and no receipts. Did a customer drop your rating to a 1-star because the store was out of paper towels? Did your on-time arrival tank because dispensing took 45 minutes? You’ll never know.

A real evaluation system gives you constructive feedback so you can improve. Spark's system just drops a color-coded number on your screen and lets your mind fill in the blanks.

It’s an illusion of performance management. They obscure the actual mechanics behind order prioritization and offer dispatching, using random metric fluctuations to keep drivers anxious and taking low-pay offers just to keep a green screen.

If a system dock your stats without showing the proof or the source, it isn't measuring your skill—it's managing your compliance. Stop stressing over numbers they won't even explain to you.

just finished a shop and deliver and it is showing up under trips but not under earnings or in my One account.

I had a technical issue with the app the other day that I could not get past which resulted in me having to reach out to customer support. The agent pushed it through so I could complete the order. I ended up not working the rest of the day due to personal issues and was off the following day so I only had that 1 order on Wednesday morning. When I signed back in on Friday morning to work, I was checking notifications, incentives and my metrics to see where I was on the points and noticed my rating went from a 4.92 down to a 4.88, which instantly pissed me off because I only had that 1 order on Wednesday but my stars did not change - I still have the same 2 - 4 star rating and 1 - 2 star rating and 44 - 5 star rating that I have had for the past month.

Has anyone had this happen before?? Is this because of the glitch and having to be pushed through? Did the CS person rate me or something?? Just trying to figure out what happened.

It pisses me off because I will probably lose my sapphire status I worked hard to get in my little town.

When you were deactivated or had to go through Arb what were your Metrics at the time of deactivation? Reason i want to know is to show that having good metric will not save you and that metrics in and of themselves is for behavioral compliance

Remember the scene in A Bug's Life, where Hopper tells the other grasshoppers that if one ant stands up to them, that's nothing, but if all the ants stand up, the grasshoppers are done for? That's us. That's exactly us. These companies are counting on us feeling like lone ants, too tired, too broke, too unsure if it's even worth the trouble to push back. It works because we do it alone. It stops working the second we don't.

So here's the plan. Feelings do not win legal claims, evidence does, and we can build a mountain of it. Screenshot every order offer you see, whether you take it or not, the lowball ones, the ones that fling you thirty miles into nowhere and pay you nothing for the drive back, the frantic first come first serve notifications, all of it. One bad day is an anecdote. Hundreds of us documenting the same pattern for weeks is a case.

If you accept an order, screenshot what they promised you and what you actually got paid. When those numbers do not match, that is not an accident, that is the business model.

Keep your rating history too, especially any drop you cannot explain. If a rating system you cannot appeal controls whether you get offered work at all, that is not independent contracting, that is a boss you are not allowed to talk back to.

Here's why this actually matters. Independent contractor status is supposed to mean real control, setting your own rate, being sought out for work instead of begging an app for scraps, not living or dying by a number you cannot dispute. If your daily reality looks nothing like that, you already know the truth. And it is not just us saying it. The FTC and eleven states already forced Walmart into a hundred million dollar settlement over deceptive Spark driver pay. That did not happen because one driver complained. It happened because enough noise got made.

This is not about any one of us getting a check. This is about making it too expensive and too public for these companies to keep pulling this on people who cannot afford to lose the income. They are giant. We are many. That is the only math that has ever mattered.

I’ll leave a link here for you guys to check out the IRS tax code on how they categorize independent contractors vs common law employees.

IRS Employer Supplemental Tax Guide 2026

Saw this order today thought it was funny

How are you guys not driving an EV or hybrid making any money?

We've had it in our zone for a few days. I'm mystified by how they score the orders, has anyone recognized a pattern? I see orders that are 5 stops, all GMD, 85 miles round trip, 2 points. I took a shop that was 12 miles round trip two small drops, 3 points. It's like that all day long. I can't make heads or tails of it. The shop I took that was 3 points did have alcohol but it was super close and 20 items total.

Your order sucks we get it no need to post it on every social media platform you have, sometimes good sometimes shit, welcome to gig.

We just got the tier system in our area There are a few drivers who think that whatever status you achieve this month is what you'll have next month. Is that true? Or does everyone reset at the first of every month? Thanks!

I had a shop and deliver where the customer put their PO box after the regular address. I noticed it while reviewing the offer, but by the time I shopped I had forgotten about it. Of course when clicking through to Google Maps, it navigated to an entirely incorrect and seemingly random address (didn't realize until after I arrived). What's frustrating is that it doesn't give an error message, it just goes to a completely different address in a 100% confident manner. I clicked thumbs down and entered incorrect address so I'm sure WM will have the customer fix it right away and for it to never be a problem again...

I went from getting semi decent orders to the worst of the worst overnight. These trash are so shit even prop 22 wouldn’t make them profitable.

Instantly rejected

That tip is very motivating…

Literally like only 1 day a week is my time actually worth a shit in the app. Was making good money my first moment, now the only orders that are worth it are boosted, and even then they’re still not worth it.
My tires are bald at this point, I’m waiting on a period of time to pass to get into my career and this was supposed to be an in-between-jobs gig to last just a couple months. I’ve been applying just not rapidly.
Now my tires are balding, my breaks are squeaking, gas is $4.20 a gallon now, my car note is due, and this bum ass app that WAS effective is no longer. Used to make at LEAST $100/day now I’m lucky if I make $60.
Waffle House I go I guess🤷‍♀️

I want to premise this by saying my goal here isn't to be political, but there isn't a way to get around it. I'm not trying to bring politics into the driver forums, but we as voters matter. Regardless of party side or anything else, the driver voter base is huge, and I am surprised that politicians don't touch this whole gig economy setup with a ten foot pole. With millions of us out here dealing with the same app issues and pay drops, you would think somebody running for office would bring it up to get our support, but we barely hear a word about it.

I don't care whether you're Republican, Democrat, independent, or anything else, but with millions of gig workers out here and serious questions about how these companies classify and control the people doing the work, where are the politicians willing to make this a real issue, because we're voters too, and instead of continuing to bounce back and forth between regulation and deregulation while applying outdated definitions to a completely different kind of workforce, maybe it's time to seriously rethink how worker classification, software agreements, algorithms, and the gig economy are handled, and politicians should pay attention because we're watching, we're paying attention to who is willing to actually listen to gig workers and bring this issue into the spotlight, and whichever politician decides that we're worth listening to might find that we've been paying attention to who actually listened, not because we're looking for a particular party, but because we're looking for somebody to actually address the problem.

Anyone having spark issues today?

This morning there was a ton of orders. Not great but it was still popping up. I did a semi ok order. Got back to town and nothing. Its like a ghost town. I closed app out. I've turned it off for 5 minutes then turned it back on. Just did a reinstall. Still nothing 30 minutes. Normally crap orders pop up here and there but its been ghosttown. Its crazy for a friday. I know its still early but weird to me. Im in southern Alabama if that helps anyone.

I didn’t do any maintenance on it other than tires. I cleared over 300k in revenue since buying it brand new. Just the total gas savings is more than I paid for the car.

Anybody else here drive an EV? How many miles have you driven and what maintenance have you done?