Reddit mentions: The best commercial trash bags & liners

I have a been doing Doordash in Downtown Vancouver, Canada on bicycle for awhile now. Here's a couple takeaways;


Your questions;

-The delivery distances are generally shorter, usually less than <3 miles (<4.82km), however you can and will be bounced from pretty deep in the West End (Nando's and Juke for example) on Davie out of the Downtown zone to Canada Post over by Commercial & East Hastings. Another one is delivering from Downtown to somewhere around South Granville or Shaughnessy, you either have to suck it up and go over the Granville bridge directly or take a more circuitous route.

-Per delivery payment is the same, however in my experience compared to a car or a scooter / motorcycle you will get up to 40%~ less orders on average. You'll also get way less stacked orders and I think there's a hard limit of two (2) at a time for anything without a motor.

-I don't believe you need to open a second Dasher account, I thought you could talk with the gentleman at the Dowtown office and they can just switch your vehicle type around. Doesn't hurt to ask them, even if they are pretty overworked most of the time.


General comments;
-E-Bikes are pretty nice, however doing deliveries on a bicycle are a pretty fundamental lifestyle change from doing it with a car. If you can afford the inconvenience I would try doing a handful of deliveries first on a normal bike before you commit a not insignificant amount of money to a good E-Bike and everything that entails.

-Invest in a good lock, anti-tamper system (Pinhead for example) and register the bike you do buy with garage 529 at any local community police centre. Bike theft is unfortunately a chronic issue in Vancouver and its not going to change - Take reasonable steps to protect your property.

-Consider getting a rear or front rack that can handle a caddy for drinks. It might not be perfect, but the algorithm with sadistic pleasure will send you on coffee runs to Waves with alarming regularity during 7am - 12pm. Otherwise you'll probably need to decline those orders as without at least a cardboard drink handler to put in your thermal bag it's a gamble if those drinks make it intact.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006ICOT/

-Cycling in traffic is dangerous, don't ever forget it, always remain focused and try to mentally route yourself along streets like Hornby, Union, E Pender and Haro whenever possible to minimize your exposure to serious traffic.

-Generally your overall margins are higher due to not having to pay insurance, gas, parking and basic maintenance you will need to learn yourself. But your total revenues will be much lower, whether that trade off is worth it is up to you.

I wish you the best of luck out there, stay safe.

This is one of those youtube influenced marketing things. For a home hobby detailer, the "cart" is their driveway or a cabinet in the garage, stack a few free five gallon buckets in the work space. Towels, sponges and applicator pads can go inside. Spray bottles can hang off the outside rim. But selling a system is far more profitable, it gets customers to buy products and services they might not otherwise buy.

If you consider this adam's detail cart. Each shelf is only rated for 44lbs. On the other hand something like this rubbermaid cart which gets battle tested by janitors, warehouses, etc and has accessories for tool and bottle caddies.

There is value in having one of these carts for full time detailers so they have all the equipment they need right next to them for labor efficiency. For the home hobbist or low volume this bottle caddy might be better.

Eventually you can get the rubbermaid service cart and this caddy can sit on the top shelf.

As for how a cart is organized, what chemicals, towels and pads you keep on it is dictated by the type of services you most frequently do. Our system is glass cleaner & APC bottles hang off the lip of the cart, tire dressing bottles in a caddy, the applicator brushes in a tray. Dirty towels on the top shelf as well, when a detailer finishes a car they take the dirty towels to washers. Washers clean and fold the towels.

Wax, interior dressing and leather conditioner on middle shelf in individual 16 oz squeeze bottles. Bottom shelf is for 1 gal bottles of the glass cleaner, interior dressing. Wax and leather get kept in the store room where customers can't steal it.

Clean towels are on a separate rack

I paired this https://www.therestaurantstore.com/items/231065 with this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006ICOT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 . The caddie fits perfectly and you can put cold packs underneath. This caddie can only effectively hold large drinks, however. But I find it still useful for most drinks and any items that need to be cold like salads, etc.

Use the hotbag to prevent your car smelling like delicious food you aren't allowed to eat. Make sure the customer always sees the food coming out of the hotbag to get your 5 stars.

And use something like this to keep drinks stable. Put the carrier in the backseat and buckle it up.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006ICOT/

I got mine on Amazon, it's meant to be a cleaning caddy for pine sol bottles and stuff but it works great as a cup holder, especially for big fast food drinks.

https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Commercial-Deluxe-Cleaning-FG315488BLA/dp/B00006ICOT/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=plastic+cleaning+caddy&qid=1562385742&s=gateway&sr=8-3

If the link doesn't work, just search plastic cleaning caddy on Amazon.

I got this drink holder on amazon for $10. My car only has 2 cup holders and one of them usually has my drink in it, so I keep this one on the passengers seat for when I have multiple orders with drinks. The free drink holder that restaurants will give you (when they haven’t already run out) doesn’t support drinks well and they’ll tip over if I make a tight turn or hit potholes/speed bumps.

Agreed, I wouldn't bother trying to find a backpack that claims to be waterproof as it most probably isn't.

Instead just put everything that you want to stay dry in one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Brute-Super-Tuff-Compactor-kitchen/dp/B00GF1DO4W. Weighs and costs almost nothing.

Alternatively if you want to spend and carry a bit more you could get some dry sacks, for example: https://seatosummitusa.com/products/ultra-sil-dry-sack. These are also good for organising the contents of your pack.

Assuming you are carrying multiple drinks, something like this bolted to a shelf in the back may work: Drink carrier tray I would think the drinks would be flat after a scooter ride though. Who orders drinks on DoorDash anyway? Durp.

Or maybe something like this over your shoulder? cooler thingy

This is the caddy

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006ICOT?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

And fits perfectly in this bag

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071ZNFVMD?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

Not bad at all.

Remember to decline shitty offers, and orders from restaurants that are slow and waste your time. Wingstop, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebees, and Cheesecake Factory have the worst reputations for making dashers wait. But in my area Buffalo Wild Wings aren't bad. So up to you if you wanna give the others a chance.


And when you have multiple orders you can deliver them in any order you want.

Also, if you get a fast-food red card order, sometimes there is another location much closer than the one DD is trying to send you to. So in those cases it pays to check and then go to the closest location.

Also, you should totally buy yourself one of these to make it way easier to deliver orders with multiple drinks.

Lastly, get the Stride app for tracking your mileage and deductions.

Good luck and drive safe.

I have one of these with some strip insulation on it to hold the drinks in better since this is actually fitted cleaner bottles.

Rubbermaid Commercial Deluxe Carry Cleaning Caddy, Black (FG315488BLA) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006ICOT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_dL8zDbTS8GP5E

It might be these ones. They're the closest I could find appearance-wise to the ones I usually get in the shops.

Bought this. Works great. $10. Rubbermaid Commercial Deluxe Carry Cleaning Caddy, Black (FG315488BLA) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006ICOT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_skkpDb9GJWAW1

We line our food waste caddy in the kitchen with these food waste bags, which biodegrade, they could work for your dogs’ poop.

Catsan I’ve found is the best litter. I’m not sure how eco the litter itself is (it’s clay based), but our set up has the litter tray next to the toilet in our en suit so we just flush any presents when they’re left/ we find them. The main downside to this is that some times you’ll get a few floaters that won’t flush and when they do get water logged enough they leave a nasty stain at the bottom of your loo :|