UberEats is a food delivery service which boasts having 24/7 availability in London. So, being someone who is into pushing themselves to the limit, I decided to take on the challenge of working a full 24 hours straight, accepting every incoming request (apart from pizzas!) and not going offline even for a minute. Here's a brief summary of how it all panned out and a full video of it all unfolding.
I decided to pick a weekday to attempt the challenge. This was down to various reasons. Mainly because I usually work weekends and I didn't want to screw myself up too much. I also wanted to get it done as soon as possible because it's getting colder by the day in England now.
I set off at a tactical timing of 3:40pm. This wasn't down to laziness. I've done many ultracycling rides and it makes a lot more sense to have the darkness in the middle of the ride. If you start early in the morning, by the time it gets dark your body and brain start telling you to go to sleep. This makes the entire night stretch a complete and utter torture chamber. By starting in the mid-afternoon you give yourself some momentum to smash through the darkness and cold and then finish with renewed energy in the morning sunlight.
My bike at 4am in New Spitalfield's Market - the biggest fruit & veg market in Europe - and me after about 20 hours awake
The ride started off quite slow as I headed into central London. My first delivery was from a McDonald's which are notorious for having leaky drinks. Not only that, but the post code and pin for the drop-off address was incorrect too. Not the best start but you roll with the punches in this job. As the evening drew in, the volume of orders picked up as people got their dinners kindly delivered to them by those hard-working folks out in the cold. This kept me busy and distracted from the time passing by. Before I knew it I was a fair few hours in and had a decent amount of money in my pocket.
By the time it got to 10pm, the rush had died down. I found myself taking my first proper break, tucking into an apple & raspberry pie on the edge of the inner ring road of London. As my house is within the delivery zone, I decided to make my way home. The temperature was set to fall to 2 degrees Celsius overnight so I didn't really fancy standing around doing nothing or - even worse - getting dragged further from the sanctuary of home by long deliveries going in the opposite direction. I had also witnessed someone having their mobile phone stolen during rush hour at London Bridge. These crimes are notorious in London at the moment so it was another factor for wanting to be in a safer area.
The night was surprisingly busy. I live about 2.5km from a 24-hour McDonald's so I found myself heading to & from there often. It was actually very relaxing to be cruising through the empty streets and calmly handing over food to sleepy people in darkened doorways. The one thing that did suck was riding back towards home after completing deliveries. Multiple times I would turn onto my street, or even get all the way to my door, before a new request would come in and I would be whisked away. Unfortunately, I had brewed a rejuvenating and warming tea which got neglected for about an hour whilst I was stuck out in the night chill.
Half-way check-in and the coldest I've been in a while
As the Sun began to rise, I began to feel my energy levels come back. Renewed optimism filled my mind. I knew I'd be able to complete the task at hand. I saw about 30 foxes throughout the night. One of them perched on top of a wall next to one of the drop-off addresses. Spotting those guys kept me a little bit more alert and less lonely.
After almost falling asleep on my sofa watching a Tone Vays stream, I was jerked back to reality by a loud notification of a new delivery request. It was a McDonald's and a 4.2km (2.6 mile) ride away. It was now time to head into central London for the last 8 hours of this ordeal. Coffee seemed like a popular choice from customers. Fortunately for me, the lids of the cups were a lot more secure than those used for the soft drinks. I dreaded pulling out a sodden bag of morning coffee. That would have surely led to an irate individual. I avoided that situation manifesting into my reality.
As the day progressed and the temperatures rose, I ended up stuck on the Isle of Dogs surrounded by towering banking buildings and an awful maze of quays and pedestrianised areas. Not a good place to be when you're sleep deprived. I kept getting drawn back to the same café and it was making me go crazy. Locating new restaurants that I had never been to was a real struggle too. I just wanted to be in the streets that I knew the best a few kilometres westward but Uber seemingly had other plans for me.
The torment eventually ended and I had a pretty slow end to the shift. I managed to find the time to enjoy a vegan banana caramel milkshake and pick up some shopping whilst there was a huge lull in delivery requests. However, just before I could call it a day I had two back-to-back orders taking me south of the river and adding quite a lot of distance to my ride. After those, it was finally time sign out, finalise the stats then get home, feast and sleep. Ironically, I got stopped by the police and fined £50 for crossing through a red cycling light as I was almost home. A tax, of sorts.
Canary Wharf and the breakdown of my 24 hours online
As you can see, I made a quite a nice chunk of change. This equates to about US$257 or 229EUR at current exchange rates. When you divide it by 24 hours it ain't as pretty. It works out at an hourly wage of £8.34 / US$10.73 / 9.53EUR. However, working with Uber is a bit strange. I wasn't doing deliveries for all of this time. I was merely 'on call' for new requests. I spent a lot of it sitting at home drinking tea with my cat, riding to more desirable areas, shopping for food to eat afterwards or snacking at restaurants. So, effectively I was paid to do all of those non-delivery activities, if you are using the 'per hour' breakdown. Luckily riding a bicycle doesn't have many overheads either. You could argue increased calorie consumption is a highly inefficient fuel source though.
This was the final map and stats of my ride
237km (147.5 miles) is quite a big ride by anyone's standards. The psychological and physical wear & tear of riding in the city is definitely worse than the same distance out in the flat outback of Australia though. Stopping & starting at red lights, dodging pedestrians, locking & unlocking the bike, staying vigilant of thieves. It is a relief to get home from a long day of work. It also has a sense of accomplishment associated with it too. Using your body to generate value in society and having a pretty map to upload at the end of the day.
For those who want to see the video documentary, I filmed on my GoPro and iPhone throughout the ride and edited it into a video you can check out on YouTube:
Thanks for swinging by my post. More adventure content coming soon!
For now, you can follow me @ these places...
Social videos: YouTube.com/josephxkendrick
Social media: Instagram.com/josephxkendrick
Social training: Strava.com/athletes/josephxkendrick
BTC address: 1JeLDZe5SzBFRPfcRMTa8NoPBrehyASrWH