How Far Will Instacart Deliver? (What You Need To Know)

Instacart is one of the best grocery delivery services that allows you to deliver groceries to people who may not want to go grocery shopping themselves.

Instacart can be a great side hustle for people to start if they want to make some extra money.

If you’re someone who already works for Instacart or is looking to work for Instacart you may be wondering, how far can you go on an Instacart delivery.

In this blog post we will go over how far you may go while taking an Instacart delivery.

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Here Is The Answer To How Far Will Instacart Deliver:

There doesn’t seem to be a limit of how far the request will be for a driver. Every Instacart shopper should have different expectation on delivery distances based on their market.

For example if the Instacart shoppers are located in a highly populated are with lots of stores, they can receive a lot of shorter distanced batches.

Does Instacart Pay By The Mile For Far Orders?

Instacart only pays for the distance after the shopping is done. So say you accept a batch from and the store is located 20 miles away, you will not be compensated for the drive to the store.

This is important to keep in mind when you decide to accept a delivery or not.

Does The Instacart App Give Shoppers Orders Based On Distance?

Instacart actually gives out batches based on rating. They give out batches to their best drivers first and if they don’t want to do do the batch they will give it to the next best person.

How Much Time is The Delivery Window For a Personal Shopper?

Depending on the order once you start your batch they will give you a timer on the bottom estimating how long it should take for you to do your shopping.

The times are usually reasonable and you should be able to finish shopping within that time.

How To Tell When a Batch is Worth It?

When considering whether a batch is worth it, there are many things to consider.

Mileage:

The mileage may not be worth it if the batch is too far.

Keep in mind the app only counts the mileage from the store to the customers house. So it’s up to you to make sure the stores distance is good.

If you get an order from a Shoprite in a further area and you have a Shoprite, you can actually go to the one closer to you. This also works for all the other stores in your area.

Traffic:

If traffic is bad the driver will have to spend time sitting in their car which will drive their dollar per hour down.

Busy Grocery Stores:

If there are a lot of people shopping at the grocery store, it may be hard for the driver to find parking and then have enough time to complete their batch.

Stay Away From The Deli Area:

The deli area is really busy and it will take a lot of time for the driver to go through all the line.

Although you have the option to consider whether a batch is worth it, the volume of batches is not as high as apps like doordash or uber eats.

Once you ignore a batch it can be a long time before you get another one.

Why You Shouldn’t Accept Far Away Batches On Instacart

There are a few reasons why you shouldn’t accept batches that are too far away from your current location. The first reason is that it will take you longer to get to the batch, which means that it will take longer to shop and complete the order. This could end up taking up more of your time than if you had just stayed closer to home.

Another reason is that you will likely have to drive further to get to the batch, which means that you will end up spending more money on gas.

Instacart Tips For New Drivers

Hit The i Button On Top Of The Order Once You Accept a Batch:

The i button stands for information. A lot of times the customer will leave specific instructions for the shopper and it’s important to follow them.

Two examples could be do not ring the doorbell or get organic products only.

This may help improve your odds at getting good tips if you follow all their requests correctly.

Custom Messages:

You can leave custom messages to the customer when you first accept their batch and when you’re leaving the store. This makes them comfortable with you which may also result in bigger tips.

Last But Not Least Be Polite:

Be polite to the customers and they will be more likely to leave a good tip.

Conclusion:

I hope this article helped you learn about Instacart deliveries, what people can expect for distances, and how you should approach accepting batches from long distance orders.

Take a look at this article about whether or not you can drive with Instacart with a past DUI.

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Also take a look at our other recent posts for more articles you may be interested in.

How Far Will Instacart Deliver? (What You Need To Know)
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