Lyft wants to deliver your prescriptions!
Houston, Texas – Drivers in Houston received a text message today about a “new type of earning opportunity”.
“Lyft is partnering with ScriptDrop (Rx delivery platform) to ease the prescription pickup process for people. As a Lyft driver in this effort, you’ll need to onboard to our partner’s platform, which requires a quick on-boarding session and a short sign-up process”.
So how does this work and how much do you get paid?
Well, when you are online and accepting rides, you will receive a ping with the name “ScriptDrop”. At that point, the “ride” will start. It will then end “once you reach the pharmacy.”
After your ride ends, you should of received a text that takes you to ScriptDrops app. From there, you will pickup the prescription and deliver it to the patient. After you have completed to drop off, you will be able to log back into Lyft to accept more pings.
This is in beta testing and I am sure the process will become smoother with time. As for pay, I am not too excited about this. Why? The app will find the closest driver to the pharmacy and according to the text message, beta delivery will be near “uptown” So, already a limted area. Sure, at first, you may get some longer rides “to the pharmacy” if no drivers are available in Uptown, but as more and more drivers sign up for delivery (if we have learned anything, Lyft will eventually turn this on for every driver, whether they like it or not, just like Uber did with UberEats) But sooner or later, you will probably end up doing minimum rides to the closest pharmacy, which I am sure will include, Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, etc. and other nationally recognized brands, which means more locations, and less driving to the pharmacy. So, think, $2.44 to the closest pharmacy, plus whatever ScriptDrop wants to pay you. (I do not see more than $5 a run) I also do not foresee people tipping their medicine courier. ScriptDrop sounds like it is requesting rides, similar to gogograndparent, we know companies requesting rides for their customers, will not tip, 99.9% of the time. I am estimating the average payout to be $7-$8. If the whole process takes less than 30 minutes, it is worth it, but if it takes longer, I will probably pass these pings up. I do enjoy delivery, but I also need money. Not to mention, delivering medication is a bit riskier than food, in my opinion. Some of these pills can cost hundreds of dollars and of course, there are federal laws that regulate prescriptions, (especially controlled substances) for a reason. Deliver to the wrong person? That could be bad. I feel, we should be compensated properly for that risk. Of course, this probably won’t be taken into account and maybe we are limited on what we can pick up and deliver. All of these questions would be good to ask at the orientation.
The first orientation is on a weekday. I am not able to attend due to other commitments and the short notice. For the beta testing, it will only be done during business hours as well. If you end up attending, please let me know how it goes either @RideshareHouston on Facebook, or in the comments below. Specifically, I am looking to see how much ScriptDrop will pay. I am going to try to go to another orientation (given they provide a bit more than a 24 hour notice). Once I do, I will update here.