Virtual Dispatch

Couriers make money with completed deliveries. Once upon a time, brick and mortar merchants, held the reins on the hot fresh food delivery game. Couriers were employees that drove deliveries under a brand name.

It was a pizza deal. Furthermore, in some places, pizza was the only delivery available for dinner. To be fair, there was more than one flavor of pizza delight. And couriers were still employees. Toiling under a brand name, and making deliveries for the boss.

As the delivery apps began to take hold, more and more merchants were able to expand into the delivery market. Thereby increasing their own customer base, through delivery. It was less expensive than hiring couriers. However, it yielded the same results.

New Boss

Imagine that, all the dough, none of the expense. Talk about a profitable business model. With all of this benefit, merchants have improved their systems. Delivery accuracy is much greater and timely deliveries are becoming the standard. This creates an opportunity, for the courier.

Speaking of the courier. Times have changed and things are different than when that first pizza went down the road back in 1889. Furthermore, the amount of in-house delivery crews, did not expand as the delivery apps, boomed.

The good news is there are a lot of couriers working! That is a positive indicator in many ways. However, who are these couriers working for? Who’s the boss? Who is calling the shots and taking the ultimate responsibility? We need to know if the new boss is really the same as the old boss.

Experienced couriers that have more than one tax season under their belt, know exactly where this train of thought is going.

The part about calling the shots and taking the ultimate responsibility is important for this new boss. This applies to the courier at tax time, especially. At the end of the year the courier will be responsible for paying the taxes on all the income gained through an app.

The good news is the apps know this and try to offer things that will help the courier at tax time. The bad news is the new boss might be the same as the old boss. More on tax time for the courier, in the next article. In the meantime, stay safe out there.