# Grubhub Region Boundaries



## Launchpad McQuack

In order to get delivery requests from Grubhub, do you have to be within your region boundaries or are the region boundaries just for scheduled blocks? What happens if you go outside your region boundaries?


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## Tank_Driver

Yes, unfortunately region boundaries apply on GrubHub regardless of schedule.


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## oicu812

Launchpad McQuack said:


> What happens if you go outside your region boundaries?


You'll get a notification that you're outside your region boundaries. You won't get any orders.


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## Launchpad McQuack

If I pull up the map that has the region boundaries on it, there are a bunch of little rectangles of various colors (red, orange, etc.). What do those mean?


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## AuxCordBoston

Launchpad McQuack said:


> If I pull up the map that has the region boundaries on it, there are a bunch of little rectangles of various colors (red, orange, etc.). What do those mean?


The colors tell you how busy it is. You should head towards those areas.


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## Launchpad McQuack

AuxCordBoston said:


> The colors tell you how busy it is. You should head towards those areas.


For real? Or is it the equivalent of Uber's infamous, "You're in a busy area. Expect trips soon."?


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## Woohaa

You can grab blocks for a day, stay at your home and collect a full days pay without leaving your couch. This only works once though.


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## Launchpad McQuack

So in order to get the hourly guarantee, I assume that you have to stay within your region boundaries for the entire block?


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## AuxCordBoston

Launchpad McQuack said:


> So in order to get the hourly guarantee, I assume that you have to stay within your region boundaries for the entire block?


The hourly guarantee is not quite a guarantee. At least for me, if you schedule a block and receive no orders during that time period then in my market you get $12 per hr. So for a 2 hr block I would get $24. However I once got the contribution and then did rides off block and my guarantee went away. So I lost the $24.


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## Johnriii

I just got signed on to grubhub as a driver, and i'm just learning that my assigned region is very limited regarding delivery options. additionally, I jumped onto the scheduling option to see what was out there, and it's totally empty other than 9pm to 11pm. in and around Kansas City, they roll up the sidewalks at 10pm, so there is no surprise that those time slots are available. I'll stick with Doordash and Postmates, at least I can position myself for better options with them.


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## amazinghl

Johnriii said:


> I just got signed on to grubhub as a driver, and i'm just learning that my assigned region is very limited regarding delivery options. additionally, I jumped onto the scheduling option to see what was out there, and it's totally empty other than 9pm to 11pm. in and around Kansas City, they roll up the sidewalks at 10pm, so there is no surprise that those time slots are available. I'll stick with Doordash and Postmates, at least I can position myself for better options with them.


You do what's best for you.
FYI, when a new schedule block open up, the desired block are usually gone within 15 minutes.


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## Johnriii

and therein lies the problem. is there an exact time that the schedules come out? do you get a notification that new schedule blocks open? if they're gone within 15 minutes, chances are I'm sitting in my cubicle at my primary job when that happens.


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## amazinghl

Johnriii said:


> is there an exact time that the schedules come out?


Go to the GH app, go to Program Level, scroll down and look.


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## Johnriii

Yeah, I know how to do it, but apparently unless I'm watching the app non stop, the time slots are all gone. This week is full up through Thursday.


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## Launchpad McQuack

Johnriii said:


> is there an exact time that the schedules come out?


So was this a rhetorical question, then?


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## amazinghl

Johnriii said:


> Yeah, I know how to do it, but apparently unless I'm watching the app non stop, the time slots are all gone. This week is full up through Thursday.


At a specific day of week and a specific time, the apps allow you to sign up a week worth of schedule. No more, no less. Program Level tells you what that day and time is, set a alarm and be ready at that day and time.


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## blondebaedc

oicu812 said:


> You'll get a notification that you're outside your region boundaries. You won't get any orders.


I just started driving for GH and was wondering about this too. Interesting.

Also, what if I am scheduled for 4-5:30 and turn my availability on at 3:45 and turn it off at 5:15 ... does that negate the guarantee? Not that it seems to matter TBH ... I have to accept 75% of jobs to get the guarantee and they throw like 5 at a time at me before I've finished doing the one in my car. I'll never hit the 75% acceptance rate.


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## uberboy1212

Johnriii said:


> and therein lies the problem. is there an exact time that the schedules come out? do you get a notification that new schedule blocks open? if they're gone within 15 minutes, chances are I'm sitting in my cubicle at my primary job when that happens.


Check the schedule 15 minutes after a block starts (11-1 block check at 11:15 etc). Blocks are automatically forfeited if a driver doesn't sign in within 15 minutes. There's always blocks available when I do this



blondebaedc said:


> I just started driving for GH and was wondering about this too. Interesting.
> 
> Also, what if I am scheduled for 4-5:30 and turn my availability on at 3:45 and turn it off at 5:15 ... does that negate the guarantee? Not that it seems to matter TBH ... I have to accept 75% of jobs to get the guarantee and they throw like 5 at a time at me before I've finished doing the one in my car. I'll never hit the 75% acceptance rate.


You only get the guarantee for the hours you are scheduled for. Acceptance rate still counts against you even when you are off schedule which is BS.


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## blondebaedc

uberboy1212 said:


> You only get the guarantee for the hours you are scheduled for. Acceptance rate still counts against you even when you are off schedule which is BS.


Well, I did an order this afternoon that had a $25 tip attached to it, so the gaurantee was a moot point. GH is working out a lot better than UberEATS so far. I've already cleared over $100 in the last 3 days doing only after work hours & all local deliveries.


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## dlearl476

Launchpad McQuack said:


> For real? Or is it the equivalent of Uber's infamous, "You're in a busy area. Expect trips soon."?


Yes.

FWIW, the "busiest area" in my delivery area is the parking lot at my apt. complex. I get as many pings there as I do in any of their "Hot Spots for Lunch/Diner/Late Night".

My MO lately when I have a scheduled block is to log on, make coffee, and relax and drink it while I wait for a ping. Generally 30-45 min after I log on. Pretty much the same thing happens when I high-tail it to a "hot spot," without the coffee/relaxing bit.

PS: I'm sitting in a "hot spot" right now. Had errands to run and it's a 1.2 boost until 11:00 so I figured WTF. Not a single ping since 9:45.



amazinghl said:


> At a specific day of week and a specific time, the apps allow you to sign up a week worth of schedule. No more, no less. Program Level tells you what that day and time is, set a alarm and be ready at that day and time.


So easy a caveman could do it.



blondebaedc said:


> Well, I did an order this afternoon that had a $25 tip attached to it, so the gaurantee was a moot point. GH is working out a lot better than UberEATS so far. I've already cleared over $100 in the last 3 days doing only after work hours & all local deliveries.


Glad you finally got signed up.



AuxCordBoston said:


> The hourly guarantee is not quite a guarantee. At least for me, if you schedule a block and receive no orders during that time period then in my market you get $12 per hr. So for a 2 hr block I would get $24. However I once got the contribution and then did rides off block and my guarantee went away. So I lost the $24.


This is the reason I NEVER do GH off block. And I told my "Driver Specialist" that the first time I lost a guarantee after accepting a $7 delivery 3 minutes after my block ended.



blondebaedc said:


> Well, I did an order this afternoon that had a $25 tip attached to it, so the gaurantee was a moot point. GH is working out a lot better than UberEATS so far. I've already cleared over $100 in the last 3 days doing only after work hours & all local deliveries.


That's generally how it works for me. If I'm "working" for a guarantee anywhere other than my couch or my shop, I'm wasting my time. Over the 6 months I've done GH I've tried to figure out the blocks I can schedule where I make 2-3 times the guarantee. Doesn't always work, but it's close. The only exception is when I'm double dipping. Lunch in my area seems to be more of a UE thing than GH, so I schedule a couple of 11:00-2:00 blocks a week and soak up the $11/hr while I drive UE.


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## Launchpad McQuack

dlearl476 said:


> Yes.
> 
> FWIW, the "busiest area" in my delivery area is the parking lot at my apt. complex. I get as many pings there as I do in any of their "Hot Spots for Lunch/Diner/Late Night".


Yeah, I have since figured out how to decode their color system. Basically, the red squares are squares that have Taco Bells in them and the orange squares are squares that have Applebee's in them. It wasn't obvious to me at first because I didn't realize that the squares are laid out in a grid. Sometimes you look at a red square on the map and you think, "Why? There's nothing there." Then you realize that in the corner of the square just barely inside the square, there is a Taco Bell.


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## dlearl476

Launchpad McQuack said:


> Yeah, I have since figured out how to decode their color system. Basically, the red squares are squares that have Taco Bells in them and the orange squares are squares that have Applebee's in them. It wasn't obvious to me at first because I didn't realize that the squares are laid out in a grid. Sometimes you look at a red square on the map and you think, "Why? There's nothing there." Then you realize that in the corner of the square just barely inside the square, there is a Taco Bell.


The one red square in my area has a TB, a Panda, a Moooyah Burgers, a Rumbi, a Costa Vida, and a Firehouse Subs in it.

I can still sit there 45 minutes without a ping.


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## Launchpad McQuack

oicu812 said:


> You'll get a notification that you're outside your region boundaries. You won't get any orders.


Early this week I was driving primarily GrubHub and also had the Uber Eats app running. I dropped off a GrubHub order and immediately got an Uber ping from a restaurant that was right around the corner, so I accepted it. After I picked up the order, I found that it was a long delivery (~10 miles) so I turned off GrubHub while I was making the delivery. After I made the delivery, I was in an area that experience has taught me is pretty dead for Uber deliveries and I was well outside my GrubHub region boundaries. No reason to hang around here, so I started heading back (even though I usually try to avoid dead miles). Before I started, though, I turned GrubHub back on so that I wouldn't have to pull over to start it once I was back inside my region boundaries. I drove for about a mile, and then I got a GrubHub ping. Weird, I thought I was still outside my region boundaries. I pulled over and accepted it, and then I looked at the map. Yep, definitely still outside my region boundaries.

So the moral of the story is that you can receive pings while you are outside your region boundaries. I don't know how far. I was only 1-2 miles outside the boundaries when I got the ping, but I was definitely outside the boundaries. The restaurant was inside the boundaries.


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## dlearl476

Launchpad McQuack said:


> Early this week I was driving primarily GrubHub and also had the Uber Eats app running. I dropped off a GrubHub order and immediately got an Uber ping from a restaurant that was right around the corner, so I accepted it. After I picked up the order, I found that it was a long delivery (~10 miles) so I turned off GrubHub while I was making the delivery. After I made the delivery, I was in an area that experience has taught me is pretty dead for Uber deliveries and I was well outside my GrubHub region boundaries. No reason to hang around here, so I started heading back (even though I usually try to avoid dead miles). Before I started, though, I turned GrubHub back on so that I wouldn't have to pull over to start it once I was back inside my region boundaries. I drove for about a mile, and then I got a GrubHub ping. Weird, I thought I was still outside my region boundaries. I pulled over and accepted it, and then I looked at the map. Yep, definitely still outside my region boundaries.
> 
> So the moral of the story is that you can receive pings while you are outside your region boundaries. I don't know how far. I was only 1-2 miles outside the boundaries when I got the ping, but I was definitely outside the boundaries. The restaurant was inside the boundaries.


It must be the 1-2 mile thing. Once when I was double dipping, before I could schedule blocks when I first started, I accepted a UE delivery that was outside my boundaries by about 5 miles. At some point I got an "Outside Your Boundaries"notification from the GH app. I just ignored it.

My boundary kind of sucks. Its from the south end of town north about 20 miles. I'd much rather go south, where there are about 5 restaurants within 4 miles. North there's nothing for 6-7 miles, and I get pings from 10-15 miles more than I'd like.


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## amazinghl

I wish I can assign my region to exclude some area and restaurants.


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## dlearl476

When I first started, I told my Driver rep that I sometimes like to go drive in SLC on the weekends. She told me to drop her an email and she'd change my region. Since then boosts have ended up there so I've never bothered.

I've asked a couple of times to block a certain Taco Bell and a certain Denny's and they won't do it. I don't understand how 5/6 TBs in my region can be totally great and one to be a total cluster f*ck. Every single time


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## Wessock

Is there a place to see the different region boundaries on a map? I'm thinking of signing up but not sure which to chose not knowing what areas are covered. I'd prefer my local region that covers where I live, but none are named for my town and can't really tell by the region names which one I'm in or would want to chose. I live north of Philly in the suburbs and don't want to end up picking something too far away to make it not worth it.


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## dlearl476

Wessock said:


> Is there a place to see the different region boundaries on a map? I'm thinking of signing up but not sure which to chose not knowing what areas are covered. I'd prefer my local region that covers where I live, but none are named for my town and can't really tell by the region names which one I'm in or would want to chose. I live north of Philly in the suburbs and don't want to end up picking something too far away to make it not worth it.


Yes. Right there in the drop down menu, conveniently labeled "Region Boundaries." Go figure. :biggrin:


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## Wessock

Thanks. Again, I haven't signed up yet so don't have the app to look at the map. Is it visible without signing up and passing the checks etc. first?


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## dlearl476

Wessock said:


> Thanks. Again, I haven't signed up yet so don't have the app to look at the map. Is it visible without signing up and passing the checks etc. first?


It's not visible if you don't have the app. No. I imagine someone at Customer Support could tell you what it is. Or post a question in your city forum.

https://uberpeople.net/forums/Philadelphia/


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## Launchpad McQuack

dlearl476 said:


> Yes. Right there in the drop down menu, conveniently labeled "Region Boundaries." Go figure. :biggrin:


That's not what he asked for. He doesn't want to see the region boundaries of the region that he is signed up for. He wants to see the boundaries of several different regions so that he can decide which region to pick. As far as I know, the ability to do that does not exist. I looked for something similar before signing up but was not able to find it.

For what it's worth, I think some of the regions overlap. Sometimes I go to GrubHub's customer web site and put in local addresses to see which restaurants customers in certain areas are able to order from. I have found that for some delivery addresses that are inside my region boundaries, customers are able to order from restaurants that are outside the region boundaries. Assuming that a delivery will always start and end within the region boundaries, that means there must be a region that includes part of my region but also includes territory outside my region.


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## dlearl476

Launchpad McQuack said:


> That's not what he asked for. He doesn't want to see the region boundaries of the region that he is signed up for. He wants to see the boundaries of several different regions so that he can decide which region to pick. As far as I know, the ability to do that does not exist. I looked for something similar before signing up but was not able to find it.
> 
> For what it's worth, I think some of the regions overlap. Sometimes I go to GrubHub's customer web site and put in local addresses to see which restaurants customers in certain areas are able to order from. I have found that for some delivery addresses that are inside my region boundaries, customers are able to order from restaurants that are outside the region boundaries. Assuming that a delivery will always start and end within the region boundaries, that means there must be a region that includes part of my region but also includes territory outside my region.


You're right. I missed that. As I previously posted, I think you can sign up for any region you want, you just have to get your driver rep to change it. I assume they assign you one based on your application address. Finding out what regions are covered is a driver rep thing, as GH app is generally really sparse on that kind of info.

I suppose you might be able to get that info from driver support through the application website. They were pretty helpful when I called to find out why my applications weren't going through. (Turns out you can't apply through a mobile device. You have to use a computer and the GH driver website.)


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## Toby2

When I was in the process of signing up at one point there was a map of the regions. How or when it showed up I can’t say. I remember taking a day or so to decide which one I was going to do. Maybe all three areas needed drivers. I sent a message on if and how to go about changing if I wanted to. Never heard anything back.


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## Wessock

Thanks. All I was seeing was a text drop-down list of various areas nearish me but no map, and it's hard to say without seeing the boundaries. The list had areas south/north/west of me so I could be inside any of them. Not looking to do this full-time, just whenever I have downtime before/after clients for my regular job, so not worth driving far to a different region. Guess I'll have to try to contact GH.


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## oicu812

Launchpad McQuack said:


> So the moral of the story is that you can receive pings while you are outside your region boundaries. I don't know how far. I was only 1-2 miles outside the boundaries when I got the ping, but I was definitely outside the boundaries. The restaurant was inside the boundaries.


I think you're close the boundaries borderline which is a gray area. I've gotten orders while I'm 1-2 miles outside, but the order was inside the boundary.


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## Robert Stevens

Can you drive in multiple GrubHub Regions?


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## Solid 5

Robert Stevens said:


> Can you drive in multiple GrubHub Regions?


Nope, no wiggle room either


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## Woohaa

You can if you buy a second phone and sign up under another person. Thinking of one driver in particular who has three separate GH accounts and works an array of regions.


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## Robert Stevens

Uhhh…..not a good idea, since you have to provide a Soc Security Number to apply


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## Sal29

oicu812 said:


> You'll get a notification that you're outside your region boundaries. You won't get any orders.


I've gotten orders when I was at home almost 10 miles from the edge of my regional boundary. I wonder if it was extremely busy or if the dispatcher was trying to teach me a lesson for being online out of my region.


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## Toby2

oicu812 said:


> I think you're close the boundaries borderline which is a gray area. I've gotten orders while I'm 1-2 miles outside, but the order was inside the boundary.


I got an email awhile back that said I don't have to be in my region to receive an order if a delivery takes me out. It also said I might get orders from outside of my region. That happened once. Unfortunately it was 3 orders that took me farther away from home. The other night I got a Taco Bell order for $17. Too bad it was 28 miles and 39 minutes away.


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## dlearl476

I'm driving very irregularly any more, thanks to hardly any decent bucks left when I go online, but I'm noticing a trend that as my blocks near the end, I getting offers further and further away. Last night I ended up 30 minutes from home when my block ended. It was a $12/$14 stacked order or I would have cancelled when I saw the destination of the second order.


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