Work as a food delivery courier in Poland – How to become a courier in Poland – Sharing my experience

In this article, I will describe how to become a food delivery courier in Poland. As always, I will describe everything from my personal experience. It will be a long article, but if you are really interested in the job of a food delivery courier in Poland, this will be a detailed step-by-step guide that you can return to from time to time. As I gained experience, I constantly added something. There’s information about the weather, bike accessories, and earnings – withdrawals, etc.

A full-time job or a side hustle?

Working as a food delivery courier can be considered as a full-time job. Working 7-8 hours, you earn an average of 220-300 PLN. This is more than in plants and factories, especially since it is a free schedule and you can always deliver 10 or even 12 hours a day, earning around 500 zlotys a day. On average, I make about PLN 32 net per hour per delivery. On average, because sometimes it can be 55 PLN net per hour, or 27 PLN net per hour, or maybe 22 PLN net per hour. You must admit that 32-40 is already close to the salary of, for example, a welder. But you don’t need to have additional skills, certificates, or work “from call to call.”

In order not to be unfounded, I am attaching my screenshot below. This is my earnings and average pay per hour per month.

October, average 34.92 zł per hour

Those who are attentive will see that my monthly earnings are completely different from those for an hour. This is because I drive mostly in the evening, after 17:00 to 21:00, and not every day, because I have another job that I have been working at for a long time and I don’t want to change it. I also often travel all day Saturday (6-7 hours) and often on Sunday.

Below are examples of my trips by day for February 24 (I drove a little in the afternoon and evening):

February 24 day

February 24 evening

These are my deliveries on February 25

These are my trips on February 26

Another advantage of working as a courier is a free schedule and the absence of a boss over my head. I can always turn off the app, stop making deliveries and have a coffee in a nice place, and then, if I want, continue delivering food and happiness to people ???? When I make food deliveries, I don’t get stressed because I overslept, and I don’t rush to the office or factory to check in at the front desk at 6 am. In fact, when I get up, I go. However, self-discipline is also necessary here, because it allows you to earn money and enjoy the day spent on deliveries.

Bike, scooter or car?

I make courier food deliveries in Poland with an electric bike. Therefore, this article is more for those who are interested in or want to start making deliveries by bike. I bought the bike earlier, not for the purpose of making deliveries. I just love long-distance travel – to the forest, to the mountains. And much later (2 years later) I got the idea to try myself in food delivery.

I must say right away that if you seriously decide to work as a food delivery courier on a bicycle and at the same time want to earn good money at any time of the year and not destroy your health, then your only choice is an electric bike.

The distances you need to ride every day are tens of kilometers. You can pedal like this for a day or two, and then you will start to get physically tired, destroy the joints in your knees and overexert your muscles. And most likely, you will simply lose the desire to earn money this way and want to look for another job.

You can go out for one day and try delivering on a regular bike, but I think this one-day experience will discourage you from doing this work. So my personal opinion here is unequivocal: “If you work in food delivery, then only on an electric bike.”

Which app is better for delivery: Glovo, Uber Eats, Wolt, or Bolt?

I’ve made deliveries through all the apps listed above, so I’ll tell you about each one from my own experience. There are some nuances, where a lot depends on the rules of the app (company). You can earn money on one app, you can combine them, but what are the pros and cons – read on.

Working as a courier at Glovo. My experience.

Glovo was the first app I started working for, delivering food by bike. It was summer, long and warm days. I was really looking forward to being hired by Glovo, and it was with this company and a cheerful tune from their app that my adventure with couriering began. I had only one battery on my bike at the time, so I had to pedal a lot.

Advantages of deliveries on Glovo

There are always a lot of orders on Glovo. In fact, as soon as you turn on the app, an order comes in. As soon as you deliver one, a new one comes in and it’s non-stop. That’s why a courier will definitely not be out of work on Glovo, but they won’t be able to take a break either. Deliveries on Glovo are somewhat similar to working on a conveyor belt, but instead of a conveyor belt, you have a bike.

Taking into account the number of deliveries, if you set aside at least 8 hours a full working day, you can earn quite a lot on Glovo. I mean amounts in the region of 300-400 zlotys per day. Especially if you have a powerful battery on your bike, or better yet, two.

There are multipliers on Glovo, or as they are fashionably called by “requested” couriers – “kofi”. It comes from the word “coefficient”. The more couriers you need at a given time, the higher the multipliers are. The multipliers are also higher in bad weather and during the cold season. Glovo also pays extra for deliveries in the rain.

Glovo’s advantages include great support in the app in case of any problems, as well as a huge number of partners – from small restaurants, large restaurants, fast food, to shops and large hypermarkets. Glovo also has a very convenient and intuitive menu for couriers, even for beginners.

(You can register as a courier on Glovo and start earning here)

Cons of deliveries on Glovo

Reservation of working hours

You need to register your working hours on Glovo. There is a special calendar where you have to reserve your slots in advance. Slots are reserved hourly or for half an hour. Previously, it was almost impossible to reserve them. Free slots were available once a week at a specific time. The best days and hours were usually quickly occupied. It was like wanting to work but not being able to. That’s why it was good to work for another app.

The company itself reported that the more diligent the courier, the more opportunities for free slots they would have. I don’t know if this is true, but although I was quite diligent, it was hard to catch slots. The only thing I noticed was that if I managed to reserve and drive for at least an hour, then Glovo would open up the next slots, but this was not always the case.

Later, Glovo changed its approach and divided the cities into zones. After that, there were a lot of free slots, and they were almost always available. However, in my opinion, the number of orders decreased slightly.

Work schedule

Glovo has a work schedule that you register in advance in the way I described above. This means that you can’t refuse to make deliveries if you’ve chosen a certain time to work. For example, you registered the hours from 17:00 to 21:00. This means that during these hours, you cannot turn off Glovo if there are no deliveries and, say, turn on Wolt or Bolt.

You also have to calculate the battery life, because if you reserve, for example, 6 hours of work, and after 4.5 hours the battery runs out, you will have to pedal for another hour and a half.

However, Glovo has a “Pause” button if you want to go to the restroom, drink water, or take a few minutes to rest, but if you take a break often, you get fewer orders.

You can also cancel your booked hourly slots on Glovo, but Glovo doesn’t like this very much. If you do this several times, your account falls under a certain filter and a warning is displayed. If you continue to book and cancel slots, your account will be blocked.

Cash

Glovo, unlike Wolt, Uber, or Bolt, offers cash payments for orders. That is, you bring the order to the customer, and they can pay for it in cash. Customers often pay in large 100- or 200-zloty bills, and you have to give them the change. Often, orders are not round amounts, but also pennies. For example, a customer orders for PLN 67.33, but pays PLN 100, and the courier needs to give him the change. Sometimes a customer gives small amounts as a tip, such as this PLN 2.67, and asks for only PLN 30 change, not PLN 32.76. But there are also customers who expect the entire change, and the courier has to be a cashier, look for all the small coins and give out the correct change. You also need to be able to count correctly and/or use a calculator.

That is, you need to carry a wallet with you, and it should contain banknotes of different sizes – a lot of 10-k, 20-k, as well as coins – 5 zlotys, 2 zlotys, 1 zloty, and you should also have 100 zloty banknotes. Because, for example, if you are paid PLN 200 twice, and you give out all the 20s and 10s for the rest, the third customer who pays PLN 100 runs the risk of not getting the rest from you. If they pay with a PLN 200 bill, it’s easier to give out the change in 100s and then smaller bills.

Cash on Glovo causes additional stress. You start collecting small bills and coins and accumulate them, and at one point you need to give them out as change, and then you have to look for small money again. In addition to this, Glovo pays part of the money in cash as a courier’s salary. Let’s say you earned 1000 zlotys in a week, of which 150 went to taxes, 50 was taken by your partner, and 800 should be paid to you. But Glovo says that he pays you 220 in cash. That is, you will receive 580 zlotys on your card. And the downside is that you don’t keep the 220, you keep it in your wallet so that you can pay the rest to some potential client in the future. It’s like you have your own money all the time, but you can’t spend it on yourself.

But that’s not the end of the Glovo cash story, because the hard part comes next. If you have more than 200 zlotys in cash (each courier has a different quota), you need to give it to Glovo. If you don’t, you won’t be able to make deliveries on Glovo because your account will be temporarily blocked.

For example, if 10 customers paid you in cash during a day of work, it will be an amount of about 700 PLN. Glovo will send you a warning that, for example, PLN 630 must be deposited to your Glovo account by a certain date and time. As a rule, it is 24 hours.

To deposit these funds, you also need to take some time. In the Glovo app menu, there is a special instruction where you can find the account to which you need to send the funds, and the full details are also written there. You can transfer funds from your private card, but you also need to know your courier ID. The easiest way to get this ID is to ask your partner or Glovo support.

I often had to go to an ATM, deposit funds on my card, and transfer them to the Glovo account at home. After sending the funds, Glovo informs me via SMS about their receipt, although not always. But the money always arrives, and then the balance in the app decreases.

In addition to the hassle of cash with customers and Glovo itself, sometimes you also need to use the same cash to pay for orders in restaurants where you pick up delivery. You will be notified about this in the app for a specific order and you need to keep an eye on it. That is, you arrive at McDonald’s, for example, and have to pay 85 zlotys for the order to pick it up and then deliver it to the client.

Sometimes it happens that you need to pay cash at the restaurant to pick up the order, and then take cash from the customer when the order is delivered. That’s all about cash on Glovo. But if you’re going to ride as a courier on Glovo, prepare a convenient wallet (I bought a sports wallet) and at least 300 zlotys in different bills, for example, 100, 50, 50, 20, 20, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, and a handful of smaller ones – 1-2 zlotys, a few 5s. This is not a big deal, but take care of the cash in advance, even before the first delivery. So that you don’t end up with the situation when you go to deliver the first order on Glovo, the customer gives you cash, and you panic because you don’t have any way to give out the change.

Glovo has a lot of deliveries from stores – heavy loads

Glovo cooperates with Biedronka (a regular store), Biedronka Express (a warehouse that is open on Sundays), Auchan, Carrefour. There may be other markets, but I’ve listed the ones I’ve made deliveries to personally. The downside of these deliveries is heavy loads and… very heavy loads.

They really often hurt my back, put a strain on my legs, and discharge the bike’s battery much faster. I’ve noticed a pattern that heavy loads from stores are most often ordered by people who live in townhouses without elevators on the upper floors. That is, as a courier, you not only carry a heavy load on your back, often on broken pavement, but you also walk up and down the stairs, often to the 5th or 6th floor. This is good for cardio, but bad for the joints of the legs, and especially for the back.

Therefore, the disadvantage of delivery to Glovo is heavy loads from supermarkets, and there are a lot of them. Especially on Saturday afternoons and in the afternoon. Also, if you drive somewhere in the area of 1-2 km from the warehouse after pre-ordering, you will definitely receive an order from the grocery store. Sometimes you need to wait for the order at the warehouse for some more time. This way, couriers are simply lured to the warehouses in advance.

There are no double orders on Glovo

All orders on Glovo are placed one after the other. Until you complete the first one, you don’t get the second, until you complete the second, you don’t get the third, and so on. There are double orders on Wolt and Uber, and this is beneficial for the courier.

You can register as a courier on Glovo and start earning here

You also need to register with a partner first , I recommend MB Partner

Working as a courier for Uber Eats. My experience.

Everyone cansign up for Uber at once, you can do it here. Currently, Uber pays newly registered couriers 50 zł after a certain number of deliveries. That is, to start earning money on deliveries, you need to follow 2 steps: 1) become an MB Partner and register as a courier in Uber Eats. Register with MB Partner here and with Uber here.

Uber is a good app, but the number of orders often leaves much to be desired. This is the main disadvantage. Sometimes, especially in the summer or during the warm season, you have to wait a very long time for an Uber order. There are days when Uber can be regarded as a full-time job, and there are days when there are very few orders and you need to switch to other apps to make money.

Another disadvantage of Uber is the more complicated and inconvenient menu compared to other apps. You get used to it, but it’s not very intuitive. The windows often “jump” somewhere and change when you approach a customer, you need to flip through and scroll. For a long time, I had to manually enter the address into the navigation because there is no button to enable navigation in the app. It wasn’t until much later that I found the option to enable automatic navigation in Uber Eats in the settings.

Uber Eats also has a lot of advantages. The main one is good earnings, but only with a sufficient number of orders. Again, Uber has a very fast registration process, so the number of couriers is very high, and this affects hourly and daily earnings. Sometimes there can be two orders and then silence for an hour.

Uber is an app that many people start their courier career with because they hire everyone at once. For comparison, I waited almost 3 weeks to get accepted at Glovo, and it took me 4 months to get accepted at Wolt, and only because I wrote a letter to them saying I wanted to work for them when they started recruiting.

A lot of students ride Uber, especially in the summer. That’s why there are usually very few orders in the summer. Uber cannot be combined with Glovo because you need to book slots on Glovo. And if there are no slots on Glovo and you turn on Uber, it’s not a given that you’ll be able to earn a lot on Uber because of the long pauses in orders. However, this is more true for the warm season and weekends.

Uber’s advantage is its quests. They depend on the day and are often assigned to the courier individually. A quest is an additional payment for a certain number of deliveries. For example, plus 12 zlotys for 6 deliveries. Plus 24 zlotys for 10 deliveries. Plus 32 zlotys for 16 deliveries. It is profitable to do quests because you can often earn quite a lot of money on them (not counting the deliveries themselves).

Uber has a free schedule. When you turn on, you drive when you want. When you want to, you turn it off. There is real freedom of action and work here. There is no one over your head, no boss, no schedule. You can turn off the app at any time and take a break for coffee or a snack, or take a photo in a cool place.

In Uber, you can refuse every order. Although the app keeps statistics – the number of accepted orders as a percentage. The higher the percentage, the more orders the courier will receive. For me, this percentage was generally at 99% for a long time, then it dropped.

Uber often gives long-distance orders. That is, delivery can be even 25 minutes, and sometimes even 40 minutes from the restaurant. I personally like such trips, and they pay well.

On the other hand, the downside is the travel to remote restaurants. For example, I recently drove 28 minutes to pick up an order, and this travel time is not paid for. Only the distance from the restaurant to the customer is paid, not the distance from the point where the courier is to the restaurant at the time of ordering.

Uber doesn’t have as many partner restaurants and catering establishments, but, unlike Glovo and even Wolt, there are no deliveries from stores and supermarkets, so your back is happy and rested. There’s a difference between delivering a burger and delivering 8 liters of beer in glass bottles (and I had such an order on Glovo).

Uber has a lot of contactless deliveries. The order is left at the door, and you need to take a photo. In general, this is a plus, but the lack of a network in some entrances can be a minus. In this case, there is an option to refuse to take a photo, but it is better to take it if possible.

In Uber, it is annoying to enter a PIN code in many orders. That is, after you give the order to the client, you need to enter the PIN code that the client tells you. On the one hand, it’s a check that you really delivered the order, but it’s often very annoying. Sometimes you have to enter the code after each order, and the customer sometimes takes a long time to find it. Sometimes there is no network at the entrance to enter this code.

Uber’s support is difficult and not intuitive. Contacting the support team is often problematic. Sometimes they manage to leave a message, but on a different topic. I have not been able to reach the hotline even once – either it is disconnected or I get a message that my number is not registered with Uber, although this is impossible because I make deliveries from this number.

Once, I punctured a tire in two places at once – I drove the bracket near a building. It was 1.5 km to the client, and I was already delivering the order. I wrote to the customer that I had punctured the wheel, asked him to contact support for a refund, and I tried to get through to support for about forty minutes (until my hands were frozen because it was winter) on Sunday.

Despite some negative aspects, I really like doing courier deliveries for Uber Eats. They give me decent earnings and freedom, which is what I value most.

Working as a courier at Wolt. My experience.

Wolt is a cool and intuitive app. The menu is very well made, everything looks clear and simple. Just like in Uber, you turn the app on when you want, and turn it off when you’re tired or when you need to take a break or finish deliveries. Wolt even allows you to set an hour and a minute to finish work, so that no new orders will come after that. Wolt and Uber can be successfully combined.

The number of orders on Wolt varies. Sometimes they come one after the other, there are also double and even triple deliveries, and sometimes you need to wait for orders, but there are none. However, generally speaking, there is work and orders at Wolt. Complete downtime is quite rare. Payment on Wolt is similar to Glovo, and maybe even better. There are already deliveries from supermarkets here, but while in Glovo they are already a staple, here I personally rarely come across them.

Wolt, like Uber, has contactless delivery. However, there is no need to take a photo. You just leave the order at the customer’s door, which is very convenient. Wolt also has quests, although often only during certain periods of the year. A quest is when you get motivated to make a certain number of orders and get an additional 15, 30, or 50 zlotys for it.

Wolt registers new couriers in certain cities, and not always. They try to keep the number of couriers as high as possible so that there is always work for everyone. Therefore, you often need to wait for a job in this app, and in the meantime, gain experience in other apps.

Register as an MB Partner here to start making deliveries and earning money.

Working as a courier for Bolt. My experience.

I won’t tell you much here, because I used this app very rarely, in combination with Uber, when I wasn’t registered with Wolt yet. Earnings are basically similar to payments on Glovo and Wolt. The menu is convenient, it has its own navigation. However, orders come very rarely, compared to other apps. I think that if you want to work as a courier, but other apps don’t accept you, you can try your hand at Bolt Food.

How to start working as a bike delivery courier?

To start working as a courier, you need to do two things:

1. Choose a partner and register with them
2. Sign up directly in the Glovo, Uber, Wolt, etc. app, wait for your account to be activated and start working

Which partner to work through and what is a partner?

The system looks like this. A courier works for Uber Eats, for example. He earns a certain amount of money per week. After a week, Uber Eats sends this amount to the partner, the partner takes his commission, and sends the rest through the accounting department to the courier’s bank account.

The partner is responsible for calculating the payment, paying the relevant fees and taxes, calculating PIT, and much more. Interestingly, partners work with many apps. That is, working for Uber, Wolt, and Glovo, they will all send funds to the partner, and the partner will pay the courier the appropriate amount from all of them.

There are different partners and many of them. The apps themselves will recommend who to cooperate with. You should choose a large partner because it increases reliability. Often, partners offer their own bonuses in addition to what is earned in the apps. There may be partners who only have a constant commission regardless of how many apps you work on, or there may be partners who withdraw a commission from each app you worked with this week.

I chose MB Partner as my partner, and I am satisfied with it among all those I have worked with before. At first, I cooperated with City Drive, like many others, but not for long.

Then my partner was Appjobs Work, but they closed their operations. After them, I worked with Eternis. In principle, everything was fine with their payments, but if you had any additional questions, you had to wait a long time for an answer, and they did not always treat the question with full dedication. Therefore, I read reviews online and intuitively chose MB Partner. This is a cool partner, as for me, it is No. 1 in Poland, although it is not as promoted as others and without aggressive advertising. They have a loyal and understanding support service, timely payments, and clear calculations. That’s why I personally work with them and I would also recommend them to you if you decide to engage in food delivery.

Do you want to start delivering food by bike and earn an average net hourly rate like a welder? Register with MB Partner, then with Glovo, Wolt, Uber Eats, or Bolt and start earning!

Sign up for MB Partner and start earning money with food deliveries

If you sign up for the MB Partner panel using my referral link, you will receive your first payout with a free settlement! What does it mean? Each partner takes a certain amount (usually 30 PLN) for mediation per app. That is, if you drove for Uber and earned 1000 PLN in a week, the partner will take 30 PLN before sending the funds. This is the first payment you will receive in full if you use my link. If you sign up yourself, you will be charged a commission for the first payment to the app before the payment is made. So it’s better to use my link 🙂 In addition, you can generate your own referral link and get 3 free payments for each courier who registers and starts making deliveries, and for every 5 couriers – a bonus of 250 PLN!

1. Click on the link: https://kierowca.mbpartners.pl/rejestracja/?invitation=MAZ5QX0

2. Sign the contract

3. Start delivering. You will receive a free first payment after the 1st payment of funds.

Can I work without partners? To do this, you need to register in Poland as an entrepreneur (which not every foreigner can do), receive weekly payments from the apps you cooperate with, and calculate all taxes and payments yourself. That is, it is not profitable, because you will also need to pay for the services of an accountant. In addition, Wolt, for example, does not allow you to work directly even if you are an entrepreneur. In their case, you still need to work through a partner.

What kind of contracts do partners work under? This is usually a combined system – umowa zlecenia (contract of mandate) and umowa wynajmu pojazdu (vehicle rental agreement). And the contract of mandate is usually a small amount to pay less tax, and the courier receives the rest of the payment for the “vehicle rental agreement”. In fact, it looks like your partner uses your bike for deliveries and pays you for it. This significantly reduces the tax, but the courier himself has to pay the tax from the vehicle rental agreement to a micro-account in the bank every month. These are small amounts, but they must be paid.

The cooperation agreement with the partner (usually two agreements – contract of mandate for the courier and the agreement for the vehicle rental) is signed remotely through the app. That is, there is no need to go anywhere. Everything is done remotely. You just need to have a desire, a bike, a bag, sign an agreement with a partner, sign up an agreement with delivery app (with some apps, like Uber or Bolt, the partner does it himself instead of a courier), and you can start earning money the next day, gaining new and interesting experience. There is a third way of employment – if you are an entrepreneur, you can sign a b2b agreement with a partner and issue invoices, but this is more useful for citizens of Poland.

When registering with a partner, you can immediately ask them to register you as a courier with Bolt and Uber – no long activation is required and you can start making your first deliveries the very next day. As for other apps, you need to check the partner’s websites to see if they are currently recruiting new couriers.

Thermal bag for food delivery by bike

There are several ways to buy a thermal bag for food delivery. I found mine on OLX in virtually new condition. It was sold by some kid who had been out 2 times and realized that this job was not for him. The bag was brand new, even smelled new, and even had a pouch for carrying drinks. It was an Uber Eats bag. It cost me 130 zlotys, while Uber sold new ones for 280. I like this bag because I can put the lock chain on the side of the bike. Other bags don’t have this option. This bag can be expanded into a larger one (for pizza delivery) and can be smaller. The downside is the top lock, which wears out over time. Mine wore out in six months, although the bag itself still looks like new.

It makes no difference what kind of bag you have. All companies allow you to use competitive bags. The main thing is that it is in good condition and intact. Before registering for the app, all companies, whether it’s Uber or Glovo, ask you to take a photo of your bag.

When buying, also pay attention to whether it is a bike bag or a car bag – they are different and you will find the difference online.

You can buy bags officially from the companies themselves, but you need to look at the prices because they can be expensive. Also, bags can be sold by partners.

It seems that you can order a bag when you register with Wolt or Glovo, and when they accept you, they will send you a bag and deduct the money from your first deliveries. In practice, this doesn’t work because the number of new couriers registering is very high, and preference is given to those who can go to work right away. I have never been hired when I didn’t have a bag, and very quickly when I had everything ready for deliveries. So my advice is to buy a bag in advance.

Accessories, clothes, expenses, and everything you need to consider if you want to become a bike courier in Poland

When it’s summer and the weather is nice, you put on shorts and a T-shirt and you can go make deliveries. But, in addition to clothes and a bike, you need to have two more necessary accessories – a power bank and a phone holder.

I bought a power bank with 20 thousand milliamperes. I mount it near the bike frame and charge both my phone and the rear red flashlight with it. I ran cables to it to make it more or less automatic.

Holder for the phone

You always need one, but especially when it’s wet or raining. It should be designed so that the phone is easy to take out and in, but also so that it doesn’t get wet in a downpour and still shows you the way.

Wrenches

The key to adjusting the brakes is the basics. I’ve had a few times when the brakes stopped working properly, and I wouldn’t have delivered the order, but I would have had to walk or take the tram home. That’s why a 6-piece brake pad is a must.

I also carry a universal wrench, which can also come in handy.

Pump

A must-have accessory. I’ve had a few flat tires during deliveries, and I’ve mostly managed to get home from quite a distance by pumping up the tire a few times. So it’s a must-have.

With the first rain, everything changes. Even when it’s summer, you can’t drive wet for long, so you need to buy rain pants and a jacket.

Clothing for the rain

A rain jacket and rain pants with shoe covers on the legs. I bought them from Decathlon, they are lightweight and suitable for both summer and winter over other clothes in case of rain. The pants must have shoe covers, because shoes get wet and muddy in the rain the most, and with shoe covers you feel really protected and really dry, even when it’s pouring down. They are easy to fold and hide in a courier bag, and put on if it suddenly starts to rain. Although I always carry a jacket, I only put on pants if I’m leaving in the rain and early when I’m still at home.

Rain and a phone holder for the bike

There may be a problem here. I have a holder that hides the phone inside. When it rains, steam builds up there, and the phone starts to malfunction. To have more space, I put the phone in an extra plastic case from a drink bottle in the rain and it works – I can see where I’m going. But this has its own specifics – my hands get wet, even with gloves on, and the phone screen gets wet too. That’s why you need to enter the address either in the entrance of buildings or in restaurants or shops, not on the street.

Clothes for winter (frost and snow)

For winter, you need warm, good mittens. I tried two pairs of simpler ones – uncomfortable. It’s hard to click the phone, and I need it more often than ever. So I bought warm mittens in Decathlon. It is convenient when they are on laces that are attached to the hands. You always have them with you and don’t have to hide them when you take them off when you need to.

Ski goggles

Nothing saves you in the cold and snow like ski goggles. I bought a cheap but high-quality pair for 80 zlotys at Decathlon. I put on a balaclava, a cycling helmet and ski goggles and my whole face is protected in the cold and wind. Ski goggles don’t sweat like regular goggles, they give me great visibility day and night. If fine snow flies, it hits your eyes like sand at speed. Ski goggles eliminate this problem. Frost in the wind without snow is also very problematic for the eyes. It is important to drive like this even when there is no snow on the ground (not everyone drives in the snow), but simply because the frosty weather lasts a long time and you want to make deliveries. And there will be a lot of deliveries on such days, because the number of couriers is small on such days.

What you need to have in stock for your bike

Tires

Spare tires are a must. I’ve punctured wheels many times during deliveries, and although it may not happen for 2-3 months, sometimes it happens even twice a week. Therefore, if this is your main job, you should have spare tires at home, at least 2-3 pieces. Believe me, most often a tire gets flat on Sunday or Saturday night. It happened to me several times.

Brake pads

If you have disc brakes, the pads wear out very quickly at such distances. They will need to be changed frequently. Therefore, it is worth having several of them at home so that you don’t have to go to the store to buy them separately.

What else have I changed on my bike?

Once I had an unfortunate accident and my bike fell on an almost flat spot, and the front powerful headlight with 4 LEDs broke. While waiting for a similar one from China, I had to buy some crappy LED light from Martes Sport, where batteries cost half the price. Such a temporary headlight is visible from afar, but it does not illuminate anything on the road.

To be sure, I bought conventional pad brakes and put on another set of rear brakes. They are operated by the front handle (I disconnected the front disc brakes at the beginning). It’s an extra effort on my part, but I feel safer this way, because there are not two brakes, and I don’t want to rely on one.
I bought and installed another battery myself. One was my own, removable, but built into the bike frame. With two batteries, it was like I was born again! My travel distances increased to several tens of kilometers. I shot a video of myself soldering the connections to connect the 2 batteries.
I had a hard saddle. My feet rubbed very hard, so I got calluses. So I bought a soft saddle-shaped pad from Action. Then it turned out that in the rain it got wet like a sponge, so I bought a saddle cover for 5 zlotys at Dealz and now everything is complete.
Someone might read this and think – wow, how much stuff is needed and how much money it took. But I can say that I bought it all gradually. You can do without a lot of things and just start driving – if you want to. Everything comes with experience, weeks, months, and I share it here in a concentrated form.
I’d also add that almost any investment in a bike, including the most expensive ones, like a battery, for example, pays for itself in just a few days with a normal number of deliveries.

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You can check my YouTube video “A Day in the Life of a Courier” below (in Ukrainian)

*The article contains referral links to a delivery partner and some delivery apps. When you register through such a link, both you and I will receive certain cash or other bonuses from the partner and some food delivery services. If you register from scratch, you will not receive any bonuses. That is why I advise you to use my links in this article – it is beneficial for both you and me.