Many Spark drivers waiting to pick up a curbside order have seen a confusing popup: “This trip is now eligible for additional earnings. Since the order hasn’t been loaded yet, you’ll get additional earnings for completing the delivery.”
The “additional earnings” are for wait time. But how much will you get paid?
Here’s the confusion: Spark doesn’t say exactly how much extra earnings you will get, and the final payout for the order doesn’t have a separate line item for the additional pay. So, how much are you actually getting paid for waiting? Let’s clear that up!
How paid wait time works on Spark
You will receive extra wait time earnings if you have to wait longer than 30 minutes to pick up a curbside order. The wait time earnings are automatically added to your base pay and will be included in your earnings after the order is complete.
The exact rate for wait time earnings varies from market to market, but generally wait time pay is around 20–35 cents per minute, which works out to $2–$3.50 for every 10 minutes of waiting.
How to see how much you earned from wait time earnings
Spark doesn’t include a separate line item for wait time earnings, so you must compare the initial offer to the final payout to see exactly how much you were paid to wait.
Check the trip details for an order to see the original base pay, then go to the earnings tab and see your final pay for the order after completing the order. If the final base pay is higher than the original base pay, you got paid to wait.
For example, the base pay listed in trip details was $8. In the earnings tab, the final base pay was $10.50. That means you earned $2.50 from wait time pay.
How long do you have to wait for Spark orders?
For curbside orders, you are expected to wait at least 30 minutes after arriving. If you cancel before waiting for 30 minutes, your completion rate metric will decrease, which can eventually put you at risk of deactivation.
Spark doesn’t say exactly how low your cancellation rate can be, but anything under 80% puts your metric in the ‘red’ zone.
You can cancel with partial pay after waiting for 30 minutes
After waiting for 30 minutes, you have a choice: You can cancel without any penalty and get partial pay, or continue waiting and get paid for the additional wait time.
But the partial pay for cancelling after 30 minutes is low, only around $3. But as long as you wait 30 minutes before cancelling, your completion rate will not decrease and you will get a small compensation for your time.
Spark requires more wait time than other delivery apps
If there’s one big distinction between Spark and other delivery apps, it’s the wait time. For curbside orders on Spark, expect to routinely wait up to 30 minutes to get your car loaded.
That’s far more wait time than other delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, or even package delivery apps like Amazon Flex.
On DoorDash and Uber Eats, most drivers cancel an order after waiting only 10 or 15 minutes.
If you cancelled every Sark order after only 10 or 15 minutes, your drop rate would get dangerously high and you might be deactivated.
It’s one of the most frustrating downsides of Spark, and the extra wait time of only 20–35 cents per minute is a tiny consolation.
To better compensate drivers for their time, Spark should start paying wait time earnings after 15 minutes of waiting, and the wait time rate should be higher. That would be fairer to drivers and motivate Walmart stores to speed up the loading process.
More help for Spark drivers
Tamara says
Hi ! I have been driving for Spark going on over 2 years. I am very grateful for the job although it may not be for everyone. When I first started, that notification would pop up for having to wait to long to get loaded. However, as time went on (months) and continually racking up those notifications I never received the late pay. I politely called many times and was told every time that they would submit a red tag but I never received any money. I too was told to “take a screenshot” but they know when you get that notification. After many months I gave up. Then about a year later there was a 91.00 deposit on my one card. I was grateful but didn’t understand WHY it took so long. It clearly states that your pay should arrive 48 HOURS later. It’s now been another year, untold notifications on late load pay, but I’m afraid to call because they have been awesome when it comes to my car needing repairs (unable to drive) being sick, etc. So it will ultimately be up to you Spark driver if you want to pursue the pay. Please post your experience with this delemna.
Karen Snyder says
I’ve not been paid for a single wait thus far and have been messaging through the app for days. One of the CSRs asked me to send a screenshot of the additional earnings message, which is ridiculous since the app doesn’t allow for screenshots to be sent. I’m glad to hear others are being compensated though, that give’s me hope that maybe they’ll give me some back pay for all the orders for which I waited and haven’t been paid. Jerks.
Tamara says
Hi, Did you ever receive your pay?
Maggie says
Thanks for the great feedback(: every dollar eventually adds up, I will wait for this order even if it exceeds another 10 minutes and mark the 30 minutes for waiting 🥹‼️
William says
Thank you so much this article is so helpful i waited almost two hours for my orders but i think the pay was still worth it now that i know how much extra i was actually getting for sitting
Doug H says
Glad it helped. In my opinion, the wait time pay isn’t enough. But it can be enough if the initial offer is high enough
Tamara says
I agree. The one that bothers me is you get a great offer, jump in your car, drive to walmart and as you go to hit “confirm arrival” you see that the order has been cancelled. You get 2.50….sometimes. Its like the wild west of delivery jobs!.