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Postmates Courier Application, Background Check, and Onboarding Session

Simon Kwok

Postmates Courier Application, Background Check, and Onboarding Session

In this post, I will be explaining the new courier application process along with the background check and onboarding session for new couriers. I recently signed up for Postmates for of a variety of reasons:

To sign up for Postmates, visit the link below:

Sign up to be a Postmates Driver

Postmates and many other delivery services are much more lax in what kind of cars are allowed on the platform. If your car doesn’t qualify for Lyft or Uber, you most likely can do deliveries with it. You can use almost any car made after 1996 in driveable condition, but I have seen some very beat up cars delivering food for Postmates. Since it is a door-to-door delivery service, many customers will never see your car.

I also signed up for Postmates because I don’t even need a car or bike. In Seattle, there is a walker mode. The only other major market I have heard of Postmates allowing people to walk is New York but I am sure that they allow couriers in San Francisco and Boston to walk as well. It is handy for the days where my wife takes the car and I can still do a few lunch deliveries downtown. Also, the bike mode is very handy, which I will cover in another post. The hills are pretty mean here in Seattle and I don’t have the legs or the equipment for it (Standard crank 53-39 and a 12-25 out back. Yes no match for the 10-15% grades here). I run about 30 miles a week but biking uphill is so much worst than running uphill.

Postmates Income

From about 20 deliveries I have done, I am averaging over $10 a delivery and when things are going right, I can make two deliveries an hour, so that is about $20 an hour. I earn about $5 a delivery from the base pay and then another $5 in tips, so tips is a huge part of my income, along with every other courier I have spoken to. I can make more driving on Lyft or Uber, but the peak times for deliveries are different from Lyft and Uber so you can do both and really maximize your earnings.

Postmates Application Process

To start the signup bonus, you can use my referral link. This will give me a small bonus once you hit a certain number of trips. You may get a bonus, depending on your city. It will be best to email Postmates about the current offer in your city.

To Start, you just need an email address and a password to create your courier account.

The next screen is your name, which market you want to drive in and what type of transportation you will be using. You can choose among one of the following:

Walker is only enabled in a few markets like Boston, Seattle and Chicago. For some reason, I was not able to use walker for New York City, even though I know there are walker couriers in New York City.

For the referral code, you can use mines as “RSD”

For the next step, you will need to put in your drivers license. Even though you don’t need a car to be a Postmates courier, you will need a driver’s license as identification.

The next step is to put in your home address.


The next part is just a background check disclosure.


The next screen is the background check authorization.

Once you put in your Social Security Number, you will then hit the Onboard session scheduling screen. Some markets may show “There are currently no onboarding session available” prompt. In this case, you will need to wait for Postmates to get back to you about a future onboarding session. For Seattle, there were quite a few sessions available.

Postmates Background Check

I signed up that morning around 7am PST and I was able to schedule a session for 11:30am that day. My Postmates background check cleared around 10:30am so by the time I got to the session, I was able to sign online once they activated my account at the onboarding session.

Postmates Training Video

After signing up online, you get a short confirmation email, along with a quick video about some aspects of Postmates:

Postmates Online Drivers Orientation

This part of the onboarding is for you to upload your driver’s license information and a copy of your car’s insurance. This is for couriers who intend to use their personal vehicle. The process will be different if you intend to use a motorcycle or as a walker/bicyclist/scooter.

Express Online Orientation

You will get a few emails from Postmates and one of them will recommend you to do an express Postmates Courier orientation session online. This is for people who can’t make it to an in-person Postmates Courier orientation session. I know of a driver who did this and got her PEX card and insulated Postmates bag mailed to her within a few days. For those who will attend the in-person Postmates Courier Orientation, doing this online session is not required.

This online session mainly gets you to upload a personal photo of yourself and watch a video about the Postmates Fleet application. You won’t go through the actual application in this instance since your Postmates Fleet application has not been activated yet. You will watch a video on how it works.

This is just a starting screen for the online express onboarding session

The first step is to explore the app. It is a short video on how a typical order works.

The second screen is reviewing the basics, like getting paid, safety, and support.

You will need to submit your profile photo in this next step.

The last step is a quick 4 question quiz. Below are the questions to them but obviously I got one wrong. I still no clue which one I got wrong, which is a bit embarrassing.

After this, you will get to the completion page and then it will exit out.

What If I Can’t Attend the Postmates Courier Orientation Session?

I am not sure how you can arrange for your PEX card and insulated bag to be sent to you. You would need to contact Postmates about going down that route instead of attending a Postmates Courier Orientation session. I would highly recommend that you attend the Postmates Courier Orientation session since you will get to meet your City Manager (CM) and check out the local office. I always like to do things in person unless it requires some sort of line (like the DMV). In the office, they have all sorts of swag and signs you can use as a courier.

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