A day in the life of a delivery driver in NYC working 10-hour shifts and covering 100+ miles

• Native New Yorker Andy Zhicay makes deliveries for the same-day and next-day courier called MetroSpeedy.
• On any given day, he makes hundreds of deliveries in New York's boroughs, Long Island, or Connecticut.

Andy Zhicay, 23, has been working as a delivery driver in New York City for four years — the last one with local company MetroSpeedy where he thinks he could stay for a while.

"It's like a fast-paced job and I guess you could say I'm a little bit independent. I enjoy it," Zhicay told Insider.

For Andy, every day is different. Most days he starts work in the afternoon — 2 p.m. on the Thursday he spoke to Insider. MetroSpeedy delivers for pharmacies, grocers, meal-kit companies, retailers, and dry cleaners. Most of their deliveries have firm delivery windows of just a few hours.

He usually starts his shift at one of the company's five Manhattan warehouses to pick up his packages for the day. At the warehouse, the company provides bathrooms, charging ports, rain gear, drinking water, and live support staff fluent in multiple languages.

By 2:20 p.m. Thursday, he was already making deliveries. He'll finish at 10 p.m.

7-10 hours

Zhicay works seven to ten-hour shifts depending on what territory he's covering. If he's in Manhattan, his shift might be shorter since the stops will be more compact.

If he's driving out to Westchester County, in the suburbs north of New York City, or into Connecticut, his shift may take ten hours.

When Zhicay first started delivering with MetroSpeedy, he rode the company's electric-assisted cargo bikes.

"Honestly, it was very freeing because on a hot summer day, it's very nice to be on a bike. When it's winter, it's a little harder, but if you have the right gear, then it's really not that big of an issue, " he said.

The bikes can carry about the same load as a small vehicle — up to 70 packages — but the motor makes it feel like a normal bike, Zhicay said.

"You don't feel any of the weight at all," he said.

$20 per hour

Bikers at MetroSpeedy make $15 per hour plus tips, while drivers who provide their own vehicles make $20-25, according to founder and CEO Nancy Korayim. Zhicay said that customers tip pretty freely.

"That makes it really worth it," he said. MetroSpeedy's delivery drivers are contractors, not employees, but they work dependable shifts, which Korayim said is key to retaining experienced workers.

MetroSpeedy pays an hourly wage that doesn't change based on the number of deliveries. That sets the company apart from other quick-delivery platforms like Doordash or Uber, according to Korayim.

She's become the largest delivery partner for the dry-cleaning company ByNext. Dedicated runs for that firm, grocer Wegman's, or for pharmacy partners, may have very dense routes where the driver may only go a few miles.

20-70 stops

A 10-hour driving shift may have around 60 stops, allowing roughly ten minutes per stop, according to Korayim, who founded the company in 2017.

Zhicay said he knows the five boroughs so well at this point he rarely needs to draw out a route or use any software (the loads he's given are already clustered into rough routes). If he's getting out into the suburbs, he'll often consult a map.

"I guess you could say delivery is kind of like my thing. I've gotten kind of used to it and it's something that I guess I excel at," he said.

100 miles

MetroSpeedy drivers are compensated for their mileage. When gas prices rose last year, the company started charging a fuel surcharge that they pass on entirely to drivers.

On a long shift through multiple New York City boroughs and the areas outside, a driver can easily cover 100 miles. Routes out into Connecticut could have as few as 20 stops driving 150 miles.

Zhicay uses the trips out of the city to scout out places he might want to visit for "mini-vacation" in his time off.

"It takes me to spots I would never go without the job," Zhicay said.

When he isn't working, Zhicay likes to play guitar, but he'd never want to make a career out of it, he said. He'd eventually like to get a more stable job and build up his income for his family.

"Everybody wants something better," he said. But since working for MetroSpeedy, he's been able to save up for the car he now drives for work and make more money doing it, so in his eyes, it's a good job.