I see many yellow gas station shops available, but, they are at night and the night shop compensation is $12 versus the daytime compensation of $10.

Hence, it leaves me to believe they shall only pay an additional $2 for doing these at night?

Am I missing something here? Is that all they pay (excluding the reimbursements). Plus, with petrol now under $3 / gal, the reimbursement is less.

Tatjana -
If those are the prices that you are seeing, then yes, it is only $2 more for the nighttime shop.
I believe that this client (and at lest one other of their GS clients) requires one visit per location annually to be done at night.
The MSC will try to get shoppers to electively shop it at night during the earlier portions of the year by offering a small bonus.
However, towards the end of the year, these can become highly bonused because far fewer shoppers want to hit the gas stations at night.
You'll have to ask for that higher than $2 bonus though unless it's the last two weeks of the year. Then they turn on the incentive firehose.

Tatjana,

Yes, that is the price. You can often, though not always, get a $5 incentive for the night time shops. They are quite easy once you have a pattern down, especially now that I use my iPad and do all data entry and photo entry on site. I get the whole survey done on site and take between 25 and 35 minutes per location. That's 2 gallons gas, $2 inside, and $12 or more. Worth it for me at least. If you do rural routes as I do, you can often negotiate much better bonuses also.

Matt

I routinely do these because they are so easy. Also now that it is fall the evening criteria is not really a big deal (and therefore not highly bonused) because they are not looking for you to shop at a certain time at night, but rather simply after dark so the canopy lights and signage lights can be audited. I generally wait until full darkness to get good photos, but this is still only 7pm. In another month or so I'll be able to do these right after work.

I believe the guidelines state that one must wait 1 hour after sunset to perform the night shop.

That means, where I am, the shops must be performed at the earliest, after 7 PM. Of course, as the days become shorter and daylight savings time ends, sun set shall occur much earlier.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2014 12:35AM by Tatjana.

Those are different than what we have here. At least ones I have done. $17 minimum for gas and $2 in store. Pay is $24 regardless of time of day. I would take them even at the fee you would receive.. Free gas is great! Not to mention the survey is really easy

It starts getting dark around 5:40 pm now so I contacted the MSC to ask if I perform the shop before 6pm if it would qualify me for Night Shop and I was told that as long as the stations lights are on the shop can be done as a night shop. I did the blues one and the photos came out okay and the shops were not placed on Hold or declined.

While the instructions say 1 hour after sunset, in all reality, as long as it looks dark, and the lights are on, they do not care. I've done them 10 minutes after "sunset" before at a location that has significant tree cover and it looks dark as night at that time without problems.

I agree that once the light are turned on, and it looks dark, they should not care.

However, a few weeks ago, I did a few shops that had their lights on and it was dark. These were "night eligible" shops. I applied for them as such when I submitted the report.
The lights were on and it was dark because of heavy overcast and rain (I thought perhaps a tornado was coming!). The times was around 4:30 and after.

Needless to say, I was not paid the "night" bonus. It was pointed out that yes, it was dark and the lights were on. However, it was not after sunset.

I once reported arriving at a Lowe's on a Sunday before the approved time (Sunday shops are later than Monday - Saturday). My report was denied. I had to go back and do it at the approved time. Mind you, the time was only a few minutes before the approved Sunday time.

I've had my receipts rejected and asked that I re-submit them because they were not clear enough. I could read them quite easily, but, the editor apparently could not.

Therefore, what I am saying about their guidelines is this: We might all agree that once the "lights are on", the shop "should" be considered as "okay" for performing the shop. Plus, even if the schedulers say it is "okay", it is really up to the editors to approve the early timing. It is not our feeling or the scheduler's feeling of what is "okay", it is the editor's decision. In speaking with a scheduler about report issues, they have often told me that that is an editing decision and they shall pass it on to the editor.

The only way one may absolutely certain that their (our) hard work is accepted is to follow their guidelines, not ours. - timing is one of them.

Otherwise, we are at the mercy of the editor's disgression.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2014 05:46PM by Tatjana.

Tatjana,

You are absolutely correct. I've been lucky enough to have 2 shops rejected in all my years of shopping, and they were both my fault. I've never had a gas station shop rejected for any reason (I'm knocking on as much wood as I can find!) That doesn't mean my experiences will echo yours if you don't follow the guidelines laid out, you'll just *probably* be okay. And when you're trying to squeeze 10 night required shops that are a grand total of 130 miles apart into 1 night, I'll cheat where I can!

Matt

I just picked up my first two of these shops. They were both bonused. Plus adding the free gas and inside purchase, I'm getting $25-$30 per shop and that is within my hourly rate. Finding the vest was annoying though.