I received an email about an assignment in my town from RQA but I can not find what the pay rate is. It’s not in the email or the detailed instructions. There’s a note they page 10 cents per sheet printed and that’s it. Does anyone know where to find the pay rate information???

They have two options for every assignment, its always the same. Its either $20/location or $20/hour. When you click on "Get Locations" there is a button at the top of the location list where you choose which pay you would like (per location or per hour). Then you click on the box next to the location to accept it. They also pay a per mileage fee.

While your hourly rate will always be the same, the per location rate can vary according to the assignment. I just did a project that was $20 per hour or $25 per location. Some projects are only offered with one payment method (project based or hourly). Clicking on "Get Locations" is the best advice. There you will be able to see the precise options for payment. If you chose the hourly rate, you get paid for all your time: Travel, In Store, Packing and Shipping, In Home Destruction. If you chose the per location rate, all of that is included in the fee. Either way they pay a small amount per mile traveled. It isn't IRS rate, but is enough to cover gas.

They pay $0.30 per mile driven. The difference between the IRS mileage rate of $0.67 and $0.30 (= $0.37 per mile) is a business expense. I report the $0.30 per mile as revenue and then just list the total miles driven on Schedule C.

Edit to change $37 to $0.37



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2024 01:24PM by myst4au.

Thank ya’ll for the answers!

What kind of assignments do they have?

Product retrievals, which are usually due to recalls. For those, you visit stores. You may have to ship the product somewhere, or destroy the products, or etc. Occasionally, a consumer files a complaint with a company, and the company wants the individual package back for analysis. Then you retrieve it from the person's house.

@EnglishMorning wrote:

What kind of assignments do they have?

@EnglishMorning wrote:

What kind of assignments do they have?

They also have audits. Details vary depending on the assignment. If you do decide sign up with them, they have an online manual which will give you an overview on what to expect from different kinds of assignments.

Is RQA now called Servimer, or are they two different companies? I did some work years ago for RQA and now I get emails from Servimer; I had thought it was a merger or a buyout.

I’ve never heard of a link between RQA and Servimer. A google search didn’t come up with anything. I’m new-ish to RQA, so maybe somebody who’s been with them longer will chime in.

They are 2 totally separate companies. Servimer is in DC and a MSC. RQA is in Illinois and they do product retrievals and recalls. Servimer used to be called "AMA" - maybe thats what you are thinking of?

BTW, I like working with both Servimer and RQA A TON! Some of the best projects and people, imo.

Corrie, you may be thinking of Stericycle who did similar projects? They sold their recall division to Sedgewick. Could that be the confusion?

And trying to register with Sedgwick won't get you very far. I submitted my paperwork and never heard anything, so several months later, I emailed and asked what the registration process was. They emailed back with a link that no longer worked. I submitted the packet again, and... crickets.

You're not missing much. They don't pay as much as RQA, and they still use paper so there is handwriting and scanning. They rarely have anything in my area. They haven't even rebranded everything on their site--the manual still says Stericycle. But if you do want to check your status, you could try emailing expertrecall@sedgwick.com

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2024 05:12AM by MW.

Thanks, MW, but I'm over it. The whole paper reporting thing is a huge turn-off.

@MW wrote:

Corrie, you may be thinking of Stericycle who did similar projects? They sold their recall division to Sedgewick. Could that be the confusion?

Hmmm. I think you're right. I think I meant Stericycle. Sorry for the confusion. I think Stericycle bought RQA because my RQA login became my Stericycle login. In any case, I haven't worked for either in a long time. My most memorable RQA job was buying and destroying around 100 cases of candy bars back in the early 2000s.

Stericycle did not buy RQA. RQA is still in business. Stericycle had been out of the mystery shopping business (they still collect hazardous wastes in my area of the country) for many years.

@CorrieCJ wrote:

@MW wrote:

Corrie, you may be thinking of Stericycle who did similar projects? They sold their recall division to Sedgewick. Could that be the confusion?

Hmmm. I think you're right. I think I meant Stericycle. Sorry for the confusion. I think Stericycle bought RQA because my RQA login became my Stericycle login. In any case, I haven't worked for either in a long time. My most memorable RQA job was buying and destroying around 100 cases of candy bars back in the early 2000s.

Looking again...@MW, yes Stericycle bought some of RCA, as you said. But all my Stericycle shop emails say "Sedgwick Project Opportunity" so I think that's where my confusion is from. Are there two different Sedgwicks?

I did not say "Stericycle bought RCA". I'm not at all familiar with RCA; I don't know who they are.

I have done jobs for RQA for many years. If RQA has bought any other companies, or sold any part of their business, I have no knowledge of it.

I know Stericycle sold their recall division to Sedgwick. Both Stericycle and Sedgwick have multiple divisions and other business interests besides recalls. I don't know anything about two different Sedgwicks. The Sedgwick I have worked for is out of Memphis, Tennessee.

That's all I know. Hope it helps.

Stericycle has always been in the medical waste handling/mitigation/disposal business, and they still are. I just read today where Waste Management wants to buy them.

Back in the day, Stericycle decided they wanted to expand their footprint. In/around 2010 they bought the product retrieval part of RQA, and in 2011 they bought Corporate Research International (CoRI), a MS provider. Many of you might remember how CoRI would start shop fees for pennies and then according to some algorithm would systematically raise shop fees, seemingly daily. It was always a gamble on whether to take a shop for today's fee or wait until tomorrow to see if the fee would rise.

Stericycle did not provide mystery shopping services for very long. I do not know whether they sold off the MS division or simply closed up shop on the MS division.

Stericycle did acquire the product retrieval part of RQA in/around 2010. However, they ended up in court over the purchase price. From what I read it seems that the purchase price was contingent on Stericycle being able to hit certain revenue numbers with what they purchased from RQA, and they didn't reach those numbers. When Stericycle attempted to recoup some of the original purchase price from RQA they ended up in court.

At that time RQA restarted their product retrieval business. I guess that RQA figured that the sales and non-compete agreements were voided due to the lawsuit. The result was that now 2 companies were offering the same product recall and retrieval services, and there still are 2.

Both Stericycle and RQA used the same website management platform for their fieldworkers, which was another part of the court proceedings since RQA had sold the website management platform to Stericycle. Eventually RQA switched a different platform, while Sedgwick still uses the same Servicemanager platform that RQA started using 25 years and 3 companies ago.

In 2020 Sedgwick bought the recall/retrieval part of Stericycle and still operates it along with the medical waste division.

Thanks to "Teacherguy" I now understand the convoluted histories of these companies, and how confusion has arisen among MSers.

My head is spinning....

Mine too Thanks @teacherguy!

I liked working for CoRI back in 2010, for their "real estate" division, which wasn't actually real estate but senior living shops. They paid really well for those.

But getting back to RQA, I never heard of them until reading a thread about them here few months ago. I like their jobs. I've mostly done audits for them, or jobs where I would have had to pull expired items and take them away, but the stores didn't have any, so it was quick and easy.