Notifications for available collection slots

Who receives notifications for collection slots, and when?

To ensure Food Waste Heroes see collection slots relevant to them, OLIO does not advertise all collection slots to all Food Waste Heroes. To give everyone a fair chance, and for food safety reasons (food in transit), OLIO uses a number of variables to determine which slots are advertised:

1. Food Waste Hero’s distance from the collection location
2. Amount of collection slots available at the location
3. Whether the collection location is in an urban or rural region

As a result, it may be that a Food Waste Hero cannot see a collection slot because they are outside the advertising radius, and another Food Waste Hero living in the same neighbourhood is able to see the slot because they are within the advertising radius.

OLIO does not limit collection slot ads based on the number of slots a Food Waste Hero has. This means that whether a Food Waste Hero has 0, 1, 2, or more slots has no impact on whether they can see a collection slot. This is to give existing Food Waste Heroes a fair chance to step down from a collection, and claim one that suits them better.

OLIO does not limit collection slot ads based on whether the user is a Food Waste Hero, OLIO Supporter, Community Hero, or any other volunteering role.

OLIO does not limit collection slot ads based on the length a user has been an active Food Waste Hero for, whether they’ve missed collections in the past, their in-app rating, or any other user-specific data, but we may automatically exclude certain users from the Food Waste Heroes programme as per the Volunteer Agreement, and our other policies and guidelines (e.g. OLIO etiquette, food safety rules, not sharing food on OLIO, missing collections, no shows, etc.).

How can I change which collection slots I am being notified of?

If you aren’t a Food Waste Hero, we might advertise collection slots once a week to you, depending on availability. You cannot switch this off at the moment.

If you are a Food Waste Hero, you can set notifications on the Volunteer Hub. You can set the frequency, and types of slots you want to be notified about. You can also switch off notifications entirely, but please note this does not include weekly notifications to non-Food Waste Heroes.

You are able to change your ‘home location’ to an area that you frequently visit, such as your workplace, to see available slots in that area that may fit around your schedule. To change your home location:

• Tap the menu icon ≡ at the top of the screen
• Click on 'Location'
• Set a new location either by using the locate me button or by entering your address into the field
• Don't forget to tap the purple button to save it!

Remember that you must change your ‘home location’ back to the location you will be distributing food from once you have claimed any collection slots.