Platforms don't just fail to explain how they assign orders — it's in their interest that you never know. These insights were found in practice: three years on the road, constant experimentation, and confirmation from my own collected statistics. Not theories — tested laws.
The platform doesn't give the order to the closest courier. It gives it to the least risky one — and that changes your entire tactic near a hotspot.
A courier who starts moving away from the restaurant at the right moment almost certainly gets the order ahead of a competitor standing closer. A direct consequence of dispatch logic.
A moving courier is always moving away from something and toward something — a candidate for dozens of spots at once. A stationary one — for a single spot.
An order = fixed fee + €/km, but the real measure is €/hour. Learn to calculate your personal loss-making kilometre.