Browse the shops you would actually like to carry for and apply. You can do it in the same form you sign up with, or come back and do it later.
The shop reviews your application the same way we review your account. When they accept, you are part of their fleet — you show up on their driver list with your face, your name and your record.
This is the whole advantage, and it is real: when a shop you carry for sends an order out, its own drivers are offered before any freelancer is. The Circle pool is what the shop falls back to, not what it starts with.
If you carry for a shop that is busy, you are first in line at that shop every time it packs something.
The rate you agreed with a shop is the rate that stands on their jobs. It rides on your link with them, so it does not have to match what you charge anyone else.
And unlike the freelance pool, a shop's own driver can be on a negotiable arrangement — they hired you, so the number is already settled between you.
Nothing forces a choice. Carry for three shops you like and stay in the Circle pool for everything else inside your range. Busy day at your shops, you are first in line there; quiet day, the system still finds you work.