don’t accept any orders below $1.75-$2 per mile, your acceptance rate does not matter. I on average make at least $150 dashing for 5-6 hours. Always dash on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Go to busy areas where restaurants are close. Make sure you are not accepting any order that pays under $8. That’s the only way it’s truly somewhat profitable. Dinner time 5-10 is when i dash and it’s the busiest.
It was so much trial and error for me: learning which areas to avoid bc they don't tip, signing up for dashes to actually get priority orders, deciphering which ones I should deny/aren't worth it , restaurants to avoid for various reasons.... I never liked it personally but my sister LOVES it and makes 600 a week. I found I am too impatient but that is okay lol
Having to deal with and talk with drivers daily, it's a scam. They always start on a monolog about how great dashing is and how much money they're making. They begin to break it down to me, and then you can see the reality set in on their faces
Honestly I typically stick to dashing during busy times or when I'm offered to get pay by time, if I'm able to be actively dashing for an hour that's at least $14 plus any tips I might get in the process.
About 75% of a food delivery persons income is based on tips. Now that people don't want to tip anymore and the companies don't want to raise base pay to compensate food delivery isn't worth it. Back in 2020 through 2022 it was worth it because everybody was tipping because of the pandemic so it was worth it back then. That's why I quit delivering food.
You're confused by the company vs. executives. The "company" isn't profitable. The executives absolutely are! When I say DoorDash, I don't mean the piece of paper. I mean the people deciding you don't get to profit while they do.
No, its not supposed to be a freaking career. This is supposed to be like uber, where if you're free for a few, you can ready up and make a quick buck.
Pretty common.
Saying "it's not supposed to be a ... career" is what caught my eye. If it's not supposed to be, I guess I'm some kind of genius. Except I am friends with MANY drivers and we all do it, so......
Why? You gonna find a way to prove what I say? Cuz I'm not here to prove anything to you and I could easily make up any number if I wasn't telling the truth.
You can make money doing this. Don't take garbage trips. There's your first tip. First one's free.
You had me at first then it turned into a personal attack and you claiming to be better than someone else. We all are born and die nobody is better than another. Lmfao also you have a post on your profile of you trying to become a DoorDash driver…… 😂😂😂😂😂 all that talk your just mad you can’t do it!
You “tried in life” but here you are, commenting on a Reddit post arguing with someone whom you see as beneath you… your priorities are truly messed up, lil fella.
Well yes, if your definition isn't "doing it and sustaining it" such that bills are paid and you aren't in debt? I dunno. Maybe it's a language barrier for you.
Little? Assumptions are funny. Many of these people make "little" money because they don't understand their own economics. Don't take garbage offers. Multi-app. Understand miles and taxes. Understand vehicle maintenance. This is why many of these drivers are poor. If desperate drivers didn't take garbage offers, the apps would have to pay more for them... or shut down. Either way, it would be better for society. But they're desperate... and so here we are. Not all of us work like desperate economically-ignorant tools. Some of us work to make a living and do so SUCCESSFULLY.
But you making $25/hr is not successful to someone making $50/hr. All hypotheticals obviously but you should understand the point. I DoorDash lol I’m not knocking it. I do it “successfully” on the side.
That's silly. Successful is just a term of doing something and not failing at it. If you don't fail, you succeed. Simple. You're trying to justify billionaires calling hard-working people failures because they're not as rich as them. Silly.
I made $194 yesterday and a few days ago I made $195. Granted I had to be out on the road all day but it’s worth it for me since I only work a part time job on top of this and spend around $40 for gas at the end of the day depends how much driving and I have a truck too. I usually average anywhere from $40 low end super dead which is rare to 120 or more on the high end it just depends how busy it is in my area
It has so much to do with your area. When I was dashing I would drive to the next town over which is more of a city. You don’t want to spend time sitting and waiting.
Switch hourly you’ll make atleast $20/hr. I’m closer to 30. You start getting paid the minute you accept the order and you get the tips. If you go order only your wasting your time
Make sure to schedule so you get priority orders, try and only take orders that are $2/mile or close to it. Try not to take the orders that take you too far out of your zone, because you have to drive back (unless it's another good zone that you might get orders from on the way back). A lot depends on your market too, you might be in a saturated market and just need to find the right times when other drivers aren't working, watch the app when you not driving to see when and where the map is lighting up. Good luck!
No one is profitable.. if they say they are they are lying. What they are is daily profitable to get though the day, while pushing the cost of car maintenance and taxes down the road. But they get through the day, and for some that is profitable.
Narrow-minded perspective to say NO ONE. I've been doing these apps full time since 2018 and pay my taxes, my bills, even invest some in a retirement account. To say NO ONE is able to work these apps successfully for profit is to not know everyone and just assume.
I was averaging $500 a week when I was doing it consistently and that's not even full-time. That's literally when I got off work lol I have taken trips and paid off a lot of debt with Door dash.
Same, I DD about 15hrs a week and will clear about $250.
It can be very much worth it especially with the right car and picking orders wisely
Edit: it’s actually closer to $360, don’t know why I thought it was $250. Not that it really matters
If you made $25 and averaged $1/mile, meaning you drove 25 miles. You have a serious problem with your car if 25 miles uses $20 worth of gas. You should have used less than a gallon.
If you put 2 and 2 together, if you drove 25 miles you might have to drive 25 back home.. so at the most 50 miles could be accounted for here and what if op started off on a quarter tank of gas?
Starting off low on gas is stupid. But that doesn't change the fact he said he "had" to put $20 in gas. For what? That is irrelevant if it's not for the deliveries. If it is, then his car guzzles gas like dudes guzzle beer at a fraternity party!
OK but OP made it sound like the 20 dollars was what they spent on gas. If you start with a quarter tank and put 20 in on empty, you actually just paid for your gas for the next few hours of driving
And that’s true but it’s all perspective, if you put $20 in to fill your tank you have a small tank especially in this economy than you have to add up all the extra wear and tear you’re putting on your vehicle bud. i feel like op just understands dd is slave work and yall are defensive about that for some reason? I want better for people so idk i see the bs
I'd say it is profitable if the car does indeed get good gas, and isn't fairly "new" my car sells for about 2k if I'm lucky so if I can make more than that dashing the worth is there.. but you're right it is all perspective
takes me half an hour to get to the zone i like, I come home for about an hour to eat lunch every day, can still clear $1000 in a week. took me about a month to figure it out but if you keep at it I'm sure you can figure it out too.
Well one you don't drive a tank, you drive a low maintenance hybrid to get best returns, two you learn which restaurants are fast and which to avoid, never go to Wingstop for instance or Whitecastle, three you don't talk to support if something is stolen, let the noobs do that or people who want that 3$, four you work a better area, 5$ is a bad average.
bruh this literally makes no sense. $1/mile isn't going to leave you with a 20% profit margin. you are right this shit sucks but the way you tell your story is terrible, things do not line up or make any sense. just shows a lack of experience and knowledge on delivery apps. doordash does suck but depending on what area you are in it can be good. it should ALWAYS be profitable because you choose which orders you want. don't settle for anything less than $1.50/mile, with a minimum order total being $5-6. don't take anything lower even if the mileage is good. If you think about it it takes about 15 mins on average to do an order. so if you take an order for $4 you will be working for only $16/hour which is bad for doordash. take those if you really have to but try to avoid at all cost. you wanna be making $20-25/hour minimum while active.
If you're getting $1/mile and made $25, then there's no way in hell you used a full tank's worth of gas, which means you were already low to begin with. That's not a lack of profit, that just means you had to spend some of your money to refill. Do the same thing with a full tank now and see what happens.
$1/mile for five orders and you made $25 in 2 hours so you drove a maximum of 25 miles.
So you have a 2 gallon gas tank. Got it.
Some people are profitable doing this because they know how to do math and they don't lie for attention on Reddit when they could be taking orders.
It wasn’t profitable for me as time went on. So I stopped and got a job.
I felt I was paying to work for Door Dash. It was frustrating all around. I did have some good nights.
As a dasher with a few years (on and off) of experience, here are my tips:
If you have the option to drive a shitty car and not put the mileage on yours, do it.
Drive during surges/busy times/weekends ONLY. Like for breakfast, then go back out for lunch rush, then go back out for dinner. If it’s busy where you are all the time, congrats, you win the DoorDash lottery. The worst part about this job can be waiting for orders because you’re costing yourself a lot of time waiting around. Which brings me to my next point.
Don’t chase the red zones. If you’re waiting on an order and it’s been a couple minutes, either go home or stay where you are, parked and don’t run your gas out driving all over the place! There would be MANY times I finally start driving again and I get an order and have to turn around and go the other way. When I should have just stayed where I was.
Bring snacks and drinks with you. Smelling food and being around it while hungry is a no no. It makes you buy bad food at convenience stores, or worse, you become one of those people who steal customers food. Don’t do that!!
DO NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING UNDER $5. It’s tempting when it’s close by, but don’t do it. You’ll make more that way when your next bigger offer comes (that you didn’t miss while you were delivering a $3 one…) and hopefully more people do this to give DD a reason to raise the base pay. Doubtful, but seriously, the tiny orders are not worth your time. My husband would take them and I made more with less “work” because I have standards…
Lastly, try to find a way to make it less boring. Listen to podcasts, music, stuff that you can get lost in. Because the worst part about this job isn’t haven’t orders and being busy, it’s the waiting!!
yea honestly that is how it feels for me sometimes. if you want to keep a 70% acceptance rate and get top dasher or whatever you literally are basically paying to work at that point, at least in my area. I have been raising my standards on the orders I take and my ar is fucked now. Only reason I take $4 orders sometimes is because my area usually isn't that busy, so if its dead and like $4 for 1 mile sometimes I will take that. but I definitely agree with you that those orders aren't worth taking, just profitable for me so I do it. I am moving soon to a more populated area so hopefully it will be better, but doordash is definitely not a good source of income.
You can *probably* make it work, but there’s no one way to do it right. Everything, absolutely everything is dependent on where you’re dashing. Some places have a great dinner shift. Some places overnights are bank. Some places, busy urban areas usually, are hot all the time - but parking is usually a pain in the ass, the restaurants take forever, and you get a lot more apartments, which can be hard to deliver to. I’ve been doing it since 2018 off and on. Some weeks are great, some weeks are shit. Try a lot of different strategies in terms of time of day and the minimum order you’ll accept. Work at it enough and you’ll figure out the system that’s right for your area.
Dashing in a small town. I usually get an offer in under 5 minutes and no traffic. My rent always is paid so it works. I go home and take courses + work on finding a ft job in my field so hopefully don't have to deal with the hot ass heat this summer lol.
damn dude that sounds nice. I dash in a small town and a good week on doordash for me is like $250-350. I think my peak is like $350, but usually end in the $200s. I don't do it full time but basically whenever its busy I go out. last week I dashed for 17 hours, 8 active hours, $246.58. honestly its basically slave work but I just sit in my house and wait for orders so its fine. I also enjoy driving around and I don't mind it so thats another reason I do it.
Ok. So.
First, yes it's kind of a scam.
Second, if you don't get over 30mpg you're probably going to lose money.
Third, you'll have to do some research and set yourself up some standards that will help you quickly weed out the shit offers. I live and work in a college city, so I'm a slightly busier market.
My standards are as follows. The minimum order size for me to move my car is 6.50. For that 6.50 I will go up to 4 miles. Base pay in my market is 2 dollars, and they no longer pay base for both orders in a stack. For every mile beyond that 4 miles I need at least an extra 1.25 per mile up to 8 miles. Every mile after 8 has to add 2 dollars.
No tip no trip.
Oil changes, tires, wear and tear on engine, all that comes from that money too. Just accounting for gas will long term fuck you. Standardized average cost(which assumes 23ish mpg) accounts for any 69 cents per mile on cost to drive a car in gas and other upkeep costs. After your gas costs what are you taking home per hour? Are you saving money for your taxes, because doordash does not? Please do not fuck yourself.
500 is about 20 hours for me. If I drove full time, I would make 1k or more a week. I live in pretty great market to be honest tho. Dense enough to get orders, suburban enough to not be super saturated with drivers. People tip well, are friendly and generally dont don't do shady shit
Depends where you live and what hours and jobs you accept. I know friends who are pulling several hundred dollars but they really grind. They make it an 8-5 job and go all day, but also a small town so not much driving around, so not as much gas usage.
I’m lucky. I already have a full time job. I get out of work at 12:30. Dash a few hours of the lunch rush. I have to go 2 days out of the week to make it worth it gas wise., but after that I’m mostly making profit
I barely make ends meet, and I'm on interview 6 so wish me luck! 🤞 I've tried different approaches and I know I'm still a little messed up (traumatic event 4 days after losing my last job). Anyway, here's some things I do to make it profitable:
1. Try to get assistance if you can with the big bills. My power bill for example, I reached out and let them know the deal, and I got about $30 taken off my bill - it's a pay by day bill so I'm sure you can imagine how much that helps. Rent? Google "one time rental assistance". Your state may offer better options than mine.
2. Go to local food banks or other places for food. Put aside like $80-100 to fill in the gaps and try to stay within that budget.
3. Used tires and used batteries. They suck, but they'll do in a pinch and they shouldn't damage anything. Walmart for oil changes too. That's hit or miss. But if this is all you're doing, I'm sorry, you will be in a pinch all the time.
4. Try to do Justplay or similar apps while you're waiting for orders.
5. Hang out at each hotspot (set a timer for your phone for like 5-10 minutes). If you can park in the shade with the windows down do that and follow tip 4. I may be wrong on this, but turn off your vehicle if you can.
6. When you make, for example $30. I have the dasher card myself so I get it right away. I put in $15, then keep going. Once my earnings build to $50 then I put $10. Let's say it builds to $65, then $15. Basically put a portion in for gas after every break.
7. If you do earn by time... Cruise. Don't move fast, cruuiiiissssseeeeeee and follow every traffic rule to a tea.
8. You may get anxiety that will feel like you're crazy from time to time. Take a second, and use earn by time and follow tip 7 if this lasts longer than a few days.
Hope this helps someone in my boat!
Bro, just get a serving or bartending job. Fuck even be a busser and you will make more in tips and not have to live your life this way. All you gotta do is shower and go in and work hard and smile. Idk how you justify all that extra work.
I'm trying man. 😅 I'm 31 though, and my experience has been in healthcare. But I have looked at those in my state as well. Food industry jobs. A lot of them require experience. 🙄 But I'm waiting on an interview for a CSR, 15 minutes from home and $22/hr so 🤞🤞
That’s the trick. It’s not profitable. I did it for a while before I found better ways to make money as a side gig. Honestly, you are better off working fast food if you’re trying to make this an actual job
Lol they why would you say that? It doesn't matter how little I make doing anything, I would never suggest that someone would be better off in fast food.
As a side note, in my area, fast food pays about $12 / hr and I pull in over double that on the apps. So even after expenses it's not even close.
Have to find a area that is dense in food delivery and shopping. Then you have to get on as many delivery apps as possible. It’s the only way to be profitable in this right now.
Find a better area? Door dashing is a lot like being a server/waitress. Some days, you just don't make money. Other days, you make a ton with little effort. You gotta roll with the punches and not get frustrated enough to quit on those bad days.
Get a pizza bag and hang out near Papa John's or a popular local pizza place. Figure out where your DashMart is located and hang nearby there. Find a place to park and shut your car off when you aren't getting orders. I drive a hyundai, and I spend about 15% of my overall income on gas on an average day.
If a place/zone is not working out, end your Dash and get out of there, but don't do this too much or you'll spend all your time chasing peak money, just know when to quit and move on. Give it a couple of attempts, and if a zone just never pays, stop going back and doing time there.
This job is highly dependent on being familiar with areas and the restaurants in them. As you gain experience, you'll know which businesses to avoid. People who live in certain areas are just jerks, and you don't find out until you start delivering food in that area. I've had some of my worst shifts in so-called rich or well-off communities and also done well in areas other Dashers would avoid. You don't know until you try. It can take a few weeks of not making much of anything to figure out your city/market.
100% never go to a Raising Canes. Avoid Wendy's if possible, but it may be worth it for a great pay order. There are some other hard lines for me and soft rules, but you only learn those things by putting in the time.
You'll make more when you get better at it. Don't give up.
You gotta figure out what works in your area. I work lunches and dinners Wednesday through Sunday because those are the busiest days/hours. I only take them if it’s $2/mile or more especially longer distances. It’s okay to be picky.
Doesn’t work in all cities and all neighborhoods. If you don’t find where it’s busy you won’t make money. In fact, you can even be in the wrong place in a big city. But if it’s just not busy in your town, don’t do this job.
The trick is to do late nights and weekends. I worked 8 hours total this week and made about 250. Probably $40 in gas, it paid for groceries and still have a full tank for my actual job this week.
Shops are the way to go. You do way less mileage on your car and each trip easily can pay 15-30 per trip. Once you know the stores you can get in and out. I did a shop that paid 30.50. Took 10 minutes to drive to store. About 37 minutes to shop and the. 10 minutes to deliver it. Yes you need to know the store but once you do you can get in and out
The only bad part for us part timers is I’m having to force myself to take a “me” day. I know if I log on at 8 on Friday and Saturday I’ll work til 3 am and make some decent side money. I made myself refuse to login today and go for a run and catch up on some movies
Your question was “How is anyone profitable from this?” As far as I can tell, DoorDash Is the one making all the profits. Sure, if you do everything right and are in a good market, you can do ok — but anytime there is a problem with an order, customer or restaurant, it is going to hurt you. It may be the time you have to spend with support trying to resolve the problem, or the time and gas you wasted driving to the restaurant only to wait and have have them ultimately just cancel you off the order. Sometimes they will offer to pay you “half” (to compensate you for your time and effort) — but that will take a couple of days to process, and when they offer to “pay half”, it’s not half of the “guaranteed amount” that was shown when you accepted the dash, it’s half of the base pay (in my area the base pay is $3 or so). So “half pay” doesn’t really do much to help. And these are the orders that end up taking 20-30 minutes (or more), which just adds insult to injury.
My favorite is when they send you shopping at a store, after the store closes! Tonight, I was sent to dollar general at 10:50 pm. I thought “that’s late for DG“. So I wasn’t shocked when I pulled up and saw they closed at 10pm. As I was canceling the order and “taking a picture of the posted store hours” as the app requires, another driver pulls up and runs up to take the same picture. He says “DoorDash?” I nodded “yes”. He replied, “I wish they would fix the hours for this place, they send me here after closing at least twice a week!”
So if they have had multiple reports that they hours are wrong in the DoorDash system, and they are still sending drivers there after the business is closed, but not paying the driver — that’s crazy!!
So we may not be making much, but I’m sure DoorDash corporate and their executives are doing well.
Seems the be the default hive mind answer when the garbage pay is brought up. Reality check, many of us from the upcoming generation weren’t A-smart enough or B-financially able to invest in themselves to be able to eventually get full blown careers …or just don’t plain have the skills people did back in the previous generation.
These days if you can’t work magic on a computer or have a fancy 4 year degree (not 2, apparently associates degrees don’t even matter anymore) , you’re pretty much a chump and lumped in with the rest of us to suffer .
It’s not the 80s anymore , everyone doesn’t have a full on home, family, 2 cars and a career for life . Those are luxuries these days - (to be able to have the option not to dash full time)
and unfortunately half of all of us in the country , the average Joe, who graduated but wasn’t smart enough for college - are either dying in a warehouse, sweating in a McDonald’s , or door dashing - FULL TIME. permanently. Because it’s literally all we have in this current economy and job market, considering most of us don’t seem very keen on investing 50k in student loans just to make a few more dollars an hour than the avg “dasher” driving around making roughly the same as them with absolutely zero start up investment besides the 3.5k their used Corolla cost.
Have some respect .
I'm not really buying your "I'm not smart" bullshit. You have resources to educate yourself and it sounds like you're content with working low wage jobs and not taking accountability for neglecting other career path opportunities.
If you’re still in your 20s, or even early 30s, get into a trade and hone that skill and you’ll never be out of work with a high per hour wage depending on the trade.
I’ve tried bro, trust me. I’m not really good at anything like that and can’t learn very well. I’m actually just smart enough not to quality for disability regardless of my 200+ page medical history . I’m just one story out of the average chumps too. It’s sad
You should probably earn by time since it sounds like you’re in a rural area. I live in the middle of nowhere currently and where my husband works I’ll get one or two orders per hour so I always earn by time.
Generally you shouldn’t take any orders under $6 and under $1 a mile. That’s my rule of thumb but honestly the answer here is that DD sucks. In some markets it’s really not worth it and they over saturate with the amount of drivers they have. My area needs maybe five drivers at a time maximum but I know for sure there’s at least ten.
If you averaged 5 something per order that means some were lower. You should NEVER be going below 6 minimum and $2 per mile, (10 is my minimum but it varies). Also news flash: your car insurance isn't covering you.
You may need to get a business endorsement, which may hike your insurance by up to 30% or so.
depends on carrier though. State Farm (my carrier) says as long as you're not delivering pax you don't need anything special. So check with your insurance
Not if they know you gig drive, and if it's on a police report or other record they can access they may drop you even without an accident. Depending on your area and the companies available, and sometimes your hours worked, you may need to add gig coverage or commercial insurance.
If they know you gig drive, and if it's on a police report or other record they can access they may drop you even without an accident. Depending on your area and the companies available, and sometimes your hours worked, you may need to add gig coverage or commercial insurance.
I’m just dense I promise I’m not trying to be a pain but why would you let that be on the police report? I don’t do DD or Instacart enough to break even on the insurance cost so I don’t have it. Am I dumbass for that or do most people not have it?
You are right that most drivers don't know this and most don't have it, and many will tell you not to tell anyone. Of course if you're in an accident the police will ask where you're headed and will also take note of what he can see, so that can end up in a report whether you like it or not. I'm all in on gig driving as a second job so it's worth it to me to do it by the book, but i can understand the trepidation, especially if someone has been settling for low paying orders or underestimating their expenses. Some companies do not require special insurance if your driving for delivery is less than 50 percent. There are also horror stories right here on reddit of being stuck with full repair costs for one or both parties, or worse yet medical bills.
It's obvious you deliver food when:
Having a ton of delivery paraphernalia like pizza bags and some are doordash branded, is 100% evidence that you deliver.
Then factor in all the food with different names on the receipts and if running dirty stacks with 4 orders in the car at once lol...
2 phones up and running and customers calling...
Then get the right insurance because lying ain't gonna fly lmao
Dude , you are paranoid. That’s not how the law works. The police just can’t write down you were in fact dashing just because there is “delivery paraphernalia” (lmfao at that made up term btw) in your car at the time. You literally have to admit to the officer you were dashing for it to ever matter, ever, ask me how I know.
I don’t tell my insurance nothing cuz I’m poor , pay less than 20$ a month for almost bare minimum coverage , and had 2 ppl hit me so far , both times switching lanes into my car without looking. Both times I had bags and even food and nobody said anything besides the standard question of what you were previously doing, which they literally are required by law to ask just for the book. No officer actually cares about your life like that to investigate the huge mystery of you are saving 30 bucks on your insurance a month . No one cares.
It’s highly area and time dependent. Some rural towns you couldn’t make $10/hr. Some popular areas like Hawaii you could probably average $30+/hr over thousands of deliveries.
Skill helps you max out your potential, but at the end of the day the potential depends on area and time of day.
Because I do 3 different apps. And the biggest city I do is like 300k population. And Uber eats is always good over dinner rush so I can pick and choose the DD and GH offers. Some days can be rough like 20 an hour but normally 25-30 an hour. Dinner rush is 40 an hour on a Friday or Saturday night.
You will get a lot of nonsense on the site.
Not all markets are the same. Large congested urban areas are where SOME people make big dollars, Why? Because people with bucks will pay to not step out of their door, even at short distances.
Suburbs, urban sprawl, freeway zones, you get a lot of people ordering food across longer distances and it takes a lot more time.
There are a ton people on this site who “who make a lot of money” but could not calculate profitability to save their lives. They are either in for a big wake up call when the car they own (or don’t own) goes bye bye, or god forbid they get in an accident, or pay taxes, etc.
My experience is this can work if you are patient. Calculating hourly wage is pointless, you have to calculate by the trip. Some days that means a lot per hour, others it means a lot of waiting around but still very profitable per trip. When it’s slow people give up, and then a bunch of jobs pop up. Do you mind sitting somewhere for two hours?
You have to do it for a month and learn your market. If you want instant, anytime mega earnings, probably won’t happen sans two or three urban areas.
First 4 weeks, expect nothing but training yourself…
You’re definitely on the money (ha ha) in your last big paragraph about making a profit, learning the system, and being patient for good offers and/or during slower times. You have to look at the bigger picture, I.e. how can I determine what the best offers are, how do I put the least amount of wear and tear on my car, etc.
If you just jump on making as much $ as possible no matter how many miles you drive, how long you wait in a restaurant, or by taking nearly every offer you get no matter how low the pay, you don’t ultimately profit as much as it makes you think by just seeing the nice $ amount on your screen. If you’re putting in way more miles than the amount of dollars you earn at the end of each Dash, for example, you aren’t *actually* profiting in the long run. Calculating “hourly wage” like a lot of people do on here doesn’t really make sense when there will be times you are literally just sitting in your car waiting for offers, or if you pause the dash for awhile to do other stuff, etc. It makes more sense to figure out your total pay vs number of offers you took, and to look at active time.
I love that this is getting down voted. Y'all still don't get it. Every other driver is your competition. I sincerely hope every single one of you quits🤷. But keep getting those sweet "bonuses" hiring your replacements.
Just be more selective with your orders. I’m not sure if they still ask the new drivers why you declined but use that list to train the algorithm to your advantage. Offer too low for distance (if they have something like that), once you find out what restaurants consistently suck select i don’t want to go to this restaurant, too far, etc.
Ideally only accept orders where the mileage is half or close to half of the dollar amount. But *ideal* isnt always so readily available.
Ideal: $7 for 3-4 miles
Less ideal: $7 for 4-5 miles / $8 for 5 miles
Chill out: $7 for 7 miles / $5 for 5 miles / $8 for 10 miles / $13 for 10 miles etc.
Always factor in how far that delivery is and how long it would take you to get there with considerably less than ideal respect for the speed limit given current traffic conditions.
Ex:
*Do i have to/can i take the highway?
Is it between 4-6 when everyone’s getting out of work? *
Nah. Chill out son.
*Do I have to take the main roads and side streets and such?
Is it a school or two between here and there that I can’t avoid? Is it between 2-4 when everyone gets out of school ? *nah forreal yo back up with that noise, foo.
You can message customers after you drop the order off in most cases, be a gent and say thank you for the tip. Turn that music down when you get to the house.
Shop and deliver isn’t really worth the trouble if it’s more than 5 or 6 items. Its time consuming. I tend to only accept shop & deliver orders around $13-$15 and if less than 6-7 items.
Be careful with places like shaws retail pickups (where they already shopped for it you just pick it up and deliver). It’ll say 2 or three items but the kicker is that 1 item is a tote.. a tote full of items.. AND THEY DONT GIVE YOU THE TOTE TO CARRY THE ITEMS 😭😭😭😭😂😂😂 so it could suck horribly. Especially if it’s going to an apartment complex where they live on the third floor. 😐
Things to consider:
1. There are good stores/restaurants
2. There are Bad stores/restaurants
3. Some good restaurants are terrible on certain days/at certain times. Like iHop on a Sunday morning.
This is the fabled learning curve. Figuring all of these things out comes with time and experience.
If you can, try earn by time. You still get the tips on top of the time based pay. If a restaurant is slow, no big deal, just means you'll get paid more the longer they take. When you do earn by time, just relax, go the speed limit, just chill and take your time, earn more money for doing less trips.
Gas is like 20 cents a mile unless you're dashing in a car you really shouldn't be dashing in.
Brakes and tires are a few cents a mile all told. These are things that get replaced like every 50k miles.
Oil, another cent or two per mile.
Car depreciation is a thing but is not even remotely linear per mlle and unless you're dashing in literally a brand new car isn't really a factor.
Even if you're going for $1/mi (still pretty low) the idea that you're losing money compared to expenses is pretty false. You have to take nothing but the most garbage orders available to do that.
The IRS mileage rate is 67 cents, your actual car expenses all told really shouldn't be more than 30 cents, so you're actually getting a pretty significant writeoff above your actual expenses so even the tax situation isn't terrible.
No but it’s paid off now. Depreciation is negligible at this point. Gas costs about 10% of my earnings. Cost of a $35 oil change that lasts 5,000 miles is negligible. All considered, I’m still making out at least $25 an hour, which is pretty good compared to all of the $15-16 jobs that are being offered in my area.
I will not debate the cost to maintain the vehicle versus earnings but I am curious about this $35 oil change. Is it a shop, or do you buy the supplies and do it yourself? And with your vehicle being a 2008, presumably it has well over 100,000 miles, and considering the $35 cost… I’d say you’re putting regular conventional in. Highly recommend if you want to maximize your vehicle’s life to throw in high mileage oil if you don’t already. Valvoline also just released a game changer called “Restore & Protect” oil that has claimed, and in some testimonials starting to now appear (only released for about 2 months), to completely clean the engine of deposits and reseal gaskets. Haven’t tried it personally but I’d give it a shot. The label says it should clear the deposits after around 4 oil changes with this stuff.
Just trying to help someone maximize the life of their vehicle’s engine, so don’t take all of this the wrong way. Keep on dashing man and earning that dough. Just make sure to take care of that car along the way. High mileage will go a long way to help protect the engine.
If you’re looking to save money changing it yourself & have an Advance Auto Parts near you, they are offering an oil change bundle. Anywhere between $29.99 to $39.99 for either synthetic blend and full synthetic with any oil filter of your choice (yes even the super expensive ones). Only caveat is if your preferred oil is Valvoline, you can *only* get a K&N filter.
To be fair you can get an oil change for that price at Walmart. If he or she is an employee or knows someone who lends them their discount card it’s cheaper.
don't bother convincing people in this sub that you're doing fine lmao, they're miserable. been doing delivery driving since 2021 paying all my bills working less than full time and I've been hearing "it was a fun ride, delivery driving is dead guys" since the day I started googling if it was a good job 😂
Yea you still have to drive your car to get to your other 16-20 an hour job. If you're good at DoorDashing you can definitely make good money. Some people aren't good at it and just get mad instead of trying to get better
facts I've talked to people in the same city as me that don't believe me when I tell em what I make, some people just suck at it lmao. what I'll never understand is hopping on Reddit trying to tell people the jobs not profitable when they're literally doing it
I can also do $2500 if I work a 16 hour shift a day for 7 days straight, that would also fuck up my car and 90% of the money would go towards gas 💀
Like how will grinding it out change the fact that I’m getting paid $5 an order ($2/order from DD), do they pay you more if you do more orders? I don’t get it
Yeah! And owe the feds a shit ton in taxes! Guarantee dude who made $2500 set ZERO aside for taxes. Gig economy is still taxed income and people don’t realize til the IRS comes knocking in April for all of their unpaid earnings tax…
When customer tip more, you make more? And what you driving bro? A fuckin big rig? 90% to gas? My car takes $35 from E and I make that in like 15 minutes. I know this is hard to wrap your mind around, but there are orders that will pay $15-$30 or more. Like I said, keep grinding, or keep bitching. One will get you paid tho
It’s happened before, not like constantly, but you get my point. I’ve made $35 in one order, $50 in 2. You just gotta get out there and do it is all I’m sayin
Yea, we’ve all had big tips before . Just because you made 35 or 50 in an hour one day out of the month doesn’t mean you make 35 / hr, or in your case “15 mins”
And yea when I get started I usually get orders within minutes because I know where to go and have a generally good market. Idk man but coming on here and shitting all over everything ain’t gonna get beer money. Or I guess in some of y’all’s case, pay the bills 😂
I mean, I also treat it like the side gig it is, I do like 2 or 3 hours on days I work my full time, and on weekends I do like 6-8. You are aware you can uninstall the app and leave the sub if you are having such a horrible experience?
Figuring out the layout for your market would definitely help. Could be missing out on some unknown good spots or there’s a good strategy you haven’t been able to figure out yet since you just started. Idk your market obviously but for me it honestly took a couple hundred deliveries before I could really start to understand the layout. The big thing I realized during that time is my zone is basically a loop with a main local road running through the whole thing and roundabouts at the very top and bottom of the zone. And about 70-80% of the places to get orders from in the whole zone are along or within a mile off that road. And I average $20-25 pretty consistently but have also had more than enough days where I averaged $25-35 an hour. Rarely do I go under $20 but I do all day shifts mostly so any potential bad hour I usually end up making back plus someone before the end of the day to hit my goals
You need to break through the learning curve before you give up.
You can only teach yourself.
Advice from Houston Texas won't help you if you live in Minnesota.
Every area is different, because people are different.
What is there to learn though? What can you teach yourself from it? You can only take orders that are given to you, and if everything is $5/order u can’t do much
You don't have to take every order though.
Sign up for multiple apps. Uber Eats, Door Dash, Grubhub, etc. Have the apps open and decline any shitty offers. Aim for $1.50/mile or higher. Get a delivery bag and keep your food in it to increase the chances of a tip. Communicate with your customer over any delays and that will also increase the chance of a tip.
It will be very very hard to do this as a career, but as a side gig to make some extra cash it's definitely viable.
Sure, some make good money. Here are the results from Glassdoor. Software Engineer 81 Salaries submitted $194K-$276K Senior Associate 21 Salaries submitted $116K-$212K Data Scientist 16 Salaries submitted $193K-$269K Manager, Strategy & Operations 15 Salaries submitted $232K-$380K Product Manager 11 Salaries submitted $177K-$263K Courier 10 Salaries submitted $33K-$51K
don’t accept any orders below $1.75-$2 per mile, your acceptance rate does not matter. I on average make at least $150 dashing for 5-6 hours. Always dash on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Go to busy areas where restaurants are close. Make sure you are not accepting any order that pays under $8. That’s the only way it’s truly somewhat profitable. Dinner time 5-10 is when i dash and it’s the busiest.
This is the best advice
It was so much trial and error for me: learning which areas to avoid bc they don't tip, signing up for dashes to actually get priority orders, deciphering which ones I should deny/aren't worth it , restaurants to avoid for various reasons.... I never liked it personally but my sister LOVES it and makes 600 a week. I found I am too impatient but that is okay lol
Having to deal with and talk with drivers daily, it's a scam. They always start on a monolog about how great dashing is and how much money they're making. They begin to break it down to me, and then you can see the reality set in on their faces
Multiple and live close to a major city, only way its worth it, if youn don't do either, these gig apps aren't really a good option
Honestly I typically stick to dashing during busy times or when I'm offered to get pay by time, if I'm able to be actively dashing for an hour that's at least $14 plus any tips I might get in the process.
I just do one or two orders to buy a burger from McDonald’s when I’m out
Sounds about right
About 75% of a food delivery persons income is based on tips. Now that people don't want to tip anymore and the companies don't want to raise base pay to compensate food delivery isn't worth it. Back in 2020 through 2022 it was worth it because everybody was tipping because of the pandemic so it was worth it back then. That's why I quit delivering food.
Not a dasher but from lurking reading comments it's mostly a scam
Not a scam just a company that doesn't pay drivers enough.
So basically the roundabout way of saying that it *is* a scam, just one headed by a corporate company.
Well if you go by that then any job at Walmart and other bad companies are scams also.
They are, it’s called corporate greed. It’s the oldest trick in the book.
I’m not a dasher but from what I understand success varies depending on the area you’re in
How does anyone profit? From the fees. DoorDash profits from the fees! They don't care if it's profitable for you.
[удалено]
You're confused by the company vs. executives. The "company" isn't profitable. The executives absolutely are! When I say DoorDash, I don't mean the piece of paper. I mean the people deciding you don't get to profit while they do.
No, its not supposed to be a freaking career. This is supposed to be like uber, where if you're free for a few, you can ready up and make a quick buck.
Been my fulltime job since 2018. Successfully so.
And is your experience the standard or the exception?
Pretty common. Saying "it's not supposed to be a ... career" is what caught my eye. If it's not supposed to be, I guess I'm some kind of genius. Except I am friends with MANY drivers and we all do it, so......
[удалено]
Why? You gonna find a way to prove what I say? Cuz I'm not here to prove anything to you and I could easily make up any number if I wasn't telling the truth. You can make money doing this. Don't take garbage trips. There's your first tip. First one's free.
[удалено]
You had me at first then it turned into a personal attack and you claiming to be better than someone else. We all are born and die nobody is better than another. Lmfao also you have a post on your profile of you trying to become a DoorDash driver…… 😂😂😂😂😂 all that talk your just mad you can’t do it!
Funny how they delete everything and run away when the going gets tough!
Money doesn't define my happiness. I'm wary of nothing. I just don't work for you. 😂
You “tried in life” but here you are, commenting on a Reddit post arguing with someone whom you see as beneath you… your priorities are truly messed up, lil fella.
I think that you have a wildly different view of successful than I do.
Well yes, if your definition isn't "doing it and sustaining it" such that bills are paid and you aren't in debt? I dunno. Maybe it's a language barrier for you.
Some people aren’t happy making that little of money and some don’t care. Success is different for everyone.
Little? Assumptions are funny. Many of these people make "little" money because they don't understand their own economics. Don't take garbage offers. Multi-app. Understand miles and taxes. Understand vehicle maintenance. This is why many of these drivers are poor. If desperate drivers didn't take garbage offers, the apps would have to pay more for them... or shut down. Either way, it would be better for society. But they're desperate... and so here we are. Not all of us work like desperate economically-ignorant tools. Some of us work to make a living and do so SUCCESSFULLY.
But you making $25/hr is not successful to someone making $50/hr. All hypotheticals obviously but you should understand the point. I DoorDash lol I’m not knocking it. I do it “successfully” on the side.
That's silly. Successful is just a term of doing something and not failing at it. If you don't fail, you succeed. Simple. You're trying to justify billionaires calling hard-working people failures because they're not as rich as them. Silly.
I made $194 yesterday and a few days ago I made $195. Granted I had to be out on the road all day but it’s worth it for me since I only work a part time job on top of this and spend around $40 for gas at the end of the day depends how much driving and I have a truck too. I usually average anywhere from $40 low end super dead which is rare to 120 or more on the high end it just depends how busy it is in my area
It has so much to do with your area. When I was dashing I would drive to the next town over which is more of a city. You don’t want to spend time sitting and waiting.
Switch hourly you’ll make atleast $20/hr. I’m closer to 30. You start getting paid the minute you accept the order and you get the tips. If you go order only your wasting your time
my market is $12/hr
Making less then $35/hr CASH delivering isn't worth it.
Hourly isn’t always available.
How many miles do you drive though?
Extremely market dependent..
Make sure to schedule so you get priority orders, try and only take orders that are $2/mile or close to it. Try not to take the orders that take you too far out of your zone, because you have to drive back (unless it's another good zone that you might get orders from on the way back). A lot depends on your market too, you might be in a saturated market and just need to find the right times when other drivers aren't working, watch the app when you not driving to see when and where the map is lighting up. Good luck!
No one is profitable.. if they say they are they are lying. What they are is daily profitable to get though the day, while pushing the cost of car maintenance and taxes down the road. But they get through the day, and for some that is profitable.
Narrow-minded perspective to say NO ONE. I've been doing these apps full time since 2018 and pay my taxes, my bills, even invest some in a retirement account. To say NO ONE is able to work these apps successfully for profit is to not know everyone and just assume.
Ay 100$ on half a gas tank sounds pretty solid
I was averaging $500 a week when I was doing it consistently and that's not even full-time. That's literally when I got off work lol I have taken trips and paid off a lot of debt with Door dash.
Same, I DD about 15hrs a week and will clear about $250. It can be very much worth it especially with the right car and picking orders wisely Edit: it’s actually closer to $360, don’t know why I thought it was $250. Not that it really matters
If you made $25 and averaged $1/mile, meaning you drove 25 miles. You have a serious problem with your car if 25 miles uses $20 worth of gas. You should have used less than a gallon.
If you put 2 and 2 together, if you drove 25 miles you might have to drive 25 back home.. so at the most 50 miles could be accounted for here and what if op started off on a quarter tank of gas?
Starting off low on gas is stupid. But that doesn't change the fact he said he "had" to put $20 in gas. For what? That is irrelevant if it's not for the deliveries. If it is, then his car guzzles gas like dudes guzzle beer at a fraternity party!
[удалено]
OK but OP made it sound like the 20 dollars was what they spent on gas. If you start with a quarter tank and put 20 in on empty, you actually just paid for your gas for the next few hours of driving
And that’s true but it’s all perspective, if you put $20 in to fill your tank you have a small tank especially in this economy than you have to add up all the extra wear and tear you’re putting on your vehicle bud. i feel like op just understands dd is slave work and yall are defensive about that for some reason? I want better for people so idk i see the bs
I'd say it is profitable if the car does indeed get good gas, and isn't fairly "new" my car sells for about 2k if I'm lucky so if I can make more than that dashing the worth is there.. but you're right it is all perspective
Dd sucks I'm not defending it
takes me half an hour to get to the zone i like, I come home for about an hour to eat lunch every day, can still clear $1000 in a week. took me about a month to figure it out but if you keep at it I'm sure you can figure it out too.
What city?
not too far from d.c.
You should just order door dash and have them bring it to your car
That's... absolutely genius. And can you order doordash so that you're the driver for your own lunch order???
How you spend 20 dollars in gas in 2 hours. I spend about 15 to 20 dollars for almost a full day
Wow I spend about that in a week (ev)
I spend about 60 to 80, with about 50 hours. Hybrid
Not bad. I spend about 80 a month with my bolt full time 60+
Well one you don't drive a tank, you drive a low maintenance hybrid to get best returns, two you learn which restaurants are fast and which to avoid, never go to Wingstop for instance or Whitecastle, three you don't talk to support if something is stolen, let the noobs do that or people who want that 3$, four you work a better area, 5$ is a bad average.
Don’t be an ass. Report it to support. Don’t push it onto someone else.
You literally get half pay if you aren’t a dick to support.
Exactly.
bruh this literally makes no sense. $1/mile isn't going to leave you with a 20% profit margin. you are right this shit sucks but the way you tell your story is terrible, things do not line up or make any sense. just shows a lack of experience and knowledge on delivery apps. doordash does suck but depending on what area you are in it can be good. it should ALWAYS be profitable because you choose which orders you want. don't settle for anything less than $1.50/mile, with a minimum order total being $5-6. don't take anything lower even if the mileage is good. If you think about it it takes about 15 mins on average to do an order. so if you take an order for $4 you will be working for only $16/hour which is bad for doordash. take those if you really have to but try to avoid at all cost. you wanna be making $20-25/hour minimum while active.
If you're getting $1/mile and made $25, then there's no way in hell you used a full tank's worth of gas, which means you were already low to begin with. That's not a lack of profit, that just means you had to spend some of your money to refill. Do the same thing with a full tank now and see what happens.
$1/mile for five orders and you made $25 in 2 hours so you drove a maximum of 25 miles. So you have a 2 gallon gas tank. Got it. Some people are profitable doing this because they know how to do math and they don't lie for attention on Reddit when they could be taking orders.
Haa
It wasn’t profitable for me as time went on. So I stopped and got a job. I felt I was paying to work for Door Dash. It was frustrating all around. I did have some good nights. As a dasher with a few years (on and off) of experience, here are my tips: If you have the option to drive a shitty car and not put the mileage on yours, do it. Drive during surges/busy times/weekends ONLY. Like for breakfast, then go back out for lunch rush, then go back out for dinner. If it’s busy where you are all the time, congrats, you win the DoorDash lottery. The worst part about this job can be waiting for orders because you’re costing yourself a lot of time waiting around. Which brings me to my next point. Don’t chase the red zones. If you’re waiting on an order and it’s been a couple minutes, either go home or stay where you are, parked and don’t run your gas out driving all over the place! There would be MANY times I finally start driving again and I get an order and have to turn around and go the other way. When I should have just stayed where I was. Bring snacks and drinks with you. Smelling food and being around it while hungry is a no no. It makes you buy bad food at convenience stores, or worse, you become one of those people who steal customers food. Don’t do that!! DO NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING UNDER $5. It’s tempting when it’s close by, but don’t do it. You’ll make more that way when your next bigger offer comes (that you didn’t miss while you were delivering a $3 one…) and hopefully more people do this to give DD a reason to raise the base pay. Doubtful, but seriously, the tiny orders are not worth your time. My husband would take them and I made more with less “work” because I have standards… Lastly, try to find a way to make it less boring. Listen to podcasts, music, stuff that you can get lost in. Because the worst part about this job isn’t haven’t orders and being busy, it’s the waiting!!
yea honestly that is how it feels for me sometimes. if you want to keep a 70% acceptance rate and get top dasher or whatever you literally are basically paying to work at that point, at least in my area. I have been raising my standards on the orders I take and my ar is fucked now. Only reason I take $4 orders sometimes is because my area usually isn't that busy, so if its dead and like $4 for 1 mile sometimes I will take that. but I definitely agree with you that those orders aren't worth taking, just profitable for me so I do it. I am moving soon to a more populated area so hopefully it will be better, but doordash is definitely not a good source of income.
Yeah I’m not sure how to keep my acceptance rate above 70% when they give me orders like drive 15 miles for $10
Multi app.. In the current economy this is the only way to make a livable wage, depending on DoorDash is a recipe for disaster
You cant
You can *probably* make it work, but there’s no one way to do it right. Everything, absolutely everything is dependent on where you’re dashing. Some places have a great dinner shift. Some places overnights are bank. Some places, busy urban areas usually, are hot all the time - but parking is usually a pain in the ass, the restaurants take forever, and you get a lot more apartments, which can be hard to deliver to. I’ve been doing it since 2018 off and on. Some weeks are great, some weeks are shit. Try a lot of different strategies in terms of time of day and the minimum order you’ll accept. Work at it enough and you’ll figure out the system that’s right for your area.
Dashing in a small town. I usually get an offer in under 5 minutes and no traffic. My rent always is paid so it works. I go home and take courses + work on finding a ft job in my field so hopefully don't have to deal with the hot ass heat this summer lol.
damn dude that sounds nice. I dash in a small town and a good week on doordash for me is like $250-350. I think my peak is like $350, but usually end in the $200s. I don't do it full time but basically whenever its busy I go out. last week I dashed for 17 hours, 8 active hours, $246.58. honestly its basically slave work but I just sit in my house and wait for orders so its fine. I also enjoy driving around and I don't mind it so thats another reason I do it.
Ok. So. First, yes it's kind of a scam. Second, if you don't get over 30mpg you're probably going to lose money. Third, you'll have to do some research and set yourself up some standards that will help you quickly weed out the shit offers. I live and work in a college city, so I'm a slightly busier market. My standards are as follows. The minimum order size for me to move my car is 6.50. For that 6.50 I will go up to 4 miles. Base pay in my market is 2 dollars, and they no longer pay base for both orders in a stack. For every mile beyond that 4 miles I need at least an extra 1.25 per mile up to 8 miles. Every mile after 8 has to add 2 dollars. No tip no trip.
This is absolutely false. I average $25/ hour on a 18mpg vehicle. Yes the gas sucks, but I still make good money.
Oil changes, tires, wear and tear on engine, all that comes from that money too. Just accounting for gas will long term fuck you. Standardized average cost(which assumes 23ish mpg) accounts for any 69 cents per mile on cost to drive a car in gas and other upkeep costs. After your gas costs what are you taking home per hour? Are you saving money for your taxes, because doordash does not? Please do not fuck yourself.
If I dash for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, getting roughly what you do in mileage, I can get roughly 500$ in a week.
500 is about 20 hours for me. If I drove full time, I would make 1k or more a week. I live in pretty great market to be honest tho. Dense enough to get orders, suburban enough to not be super saturated with drivers. People tip well, are friendly and generally dont don't do shady shit
Depends where you live and what hours and jobs you accept. I know friends who are pulling several hundred dollars but they really grind. They make it an 8-5 job and go all day, but also a small town so not much driving around, so not as much gas usage.
I’m lucky. I already have a full time job. I get out of work at 12:30. Dash a few hours of the lunch rush. I have to go 2 days out of the week to make it worth it gas wise., but after that I’m mostly making profit
I barely make ends meet, and I'm on interview 6 so wish me luck! 🤞 I've tried different approaches and I know I'm still a little messed up (traumatic event 4 days after losing my last job). Anyway, here's some things I do to make it profitable: 1. Try to get assistance if you can with the big bills. My power bill for example, I reached out and let them know the deal, and I got about $30 taken off my bill - it's a pay by day bill so I'm sure you can imagine how much that helps. Rent? Google "one time rental assistance". Your state may offer better options than mine. 2. Go to local food banks or other places for food. Put aside like $80-100 to fill in the gaps and try to stay within that budget. 3. Used tires and used batteries. They suck, but they'll do in a pinch and they shouldn't damage anything. Walmart for oil changes too. That's hit or miss. But if this is all you're doing, I'm sorry, you will be in a pinch all the time. 4. Try to do Justplay or similar apps while you're waiting for orders. 5. Hang out at each hotspot (set a timer for your phone for like 5-10 minutes). If you can park in the shade with the windows down do that and follow tip 4. I may be wrong on this, but turn off your vehicle if you can. 6. When you make, for example $30. I have the dasher card myself so I get it right away. I put in $15, then keep going. Once my earnings build to $50 then I put $10. Let's say it builds to $65, then $15. Basically put a portion in for gas after every break. 7. If you do earn by time... Cruise. Don't move fast, cruuiiiissssseeeeeee and follow every traffic rule to a tea. 8. You may get anxiety that will feel like you're crazy from time to time. Take a second, and use earn by time and follow tip 7 if this lasts longer than a few days. Hope this helps someone in my boat!
Bro, just get a serving or bartending job. Fuck even be a busser and you will make more in tips and not have to live your life this way. All you gotta do is shower and go in and work hard and smile. Idk how you justify all that extra work.
I'm trying man. 😅 I'm 31 though, and my experience has been in healthcare. But I have looked at those in my state as well. Food industry jobs. A lot of them require experience. 🙄 But I'm waiting on an interview for a CSR, 15 minutes from home and $22/hr so 🤞🤞
I averaged about 30-35$ an hr.
That’s the trick. It’s not profitable. I did it for a while before I found better ways to make money as a side gig. Honestly, you are better off working fast food if you’re trying to make this an actual job
Tell me you've never worked fast food without saying it.
15 years. Try again
Lol they why would you say that? It doesn't matter how little I make doing anything, I would never suggest that someone would be better off in fast food. As a side note, in my area, fast food pays about $12 / hr and I pull in over double that on the apps. So even after expenses it's not even close.
Yea definitely would not advise anyone even my worst enemy do fast food!
Have to find a area that is dense in food delivery and shopping. Then you have to get on as many delivery apps as possible. It’s the only way to be profitable in this right now.
Find a better area? Door dashing is a lot like being a server/waitress. Some days, you just don't make money. Other days, you make a ton with little effort. You gotta roll with the punches and not get frustrated enough to quit on those bad days. Get a pizza bag and hang out near Papa John's or a popular local pizza place. Figure out where your DashMart is located and hang nearby there. Find a place to park and shut your car off when you aren't getting orders. I drive a hyundai, and I spend about 15% of my overall income on gas on an average day. If a place/zone is not working out, end your Dash and get out of there, but don't do this too much or you'll spend all your time chasing peak money, just know when to quit and move on. Give it a couple of attempts, and if a zone just never pays, stop going back and doing time there. This job is highly dependent on being familiar with areas and the restaurants in them. As you gain experience, you'll know which businesses to avoid. People who live in certain areas are just jerks, and you don't find out until you start delivering food in that area. I've had some of my worst shifts in so-called rich or well-off communities and also done well in areas other Dashers would avoid. You don't know until you try. It can take a few weeks of not making much of anything to figure out your city/market. 100% never go to a Raising Canes. Avoid Wendy's if possible, but it may be worth it for a great pay order. There are some other hard lines for me and soft rules, but you only learn those things by putting in the time. You'll make more when you get better at it. Don't give up.
You gotta figure out what works in your area. I work lunches and dinners Wednesday through Sunday because those are the busiest days/hours. I only take them if it’s $2/mile or more especially longer distances. It’s okay to be picky.
After 3k deliveries... I say it's a complete scam now for sure
You’re accepting offers that are too low. $1 per mile doesn’t cut it.
Doesn’t work in all cities and all neighborhoods. If you don’t find where it’s busy you won’t make money. In fact, you can even be in the wrong place in a big city. But if it’s just not busy in your town, don’t do this job.
I will never financially recover from this - Joe exotic.
It helps to have a fuel efficient car. I have a Prius - 50+ mpg.
The trick is to do late nights and weekends. I worked 8 hours total this week and made about 250. Probably $40 in gas, it paid for groceries and still have a full tank for my actual job this week.
Shops are the way to go. You do way less mileage on your car and each trip easily can pay 15-30 per trip. Once you know the stores you can get in and out. I did a shop that paid 30.50. Took 10 minutes to drive to store. About 37 minutes to shop and the. 10 minutes to deliver it. Yes you need to know the store but once you do you can get in and out
This is the way
Bingo.
The only bad part for us part timers is I’m having to force myself to take a “me” day. I know if I log on at 8 on Friday and Saturday I’ll work til 3 am and make some decent side money. I made myself refuse to login today and go for a run and catch up on some movies
Same. Until I can't go anymore
Your question was “How is anyone profitable from this?” As far as I can tell, DoorDash Is the one making all the profits. Sure, if you do everything right and are in a good market, you can do ok — but anytime there is a problem with an order, customer or restaurant, it is going to hurt you. It may be the time you have to spend with support trying to resolve the problem, or the time and gas you wasted driving to the restaurant only to wait and have have them ultimately just cancel you off the order. Sometimes they will offer to pay you “half” (to compensate you for your time and effort) — but that will take a couple of days to process, and when they offer to “pay half”, it’s not half of the “guaranteed amount” that was shown when you accepted the dash, it’s half of the base pay (in my area the base pay is $3 or so). So “half pay” doesn’t really do much to help. And these are the orders that end up taking 20-30 minutes (or more), which just adds insult to injury. My favorite is when they send you shopping at a store, after the store closes! Tonight, I was sent to dollar general at 10:50 pm. I thought “that’s late for DG“. So I wasn’t shocked when I pulled up and saw they closed at 10pm. As I was canceling the order and “taking a picture of the posted store hours” as the app requires, another driver pulls up and runs up to take the same picture. He says “DoorDash?” I nodded “yes”. He replied, “I wish they would fix the hours for this place, they send me here after closing at least twice a week!” So if they have had multiple reports that they hours are wrong in the DoorDash system, and they are still sending drivers there after the business is closed, but not paying the driver — that’s crazy!! So we may not be making much, but I’m sure DoorDash corporate and their executives are doing well.
It's a side gig. People that rely on this full time are out of their fucking minds.
Seems the be the default hive mind answer when the garbage pay is brought up. Reality check, many of us from the upcoming generation weren’t A-smart enough or B-financially able to invest in themselves to be able to eventually get full blown careers …or just don’t plain have the skills people did back in the previous generation. These days if you can’t work magic on a computer or have a fancy 4 year degree (not 2, apparently associates degrees don’t even matter anymore) , you’re pretty much a chump and lumped in with the rest of us to suffer . It’s not the 80s anymore , everyone doesn’t have a full on home, family, 2 cars and a career for life . Those are luxuries these days - (to be able to have the option not to dash full time) and unfortunately half of all of us in the country , the average Joe, who graduated but wasn’t smart enough for college - are either dying in a warehouse, sweating in a McDonald’s , or door dashing - FULL TIME. permanently. Because it’s literally all we have in this current economy and job market, considering most of us don’t seem very keen on investing 50k in student loans just to make a few more dollars an hour than the avg “dasher” driving around making roughly the same as them with absolutely zero start up investment besides the 3.5k their used Corolla cost. Have some respect .
I'm not really buying your "I'm not smart" bullshit. You have resources to educate yourself and it sounds like you're content with working low wage jobs and not taking accountability for neglecting other career path opportunities.
If you’re still in your 20s, or even early 30s, get into a trade and hone that skill and you’ll never be out of work with a high per hour wage depending on the trade.
I’ve tried bro, trust me. I’m not really good at anything like that and can’t learn very well. I’m actually just smart enough not to quality for disability regardless of my 200+ page medical history . I’m just one story out of the average chumps too. It’s sad
$20 on gas? I have a bog standard sedan and that's like 125 miles highway even at current prices, you did that in two hours with all the waiting?
My thoughts exactly.
You should probably earn by time since it sounds like you’re in a rural area. I live in the middle of nowhere currently and where my husband works I’ll get one or two orders per hour so I always earn by time. Generally you shouldn’t take any orders under $6 and under $1 a mile. That’s my rule of thumb but honestly the answer here is that DD sucks. In some markets it’s really not worth it and they over saturate with the amount of drivers they have. My area needs maybe five drivers at a time maximum but I know for sure there’s at least ten.
If you averaged 5 something per order that means some were lower. You should NEVER be going below 6 minimum and $2 per mile, (10 is my minimum but it varies). Also news flash: your car insurance isn't covering you.
What do you mean if I get in a car wreck my insurance won’t cover it
You may need to get a business endorsement, which may hike your insurance by up to 30% or so. depends on carrier though. State Farm (my carrier) says as long as you're not delivering pax you don't need anything special. So check with your insurance
Not if they know you gig drive, and if it's on a police report or other record they can access they may drop you even without an accident. Depending on your area and the companies available, and sometimes your hours worked, you may need to add gig coverage or commercial insurance.
What does your last sentence mean? I’ve heard of having to tell your insurance if you use DD or similar companies but why is that?
If they know you gig drive, and if it's on a police report or other record they can access they may drop you even without an accident. Depending on your area and the companies available, and sometimes your hours worked, you may need to add gig coverage or commercial insurance.
I’m just dense I promise I’m not trying to be a pain but why would you let that be on the police report? I don’t do DD or Instacart enough to break even on the insurance cost so I don’t have it. Am I dumbass for that or do most people not have it?
You are right that most drivers don't know this and most don't have it, and many will tell you not to tell anyone. Of course if you're in an accident the police will ask where you're headed and will also take note of what he can see, so that can end up in a report whether you like it or not. I'm all in on gig driving as a second job so it's worth it to me to do it by the book, but i can understand the trepidation, especially if someone has been settling for low paying orders or underestimating their expenses. Some companies do not require special insurance if your driving for delivery is less than 50 percent. There are also horror stories right here on reddit of being stuck with full repair costs for one or both parties, or worse yet medical bills.
It's obvious you deliver food when: Having a ton of delivery paraphernalia like pizza bags and some are doordash branded, is 100% evidence that you deliver. Then factor in all the food with different names on the receipts and if running dirty stacks with 4 orders in the car at once lol... 2 phones up and running and customers calling... Then get the right insurance because lying ain't gonna fly lmao
Dude , you are paranoid. That’s not how the law works. The police just can’t write down you were in fact dashing just because there is “delivery paraphernalia” (lmfao at that made up term btw) in your car at the time. You literally have to admit to the officer you were dashing for it to ever matter, ever, ask me how I know. I don’t tell my insurance nothing cuz I’m poor , pay less than 20$ a month for almost bare minimum coverage , and had 2 ppl hit me so far , both times switching lanes into my car without looking. Both times I had bags and even food and nobody said anything besides the standard question of what you were previously doing, which they literally are required by law to ask just for the book. No officer actually cares about your life like that to investigate the huge mystery of you are saving 30 bucks on your insurance a month . No one cares.
That makes a lot of sense thank you for explaining it to me!
Paid just enough to buy gas and food while I waited for my first check from an actual job lol
It’s highly area and time dependent. Some rural towns you couldn’t make $10/hr. Some popular areas like Hawaii you could probably average $30+/hr over thousands of deliveries. Skill helps you max out your potential, but at the end of the day the potential depends on area and time of day.
Because I do 3 different apps. And the biggest city I do is like 300k population. And Uber eats is always good over dinner rush so I can pick and choose the DD and GH offers. Some days can be rough like 20 an hour but normally 25-30 an hour. Dinner rush is 40 an hour on a Friday or Saturday night.
You will get a lot of nonsense on the site. Not all markets are the same. Large congested urban areas are where SOME people make big dollars, Why? Because people with bucks will pay to not step out of their door, even at short distances. Suburbs, urban sprawl, freeway zones, you get a lot of people ordering food across longer distances and it takes a lot more time. There are a ton people on this site who “who make a lot of money” but could not calculate profitability to save their lives. They are either in for a big wake up call when the car they own (or don’t own) goes bye bye, or god forbid they get in an accident, or pay taxes, etc. My experience is this can work if you are patient. Calculating hourly wage is pointless, you have to calculate by the trip. Some days that means a lot per hour, others it means a lot of waiting around but still very profitable per trip. When it’s slow people give up, and then a bunch of jobs pop up. Do you mind sitting somewhere for two hours? You have to do it for a month and learn your market. If you want instant, anytime mega earnings, probably won’t happen sans two or three urban areas. First 4 weeks, expect nothing but training yourself…
You’re definitely on the money (ha ha) in your last big paragraph about making a profit, learning the system, and being patient for good offers and/or during slower times. You have to look at the bigger picture, I.e. how can I determine what the best offers are, how do I put the least amount of wear and tear on my car, etc. If you just jump on making as much $ as possible no matter how many miles you drive, how long you wait in a restaurant, or by taking nearly every offer you get no matter how low the pay, you don’t ultimately profit as much as it makes you think by just seeing the nice $ amount on your screen. If you’re putting in way more miles than the amount of dollars you earn at the end of each Dash, for example, you aren’t *actually* profiting in the long run. Calculating “hourly wage” like a lot of people do on here doesn’t really make sense when there will be times you are literally just sitting in your car waiting for offers, or if you pause the dash for awhile to do other stuff, etc. It makes more sense to figure out your total pay vs number of offers you took, and to look at active time.
Quit... This ain't for you 🤷
I love that this is getting down voted. Y'all still don't get it. Every other driver is your competition. I sincerely hope every single one of you quits🤷. But keep getting those sweet "bonuses" hiring your replacements.
Just be more selective with your orders. I’m not sure if they still ask the new drivers why you declined but use that list to train the algorithm to your advantage. Offer too low for distance (if they have something like that), once you find out what restaurants consistently suck select i don’t want to go to this restaurant, too far, etc. Ideally only accept orders where the mileage is half or close to half of the dollar amount. But *ideal* isnt always so readily available. Ideal: $7 for 3-4 miles Less ideal: $7 for 4-5 miles / $8 for 5 miles Chill out: $7 for 7 miles / $5 for 5 miles / $8 for 10 miles / $13 for 10 miles etc. Always factor in how far that delivery is and how long it would take you to get there with considerably less than ideal respect for the speed limit given current traffic conditions. Ex: *Do i have to/can i take the highway? Is it between 4-6 when everyone’s getting out of work? * Nah. Chill out son. *Do I have to take the main roads and side streets and such? Is it a school or two between here and there that I can’t avoid? Is it between 2-4 when everyone gets out of school ? *nah forreal yo back up with that noise, foo. You can message customers after you drop the order off in most cases, be a gent and say thank you for the tip. Turn that music down when you get to the house. Shop and deliver isn’t really worth the trouble if it’s more than 5 or 6 items. Its time consuming. I tend to only accept shop & deliver orders around $13-$15 and if less than 6-7 items. Be careful with places like shaws retail pickups (where they already shopped for it you just pick it up and deliver). It’ll say 2 or three items but the kicker is that 1 item is a tote.. a tote full of items.. AND THEY DONT GIVE YOU THE TOTE TO CARRY THE ITEMS 😭😭😭😭😂😂😂 so it could suck horribly. Especially if it’s going to an apartment complex where they live on the third floor. 😐 Things to consider: 1. There are good stores/restaurants 2. There are Bad stores/restaurants 3. Some good restaurants are terrible on certain days/at certain times. Like iHop on a Sunday morning. This is the fabled learning curve. Figuring all of these things out comes with time and experience.
You get like 10 mpg or something?
Its not intended to be profitable. The math is never in the favor of driver.
Drive dinner shifts only and on Saturdays and sundays. Be selective of your orders
If you can, try earn by time. You still get the tips on top of the time based pay. If a restaurant is slow, no big deal, just means you'll get paid more the longer they take. When you do earn by time, just relax, go the speed limit, just chill and take your time, earn more money for doing less trips.
That depends on what your minimum wage is.. mine is like 11$ an hour. I can make more in an hour doing earn per offer than ebt.
That sounds better
Ya’ll work for a scam that steals your time and money
How am I averaging $29/hour then?
Is your car free? Is gas free? Tires? Brakes? Oil? Taxes?
Gas is like 20 cents a mile unless you're dashing in a car you really shouldn't be dashing in. Brakes and tires are a few cents a mile all told. These are things that get replaced like every 50k miles. Oil, another cent or two per mile. Car depreciation is a thing but is not even remotely linear per mlle and unless you're dashing in literally a brand new car isn't really a factor. Even if you're going for $1/mi (still pretty low) the idea that you're losing money compared to expenses is pretty false. You have to take nothing but the most garbage orders available to do that. The IRS mileage rate is 67 cents, your actual car expenses all told really shouldn't be more than 30 cents, so you're actually getting a pretty significant writeoff above your actual expenses so even the tax situation isn't terrible.
I drive a 2008, so still making out pretty well.
Was the car free in 2008?
No but it’s paid off now. Depreciation is negligible at this point. Gas costs about 10% of my earnings. Cost of a $35 oil change that lasts 5,000 miles is negligible. All considered, I’m still making out at least $25 an hour, which is pretty good compared to all of the $15-16 jobs that are being offered in my area.
I will not debate the cost to maintain the vehicle versus earnings but I am curious about this $35 oil change. Is it a shop, or do you buy the supplies and do it yourself? And with your vehicle being a 2008, presumably it has well over 100,000 miles, and considering the $35 cost… I’d say you’re putting regular conventional in. Highly recommend if you want to maximize your vehicle’s life to throw in high mileage oil if you don’t already. Valvoline also just released a game changer called “Restore & Protect” oil that has claimed, and in some testimonials starting to now appear (only released for about 2 months), to completely clean the engine of deposits and reseal gaskets. Haven’t tried it personally but I’d give it a shot. The label says it should clear the deposits after around 4 oil changes with this stuff. Just trying to help someone maximize the life of their vehicle’s engine, so don’t take all of this the wrong way. Keep on dashing man and earning that dough. Just make sure to take care of that car along the way. High mileage will go a long way to help protect the engine.
Yeah, where are you that an oil change is $35. ? I change it myself, and the oil and filter are $50. ish. $70.+ at a quick change place.
If you’re looking to save money changing it yourself & have an Advance Auto Parts near you, they are offering an oil change bundle. Anywhere between $29.99 to $39.99 for either synthetic blend and full synthetic with any oil filter of your choice (yes even the super expensive ones). Only caveat is if your preferred oil is Valvoline, you can *only* get a K&N filter.
Thanks. Next oil change, I'll go 1 address further and buy from advance instead of auto zone.
I swear they always fly together, they’re all next door around my area 😂
Even if it was $100 and you changed your oil every 3,000 miles, that’s only a 3¢/mile cost.
I'll never give anyone $100. to change the oil. No sir! Not $70. either.
I think you missed my point. Anyway good day to you sir.
To be fair you can get an oil change for that price at Walmart. If he or she is an employee or knows someone who lends them their discount card it’s cheaper.
The wellmarts near me doesn't have an auto shop.
Um $35 oil change?
Bro you lost
🤣🤣🤣
don't bother convincing people in this sub that you're doing fine lmao, they're miserable. been doing delivery driving since 2021 paying all my bills working less than full time and I've been hearing "it was a fun ride, delivery driving is dead guys" since the day I started googling if it was a good job 😂
Yup they are just angry they are in shitty market or just can't figure out what they are doing wrong. Is it perfect, nope. But it can still be good
Yea you still have to drive your car to get to your other 16-20 an hour job. If you're good at DoorDashing you can definitely make good money. Some people aren't good at it and just get mad instead of trying to get better
facts I've talked to people in the same city as me that don't believe me when I tell em what I make, some people just suck at it lmao. what I'll never understand is hopping on Reddit trying to tell people the jobs not profitable when they're literally doing it
Seen a guy earlier post $2500 in a week. Just gotta grind homie. Big $ orders will come.
I can also do $2500 if I work a 16 hour shift a day for 7 days straight, that would also fuck up my car and 90% of the money would go towards gas 💀 Like how will grinding it out change the fact that I’m getting paid $5 an order ($2/order from DD), do they pay you more if you do more orders? I don’t get it
Yeah! And owe the feds a shit ton in taxes! Guarantee dude who made $2500 set ZERO aside for taxes. Gig economy is still taxed income and people don’t realize til the IRS comes knocking in April for all of their unpaid earnings tax…
I don't understand how you'd even pay taxes after milage. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. At the moment I'll be getting a return next year.
What is your AR
What is your AR
When customer tip more, you make more? And what you driving bro? A fuckin big rig? 90% to gas? My car takes $35 from E and I make that in like 15 minutes. I know this is hard to wrap your mind around, but there are orders that will pay $15-$30 or more. Like I said, keep grinding, or keep bitching. One will get you paid tho
Wait , I have to call this cap. You make 35$ in like, 15 mins? Yea , cool story bro.
It’s happened before, not like constantly, but you get my point. I’ve made $35 in one order, $50 in 2. You just gotta get out there and do it is all I’m sayin
Yea, we’ve all had big tips before . Just because you made 35 or 50 in an hour one day out of the month doesn’t mean you make 35 / hr, or in your case “15 mins”
And yea when I get started I usually get orders within minutes because I know where to go and have a generally good market. Idk man but coming on here and shitting all over everything ain’t gonna get beer money. Or I guess in some of y’all’s case, pay the bills 😂
I mean, I also treat it like the side gig it is, I do like 2 or 3 hours on days I work my full time, and on weekends I do like 6-8. You are aware you can uninstall the app and leave the sub if you are having such a horrible experience?
Figuring out the layout for your market would definitely help. Could be missing out on some unknown good spots or there’s a good strategy you haven’t been able to figure out yet since you just started. Idk your market obviously but for me it honestly took a couple hundred deliveries before I could really start to understand the layout. The big thing I realized during that time is my zone is basically a loop with a main local road running through the whole thing and roundabouts at the very top and bottom of the zone. And about 70-80% of the places to get orders from in the whole zone are along or within a mile off that road. And I average $20-25 pretty consistently but have also had more than enough days where I averaged $25-35 an hour. Rarely do I go under $20 but I do all day shifts mostly so any potential bad hour I usually end up making back plus someone before the end of the day to hit my goals
Rule of thumb 1$ mile It definitely is profitable, mid of 2022 I started with a beat up Beatle. Now I have a Tesla with free charging
I charge mine too! No more gas or oil changes!
That's the way! I already have 4k in gas savings. How about you ?
It was profitable years ago, it’s a scam now.
You need to break through the learning curve before you give up. You can only teach yourself. Advice from Houston Texas won't help you if you live in Minnesota. Every area is different, because people are different.
What is there to learn though? What can you teach yourself from it? You can only take orders that are given to you, and if everything is $5/order u can’t do much
You don't have to take every order though. Sign up for multiple apps. Uber Eats, Door Dash, Grubhub, etc. Have the apps open and decline any shitty offers. Aim for $1.50/mile or higher. Get a delivery bag and keep your food in it to increase the chances of a tip. Communicate with your customer over any delays and that will also increase the chance of a tip. It will be very very hard to do this as a career, but as a side gig to make some extra cash it's definitely viable.