Make Money Delivering Food (What You Should Know)

[mooreincome]

I have mentioned before that I deliver food as a second part-time income, but since I have been doing it for a while now, I thought it might be helpful to share a short overview of my experience for any Penny Hoarders who may consider doing it.

Key Takeaway: Delivering food is a great, flexible way to earn extra income on the side. However, it does put a lot of miles on your car so consider this before you start.

Companies I Deliver With: (Please note, these are my personal opinions as a delivery driver for these companies. It does not represent everyone’s views)

BiteSquad: This company has been around since 2014. Unlike all the others, this is actually a W2 job so they pay your taxes for you. It does however offer a lot more flexibility than a traditional job as long as you communicate your schedule in advance. Do your research with this one though because while they offer a lot to prospective drivers, your earnings don’t always reflect what they offer. Communication with these guys during orders can be rough so when you run into an issue, it could take a bit to get resolved.

Door Dash: this by far has been one of the highest earners for my time. (I earned $200 in 8 hours of delivery and that was with breaks in between) The downside is that you have to pay your own taxes. Support for this one can be difficult at times but so far I haven’t run into any issues that didn’t eventually get resolved. (They recently were sued for false statements to drivers and customers about tips, while this has generated a lot of bad press, it is actually good news for drivers who will now be compensated even more fairly)

Instacart: This one is a grocery delivery service. I only deliver for them occasionally. They do compensate pretty good for deliveries and for “shopping” and they were actually one of the first delivery company to take the lead on providing clear and fair compensation to their drivers. This could be a good gig depending on what city you work in but I have found that there is usually too much (unpaid) downtime which I don’t have with other delivery services and so I don’t do as much work for them.

Postmates: This is a new one in my city. They offer compensation comparable to Door Dash and they seem pretty promising. As long as they don’t get mixed up into any scandal like Door Dash did they have a potential to be a great service for customers and drivers alike. They generally offer a guaranteed payout on your first 200 deliveries that varies from city to city. This means that even if you don’t earn that amount in tips and delivery fees, they will ensure you get compensated that much. (In my city it is $1,600 or $8 per delivery)

Other delivery companies: UberEats, Grubhub, Food Dudes - I personally don’t have any experience with these but there are many who drive for them successfully.

There are many more companies out there depending on where you are, these are just the ones I have heard about.

Something to Think About: Food delivery does put a lot of wear and tear on your car as well. I just spent $277 to replace a part that got worn out from so much driving. So if you aren’t willing to be rough on your car, food delivery might not be for you.

I hope this post is helpful to anyone considering doing food delivery. If you have any specific questions about any of these, please feel free to comment below and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

If you have experience driving for any of these companies I would love to hear that as well!

[kimk]

We live in the Midwest and last summer my college-age son delivered for MyTown2Go. On busy nights, he made pretty good money, but there were slow nights, when he barely made any. He was not reimbursed for miles or gas or wear-and-tear on our car. The only money he made was tips and a few dollars per delivery. He put A LOT of miles on our car, and we ended up having car problems at the end of the summer, we think from all the in-town miles he put on the car, the stopping and starting of the car numerous times a night on busy nights, and running the A/C full blast. He enjoyed the job somewhat, but he is choosing a different job this summer.

The parts he enjoyed were driving around town listening to music; once in awhile a restaurant would give him some free food; and he enjoyed the cash tips so he always had cash in his wallet.

What he didn’t like were the people who gave him a $1 or $2 tip after he spent 15 minutes driving from the restaurant to their house. There were numerous cheapskates who didn’t like how much the restaurant charged for their food, so they were very cheap on their tip; not realizing that the driver was only making a few dollars on their delivery though he spent 30 total minutes driving time; and still had to pay for his gas. Many nights he didn’t even make $5 per hour. By the time he paid for gas, he was barely making a few dollars an hour.

Maybe in a bigger city where people tip better, food delivery would be a good job, but in ours, he would have made more money bagging groceries at our grocery store.

[bonnie.squires]

Sounds like when husband and son did news papers
here. We went threw allot of cars because of wear and
tear and they was old cars to.

[mooreincome]

@kimk it is true, depending on your location, it can really affect how much you are able to make with food delivery. Also the pay structure of the company is something to take into consideration. For example, with DoorDash, I only drive when they are offering bonus pay for delivering. So, on weekends especially, sometimes the bonus will be up to $10 per delivery. This along with delivery fee and tip means I can make around $16-$18 per delivery and most times it takes 30 min or less.

[kimk]

I’m glad this is worthwhile for you. DoorDash sounds like a good company to drive for. MyTown2Go never offered bonuses.

I should’ve posted that we live in a city of only 50,000, and it’s an hour+ drive to another city our size or larger; you’re right living in a larger city would keep you busier, and the tips would be bigger than a dollar or two.

Thanks for the original post; very interesting topic.