Delivering for DoorDash: How much money I make

Side hustles. The days of working 8-5 Monday-Friday and not doing anything on the side are pretty much over. In fact, nearly 50% of people have some sort of side hustle. It can be argued that the reason that side hustles are such a big deal now is because of the rising cost of living, wage stagnation, the rising cost of education, jobs being shipped overseas, the political landscape, or any one of a multitude of reasons. Enter: DoorDash.

I’m not here to debate the reason(s) for the increase in side hustles in the US in this article. What I am here to tell you is about my experience working with DoorDash as a side hustle that way you can decide if it might be a good idea for you. 

What is DoorDash?

DoorDash is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a delivery service for food but also for most of the items that you would find at Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, 7-11, etc. Someone can order something delivered to them through hundreds of different stores besides just restaurants. However, restaurants are the primary user of DoorDash.

DoorDash drivers are referred to as “Dashers” by the company. At the time of this writing, all dashers are independent contractors. This means that you can dash on your own schedule and you are your own boss.

DoorDash has specific guidelines that you must adhere to in order to stay on their platform such as maintaining a specific customer rating, delivering a certain percentage of orders on time, etc. But if you keep to their standards (which isn’t hard) you can be your own boss with little interference.

Being your own boss sounds great, right? It is! But there are a few things to keep in mind if you are going to be your own boss with DoorDash (or any other 1099 side hustle). 

1. You must pay your own taxes.
   1. This includes both sides of the payroll tax (15.3% as of 2021) as well as personal income tax.
2. You must track your own mileage on your vehicle (unless you deliver on a bicycle) as well as all other business expenses.
3. Because you are an independent contractor, DoorDash can terminate you at any time without cause. 

If you are thinking about driving for DoorDash, please do me a solid and use my referral code. We will both get a bonus!

When to Work/Scheduling

As I stated before, one of the reasons that DoorDash is a great way to earn some extra income is because of its flexibility. You can pretty much work when you want. However, you must be smart about this. If you are going to work at 3:00 AM on a Tuesday you probably won’t make a lot of money, unless you are in a large city with a lot of 24-hour restaurants. 

The same is true if you work at 2:00 PM on a weekday. Not many people are eating at that time and you probably won’t be super successful. 

DoorDash gives you that option to schedule shifts if you would like based on expected demand in your area also. Some shift times are easier to get scheduled for than others. For example, it is a lot easier to schedule shifts for a Friday night than a Thursday morning because demand is a lot higher on Friday night.

You don’t have to schedule shifts, but some people like to do so. If you can’t make it to your scheduled shift, it’s okay. Remember, you’re an independent contractor. With that being said, although I have not heard of anyone being reprimanded for consistently not showing up to their scheduled shifts, it could happen. So just be careful and respectful.

If scheduling shifts is not your style (it’s surely not mine), that’s just fine too! You can just start driving as long as you are in the correct area. Each area (usually an individual town or a section of a larger city) will have its own delivery area. You could deliver outside of that area if it is requested, but not usually. And if you get a delivery that is somewhere you don’t want to go then you can just decline it. No harm, no foul.

Just like I said before, though. Try to sign on and dash at higher need times to maximize your earnings. The DoorDash app will let you know when it is busy.

Whenever you have either made enough money (like that is possible) or you want to stop dashing, just sign off.

It’s that easy.

Seriously.

If you are thinking about driving for DoorDash, please do me a solid and use my referral code. We will both get a bonus!

Places to Work

This is one of the coolest things about DoorDash in my opinion. With DoorDash, you can drive in more than 850 different cities and small towns. Just because you live in a small town, doesn’t mean that there is not DoorDash. I know people who make $1,000/week dashing for 25-30 hours in towns of less than 10,000. 

One of the things that I like about DoorDash also, is that you can dash across state lines. This is not the same with Uber and Lyft. 

With DoorDash, you can take a couple hours during a stressful holiday weekend with your family to get away and make some money even though you aren’t in your home area. I personally really like this feature. 🙂 

Likewise, if you find that you have partied a little too hard and spent a little too much money at Daytona Beach and need some extra cash, just start dashing!

Show Me the Money!

This is what you have really been waiting for, right? When dashing I make an average about $23/hour. This is over all different times. Peak times like Friday and Saturday night, as well as mid-morning times like 9-11:00 AM during the weekdays and even some early mornings for the breakfast rush.  

Here is an example of what a very typical evening looks like. This evening was fairly busy, but not slammed. 

How much you will make depends on several factors. The largest one is the area that you are in. The main factors that you can control are these:

1. How far you drive to get the order and/or to drop it off.
2. The average size of your orders.
3. Your gas mileage.
4. How fast you pick up and drop off the orders.
5. How many orders that you decline.

I know people that make WAY more money than I do with DoorDash, and I certainly know people that make less than me as well. 

Final Thoughts

I drive for DoorDash part time. At the time of writing this, I have a full time job as well as write these articles for you guys. 🙂 I really like DoorDash. Sure I have some issues sometimes. People can be rude, the driver support can sometimes be lacking, and you will inevitably spill someone’s drink in your car. But especially for the time invested, the money is not bad. Here is a list of the main pros and cons of DoorDash in my opinion.

Pros:

1. You can make your own schedule.
2. You can have a passenger with you while you dash.
3. You can dash in different areas of the country.
4. You find restaurants that you would like to try out.
5. The money is good for the hours invested.
6. You really don’t as many miles on your vehicle as you would think.
7. DoorDash is available in small towns as well as large cities.

Cons:

1. Your car will smell like all different types of food.
2. You will eventually spill something in your car.
3. There are more miles that are put on your car than if you didn’t dash.
4. Driver support is usually pretty good, but sometimes it’s a little slow.

If you are in need of a side-hustle, but don’t think that DoorDash is right for you, check out my other ones here.

If you are thinking about driving for DoorDash, please do me a solid and use my referral code. We will both get a bonus!