Every time I open a social media app, I see advertisements promoting DoorDash. “Do you know how much money you could make delivering food for DoorDash?” the posts will ask. What they don’t tell you is how much of that money will actually make it into your pocket if you do sign up.
I drove for DoorDash last summer during my time at home because I was traveling a lot, and it provided the flexibility I needed from a job. I wasn’t able to ask for consecutive days off every other week, so being able to take time off when I needed was nice. However, it’s a good thing that I wasn’t desperate to make a ton of money because I would have been severely disappointed.
While DoorDash likes to highlight the possibility of making $20-25 per hour, the reality is that most people don’t make that much. Additional costs like fuel (which is hard to be compensated for through DoorDash), insurance, maintenance and depreciation of the car’s value are all things that make a driver’s actual earnings amount to near minimum wage. Even for people that are able to make $20-25 per hour, that number is unreliable and inconsistent.
Like many college students who take up Dashing, the flexibility of the job and the quick pay are the primary benefits. However, negative aspects of being a Dasher can’t be overlooked.
In order to make the most money, proponents of DoorDash advise working at peak times — lunch, dinner rushes and on the weekends — frequently. However, at busy times there may be too many Dashers on the road so you aren’t allowed to work or it may take you an excessive amount of time to complete just one order. You can’t expect to make enough money by simply working when it’s busy.
DoorDash provides a base pay that is calculated based on the time it should take to complete, the distance it takes and desirability of the delivery. While technically this number can range anywhere from two to ten dollars, the base pay is often on the cheaper side. Most, if not all, of my own orders were two or three dollars before customer tips.
Occasionally I would receive a nice tip, but most of the time, customers are already paying so much in extra fees that they don’t want to spend the money on an optional tip. DoorDash charges anywhere from $1.99-5.99 for a delivery charge, usually leaning on the higher end and they also charge 10-11% service fee.
On top of these earnings, DoorDash also charges their merchant stores 20% of restaurant earnings for connecting the customer with the seller. DoorDash has enough money trickling into their pockets in order for them to pay Dashers well, yet they don’t.
I have a lot of friends who have taken up Dashing because they need the additional income. DoorDash is aware of this and uses it to their advantage to keep their wages low.
Take, for example, one of my friends who recently signed up to deliver for DoorDash. She had a car payment coming up and didn’t have enough money to cover it. She ended up having to sign up for Uber Eats and other delivery platforms because she wasn’t getting enough money through DoorDash.
Dash Bridges at The Rideshare Guy, who has Dashed for several years, suggests signing up for multiple delivery platforms to make the most money, despite his overall enthusiasm about being a Dasher. It shouldn’t be this way.
With the popularity of delivery platforms growing because of COVID-19, you would think that these companies could afford to pay their drivers better. The delivery market in the U.S. has more than doubled to over $150 billion during the pandemic.
While profits were hurting early in the pandemic, cases have been down and services like DoorDash have been thriving. Therefore, the fees that DoorDash charges their customers should not be the sole source of payment to drivers.
DoorDash needs to dig in their own pocket to pay their drivers better, especially considering the demographic of their drivers is mainly young adults looking to scrape by. College students generally aren’t aware of the ways DoorDash and other delivery platforms are preying on their needs.
This is not to say that you can’t make any money working for DoorDash or other delivery platforms. Clearly there are people who have found it profitable for themselves and encourage others to take it up. It has the potential to be a good job on the side if you’re in a pinch. However, Dashing is not a good source of income in the long run, and over an extended period of time, it costs more than it’s worth.
