DoorDash is one of the most well-known delivery solutions, growing by approximately 69% in 2021 alone. Handling over 800 million orders annually and with a 38% share of the home delivery market, it's clear that there's plenty of potential with the tool ' both for Dashers and for customers. But how much do you get paid for DoorDash? With expenses and (fuel) costs rising every day is it really possible to make $500 a week with DoorDash? We'll cover these critical concerns in today's guide to help you learn more about earning money with DoorDash (hint: tips are key!) ' and cover some key pointers to help optimize how much you make with DoorDash.
HOW MUCH DOES DOORDASH PAY PER DELIVERY?
How much does DoorDash pay per delivery? The pay per delivery on DoorDash largely depends on three main metrics: the base pay, promotional bonuses, and tips. These are calculated as follows.
Base Pay
The base pay is a standard rate paid for every DoorDash delivery and usually falls between $2 and $10. Generally speaking, the base pay is your minimum guaranteed earnings, and if you were to base your deliveries solely on base pay alone, you might struggle to make a good income with DoorDash. Fortunately, though, the base pay is only the first part of DoorDash's three-part payment system ' and can be directly increased through promotions and challenges.
Promotions
Promotions and challenges are essential ways to boost your DoorDash payment income and are often available throughout the week. Common promotions include the peak pay promotion, which pays more for deliveries where there is a backlog or when the app is particularly busy. Challenges are also a further opportunity to earn more with DoorDash, and Dashers who achieve a set challenge's criteria may be eligible for a greater income from deliveries overall.
Fortunately, most challenges are relatively easy to achieve; for example, a challenge might be as simple as 'complete 15 deliveries in a week' for a $20 bonus.
Challenges and promotions are usually limited based on location, however. Some may also be time-limited. So, you should do your research at the start of each week to plan out how to make the most from challenges as part of your goal to learn how to make $500 a week on DoorDash.
Tips
The final metric in DoorDash's pay-per-delivery is the tips, and this is often where big money comes in for DoorDash drivers. Tips are paid directly by the customer receiving the food delivery and may vary in size from small tips (such as one or two dollars) through to large tips of around fifty dollars or more. This substantial difference can transform the value of a DoorDash delivery, of course.
However, there is a catch: while drivers receive 100% of all tip money paid on deliveries, DoorDash doesn't make it clear before accepting a delivery request how much tip you will make. As such, there's no guarantee how much tip you will receive when dashing through the main DoorDash app ' however, there are external tools that can help you know before you go. As such, these can drastically alter how you earn money with DoorDash ' and are an integral part of how to make $500 a week with DoorDash.
Calculating the Final Pay
DoorDash drivers can see the value of their base pay and promotions before accepting a job. Considering these factors carefully may make it easier for Dashers to reduce the number of low-paying jobs they take on, focusing more heavily on higher-paying deliveries such as those with a base pay of around $8-$10. However, these are often (but not always) deliveries that require longer driving times, so you should always be selective for any deliveries you agree to complete.
When thinking about how much DoorDash pays, you should always account for your fuel costs in the net pay per delivery. As we'll cover later, dashing costs can substantially lower your net pay ' potentially to shockingly low levels.
How Much do Dashers Make Per Hour?
DoorDash payments for delivery drivers are massively variable. The average income for most DoorDash drivers ranges between $15 and $25 per hour. You may also earn more than this if you get plenty of additional income from tips for your orders. If you can work during peak times or maximize your delivery efficiency, you could be on the higher end of this scale. That's before considering expenses and costs such as fuel, though, which is only getting more expensive by the day; With expenses rising, it's more important than ever to pick the best trips and to not waste precious gas (and time) on trips that don't make sense.
HOW TO MAKE $500 A WEEK WITH DOORDASH?
As standard, if you select your chosen deliveries carefully, you should be able to make around $15 to $25 per hour. If you're still determined to learn how to make $500 a week with DoorDash, that would equate to a total number of working hours of 25 per week, or around 3.5 hours per day, every day, doing deliveries.
Now, that's not a bad number of hours, admittedly ' but there's still the catch of having to pay fuel out of that, so your net income will be lower. Plus, if you already have a full-time job and are using DoorDash as a way to top up your income, you most likely won't want to spend another 3.5 hours doing deliveries every day after a nine 'til five job.
So, what's the alternative? Well, let's suppose we were able to increase our hourly rate to around $50 per hour doing deliveries with DoorDash. Suddenly, we only need to work 10 hours a week to make an extra $500. That's massively more appealing and could even just be a weekend gig if you felt like it.
It's certainly not impossible to earn that much with DoorDash, assuming you get the tips. After all, some tips can be around $50 for a single delivery alone ' sometimes solely from the tips. That's where Para's delivery driver app comes in.
Using the Para Personal Dispatch System to Optimize Your Earning
Para has a unique tip prediction feature that allows you to make the most of your earning potential through delivery apps such as DoorDash. As standard, when taking gigs through DoorDash, you don't have any indication about how much you will receive as tips. Para app takes the guessing game out of the way so that you can know before you go.
For example, take the Para screenshot below; here, you can see the substantial difference the tip can make. While both deliveries had a very low base pay of around $2.25 and $3.25, the tips can make a substantial difference. One delivery was worth around $20 an hour ' not bad, but nothing to get excited about. The other, however, was worth over $100 an hour.
Key Features of the Para Personal Dispatch App
One of the most notable features of the Para app is that it offers full pay transparency. This allows Dashers to view the tip value for a delivery before they take the job. This differs from the normal DoorDash booking system, where you have no way to tell how much tip you will receive for an order until you've completed the delivery.
As such, you can plan your deliveries much more efficiently through Para, choosing only those jobs which are likely to provide the most lucrative returns. After all, what's the point in taking a job if it's not going to provide any tip at all (it happens). At that point, you could potentially end up doing deliveries for well under $10 per hour ' after accounting for fuel, it's simply not worth the time.
Another notable feature of Para is that it often displays the delivery times (or anticipated delivery times) for each order easily. If a job is worth a base delivery price of just $3 and doesn't come with any tips, it can be tempting to rule it out. However, if the total driving time was just 6 minutes, you could still be looking at a good hourly rate of $30 ' so knowing how long each delivery will likely take can be hugely valuable (especially on gas!).
The Para app shows numerous data points that food delivery drivers see value in, like:
- Estimated total payout
- Items list
- Food ready by time
- Dollar per mile, etc.
And also offers a blocklist feature that helps you flag individuals, apartments, or a restaurant that you do not wish to visit again.
Para allows you to work on multiple apps (Doordash, Grubhub, and UberEats) at once. After all, as a delivery driver, one of the best ways to increase your earning potential is to streamline your deliveries. For example, Para allows you to work on DoorDash and many other delivery apps such as GrubHub. In doing so, you can take multiple orders at once, allowing you to streamline the delivery processes and make more for each journey.
Does Para Actually Work?
There's no point trying to start delivery driving with Para if you're not sure whether you can make the app work for you. Fortunately, the Para app has received countless excellent reviews from its users, such as the following reviews from the Google Play store:
Stephanie C: 'This is a must-have if you are a DoorDash driver if you are looking for more transparency when deciding which orders to take. I've been using this since it [was] released, and it has helped immensely since DoorDash took away a driver's ability to see the full tip.'
Sierra Hill: 'The app is pretty helpful in that it has a very high accuracy rate in regards to telling you what the payout will be for a delivery.'
Dave Nesbitt: 'I've been running this app for about 2 months now and it really is a lifesaver for Doordashers. And I have to say that the people who provide this application are very very helpful and responsive to user needs. It connects very well with my helper app and gives accurate fill payout of all my deliveries which is awesome!'
KEY TIPS TO MAKE MORE MONEY ($500+ PER WEEK) WHEN DELIVERY DRIVING WITH DOORDASH
In order to make more from your DoorDash deliveries, it's vital to follow a few critical tips. And, if you're looking to learn how to earn $500 a week with DoorDash without the hassle, these strategies could definitely help make this a possibility. With just a couple of hours a day and careful delivery options, you can maximize your DoorDash earnings and make the most of every hour spent driving.
- Always focus on pay per hour rather than the overall pay. If a DoorDash delivery has a $10 base pay, it's incredibly tempting to take it. However, you should always check the expected time with an app such as Para first to ensure it's worthwhile; if the delivery would take 40 minutes, for example, you'd only make $15 per hour.
- If you're having a slow day, change your dashing area to a busier part of town where there are more local favorites or high-traffic restaurants.
- Pay attention to peak hours and park around popular restaurants and convenience stores in order to get more deliveries and repeat customers.
- Don't disregard small deliveries, as they can still offer good income opportunities if quick. A 6-minute delivery worth $3 base pay equates to $30 an hour before promotions and tips.
- Try to make the most of promotional offers and challenges. A simple challenge such as 'complete 15 deliveries in one week' could easily earn a $20 bonus, which equates to around half an hour of time savings for valuable orders or an hour of time savings for less valuable deliveries.
- Don't be afraid to decline orders that don't pay enough.
- Always use tools such as Para to make the process of booking, managing, and completing deliveries more efficient. This simple change may help you to maximize your earning reliably potential through delivery gigs, rather than just hoping you get a good tip.
CONCLUSION
There's no doubt that DoorDash is one of the leading home delivery companies, with over 2 million people using DoorDash to make a part-time or full-time income. However, if you want to join in with those making the most with DoorDash, it's crucial to optimize your delivery strategy to avoid low-paying jobs. Luckily, it's not impossible to learn how to make $500 a week with DoorDash (that's a $25,000+ income annually), if not more.
There are two primary options in this regard: work around 40-50 hours per week on variable pay, averaging $15 an hour, or optimize your time with the Para delivery tool and potentially make $100 a day in a matter of hours or less.
