August 7, 2021 | Posted in: Publishing

Publisher’s note … I bare no liability for this clown’s opinion on door dash I’m simply publishing his opinion. You can read his previous opinions on Door Dash I published for context.

How much can you make driving Door Dash?

Well, how many hours are you willing to drive? How many deliveries per day are you willing to make? One, these opinions are not for people driving Door Dash in major cities where it’s always busy on how much you can make driving door dash and how much, per hour, door dash actually pays.

If you’re willing to drive 40 hours and you’re bumping and deliver four orders per hour, for 160 deliveries for the month, you’ll make between $500 and $800. One, especially if you’re delivering in a major city and the suburbs, you won’t make four deliveries an hour. Traffic, tall buildings, and parking cost you a lot of time, and, in turn, money. Over 40 hours, at the top end, you won’t make much more than $800. $12 an hour to $16 an hour is a realistic expectation. All my statements have already been established as opinion.

Do I have to be top dasher?

Yes, you have to be top dasher especially if you live in a smaller market. This allows you to dash whenever you want and receive order priority. Cracking the algorithm is always a goal. When six orders are passed out to available dashers, within two miles of the Vendor, Completion rate rules all. If you have a 100% completion rate, congratulations, you take priority over a dasher with a 98% completion rate. Second is Acceptance Rate. As top dasher, your Acceptance Rate must be greater than 70%. If there’s a dasher with a 73% acceptance rate and a dasher with a 47% acceptance rate, the order is going to be pushed to the top dasher. Logic dictates the algorithm will select a dasher with a 47% acceptance rate over a dasher with a 23% acceptance rate.

Should I drive door dash?

I don’t know, should you? In my market, there’s a lot of people dashing because they heard how you can make $25 an hour. Naw. $16 an hour at the top end is more realistic and cut the number in half because every mile you drive the IRS states costs you .575 cents. $16 an hour x .575 cents over head comes out to $9.20 which you subtract from the $16 an hour and retrieve a number of $6.80 per hour. And, you have to pay taxes on your delivery company’s profit, namely social security tax and medicare tax, plus federal, state, and local tax where you will be taxed, again, for social security and medicare. You should drive door dash if you’re looking to supplement your regular income with a few hundred dollars per week. You should not drive door dash, in my opinion, to pay all your bills and feed your family as the sole source of income foregoing a job paying $15 an hour with benefits and, most importantly, the employer is paying half social security and medicare tax.

Driving door dash, you will be taxed as 12.4% of your company’s profit for social security and 2.9% of your company’s profit and then taxed again at 6.2% and 1.45%. Working for an employer, at $15 an hour, with benefits, is a better choice to feed your family than door dash. And, it’s getting easier and easier to catch people who do not file their taxes. The “data banks” understand a 1099-NEC has been issued under your social security number and I highly recommend the “data banks” receive a document reporting the information on the 1099-NEC under your social security number, signed by you or a tax preparer, because it’s too easy for the “databanks” to check and generate an automated letter to the address on file stating something along the lines … the IRS got a 1099-NEC from Door Dash but the IRS did not receive a 1040 Form from you …

The food is your customer

Treat the food as your customer in addition to be super nice to the person who ordered the food as well as the vendor who prepared the food. Some of these stories across the country of dashers losing their cool because of the pressure to do as many deliveries as quickly as possible because the dashers who cause problems, in my opinion, are the dasher’s trying to do this full time to pay all their bills. If you lose your cool because there’s a long line at McDonald’s and they could care less about your door dash order because they have drive-thru metrics to meet, this job IS NOT FOR YOU.

Buy these bags from Amazon you get two for $15. The space between the driver’s seat and rear passenger seat is a good place to keep your customer for it’s ride to the person who bought the food. Cup holder works great for one drink and the vendor will give you a carrier if there are more than two drinks. Again, for a drink carrier with two, three, even four drinks, behind the driver’s seat on the floor with the food bag helping to keep everything steady is going to help your ratings. I’ve had customer’s yell thank you from their door “it’s so hot” because the bag Door Dash gives you sucks and scores low on the sexy meter. The zipper on my bag broke within two weeks. Don’t buy another one from Door Dash buy these from Amazon, you get two for $16.

Dasher Pro Tips

Wait until you get your customer secured in the car inside the bag for it’s ride to the person who bought the food, get into your vehicle, put the seat belt on, check the delivery address, THEN confirm pickup of the order. I see so many dashers confirm pick up on the app inside the restaurant as soon as they grab the order. Wasted minutes because third determinator in the algorithm on which dasher gets the order is On time or early. Wow, this dasher accepts 72% of the orders, completes 100% of them, and 95% of them are on time or early AND, this dasher has a 4.93 customer rating over his last one hundred deliveries.

I don’t go to Wal Mart and maintain greater than 70% acceptance rate. However, to never go to Wal Mart, I have to deliver food for as little as $2.25. Sometimes. It’s all about dollars per mile and time taken to complete the delivery so you can receive the next order. A $2.25 order driven three miles is profitable, especially when factoring in how little time it takes to drive the three miles. You’ll learn the vendors in where you dash, which ones are good, which ones are terrible, and which ones are to be avoided at all costs. A $3.75 order driven less than three miles is profitable. A $7 order because the customer tipped five bucks driven 5 miles is Highly Profitable. A $10 order driven 12 miles and you have to drive 10 miles back to your delivery zone is not a profitable order. $2 per mile is a sexy number. $1 per mile works. And there will be times where you’re driving for less than $1 a mile and there will be plenty of orders where, technically, especially after taxes, your delivery company lost money on the order.