Driving for Door Dash and/or Uber Eats -- Pros & Cons?

[travelbug]

I'm thinking of doing some driving for Door Dash and/or Uber Eats to earn some extra travel/fun money. Can those of you who have driven for one or both of these share any info that may be helpful for me as I consider it? I've looked online at basic info on getting started with each one, but I'm looking for pros and cons that experienced people might share.

Any safety concerns? Since I'm recently retired, I would be opting for deliveries during daytime hours. Also, how are taxes handled? Any way to do withholding as you go along, or do you just declare the total and pay the taxes when you file? Are you happy with the pay rate vs. the effort and time it requires? Is one of the services better for the drivers than the other for any reasons?

Thanks so much for any insights you may have for me!

 

[starry_solo]

Check your local cities (your city and surrounding cities( Facebook groups. In mine, there are lots of complaints about the lack of tipping by the buyers (or tipping and then backing the tip out after delivery which is apparently allowed).

 

[_19disnA]

No experience in doing those types of jobs so can't help there. However, if you are going to be using your car as part of a business, you need to modify your car insurance so it properly covers you in the event of an accident. Wouldn't surprise me to find the many people don't bother to do that (and hope they don't get caught) and find themselves in a jam when their insurance won't cover them after having an accident or might even drop them at their next renewal.

If looking for some part-time work, many stores now seem to be hiring. Have you looked into that option as well? Stores already handle taxes/deductions/ect., so you won't have to become your own accounting dept to keep track of such things. I would think that is a better option and you can avoid driving in parts of town where you might not feel safe.

 

[EACarlson]

Safety concerns all depend on where you are. I wouldn't have an issue in my town in WI, but I certainly wouldn't drive again in Minneapolis.
You are an Independent Contractor and would be given a 1099 at the end of the year. What you do with that 1099 is up to you. My advice would be to take 20% off the top and put it in a limited access account.
I spent 7 years in the pizza business. The insurance issue is one that doesn't get talked about until something goes wrong. It is highly likely your personal auto policy has a disclaimer that they will not cover anything done for pay. Uber, Doordash, newspapers, courier, it's all the same to the insurance companies. It would have cost me $300/month to have commercial insurance on my car when I looked into it.

 

[travelbug]

Check your local cities (your city and surrounding cities( Facebook groups. In mine, there are lots of complaints about the lack of tipping by the buyers (or tipping and then backing the tip out after delivery which is apparently allowed).

Good idea. I'll poke around on Facebook and see if there's any local info. Thanks for the reply!

No experience in doing those types of jobs so can't help there. However, if you are going to be using your car as part of a business, you need to modify your car insurance so it properly covers you in the event of an accident. Wouldn't surprise me to find the many people don't bother to do that (and hope they don't get caught) and find themselves in a jam when their insurance won't cover them after having an accident or might even drop them at their next renewal.

If looking for some part-time work, many stores now seem to be hiring. Have you looked into that option as well? Stores already handle taxes/deductions/ect., so you won't have to become your own accounting dept to keep track of such things. I would think that is a better option and you can avoid driving in parts of town where you might not feel safe.

Thanks for the reply! I should clarify that I don't actually need a job. I'm financially very comfortable, I have no debt, and I certainly have funds for travel and fun. I just thought it could be fun to supplement the fun money with something extremely flexible that I could do if I felt like it, or not do if I didn't feel like it, and that I could easily walk away from if I found that I really didn't enjoy it. Food delivery seemed to possibly fit that scenario, but I'm not sure it's worth doing if there are issues I'm not foreseeing. Thanks again for your input! I do appreciate it.

 

[travelbug]

Thank you to both _19disnA and EACarlson for mentioning the car insurance issue. That's something I had not thought of and will have to look into. That in itself may prevent me from doing it, since I'd be doing deliveries as somewhat of a hobby and not out of necessity.

 

[figaro2tigger]

Swagbucks often has a $100 or more reward for signing up and completing your 1st delivery with either of these services. Do a search for reviews about driving for these services before you sign up. I also considered this and it is eye opening to read.

Consider entering contests, doing Swagbucks/Mypoints, even Microsoft Bing searches for a little "mad money" or fun extras.
Contests have allowed me to sit on the 50 yard line ( midway up) at a Big 10 college game, see The Band Perry/Luke Bryan/Tim Mcgraw in concert, receive numerous mail order flowers, steaks, cookies, etc., win an X-Box from Taco Bell, gift many NCAA, NFL etc presents, go to theme parks (Universal tickets for one and others), water parks, receive many gift cards and more.
A fun "hobby" (you do have some tax obligations), but well worth it. The "surprises" that show up from sweepstakes are "interesting" sometimes...........
Spending a few minutes a day, sometimes longer, has resulted in many fun experiences and "extras" for myself, family, and friends.

hth

 

[yeahdisney]

At Kroger, I heard the stocking employees chatting among themselves. The girl said she got a $1 tip from a coffee run. The guy replied your gas cost you more.

 

[travelbug]

OP here. I wanted to circle back and mention that I did contact my auto insurance company, and they do not cover any income earning activities done with the car. So I'm abandoning that passing idea. I have plenty going on already, so it may be just as well.

Thanks again to everyone for your replies!

 

[BL2020]

Don't know about doordash, but my understanding was that UBER/LYFT provided insurance coverage for their drivers. It wouldn't be covered under a personal policy.

 

[MomToOne]

So...I know nothing about driving for these services.....but I have used them a lot LOL

My biggest complaint is how they "stack" orders. It never fails my order ends up delayed for delivery, and stone cold by the time I get it - or just downright gross (deep fried foods do not sit well) - because orders came in after mine but got stacked with mine, and so they had to wait for those to be ready while my order sat AND I ended up on the tail end of the delivery sequence. I know that's not the driver's fault, but I'm sure a lot of people take that frustration out on the tips for the driver.

I have pretty much completely stopped using those services because the issue got to be so bad.

I suggest really reading up on things before you jump in. I would look into something like Instacart instead of food delivery because of the problems.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

So...I know nothing about driving for these services.....but I have used them a lot LOL

My biggest complaint is how they "stack" orders. It never fails my order ends up delayed for delivery, and stone cold by the time I get it - or just downright gross (deep fried foods do not sit well) - because orders came in after mine but got stacked with mine, and so they had to wait for those to be ready while my order sat AND I ended up on the tail end of the delivery sequence. I know that's not the driver's fault, but I'm sure a lot of people take that frustration out on the tips for the driver.

I have pretty much completely stopped using those services because the issue got to be so bad.

I suggest really reading up on things before you jump in. I would look into something like Instacart instead of food delivery because of the problems.

I never order food this way but I have eaten in several places that have a dedicated table for delivery services. More than once we've finished eating our food while someone's bag of food has sat there the entire time we were eating. I'm sure that was a soggy mess.

Our son tried to Door Dash for a while but our county includes a city around 6 miles away that has a very high crime rate. I'd personally only go there for jury duty. He would try driving to another county but it just didn't have the volume that our county has and he'd end up sitting around waiting for calls after driving 20 mins from home. It wasn't worth it for him. I hadn't even thought of the insurance impact. I would expect that to happen when transporting people because of the risk of bodily injury. I wouldn't expect that for tranporting food. That's good to know.

 

[Donald13]

Doordash is an unreliable source of income. And no one tips. I do it becuae I can make extra money but it’s not always busy so sometimes you are waiting around for an order. Feel free to ask me any questions