How to Make $500 a Week With DoorDash (Guaranteed?)

Well, that’s what today’s post is all about. Below, I’ll share tips on how to make $500 a week with DoorDash.

What is DoorDash?

DoorDash is an American company that operates an online food ordering and food delivery platform. It works in a similar way to other food delivery companies like Uber Eats and Grubhub, where customers place orders with local restaurants and other eateries and have them delivered by the app’s gig workers.

DoorDash pays you to deliver food from restaurants and local eateries to people’s homes.

As a driver for DoorDash, you get to set your own hours, so you’re able to work as little or as much as you want to.

DoorDash is the leading food delivery company in the US market, surpassing incumbent Grubhub and global leader Uber Eats.

DoorDash was responsible for 45 percent of all food delivery orders in 2020, holding a double-digit advantage over everyone else.

Anyone who’s at least 18-years old, has a vehicle, can provide a driver’s license number and social security number (only in the United States), and consent to a background check can drive for DoorDash.

How Much Does DoorDash pay?

So, how much does DoorDash pay you?

Let’s take a look at the company’s pay model and per hour earning reports from drivers.

DoorDash Pay Model

The Dasher pay model is as follows:

Base Pay + Promotions + Tips = Total Earnings

I’ll go into a little more detail below:

Base Pay

DoorDash gives you a base pay of between $2 and $10 for each delivery that you complete. Base Pay is DoorDash’s base contribution for each order. It ranges from $2 to $10 or more, depending on the estimated time, distance, and desirability of the order.

Orders that require you to travel a greater distance, that are expected to take more time, and that are less popular with Dashers will have a higher Base pay.

Promotions

Promotions are extra pay that drivers can get for orders that meet certain conditions.

Some examples include:

• Peak Pay: When it’s busy, Peak Pay may come into effect. This allows drivers to earn extra money.
• Challenges: These are incentives that allow Dashers to earn extra money for completing a certain number of deliveries in a set amount of time.
• Guaranteed Earnings: This is a pay incentive for select Dashers to earn at least a specific amount (not including tips, Challenge payments, and referral payments) within a set number of days. The number of days and amount depends on the offer they were sent via email and SMS.

Tips

Customers are able to tip Dashers. They can leave a tip when they check out or after the delivery is completed. And one of the perks of jobs with tips is that you get to keep 100% of your tips on top of Base pay and promotions.

DoorDash hourly pay

Reports of pay per hour vary.

DoorDash says on its site that most drivers earn $25 an hour.

According to figures from Glassdoor, DoorDash drivers make $16 an hour on average. Pay can range anywhere from $3 to $33 an hour though. Drivers can earn more with promotions and tips.

This means that it is totally possible to make $500 a week driving and delivering with the company.

You just need to know which tips and tricks to use and employ them right and you could earn $2,000 a month!

$2,000 a month is a great amount to earn from a gig app, right?

So, how exactly can you do it?

Well, below, I have some easy-to-follow tips on making $500 in a week with the company…

Tips for Making $500 a Week with DoorDash

Here are a few tips for earning 500 dollars a week with DoorDash app.

1. Work during peak hours

Okay, so one of the most important tips I can give you is to work during peak hours. This typically means during lunchtime and dinnertime, because, obviously, more people tend to order food around these times.

As I mentioned above, one of the promotions that DoorDash makes available to dashers is Peak Pay incentives.

These allow drivers to earn more money during busy times.

Here’s an example of a Peak Pay incentive:

• Earn $2 extra in San Francisco between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

2. Change your Dash area

If the area where you normally make deliveries is quiet, consider changing it to a busier part of town. This way, when people order food, you’re more likely to get a delivery, which means that you can start making more per week.

Dashing near popular restaurants and restaurant sections of town, particularly during dinnertime when deliveries are more common, is one of the best ways to make more money. Dense downtown areas are also good because they have a lot of restaurants and other eateries.

So, if you aren’t making much money in one area, then consider moving.

3. Try to stay in busy areas

Once you have found a busy area, try to stay there when you’re working on DoorDash. Over time, you can learn which restaurants are most popular on which days of the week, which restaurants do the most business during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and what the peak delivery hours are. All this information can help you to increase your earnings per week.

It’s important that you try to stay in busy areas. So, think about where your orders are taking you.

Try to avoid accepting orders that take you far away from busy areas. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself having to drive back to those busy areas, which takes time, and you may not have any orders to complete on the way.

It’s best to accept deliveries that stay in busy areas or those that take you to another busy area. Of course, you can always move if you notice that there are too many other Dashers in the area, which means you aren’t getting access to that many deliveries.

4. Park near popular restaurants and other eateries

You should try to park near popular restaurants and convenience stores. This can help you to pick up more deliveries. So, think about which eateries are popular in the area where you are Dashing. You could have a look at sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp to see which are the top ten restaurants and then park near them.

Not only does parking near popular restaurants, convenience stores, and other places where people order food help you to pick up more deliveries, but it can also get you more repeat customers.

Getting repeat customers is a good idea because it can make your job a lot easier. You’ll know where you’re going to, so you can often make the delivery faster, and if you know that a family tips well and you keep getting that delivery, you can increase your income with these tips.

5. Increase your working hours

If you want to earn $500 a week with DoorDash, then you will need to try to increase your working hours. If you drive just 10 hours a week, then you probably aren’t going to hit that $500 a week target. Let’s say you earn $25 an hour. Working just 10 hours is only going to get you $250 a week. So, you’ll have to up it to 20 hours a week.

Increasing your working hours will help you to earn more money, as you can accept more deliveries. If you can’t increase your working hours anymore, then I would suggest increasing the number of deliveries you’re making per hour, as this can also boost your earnings.

Follow the tips above about staying in busy areas and parking near popular restaurants, as these tips will enable you to make more deliveries per hour. If you want to boost your earnings, you will need to either up your hours or the number of deliveries you complete per hour. Do both, and you can increase your income a lot.

6. Be selective with the orders that you accept

Obviously, the more orders you complete, the more money you can earn. However, it’s important to be selective about the orders that you accept.

Here are some things to consider:

Where the order is going

You’re best only choosing orders that aren’t going too far and keep you in a busy area of your town or city. If the order is too far out of the way, it may not be worth doing.

The restaurant you’re picking up the food from

The restaurant is another factor to consider when deciding whether or not to accept an order. Some restaurants treat dashers with respect, they have the food ready to go, and they don’t waste your time. Others are the opposite.

So, it’s best to stick to the good restaurants and avoid the bad ones. After all, if a restaurant always seems to take ages getting the food ready, and you always have to wait around, then your deliveries from that place are going to take longer, which means you make fewer deliveries per hour and therefore earn less money.

So, when you see an order, check out which restaurant it’s from, and decide whether it’s worth accepting that order. If the restaurant always has orders ready, then accept it, and if not, then consider choosing another order instead. Of course, this only works for restaurants you’ve been to previously. As you gain more experience, you’ll know which ones are good and which ones you should skip.

How much the order pays you

Another factor to consider is how much the order pays you. After all, you want to accept orders that are worth your time and effort. This doesn’t necessarily mean going for the highest paying orders all the time. No, you also want to think about how long the order is going to take you to complete.

If an order pays a lot, but it takes you a lot of time to complete, then it may be worth choosing an order that pays a little lower but is faster to complete. After all, the more orders you can complete, the more money you can earn.

A lot of Dashers, particularly new Dashers, accept every order they come across, without giving it much thought. Sure, you want to be accepting lots of orders to earn more, but it’s important to keep those factors above in mind so that the orders are worth your while, and you maximize your earnings.

7. Complete challenges if they are available in your area

DoorDash is now offering Challenges to Dashers. This program is currently in beta. Not all Dashers will see Challenges in their area, but DoorDash says that it’s working to expand this in the coming months.

So, check to see if there are any Challenges available in your area.

Challenges are incentives that allow you to earn extra money for completing a certain number of deliveries in a set amount of time.

Make sure that you check the timestamp of when the Challenge is valid in your time zone.

For example, you may earn $20 for completing 15 deliveries over the course of a week (Monday 12:01 a.m. to Sunday 11:59 p.m. local time).

With Challenges, it’s important that you complete the deliveries during the specified time frame, and in any of the starting points listed under the Challenge details page in the Dasher app.

You are automatically enrolled in active Challenges in your area that you are eligible for. You don’t have to opt in to participate in the Challenge.

Doing Challenges is a great way to get some extra money. Open your Dasher app, and select your starting point to see if you have an active Challenge in your area.

There will only be one active Challenge in a starting point at any given time period.

You can tap on the Challenge for details. The Challenge info screen will show you all the details about the Challenge, such as the number of deliveries required, the days/times the Challenge is valid for, the extra amount you can earn for completing the Challenge, as well as the starting points the Challenge is active in. The list of eligible starting points shows all the areas in which this Challenge is valid. Deliveries you complete in any of these eligible starting points will count towards the active Challenge.

8. Treat being a delivery driver as a business

When you are working as a Dasher, you are an independent contractor. This means that you’re basically running your own small business. So, act like a business, and approach each delivery as a business decision.

Consider which orders you accept carefully, again, treat it like a business decision. Only accept orders that you think will be profitable. If an order pays too little, it will take a while to complete, or it takes you in a direction that’s not ideal, then don’t accept that order. You are the boss of your own small business, so make sure you act like it. If you do that, you can ensure that driving for DoorDash is more profitable.

9. Keep track of your working hours and compare it to your income

Okay, so one of the best tips that I can give you to increase your earnings is to simply keep track of the number of hours you’re working and how much you earn.

For example, if you worked on Friday, then make note of how many hours you worked, the number of deliveries you made, and how much money you earned that day. You can then break down those figures to see how much money you made per hour. If it’s lower than expected, consider what you can do to maximize your earnings.

Consider our tips above. For example, did you take too many orders that took you away from busy areas? If so, then try to stay nearer to those busy areas next time you make deliveries.

Or, perhaps your deliveries took longer because you had a few restaurants that didn’t have the delivery ready for you when you arrived? If so, avoid going to those restaurants again.

Like I said, keep track of your working hours and then compare it to your income. You want to make sure that the money you’re earning is worth the amount of time that you’re putting into delivering for DoorDash.

10. Use multiple apps

This is a bonus tip that you can try. All of the tips above were for DoorDash. This one is for anyone who is willing to sign up for a few different food delivery apps.

Basically, instead of delivering with just one app, you use all of the food delivery apps in your market at the same time.

So, for example, if DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub are all available in your market, then sign up for them. Then, whenever you want to do deliveries, turn on all three apps and accept orders from all of them. Aim to pick orders that are going in the same general direction. By doing this, you can dramatically increase your earnings.

By adding more delivery apps into the mix, you can increase the number of deliveries you get, and can up your earnings simply by completing more deliveries.

For example, if you get 3 orders in an hour from DoorDash, but also get one from Uber Eats and one from Grubhub, you can complete 5 deliveries within an hour instead of 3.

If you complete 5 deliveries per hour and get $5 per delivery, you’ll make $25 an hour. If you could make 7 deliveries in an hour, you could earn $35 an hour! To figure out how much you can make, determine how many orders you can complete in an hour, and what you think you can average per delivery.

When Does DoorDash Pay?

Okay, so once you’ve started earning with DoorDash, you’ll want to know, when do you get paid?

DoorDash has three different payment methods available. How often you get paid depends on which payment method you choose.

Here are the payment methods available on DoorDash:

Weekly Direct Deposit

Through Weekly Direct Deposit, Dashers get paid on a weekly basis for all the deliveries they complete between Monday and Sunday of the previous week (ending Sunday at midnight).

Payments are transferred at that time directly to your bank account with a 2-to-3-day processing period, and the money usually appears in your account by Wednesday night.

Dasher Fast Pay

Dasher Fast Pay is available in the United States and select parts of Canada. With Fast Pay, Dashers can cash out their earnings daily, rather than waiting for their weekly direct deposit. You do have to pay a fee of $1.99 though.

To use Fast Pay, you must have a debit card, not a prepaid card, on file.

DasherDirect

DasherDirect is a prepaid debit card exclusively for Dashers that offers instant, no-fee deposits after every Dash. With DasherDirect, you will also get 2% cashback on gas anywhere and access to more than 20,000 no-fee ATMs. You can apply to start receiving free instant payments with DasherDirect in the Earnings tab on the app. Tap “Earnings,” and then “Learn more.”

Cash on Delivery

Another payment option that DoorDash offers is cash.

You can opt-in to start receiving orders that pay cash. Look for orders that say Cash on Delivery and accept the order. They work the same as other orders, but the difference is that you’ll get paid in cash when you drop off the order.

Once you have collected payment from the customer, you get to keep 100% of the cash, including any cash tips. The money you collect is yours to keep, and the order amount will be automatically deducted from your next direct deposit. So, if you want money in your pocket instantly, then you might want to try Cash on Delivery orders.

Closing Thoughts

It is possible to make $500 a week with DoorDash. If you earn $25 an hour, then you could earn $500 in a week by working 20 hours a week.

Of course, there are a lot of factors that will determine your income, such as:

• The number of hours you work. The more you work, the more you’ll earn.
• How many deliveries you make per hour. The more deliveries you can make in an hour, the more money you’ll earn per hour.
• Your delivery area. Busy metropolitan areas usually have more deliveries, meaning you’ll likely earn more in these areas.
• How many tips you get. More tips equals more cash for you.
• Whether you take advantage of any promotions, like Challenges.
• How strategic you are with your orders. If you can stay around the same area, and not have to drive too far to make your deliveries, then you can increase your profits.

Making $500 a week with DoorDash is definitely possible. But, it’s not super easy, as it requires time and effort. Still though, with the right strategies and time and effort on your part, you can make an extra $500 in a week, which is awesome. That’s $2,000 a month!