Wanna Make $20 Per Hour Working DoorDash? Here’s how.

In recent years, DoorDash has blown up, and it’ll still be profitable in the year 2022. However, if you follow the official advice, you may wind up working for less than the minimum wage.

It is possible to get an excellent hourly wage by driving for DoorDash — about $20/hour. The following tips will show how you can maximize your payout like those top dashers.

As a delivery driver, you are an independent contractor, and not an employee. In order to succeed, you must think like a business owner. And what is that one thing all responsible owners of businesses do? Take advantage of those tax write-offs.

Imagine it this way: over the course of a year, you actually wind up spending a lot of money to be successful as a driver. For example, you may purchase a phone mount, or order a few courier bags. They’re both business expenses; therefore, it is possible to write these off on your taxes.

And what if you do not invest in those extras? At the very least, you’ll be using your vehicle (or e-bike) for deliveries. This means spending more money on gas, maintenance, and repairs — perhaps even an insurance policy that is especially made for delivery drivers.

Thankfully, those expenses do not need to come fully out of your own pocket. Because you are driving for your job, those car-associated costs are tax-deductible. And the write-offs do not stop there. It is also possible to deduct a part of your telephone expenses, because you use your phone to run the app.

Taxes for Dashers are no joke. If you do not track your write-offs, you will be in for a surprise when you lay eyes on your tax bill.

Figure out the best times to go dashing

Of course, you’ll need to be dashing during the busiest times — however, not if every other delivery driver on the platform is also watching for orders. How can you balance customer demand and drive supply?

Based on my research and experience, here is what I suggest:

🌅 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

The early bird ALWAYS catches the worm, so be prepared for some highly profitable hours. People like to order breakfast, and few Dashers capitalize on those hours. As a matter of fact, I worked this morning from 6 AM — 9 AM and made over $100. It’s possible to receive lots of high paying orders during those hours — without a ton of competition.

🌤️ 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Lunchtime gets busy for all food delivery apps.

It’s a small window, but if you are free during these hours, it’s possible to make a lot of deliveries in a short time. If you dash full time, absolutely take advantage of this time slot. Then you can take a lunch break for yourself before the next dash.

🌆 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Here is the time when food delivery services and restaurants are their busiest — especially on the weekends. This dinner rush will offer you a solid 4 hours to rack up food orders.

🌒 After 10 p.m.

Drivers usually receive more tips during later hours. That is why late hours are highly profitable, especially in New York City and San Francisco markets — it is less about the order volume and more about how much you are receiving per order.

Those times usually work for experienced drivers. However, your highest-paying periods are going to depend mostly on where you live.

Schedule dashes ahead of time

When a zone is filled with drivers, it’ll turn grey on the map, which means you cannot dash there. How do you prevent that, so you will not miss out on high-paying dashes?

Book your dashes ahead of time.

Let’s say you drive in a zone that has well-paying customers, yet you see that it is slowly becoming oversaturated. Once that happens, open up your app and schedule the zone you’re looking to work in.

This tip will allow you to get into the most competitive zones. Once you’ve scheduled your desired time slot and zone, it does not matter if it turns grey: the dash is already booked.

Using that method, it is possible to pre-book your dashes up to 6 days in advance. It is especially helpful for driving in busy cities.

Do not waste your time lingering in one hotspot

You aren’t more likely to receive an order simply because you are waiting outside a busy dining establishment. Anyone who is within a 2- to 3-mile radius will get picked.

Rather than lingering outside one dining establishment, it is better to wait in a place you will be close to several restaurants. This way, once any of them request food delivery, you will be inside that radius.

Find a parking space at a shopping mall that has several restaurants. This way, it is possible to reach all of them more quickly.

Don’t be concerned with your acceptance rate

Once your acceptance rate reaches 70% and above, you’ll receive a few perks. Sometimes that includes priority on higher payouts.

This aspect of the company’s pay model makes it very tempting to simply accept every single order. But it isn’t worth it. In my experience, it’s better to be a “cherry picker” and be selective about what you pick up.

And why is that? Because the platform begins to offer orders for pennies then increases the base pay ’til somebody accepts the food order. It is similar to an auction.

So, what’s the bottom line? When more drivers decline those low-paying offers, DoorDash winds up increasing the base pay.

Therefore, it is a lot more efficient to simply skip those poor offers and wait for a better one. There aren’t any consequences for not accepting food orders. Even if the acceptance rate dips to 20 percent, there isn’t anything to be concerned about.

Know what deliveries you need to avoid

It goes along with the above tip. In order to maximize your time, you must be very selective. Driving 8 miles for $3 or $4 is not worth it.

Instead, aim for a base pay of a minimum of $2/mile. ($1/mile may be fine for a fast order that it’s possible to complete in a few minutes).

Go for orders that are $7 and up. How can you do that? Popular restaurant establishments. They are more than likely to be busy and have a better opportunity of giving you multiple orders.

Avoid bad orders. One secret for doing that: begin your dash ten minutes before setting off. The first couple of orders you receive are likely those that were declined by several drivers.

Here is a cheat sheet of orders you should avoid:

❌ Walmart

Walmart runs are usually more trouble than they are worth — the volume can be really unpredictable, as compared with a food delivery. Make sure to check how many items you will deliver. There might be 4 cases of water and 58 items that you will need to carry up to the third floor of an apartment complex that does not have any elevators.

❌ Fast food

Those trips usually come with a lot of wait time. Even if you are running a delivery, you will need to get in line like all other customers. Unless the tips or base pay make up for it, skip ‘em.

❌ Orders that are far away from any hotspots

You are getting paid when you are delivering — and not on the way back to a hotspot. Only accept those orders if the pay compensates for the time it’ll take to travel back (or that leads you to different hotspots.)

Do not be afraid to cancel any accepted orders

You should know which deliveries to reject directly out of the gate. However, occasionally, you will have to cancel once you have already accepted.

Of course, I don’t recommend doing this too frequently. A low completion rate will get you deactivated, so it is better to keep that completion rate high.

So, when should you cancel? If you arrive to the establishment, the food is not ready, and you will need to wait an extra 15–20 minutes before it is ready.

Since you aren’t getting paid to wait, you are better off doing something else.

If that happens, send your customer a message. Tell them you are at the restaurant, but their food is not ready, and you are canceling in order for another dasher to deliver it once it is ready.

From a customer’s viewpoint, there isn’t any harm done — you are just keeping them updated.

Regularly restart the app

When you are driving, sometimes you will pass regions that have bad phone service. This means the GPS is going to glitch, and your app may crash.

Unfortunately, you will not receive any orders while you are having technical difficulties. Therefore, if you discover yourself not getting any orders — or get orders for the wrong area — simply restart your app.

You will receive that same advice from DoorDash support. That is because the dash is registered on the company’s servers; therefore, restarting your app will not delete any data or progress.

Even if you do not discover yourself dealing with poor reception, it is a good idea to habitually restart the app. And why is that? Well, it has been well-documented that reconnecting to the app may get you some new offers.

After each dash, restart your app. Keep restarting the app every couple of minutes ’til you receive an order.

Follow the customer’s directions

The majority of customers tip and provide good ratings if you give good service. Following their directions plays a big part in that.

For example, during COVID, many customers requested contactless deliveries. Some of their requests may seem less reasonable than this. However, for the sake of your tip, it is important that you do what they ask.

If a customer requests that you not knock on the door, do not knock. If they request that you place their food in a specific spot, place it there.

The majority of the time, customers leave very straightforward directions. However, if you encounter something confusing or complicated, just call or text the customer to clarify.

Be careful with cold and hot items

One way to leave serious money on the table is to drop off lukewarm soup and melted ice cream.

If the customer orders cold and hot items, separate them — ideally inside their own insulated bags.

Also, that goes for cold beverages, especially if they contain ice.

Keep a black marker in your vehicle

If you have a permanent black marker handy, make it a habit of jotting down the customers’ names on the orders. (Most restaurants will attach a receipt on the bag that has the customers’ name, but some restaurants don’t.) This trick will save you from becoming confused when you are juggling stacked orders.

Communication is key

Customers on DoorDash tend to be excited when they receive their food. They like to get personal updates about the delivery — even if they’re able to follow you on the map.

Unless customers specifically say otherwise, keep them up-to-date every step of the way. To make it easier, write out messages ahead of time and save them inside your notes. It’ll make it easier to copy and paste the notes into the chat with the customer when you are ready.

I suggest scripting out updates at the following times:

🚘 Once you arrive to the restaurant

Send out a message to let a customer know that you are waiting to get their order.

🥡 Once you get their order

When you leave the restaurant, enter their address into Waze or Google Maps then send them the ETA.

⏳ The minute there is a delay

Hit traffic? Let the customer know immediately so they are aren’t surprised when their delivery shows up past the original ETA.

🛣️ Once you are 3 to 5 minutes away

Let the customer know when you are approaching their address so they will know to keep watch. It’s important if you get to an apartment complex or some place that does not have clear house numbers — it will get them prepared for you to call or text them.

📍Once you arrive

If you are handling a contactless delivery, send him or her a final update telling them that their food has been delivered.

For an in-person drop-off, you should make a good last impression. Unless they specifically asked you not to knock on the door, you should knock and back off 9 feet. If they pick up the food in front of you, give a big smile and say something like, “Have a great day!”

A professional appearance is important while on the job

I’m not saying that you need to wear a red DoorDash tee-shirt all the time. However, appearing presentable will have an impact on how much you are tipped.

For example, do not wear baggy pants or tee-shirts that have slogans that are not to everyone’s taste. (Avoid political tee-shirts.)

Call support if you run into a problem

You can’t predict what the day is going to be like when you are driving. You may get lucky and receive a $50 tip — or it’s possible to wind up traveling 8 miles to the wrong address, because of a typo the customer made.

There may also be periods when you cannot reach their address — and cannot seem to get hold of them.

If a situation like that happens, immediately contact support. This way, you will not be at fault if you must cancel an order.

Use more than one app

A lot of dashers simultaneously use other apps. Uber Eats, Spark, Instacart, and Grubhub can all be used when DoorDash is slow.

It’s also possible to use those platforms to make your deliveries on DoorDash more profitable. When you have accepted a dash, check the other platforms for deliveries at the same store or restaurant.

If you find one and take it, it will essentially double your earnings — you are now receiving pay from two apps instead of one.

Remember this tip only works for experienced drivers. Otherwise, you will wind up with delayed orders — a recipe for low ratings.

Learn from the best

And last but not least, watch YouTube videos from Dashers who have been doing this for a long time.

Here are some of my favorite Dashers on YouTube:

And there you have it! Have a blessed day and Happy Dashing!

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