If you haven’t heard, I said goodbye to SAHD FIRE and hello to Gig FIRE. I have two reasons for doing this. First, I want to spend my time more productively. My son is growing up and is more independent now. He is at school from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. That’s a lot of wasted time for me. This is the most free time I’ve had since I became a SAHD. Second, I want to raise $30,000 to build a beach hut in Thailand. My mom has a small plot of land on Hua Hin beach. The beach is okay, but the seafood is delicious and very affordable. My dad wants to live there during burning season. It’s a very smoky road in Chiang Mai from February to mid-April.
I will try different ways to make money and write an update once in a while. I’ve been delivering food with Uber Eats and Doordash for 7 weeks now. I’m ready to give you an update. Catering is a very easy side hustle. Anyone can do this to earn a little extra money. It’s a good option for stay-at-home parents who have been out of the job market for a while. You can start driving a few hours a day and see how it goes. For me, working two to three hours a day is ideal. I really don’t want to work any more. Oh, I usually work out for lunch on weekdays. Evenings and weekends are family time for us.
Food delivery
It’s easy to sign up to become a driver with DoorDash and Uber Eats. You just need a valid driver’s license, car insurance, and a smartphone. You can use my links here to sign up if you want to give it a try. Oh, and they’ll do a background check before approving your application.
*** Sign up with Uber Eats.
*** Sign up with DoorDash.
Well this is my typical day as a food delivery driver.
Around 11:30 am I launch both apps and just hang around the house until a good order comes in. There are many restaurants near our house so I can do that. When I see a nice request, I accept it and turn off the other app. I drive or walk to pick up food from the restaurant. Then drive to deliver the food to the customer’s address. Apps show me where to go. Most customers choose to be dropped off at the door. This limits the connection that I like.
This is so easy so far. However, there are some issues too. If you want to increase your hourly income, you need to learn the ropes.
First day of driving
My first day as a food delivery driver wasn’t pretty. On the way to deliver 3Research and development asked, the tire pressure sensor light in my car came on. I got into a gas station a short distance later and one of the tires was flat. I called support. They canceled the order and paid for the trip and told me to keep the food.
While I was on the phone, an old grizzled man at the gas station got out of a broken down trailer with his dog. He helped me put the spare on and I gave him $20 for his trouble. He needed it more than me. Anyway, I made $20.75 doing food delivery the first day and donated $20. So I got $0.75 for 2 hours of work. Well… oh, I have to keep Pad Thai. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very good. I make Pad Thai way better than that. It can only go up from here, right?
Learn the ropes
The problem with being a gig driver is that the app companies don’t pay that much. To make it worth it, you need the tips. Applications will send a bunch of bad requests. You have to wade through the bad requests to find the one that’s worth it.
When I started, I tried to accept every request. But this is the wrong way to do it. You have to cherry pick for the good requests. I think about 5% of orders are good, 15% are good, and the rest are just awful. What is the difference? I’ll give you some examples.
This is where you learn the ropes. I got many bad requests at first. Now, I avoid them, but one or two still slip through each shift. Choosing the correct arrangement is more difficult while driving.
Bad orders
Here are some examples of bad orders. Apps slam drivers with these bastards.
- so far. Too many orders too far. Apps pay you more because you drive farther, but there are plenty of downsides. Lunch time is only busy from 11:30 am to 1 pm. If I drive too far, I won’t be able to come back to take more orders. This seemed attractive at first because the pay was so $14.05. This is much higher than normal. But it was 15 miles away. This is ridiculous! They estimated that it would take 37 minutes to deliver this order. It will take me another 25 minutes to get back. The lunch rush will be over by then. The customer may add more tips to the drive, but it’s still not worth it. drop!
- little pay. Seriously, $2.50?! This is not worth it. It is possible that the customer did not add tips, so the expected total was only $2.50. They may or may not add more tips later. They expected 14 minutes, but it could take longer than that. The restaurant can be busy. It may be difficult to find parking. There might be a major fire shutting down a highway and sending every driver roaming the city streets. (Yes, it happened.) The order pays very little. drop!
- not food. Do you tip a UPS, an Amazon driver, or a postman? I do not think so. Also, this package was from the Apple Store in downtown Portland. This store is located in the middle of a bus/light rail transit hub. It’s always hard to find parking there. I did one of these orders once and had to park my car 3 blocks away. Downtown has parking meters and paying for them will add to the cost. It might be nice to stand for a few minutes, but you risk getting a ticket. I ran 3 blocks to get there. The store was full and it took a while for the geniuses to get the package. Also, the customer did not tip. It will never happen again. drop!
- Busy restaurant. Some restaurants are always closed at lunch. I went to pick up from Papi Chulo several times and always had to wait over 10 minutes. That’s way too long to sit worrying about a parking ticket. The parking situation is bad there. Mexican restaurants are very popular these days. Chipotle is another one I won’t be going to anymore. Last time I went to Chipotle there were 6 drivers waiting. After driving for a few weeks, you’ll learn which restaurants to avoid. drop!
- fast food. In general, fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Subway are very busy at lunch. You have to wait a bit. Also, fast food customers don’t usually tip that much. I usually refuse.
- 7 eleven. I accepted some requests that told me to stop at a 7-Eleven on the way to get food delivered. The customer added a bag of chips or a drink. This stopping point adds 5 to 15 minutes to the task. It’s just time for the customer to get hungrier. Both of these people did not tip. drop!
- Ice cream. I have delivered many orders to ice cream parlors. Customers didn’t tip much. drop!
- Great apartments. Some clients want you to deliver to their door in a huge apartment complex. This is ridiculous. There is no place to park and you want me to go to your room? Just come to the lobby and get your food. How do you get it? It’s hard to tell from the ranking. This one is a crap shoot unless you can identify the customer.
***Pro tip – You can cancel the order if you accept a bad order. Simply chat with support and tell them you made a mistake. Tell them I’m done working for the day. I’ve done this a few times and it was fine. Let the newbies take those nasty orders.
Good orders
I don’t have many screenshots of good requests. You need to accept it quickly or someone else will take it. No time for screenshots. Here are the general rules for good commands.
- Over $2 per mile. For 2023, the mileage tax deduction is 65.5 cents per mile. This means you need to earn at least $1.31 per mile to make it worth it. It’s twice as far as the app shows it on the screen. You need to go back too. My goal is $2 per mile. Otherwise, it’s not worth getting off the couch.
- good neighborly. In general, customers in good neighborhoods tip better. But this is not always true. A customer flat-out sent me $12 for a large McDonald’s order.
- more than $5. Any order under $5 isn’t really worth it.
- Short drive. I try to avoid any order of more than 4 miles during lunch. You’ll get me out of the hot zone. I might accept one if it’s after 1:30pm. The lunch rush was almost over by then and I wouldn’t mind driving for a while longer.
- Expensive hotels. Clients in expensive hotels are usually very well tended. They’re on vacation and don’t mind spending a little money. I got an $18 tip once. The man even came down to meet me at the entrance. This is a great customer.
unicorn
Here is an example of a rhinoceros.
This order was from Taco Bell. Normally, I try to avoid it because they are so busy eating lunch. However, I don’t mind waiting a bit for $18. They have a parking lot so I didn’t have to worry about getting a parking ticket. The distance was also very short. It still takes about 30 minutes to complete this request. I must have waited at Taco Bell for over 10 minutes. The tip was only about $3 for this order. I think the drivers have repeatedly rejected this. Eventually, the app raised the pay until someone filled out the application. I got very lucky with this. The fare is usually less than $3 for this distance.
SAHD rating
This is my review of Driving Food Delivery as a SAHD side tool.
Flexibility – This food delivery function is very flexible. I usually deliver during lunch on weekdays, but sometimes I’ll take an order if I’m not busy on the weekends. It’s great for stay-at-home parents because something always comes up. I can stop working immediately if I get a call from the school nurse or something.
money I earn about $24 an hour. This is very good for very flexible tasks. You can earn more if you deliver during dinner because orders are larger. There are quiet stretches, too. There are very few orders from 2pm to 5:30pm. It can be difficult to maintain your hourly wages if you work 8 hours a day. Oh, that’s before gas and car servicing. When I factored in the mileage deduction, the taxable income was about $14 an hour. This should improve when I get better at picking cherries.
Possible – This party doesn’t have good potential. I heard apps paid more a few years ago. They will probably cut drivers’ salaries even more when they need to be profitable. They are still in growth mode. DoorDash lost over $1.3 billion in 2022. I think they’re going to have to cut drivers’ salaries at some point.
joke – This party is fine. It’s not much fun, but it’s not a terrible way to spend a few hours in the day. I don’t mind that.
x factor – I think it’s good for SAHD to earn some extra cash. It’s an easy way to get back into the workforce. Our car is 13 years old and in good condition. It’s not a big deal to put more miles on it. I wouldn’t do this with a new car. The devaluation from the high mileage will suck. I also love seeing different parts of Portland. It’s interesting.
Total I like being a delivery driver for a few hours a day. It’s a good motivation to get off the couch. The big downside is the pay and wear and tear on our vehicle. I wouldn’t rely on this aspect too much, though. The salary will probably go down at some point. If we go into a recession, tips will shrink as well. It’s a short party.
Well, that’s it for this update. Let me know if you have any questions.
Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects all over the USA so check them out!
Joe also highly recommends Personal Capital to DIY investors. They have many useful tools that will help you reach financial independence.
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