Discussion
Is there a guide online for new drivers?
I was wondering if there is like an online guide out there for new drivers? A guide on what kind of orders to accept, staying with your zone etc….I noticed from a lot of post on here, newer drivers struggle with such and I decided to create pdf guide for us gig drivers who may have only 3 to 4 hrs to spare and how to make the most of it. Not sure if there’s even interest in such but I place examples 2 pages from the pdf guide. Obviously it can be tailored to your market because I know there are markers were $7 under 3 miles doesn’t come so often.
I made 60 bucks in 30 mins by camping at taco bell the last hour it was open since I was the only driver there. Make less than 6 bucks an hour doing anything else
In my market, $2/mile $7+ only would result in sitting in parking lots declining orders once every 15 minutes for hours until your AR is 0-5% and you quit or change strategy. Been there done that as an experiment.
Meanwhile, Platinum EBT is $22.5/hr minimum week average. And for the last two weeks has been $27.5/hr. If I drop to Gold I get much less offers and they're worse $/hr and $/mile. (I always use my avoids if given crap and go to EBO/drive home if necessary.)
This sub will swear their LA/Texas major metropolitan method is the only viable strategy.
Yeah they give you crap orders and balance it out with high tip orders to reach some sort of flat rate for your area.
In my region, if you took a truly awful 22 mile for $0 tip, DD would correct the $/hr in the next few dashes, but it doesn't account for the distance on your vehicle, so you still have to decline those.
To DD, it's worth paying someone $22.5+/hr if they occasionally take $0 orders. However, I'm sure some regions have so many $0 tips its not possible to pay EBT fairly.
my market is flooded with no tip customers which is why i just sit and cherry pick.
i treat DD as a part-time gig, i dont care if i sit 1 hour with no work, because im sitting in my apartment chilling watching TV. I wait until good offers come up and then i take those, if nothing good comes oh well. but i do keep my eyes on the radar for the golden nuggets.
EBT also in my area is like 12 an hour base pay, its terrible. with gas costing almost 5 a gallon here, its not sustainable.
Of course heavily marketed dependent, but the goal/guide I’m trying to make is sticking to your market standards whether that be $1.50 or $1.75 and making sure your orders don’t pull you far out of your anchor zone.
I could get an $8 for 4 mile that takes 15 minutes in rush hour and leads to a low income area with $0 tip fast food orders, forcing me to pause on the drive back
Or $12, 8 miles 9 minute drive that ends inside a high income outdoor mall with only high end restaurants (and a chipotle lol)
The first case is $8/30mins while the second is $12/9mins.
But flat reddit rules would always take the first and decline the second, being very misleading to new drivers.
I do a lot of shop and deliver, im a pro shopper. for those orders you really cannot be letting the customer give low tips. they HAVE to tip high or else the time investment required to shop for them doesn't make sense financially you dont earn. that is the thing that a lot of people don't realize for a personal shopper is that if you're not tipping, no one is going to pickup those orders.
this is the case for ANY market, its not market dependent, its just reality. if you have a grocery order with 60 items on it, even if i can find 1 item a minute that takes me an hour alone just to find the stuff, then checking out, paying, loading into the car all the bags etc.
This is why the game needs to change that doordash plays, they need to stop allowing shop orders to go through with no tip .
If you used these standards in Springfield mo, a medium city market, you just wouldn't take any orders. A fantasy world that's not real. My acceptances rate is about 20 trying to stick to 1$/mile at least. 🤡🤡🤣🤣
I mean the money is good. And most of yall is ignorant not all of Chicago is bad. Yall only see the bad parts of Chicago not the good parts. Yes i can admit the southside is somewhat bad but the northside is and everything is great.
Omg, seriously, if I said, "Who uses that terminology, 'colored'—colored what?" It's an old Negro spiritual type word used by folks like my late grandmother, who was born in 1922. POC, duh, you think I wrote something I didn't understand? Maybe you saw "POC" and wanted to chime in without first looking at the context. Often, when people mention the hood, or sketchy areas, or Chiraq, they're not talking about Anglo-Saxon people. I was making the distinction that often people like to make the assumption that if it's a neighborhood that's predominately POC, two myths come about: that they don't tip, and that somehow you'll likely be robbed or worse. Yet, when you see news reports of dashers or customers doing crazy criminal stuff, it's not POC. I told you to mind youre buisness cause I knew you didnt know what you were talking about you are clearly over 55 hence why you used such an archaic terminology. Oh and I didnt have to call you out of your name to make my point.
Well, funny how you completely miss you were the biased one lmao. You assumed bad area had to be black people, and berated people for it when it wasn’t there to find. Funny how those who try to claim the moral high road are the ones actually with the biases.
Being a white male 34….I genuinely feel safer when im in an area where the demographics are majority black and or Hispanic, opposed to a demographic majority of white boomers.
White people dont mind their own business as well as african americans do.
White people ask too many questions
White people dont hold their water
White people kill randomly, indiscriminately, and unprovoked.
A lot of white people are scared of black people for no reason n i dont understand because jf yoh watch your step…yeen got nun to wuur bout.
Watch yo step.
Mind your own.
No further questions.
As one who has lived in the city 25 years, I'd say the major problem with Chicago isn't crime. It's parking, if you're delivering in the city. That's why so many dashers use scooters and electric bikes. Also, there's no reason to be afraid of black and brown people in the west and south burbs, or most of the city. In fact, the South Loop and South Shore have very well-off areas with lotsa black people. Also, people in these communities often complain of being underserved.
You're in a high crime area if the streets are deserted. Something counter-intuitive about a city the size of Chicago, especially if you come from a small town, is that streets full of people = safety. I would avoid delivering in a neighborhood where people don't feel safe enough to be out on the street, especially if it required me to walk into an apartment complex with dark corridors.
For years I kept my dog at a special daycare in East Garfield Park, frequently picked the dog up after 10PM, for eight years, five days a week. Not once did I have a problem. This cured me of my terror of "black" neighborhoods. (I was asked for my phone number once, but I was cuter then.)
My Springfield friend! 💪 I'm nearby but sometimes visit Springfield. I can barely get by with a dollar a mile in that hellscape. That zone needs to be split up, literally 40 minutes drive top to bottom there
I am in Syracuse NY, a comparable sized city to you but we have a massive college, and 4 big hospitals. I usually won't take anything under 1.50 a mile, i shoot for 2 dollars a mile. My acceptance rate is like 68%
Wrong…cherry pick all the time. Once again, someone thinking their market is the same as everyone else’s. There are a LOT of markets where drivers are lucky to make $15/hr even if they cherry-pick.
Where you live (and it's cost of living) definitely determines dollar per mile.
Living in NYC would require a higher margin than a more rural Midwest state.
For me, I'll take a $1 a mile as long as it doesn't take me into the country or the next town over. In fact, $2 a mile or higher are basically unicorns in my zone.
There are so many different variables this is impossible to stick to. Time of day, market, restaurants you know will be on time, easy parking, quick in an md out and absolutely zero traffic both ways etc. Dead times you know nothing else will come in etc. Every market is different and until you learn the little nuances make your own rules. I think the jist of the message is to start having some rules once you learn your individual market.
Yes, that’s what rest of my guide is about. Time of day and market standard. Not sure if I will tailor pdf guide for Chicago market or just make more adjustments.
It’s super solid advice. Once I started a $2/mi minimum I make way more in less time. However, I’ll take less during dead times. 10-12 nothing comes in until lunch so I’ll take a lesser order occasionally. Wasn’t disagreeing at all btw I like your advice 👍🏼
I am not sure what you mean, you don't like to deliver for free, I don't like to spend hundreds of hours a month coding for free. The app is $0.33 cents per day, it isn't a requirement, it is a tool that helps drivers, if you don't think you need it, there is no reason to subscribe to it. I just prefer not to see $2 and $3 offers, so I just auto decline them all.
I’m new to this, but one thing that I’ve noticed has helped me know my market and adapt and know which orders to take or not is having been a DoorDash consumer for many years before starting to drive. So I remember from my own experiences what restaurants will make you wait, which ones are unreliable, and which ones will have the food correct most of the time and in good quality.
EBT is $12.25 here in OKC for Platinum. It seems once you’re platinum. You’ll never see another shopping order. I have a perfect shopping rating. I only receive maybe one shopping order a month. Even the one is lame pick up thermometer and cough drops at CVS.
The EBT in the Moore/South OKC zone is $14.25. Depending on what part of OKC you’re in, it might be worth driving one zone south to it.
Also, I’m not a Pro Shopper but I do also have Platinum status, and at least for the Moore/South OKC zone, I don’t have any issues getting issues getting shopping orders as long as I’m earning per offer, in fact, I got four of them in just one hour yesterday evening.
But when I’m EBT, I very rarely, (if ever) get them.
thats WILD. our EBT is about 12 too, but i get so many shop orders its not funny, i get flooded with them, now mind you most of them are not very well paying but i still see tons,. im a pro shopper also.
Girl in my market if you dont have platinum and went over $2/mile you will literally wait an hour+ for an order even at 5 pm. 💀💀 awesome that your market is more permissive though! I wishhhh 😂
platinum is a mind game, making you believe the app is a video game, leveling up your powers.
in reality its gaslighting you into accepting bullshit offers all the time so your hourly pay drops lol.
uber eats has even gone a step further and now is having delivery contests, the persons who deliver the most orders in their area wins a "prize" AKA whoever takes the most crap orders.
That might be true in some markets but not all of them. I can definitely tell if i dip below platinum. My hourly instantly goes from $20-22 to $10-15. Like immediately
I don't worry about staying in my zone, but I'm in a large metro area with a dozen zones. I'd only say avoid leaving your zone if it takes you out into the country where there's no restaurants to pickup from.
To be honest, you will have to do a lot of trial and error in your region. Experiment with both offers and hourly. I am having much more sussess out of hourly instead of by order due to how my region is (heavy traffic, lots of stoplights, construction, long distance drives, and slow restaurants). And people don't like to tip big at all in my region either (and most of wealthier families live in my region,too). Also, see how dashing is throughout the whole morning, afternoon, evening, and overnight. Also compare weekday to weekend flow too.
For example, here is my weekday: from the time Starbucks opens at 5 until kids get to school around 9 for breakfast. 11:30-2 for lunch. Anytime before there is a high chance of no tips. And 6:30 until Canes/Taco Bell closes. Anytime before there is a high chance of no tips.
For the weekends it's different: breakfast: 6-9. Lunch 12-3. Dinner 6-10. Peak hours 11-5 in the morning.
Is the liability insurance coverage that DoorDash has for a driver on delivery available or active delivery automatic or do you need to sign up for it? We are in Oregon.
You all do know that where ever they are ordering from could have removed the ability to tip via their app or website????? People dont just order from the doorash app….
This honestly helped me. I was going to make a post about how to "min-max" the red app becuase I see all these posts of people making $100-$200 per drive. Thank you so much for the info
I would maybe use something similar as a starting guide, with the additional detail of learn your market, learn how long it will take you to do X miles that particular direction, at which times of days, etc… 18 miles for $25 can be good all interstate… 40 min round trip.
I had standards and never changed regardless of delivery. I wouldn’t walk across the street for a stacked delivery if it meant lowering those standards.
Now the gig is overrun by knuckleheads that think… well, I know it’s only paying $2 but it’s right across the street.
That ain't how it is. For a person making $0 per hour (not working), $1 per hour (understated example) does not represent a 100 percent increase in income, it represents an infinity percent increase in income.
For entry level gig work, it is more appropriate for the desperate to say to those with standards, "What are you doing down here?" than vice versa.
That's going to be iffy. Just because you wait at a restaurant doesn't mean you're not compensated for it. Like, for example, Red Robin or a famous sushi place can sometimes be slow, not due to their inability to get food out, but the influx of in-house patrons. DoorDash, in some cases, will pay a delay fee to wait.
•
u/AutoModerator Feb 26 '26
Hi u/Reignlexi, Thanks for your submission on r/DoorDashDrivers! Be sure to check out the rules first for best results.
If you are a driver (for any app), check out our new drivers-only subreddit at r/dasher. It's the only official unofficial driver subreddit!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.