If you’re trying to make extra money and you’ve got a car (or even a bicycle), chances are you’ve thought about joining one of the many food delivery services available to customers nationwide.
DoorDash has become one of the most popular options.
With a wide reaching network of restaurants and drivers, DoorDash can easily provide the hungry masses with access to their favorite food group: takeout.
DoorDash reviews from customers are generally positive.
The service is quick and easy to use.
But what if you’re looking for a quick gig to make money on the side or full-time?
DoorDash could be a great option.
The company offers lots of opportunities for food delivery drivers.
But is it worth your time to sign up as a DoorDash “DoorDasher” or is it better to take a job working for the competition?
As long as at least one food delivery service is available in your area, you can make extra money, but the popularity of some services can net you more cash than others.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to sign up and become a DoorDash delivery driver, and we’ll compare working for DoorDash to other food delivery services.
How Does the DoorDash Delivery App Work?
DoorDash is a food delivery service that’s available as a free mobile app on both Apple iPhones and Android devices.
The app allows you to order food from your favorite local restaurants and national chains.
You can browse their selection by restaurant names or by categories of food.
You can also browse hundreds of DoorDash reviews that customers have left for different restaurants.
Who knows?
You may even discover your new favorite restaurant this way.
Simply download the DoorDash app and sign up.
You’ll need to create a username and password, or you can sign up using your Google or Facebook account.
Add a credit card, and you can start searching for your first order.
Is DoorDash Available Where I Live?
Before you can order from or work for DoorDash you’ll need to check if the service is available in your area.
DoorDash is currently active in 850 American cities and has plans to expand to more locations.
This includes major cities like New York, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles, but also hundreds of metro areas across America.
If DoorDash is available in your area, you can search your favorite restaurants and even apply to become a DoorDash Dasher.
Unfortunately lots of small towns don’t offer DoorDash or competing food delivery services.
However, if you’re willing to drive to a nearby city that does feature DoorDash, you can still become a new Dasher.
How Can You Start Working for DoorDash?
Before you start making money with DoorDash you’ll need to meet the DoorDash Dasher requirements.
You have to be at least 18 years old, and provide identification, a phone number, and valid insurance for your vehicle if you’re driving a car.
You’ll also need a smartphone to track orders from the restaurant and navigate your deliveries.
To become a DoorDash Dasher and deliver food, you can visit the official DoorDash site and click “Deliver With DoorDash” or use the DoorDash app and click “Become A Dasher” in your account settings.
Once you’ve completed the DoorDash orientation and background check you’re a new Dasher and can deliver for the first time in your city.
DoorDash offers a guaranteed minimum of $10 an hour for working drivers, meaning that if you fail to make more than $10 in delivery fees and tips in a given hour, DoorDash will pay the difference.
The best way to get extra cash in the DoorDash system is through the tipping system.
If you provide exceptional service to a customer, they will most likely leave a tip.
One hundred percent of customer tips go directly to you on every order.
You can also earn extra money in the DoorDash system by earning Peak Pay.
Drivers who sign up to work specific times and days can earn Peak Pay bonuses on their orders.
But in order to be eligible for Peak Pay, you’ll have to accept a certain percentage of orders during the Peak Pay time window.
Once you’ve made your deliveries, DoorDash pays new dashers via direct deposit to a bank account at the end of each week, or doordash drivers can sign up for DoorDash’s “Fast Pay” system that allows you to be paid at the end of each day for a $1.99 fee.
DoorDash Reviews vs. Competitor Reviews
There’s a lot to consider for consumers deciding on which food delivery service to use, and it’s no different for drivers trying to choose which service to work for.
In fact, the way to make the most money delivering food is to find out where the most demand is in your area.
Grubhub is available in twice as many locations as DoorDash, including 2,000 cities across the United States and Canada, as well as Europe.
If you don’t live in a large city, Grubhub is automatically a better option if you’re a driver looking to make money in food delivery.
Another massive competitor for DoorDash is Uber Eats, which claims to cover 70% of all American consumers.
On the smaller end, Postmates is another food delivery service that allows drivers to make extra money bringing restaurant and food orders to customers, but they’re only available in 550 cities, making them significantly smaller than DoorDash.
Like DoorDash, each food delivery service has their own method of creating guaranteed minimum pay and incentives to deliver during heavy demand times.
Does DoorDash Offer Better Money Than Its Competitors?
In the DoorDash reviews on Glassdoor, the company currently has a 3.6 average rating, better than the ratings for Postmates or Grubhub.
These DoorDash reviews commonly talk about the freedom delivery drivers have to make their own hours and the chance to earn extra pay during peak times.
But drivers for all the food delivery services often cite the same cons when discussing their work experience:
- Long wait times at restaurants can cause user ratings to dip. If there’s cold food during a pickup or a missing item from the restaurant, the DoorDasher is the one who suffers a bad rating.
- Orders from customers in far-away locations can slow down your delivery and cause extra mileage expenses on your car.
- Slow demand from customers means that the amount of money you make often hits the $10 hourly minimum when delivery times lag. But DoorDash’s competitors don’t offer that minimum, meaning slow periods of time with another delivery service could be worth no pay at all.
Fortunately, many drivers find success by using a few techniques to make more money per shift working for DoorDash.
The most common way to make more money is to find which food delivery service in your town is offering the most options to order food at the most popular times of day, like lunch and dinner time.
A service like UberEats might be the most popular option in Minneapolis, but Grubhub could be busier in San Francisco.
It’s important to explore your local area.
Check your DoorDash app during a busy time of day:
Then compare it to Uber Eats or Grubhub.
Chances are the service offering the most options with the most available drivers in your area is the most popular — and most profitable.
DoorDash Reviews: Is DoorDash a Good Way to Earn Side Cash?
Bottom line: DoorDash offers an opportunity for drivers to make extra cash by delivering food to customers, but with $10 an hour minimums and the chance of very slow periods of delivery requests, it’s not a good idea to rely on DoorDash or any single food delivery service as full-time work.
But if you’re going to choose a single company to drive for, DoorDash’s $10 hourly guarantee helps prevent you from losing money as a Dasher.
There isn’t a single best option for food delivery, and many drivers deliver for multiple services to make more money.
Driver reviews agree that the best way to maximize your income is by following the demand in your city.
Look for the delivery apps with the most frequency and widest selection of local restaurants.
Finding the right app also cuts down on the wait time for both users and delivery drivers, meaning that the chance to hit Peak Time is greater, and so is the chance of receiving multiple pick up orders in the same general area.
