Doordash - Can Dashers really make $25 per hour?

I have not looked over any job listings lately, but I do know that Doordash used to advertise that their drivers had the potential to earn $25 per hour. Seeing that amount of money in an advertisement is what convinced me to see what Doordash was all about. I mean, to get paid that amount of money to just pick up food from restaurants and deliver that food to customers seemed like a great deal to me.

This is a Doordash advertisement in 2017

Was the Doordash "$25 per hour" advertisement a fraud?

When I first began dashing, it was 2016. After about a year of dashing, I knew that nobody could average $25 per hour delivering food for Doordash. Sure, there were a few hours here and there when you make this amount of money, but the overall average was never close to $25 per hour. It baffles my mind when I would read online about a dasher claiming to earn this amount of money. Either they were bad at math, or they were just a straight out liar. To be fair, if you look at an advertisement like the above, it does say earn up to $25 per hour. If you look at the exact words of the ad they are not lying. Our brains see that $25 and think that this supposed to be the average hourly earnings. A good marketing ploy!

I actually have made $25 in one hour with Doordash

I can say that I have made much more than $25 in one hour. There was a time when I got paid $55 for an order and $10 for another order during the same hour. If we add that up, I made $65 for the hour. Is this a normal hour? Heck no! It will happen from time to time though. There are many times when I earn over $25 per hour, but there are way more times when I earn $12 to $18 per hour.

The actual hourly earnings that most dashers earn

The normal hourly earnings for a Doordash driver will usually be anywhere in between $12 and $18. This is if a dasher has a good sense of direction and strives to get their deliveries done as quickly as possible. To earn this amount of money, you will want to try to complete two dashes per hour.

On the opposite side of the coin, there are those that say Doordash is a big rip off because all they can earn is $4 or $5 per hour. All I can say is that these people are not giving their full effort while they are dashing. They are either not taking their duties seriously, or they just have a bad sense of direction which is taking up all of their time. Time is money in this business, and if you are not lucrative with your time, you are not going to be earning very much money.

When I stated that the average dasher should be earning $12 to $18 per hour, I am talking about what they are earning for their deliveries. As a dasher, you will have to deduct any expenses that you incur while making those deliveries. This would include the wear and tear on your vehicle, your gasoline expense and taxes that you will have to pay on your earnings.

Doordash is smart when recruiting new drivers

I will hand it to Doordash though. They sure know how to recruit drivers. That $25 per hour in their advertisements really catches people's eyes. It is a good marketing move on their part. It makes me think about all of the younger people who see that and think "Wow - I can make $1000 per week!"

I know if I was in my late teens or early 20s this would seem like a dream job. Honestly, at that age if I could earn $4000 per month I would feel rich. The reality of it all though is that it is just a marketing and recruitment tool that Doordash has used to grow their fleet of drivers, and it has certainly worked.

 

UPDATE IN 2023

 

Here in 2023, food delivery gig drivers can earn $25 per hour

 

This article was originally written in 2017, and if you are still wondering if you can make $25 per hour delivering for food delivery apps, the answer is "Yes." Notice that I said "Food Delivery Apps." If you multi-app, it is very simple to make $25 per hour or more delivering food. If you only use Doordash (even though it will be easier than 2017) it will still be challenging to average $25 per hour, but it can be done if you are wise in the orders that you accept.