What's it like driving for Doordash?

If you're thinking about, or in the process of becoming a Doordash driver, this article is intended to give you a general idea of what it's like to be a dasher. For nearly five years I have dashed off and on. For the great majority of the time, I've dashed part time on the side. With that said, there was a stretch when I did dash full-time. I've learned a lot about Doordash during all these years. I honestly feel like I've pretty much experienced just about everything there is to experience with this gig.

Throughout my five years of dashing, one thing that I have learned is that things are constantly changing. It seems like with Doordash things are a certain way one day, and a couple of months later they are another way. Don't ever get too comfortable with Doordash, and always expect changes. I will not ever try to act like I know everything, but I certainly have learned a lot during my five years of dashing and will share what I can.

The greatest benefit of being a Doordash Driver

Doordash offers something that does not come with your normal everyday job. What is that something? Freedom! Those that enjoy working independently will enjoy working as a Dasher. The fact that there is no boss looking over your shoulder makes this whole dashing thing even better. Think about this. You set your own schedule and work whenever you want. If you enjoy your freedom while working and can work independently, being a Dasher will be a dream job for you.

What kind of people are Doordash drivers?

Being a dasher is a great gig for anybody. Many housewives that want to earn a bit of extra money in the afternoon while their kids are at school dash. This is terrific for them as they can dash around their busy daily schedule.

Dashing is also a great gig for college students. Lots of college students make their free time profitable by dashing. Let's not forget all the people that use Doordash to supplement their main income. This group actually makes up the majority of Dashers.

Then there are the full-time Dashers. Many of these people fall back on Doordash when they are in between jobs. Trust me when I say that Doordash is a great thing to fall back on. With the respectable income that Dashers earn, don't ever think that these Dashers are having a hard time paying their bills. For this reason, some full-time Dashers are full-timers willingly. This is no in-between job. This is what they do and they love it! We'll talk more about money later. To sum it up, no matter who you are or where you're from, becoming a dasher may be a great move for you.

What does a Doordash driver do?

Your responsibility as a Doordash driver is to go to a restaurant, pick up the food and deliver the food to the customer. If you understand this, then you understand the basics of being a dasher. When you are on duty, you are available to receive orders, and when you receive a job offer, you will get a ping on your phone that alerts you. You will see the amount of money that you will earn for the assignment, the restaurant that you will have to pick up from and the location. You will also see where the customer is located. A decision will then have to be made if you want to accept the job or not. If you do not accept the job, that particular assignment will be offered to another dasher. No need to worry though as you will still be sent new job offers.

Once you accept an assignment, you will be given an expected pick up time from the restaurant and an expected delivery time to the customer. All of this will be displayed on the Doordash driver app. When you arrive at the restaurant, you will tell them that you are from Doordash and are there to pick up food for whatever the customers name is. Usually, they will have the food ready for you, and you can be on your merry way to deliver the food to the customer. Sometimes, you may have to wait if the food is not ready. 

Depending on the restaurant, you may sometimes need to order the food yourself and pay for the food with the red credit card that Doordash will supply you with. This only happens at a small percentage of the restaurants though. Most of the time, you will just walk in, pick up the food and leave. No need to order, pay or anything like that. Remember earlier when I talked about how things constantly change with Doordash, we'll ordering from restaurants yourself and paying is one of those things that have changed. Very seldom does a Dasher have to do these things anymore. If we took a time machine back to three years ago (2018) we'd find that a Dasher had to place orders and use their red card at about 20 percent of the restaurants they picked up from. Old-time Dashers can surely remember when we even had to order and pay with our red cards at McDonalds!

What are the qualifications to become a dasher?

The basic requirements to become a Doordash driver are that an individual must be 18 years of age, have a vehicle or a bicycle to deliver food with, have a cell phone, have a drivers license, auto insurance and have a social security number. When you apply for Doordash, they will do a background check on you. Most people will easily pass this background check, and unless you have a hard-core criminal history or careless driving record, you will be okay. Once the background check is cleared, you will be invited to attend a Doordash orientation which will I will explain a bit more later in this article.

Can I work whenever I want with Doordash?

Driving for Doordash can be a lucrative way for an individual to earn money on either a part-time or full-time basis.You are allowed to make your own schedule up to six days in advance. Many times, you can even jump right on if there are present openings. This happens a lot! The flexibility that Doordash offers is probably one of the main perks that draws people to dashing. You can work only the afternoons if you want, only the evenings if you desire or just work the weekends if you wish. You make your own schedule and can work around the other responsibilities in your life.

You can work four hours per week, eight hours per week, 20 hour per week, 40 hours per week or even 80 hours per week. Again, you can work as much or as little as you want. There are many full-time dashers out there hustling and earning over $5000 per month. They are the cream of the crop. Most full-time dashers earn between $2000 and $3000 per month.

How much money do Doordash drivers earn?

I already mentioned a bit about how much full-time dashers earn on the average. If you want to talk about an hourly wage, you must understand that Doordash drivers do not get paid by the hour. The only exception would be California, where drivers are guaranteed 120 percent of minimum wage for their active time.

This is not really getting paid by the hour as most think of it. It's just a guarantee that they will earn a certain amount for an hour of active time. California Dashers get paid per assignment like everybody else, but they have the benefit of knowing that if they don't earn enough during an hour of their active time, they will be paid their guaranteed minimum.

For the rest of the nation, Dashers are paid per delivery (with no security blanket of a guarantee,) and each delivery will pay a different amount. Some assignments will pay as much as $30. The highest paying dash that I ever did was for $54. Those orders do not come as often as we would like though, and it is very rare, but I just wanted to put out there that it does happen once in a blue moon.

Typically, most dash assignments will pay from $2 to $12. I would say that 95 percent of assignments are in between this range. Remember, you are free to accept and deny any order you choose. You don't need to accept the $2 or $3 offers. If you are offered an assignment that pays $5 to drive 20 miles, it would be wise to deny it and wait for a better offer to come along. There is no punishment or negatives for not accepting orders.

As a dasher, you are not an employee of Doordash. Instead, you are an independent contractor. You will be working for yourself. With that said, Doordash will not even deduct taxes from your pay. You will be responsible to pay your own taxes during tax time.

If you are still wondering how much you will earn per hour working for Doordash, it will vary. Some dashers have shared that they earn an average of $25 per hour or more. Most Dashers are probably more in the $15 to $18 per hour range. Sometimes, you will make more than that or less, but in general, $15 to $18 per hour will be most driver's average hourly earnings.

What kind of problems will I run in to as a dasher?

Even though there is not much pressure picking up and delivering food, there may come times when you feel a pinch in your nerves to get the food to customers on time. Sometimes, Doordash will stack orders on you which means that you will have multiple orders at the same time. When this happens, if you are not a quick thinker with a good sense of direction, you may have a difficult time getting the food to all of the customers on time. You may have customers calling you or texting you about their food and why it's late. Sometimes, these people will be rude. If this happens, don't take it personally and just explain to them the situation. By doing this, most customers will understand.

There will also come times when you have problems with the Doordash app. I remember one time the app kept pausing on me by itself. When this happens, you are not able to receive any orders. This is just one example of the many problems that may happen with the app. Most of the time everything is fine, but problems do occur. I remember one time I picked up two different customer's orders from two different restaurants. After picking up the orders, the app glitched, and I could not see the orders on my screen anymore. They completely vanished, and I had no idea where the customers were located. I had to call Doordash and let them know what had happened. They were surprised, and I got to keep the food from the two restaurants while still getting paid for the assignments. So in the end it worked out okay.

Another problem that I encountered was when a restaurant that I was picking up from was accepting cash only for some reason. I was supposed to order myself and pay with my red card. This merchant did not care that I was picking up a Doordash order. Maybe their credit card machine was out of service - who knows? But after calling Doordash, I was told to use my own money to pay for the order and they said they'd reimburse me later if I did. I passed on that offer and had to cancel the customer's order. Problems like this are bound to happen to every Dasher. The main thing to remember is to always protect yourself by contacting Doordash whenever any problems arise.

This is just a small example of the problems that you may encounter as a dasher. There are many problematic situations that you may encounter as a dasher. Even though dashing is usually a smooth ride, remember to always expect the unexpected.

Does Doordash offer any benefits?

If you are talking about medical benefits, dental benefits, retirement, 401K, etc., forget about all of that. As a Doordash driver, you are not an employee of Doordash and will be classified as an independent contractor. This means you are in business for yourself! Taxes are not taken out of your earnings, and it is your responsibility to pay your taxes at the end of the year. You have the privilege of being a business owner!

Beginning in 2021, Dashers in California can receive a stipend that helps offset their healthcare cost up to to $1,228 per quarter if they average 25 hours per week for the quarter. Dashers that average 15 hours to 25 hours may receive $614 per quarter. So even though there are no typical benefits, California Dashers do get some benefits that other Dashers do not.

How is a Doordash driver paid?

Doordash drivers are paid weekly by direct deposit. You will not receive a paper check and will need a checking account to receive your money. There is also a Fast Pay program that many dashers take advantage of whereby they can get paid on a daily basis. There is a small fee for this, but Fast Pay works out great for many dashers.

There is also the Dasher Direct Visa Card that Dashers can sign up for. After each dash, earnings are added to your Visa card. There are never any deposit fees. Dashers will also have access to local no-fee ATMs. As an added perk, when using the Dasher Direct Visa Card to get gasoline, Dashers earn 2 percent back, and it doesn't matter what gas station is used!

Since I'm not an employee, can I get fired by Doordash?

Well, since you are not an employee of Doordash, you technically cannot be fired by them. With that said, you can be deactivated by Doordash for poor performance. Think about it this way. As an independent contractor, you are in business for yourself and have a contract with another business, which is Doordash. If one of the parties is not satisfying the other, the contract can be withdrawn at any time by either party.

Depending on the the market, dashers are expected to keep a certain rating score. Every market has a different minimal score that a dasher is expected to maintain. If a dasher falls below the minimal score, Doordash has the right to deactivate a driver from their app.

How do I become a dasher?

If everything sounds good to you and you want to pursue becoming a dasher, the first step is applying if you haven't done so already. After applying and passing the background check, you will be invited to attend a Doordash orientation. I had to physically attend the Doordash orientation, but that was back in 2016. It seems like many markets are just doing their orientations online now.

If you have to physically attend the orientation, you will not be there long. You will most likely spend about a half hour there. While there, you will be explained the basics of how the Doordash driver app works and how to navigate it. They will help you install the app in to your cell phone, and you will be ready to start dashing within a few days.

They will also issue you a red card that will be used whenever you have to pay a restaurant for the food. You may also be given a hot bag and a Doordash T-shirt. If you want to wear the Doordash T-shirt while out dashing that is fine, but as an independent contractor you are not obligated to. Technically, you are supposed to use their hot bag too, and it might be a good idea to do so, but it will ultimately be your choice. It will help keep customer's food hot until you deliver their food which will mean better chances of good customer ratings for you. All in all, the Doordash driver orientation is quick and easy, and you will be on the road in no time delivering food and getting paid to do so.