9 Companies Offering Flexible Food Delivery Jobs

Food delivery jobs have been gaining popularity and are one of those side jobs people have been flocking to. A growing number of local eateries and large restaurants have been participating in online food delivery by partnering with companies such as UberEats, DoorDash, and others, rather than providing their own delivery service.

Here we’ll discuss the pros and cons, whether or not this is the side job for you, and we’ll look at the 9 best companies for food delivery jobs.

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9 of the Best Companies for Food Delivery Jobs

If you’re looking to make money in your spare time with a flexible side hustle, these options are a good place to start.

1. Doordash

You, the “Dasher”, are required to download the app and then choose your delivery time slots.

To be a DoorDash Dasher you must be at least 18, have a valid driver’s license, insurance, and a smartphone for the app.

You get to keep all tips. You can also increase your earnings by referring other drivers, earning up to $500 for each referral.

2. Grubhub

You can work for GrubHub if you have a car, scooter, or a bicycle.

You must be at least 19 years old, have a smartphone, and have at least two years of driving experience.

Like other companies, the pay differs based on the city, time, etc.

3. Postmates

Postmates hires delivery drivers for various things such as restaurant orders, alcohol, groceries, etc.

This company requires you to have a car or a bicycle, a smartphone, go through a background check, and have held a driver’s license for at least one year.

As always, the pay differs due to various factors, ranging from between $14 and $25 per hour, and the service is available in only a select number of cities.

4. Ubereats

This is one of the more famous food delivery companies. The car requirements are quite flexible, allowing you to have a two door or four door made any time after 1998.

Depending on the city, you may be able to deliver on scooter or bicycle.

The requirements are that you must be at least 19 years old and have one year of driving experience if you are going to deliver by car.

5. Caviar

Caviar was founded in 2012 and is only in a little over a dozen cities across the US, but is expanding rapidly.

Caviar pays up to $25 per hour.

The requirements to work for Caviar are that you must be at least 18 years old, have a vehicle such as a car, bike, scooter, or motorcycle, and a smartphone. If you want to be a driver, you will need 2 years of driving experience. Furthermore, Caviar performs background checks.

6. Favor

Favor allows drivers to keep 100% of their tips and has minimum guaranteed earnings, though the average a person earns is between $10 to $18 per hour.

You need to be at least 18 years old, have a clean record, and a smartphone to work for Favor.

7. Instacart

Instacart is quite unique. You can earn money grocery shopping for other people. There are two options; (1) You can work as a Full-service shopper (shopping and delivery) or (2) an In-store shopper (shopping only).

For the first option, you must be 18 or older, have a vehicle, a smartphone, and be able to lift 30-40 lbs.

The pay is good at $10-$25 an hour.

8. Shipt

This is similar to Instacart, where you grocery shop for others but only have the option to shop and deliver. It’s available in a select few US cities.

You must be at least 18 years old, have a driver’s license with at least one year of driving experience, a smartphone, a cooler bag, and be able to lift at least 25 lbs.

The pay is around $15 to $25 per hour.

9. Saucey

Saucey is a company that delivers alcohol. You, the driver, must pick up the alcohol from the store and deliver it to the customer, generally between the hours of noon and midnight.

The requirements are that you must be at least 21 years old, have a valid driver’s license, a smartphone, and no DUIs in the past 5 years.

The pay is, at least, $7 per delivery, so around $14 per hour. This is guaranteed by the company.

The company is also only available in 6 cities as of now.

The Pros of Working as a Food Delivery Driver

Working as a food delivery driver has its upsides as well as, like all jobs, downsides. It really comes down to what you prefer, and what may be a good job for others may not be for you. Here are the best things about being a food delivery driver.

1. You Get to Set Your Own Schedule

This is one of the primary reasons people would want to work as a food delivery driver. You have flexible working hours and nearly complete control of what days of the week you want to drive, what time in the day you want to work, and how many hours you want to put in.

This makes it a great side job as well as gives you the option to make it a primary source of income. Think you’re not getting enough hours or have some extra time? You easily sign up for extra shifts or hop on the hour when you feel like it.

On the other hand, if you simply don’t have availability or don’t want to work, you can easily pull back on the hours and take a break.

2. You Are Your Own Boss (Kind Of)

This is a major advantage. For the most part, you’ll be working on your own without the constant supervision of a boss. Of course, you’ll have procedures that you need to follow, but you’ll be mostly working on your own.

As long as you follow the company’s general guidelines and rules, you have nothing to worry about. Driving for a food delivery company allows you to set your own hours and dictate things to a certain extent.

3. Make Extra Money

As mentioned earlier, driving for a food delivery company is a great side job. You can work whenever you have some extra time, make it a weekend job or even drive full-time. It’s all up to you.

Food delivery jobs are a great way to supplement your primary source of income. Working a full-time job and earning a couple hundred dollars on the weekends is completely doable.

4. Guarantee of Minimum Earnings

This varies from company-to-company, but some of them offer a guaranteed minimum per hour. This will prevent you from earning less than minimum wage if it’s a slow day and/or you aren’t receiving many orders. If you need to make an extra $1,000 per month, you’ll know how many hours you need to work.

There will definitely be times where you won’t receive any orders. This will obviously be disheartening as you may wait for an order for hours and none come. Luckily, you can qualify (quite easily in most cases) for a minimum hourly pay.

This will not, however, be available in every city, for some companies. And all companies have requirements for you to receive a minimum hourly wage.

For example, you may have to maintain high attendance rates, high acceptance rates, among other things to qualify for the minimum hourly payment.

In addition to the minimum earnings, you may get special perks and benefits for maintaining the high attendance rate, acceptance rate, etc. The benefits vary from company to company.

5. No Passengers

This may be a pro or a con, depending on the person. Generally speaking, however, most people would prefer this.

You can deliver food and earn money from the comfort of your car and retain your privacy. With these food delivery companies, all you need to do is drop off the order to the customer, interact with them for no longer than 30 or so seconds, and then quickly leave.

Other jobs like Uber or Lyft require you to converse with new and different people all day, which is not enjoyable to everyone.

Driving for food delivery companies allows you to be relaxed and on your own.

The Cons of Working as a Food Delivery Driver

We have gone over all of the various good parts of working for a food delivery company. It is important to review the cons as well to see whether or not it is worth working as a food delivery driver. Here is a list of all of the potential drawbacks.

1. Lots of Wear and Tear on Your Vehicle

This is probably the largest drawback of working for one of these companies. Cars already depreciate in value (and very fast at that) on their own.

As you work more hours, you’ll begin to put on more miles which will further depreciate your car and require more spending on things like fuel, new tires, oil changes, and other maintenance that will be required.

Furthermore, you still have to pay for auto insurance and any other expenses that come with your car. All of the expenses for your car that result from working as a food delivery driver will need to be paid by you, and you’ll need to account for this when you calculate how much you are actually earning. Making $20 per hour isn’t truly accurate if you’re not factoring in the cost of gas and wear and tear on your vehicle.

2. You Are Responsible for Taxes

As an independent contractor, you will need to pay for your taxes on your own. So, you need to remember to set aside some money to pay for income taxes.

Remember to track any expense incurred, such as fuel, car insurance, mileage, vehicle maintenance, etc., so that you can write them off at the end of the year.

This isn’t really a major con (it’s similar to freelancing in a different line of work), but it’s something that you’ll need to account for.

3. Dealing with Difficult Customers

Though you may have to deal with a significantly lesser amount of people than if you were a Lyft driver, you still have to deal with some people, and some can be cranky.

Whether you were late in bringing the order due to traffic, or the wrong items were delivered, all you can do is apologize and let the customer know that you tried your best. Even so, you will encounter some extra difficult customers and this could make this an unpleasant job at times.

4. Inconsistent Pay

Pay depends on several factors such as how busy it is, how many drivers are working, traffic, weather, etc. Due to these reasons and more, your income will fluctuate.

It can be frustrating as you sit there for hours waiting for an order, conscious that you are wasting time and money.

Other times, it is extremely busy and you will be getting jobs left and right and make great money. Either way, it is very volatile and that can get frustrating.

5. You Get Penalized for Missed, Rejected, or Dropped Orders

These companies are very strict in terms of delivery. They penalize drivers who miss their shifts, don’t accept orders, etc.

Sometimes you may get unlucky and the app may glitch, you may get a flat tire, or you may accidentally miss an order. If something like this does happen, your driver score will drastically fall, with nothing you can do about it. This will mean you will get fewer orders coming your way, meaning less money.

6. Customer Service Can Be Quite Difficult

Many drivers of all these food delivery companies complain that customer service is difficult to get in touch with. It takes a long time to get a response for them and this can become a big problem when you are faced with an urgent issue that needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

You may experience, quite often, that you may not be able to reach a customer support representative or find that they will not be able to solve your problem.

Final Thoughts

Now that you are familiar with all of the pros and cons to food delivery jobs and the various companies that provide the service, it is up to you to decide whether or not it will make a worthwhile side job or even full-time one.

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