How Much Do Uber Eats Drivers Make?

The demand for food delivery services is higher than ever before. Joining an industry leader like Uber Eats may be a good decision for a side gig in 2022. It offers flexibility without any obligation to schedule your hours in advance, and you can cash out anytime. But how much do Uber Eats drivers make?

In this article, we will answer this and other relevant questions, such as:

• What is Uber Eats, and how does it work?
• What is drivers’ employment status?
• Are there additional expenses for drivers?
• How to increase earnings?
• What are the pros and cons of becoming an Uber Eats driver?

What Is Uber Eats and How Does It Work?

Uber launched Uber Eats in 2014 as one of the many food ordering and delivery platforms. It currently operates in over 6,000 cities across 45 countries. It connects customers and drivers, making ordering and delivering food easy and convenient.

With Uber Eats, users can read menus, reviews, and ratings of restaurants, order food, and pay for it using an iOS or Android app or web browser. However, what is there for drivers?

Employment Status Options & Benefits

Uber Eats offers untraditional food delivery job opportunities that come with flexible working hours and a schedule that depends on your availability.

When it comes to the job description, Uber Eats drivers pick up food orders from restaurants and deliver them to the customer’s door or curbside. In the United States, they are considered independent contractors. But unlike some other contractors, Uber Eats drivers are provided with all employee benefits, including job security and access to unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation.

Becoming an Uber Eats driver has many perks, mainly if driving is your additional income. Here are some of the main advantages of being an independent contractor at Uber Eats:

• Working at your own pace
• Potential to earn more than being an employee
• Federal or state tax breaks

When you are an independent contractor, you are in charge of the amount of work you do, as well as your free time. You can create your schedule and manage your time the way it suits you. It’s a great way to have a second income, earn some cash on top of the Uber Eats wage, and set your working hours. In addition, as an independent contractor, you pay estimated taxes to the IRS four times a year and hold onto your money long before it is taxed.

Now, let’s see what the base pay for Uber Eats is.

How Much Do Uber Eats Drivers Make?

Uber Eats found its way into the saturated market and became one of the most popular online food ordering and delivery platforms. Therefore there is no surprise that many drivers choose this pick-up and drop-off service platform as their second income option. However, how much does Uber Eats pay?

Uber Eats delivery driver pay is based on trips calculated through the formula: base fare + trip supplement + promotions + tips.

Base fare

Uber Eats base pay is the minimum amount you can earn, and you can see it upfront on the trip request screen. It’s calculated on how far you have to go and how much time it would take you to complete the order. Uber considers total time and distance traveled when determining the base pay, making the trip to the drivers worthwhile.

The base fare also includes:

• The pick-up fee is a flat rate that you receive every time you accept to complete the order. You can take multiple orders from the same pick-up location.
• Drop-off or Uber delivery pay rate is a flat rate you receive once you complete the order. If you pick up multiple deliveries from the same restaurant, you’ll receive the fee every time you reach a new customer.

Trip supplements

Aside from base fare, a trip supplement payment may occur if an Uber driver is stuck in traffic or picking up the food at the restaurant takes up more time than initially predicted.

Here is the breakdown of the opportunities that may define the Uber Eats rate for drivers in different areas:

• The mileage rate is only applicable in certain cities, such as New York and Los Angeles. It tracks the most efficient rate, not the distance you travel. The app does not consider the mileage you travel while getting to your next pick-up point.
• The minute rate is similar to the mileage rate and is available in certain cities. The app tracks how long it takes you to complete orders, from the first pick-up restaurant to the final drop-off location. You’ll receive a Uber Eats payout for the estimated time, not the actual time spent delivering orders.

Tips and promotions

You can also increase your Uber Eats delivery salary through tips and promotions. Customers can tip in the app before or after an order, and drivers keep 100% of tips. In terms of promotions, they’re not constantly running and on tap for all drivers, but when available, they can boost drivers’ total income. There are three options:

• Boost: This is an incentive to serve high order demand areas. Uber Eats creates geographical ‘Boost’ zones, offering higher rates during specific periods.
• Surge: Surge is another earnings multiplier available during times of high demand. During a Delivery Surge, your app home screen displays areas with high demand in shades of red, accompanied by an additive dollar amount.
• Quest: Quest promotions offer bonuses for completing a set number of deliveries during a certain time frame. Most Quests offer an extra dollar or two per delivery.

Average Uber Eats pay

In the US, the annual Uber eats driver income is around $43,778. Considering the driver’s location, the time of the day, and the variables, Uber Eats hourly pay ranges between $8 and $12, factoring in maintenance expenses. Some may make as much as a minimum salary, while other drivers make $15, $16, or $17 per hour at times.

Drivers’ Expenses

It’s impossible to talk about Uber Eats driver earnings without considering drivers’ expenses. Uber Eats drivers use their means of transportation to do their job. Therefore, they have additional costs, mainly if they use a car for work.

• Gas: Gas is one of the expenses of using a motorized vehicle to make deliveries for Uber Eats. As the gas price is going higher in 2022, the best option is to choose a fuel-efficient car and drive efficiently to save money on gas.
• Vehicle maintenance and registration: Being a contractor usually means that the registration and vehicle maintenance, such as oil changes, new tires, and the replacement of worn-out parts, are on you. As it is significantly going to affect your Uber eats salary, if possible, think about changing the means of transportation to bicycle.
• Car insurance and loans: If you use a car for work, it’s wise to make sure your insurance is in place. And working as an Uber Eats contractor, you have to think about car insurance and car loan as additional expenses.
• Income tax: Since you’re an independent contractor, you have to pay taxes yourself from what you earn, making your Uber Eats earnings a bit less if you haven’t been considering it.

How Can Drivers Increase Their Earnings?

There are several ways to earn more money with Uber Eats. Here are some of them:

• Track and reduce your expenses: By tracking your expenses, you can also see where you might be able to reduce costs. Every saved dollar translates into a higher Uber Eats monthly income.
• Use referral codes: Uber Eats offers incentives to encourage drivers to refer a new person to join the company. Uber Eats issues the cash bonus after the referred driver completes 20-100 deliveries, depending on the location.
• Keep an eye on available promotions: You can hit Uber Eats pay bonuses by taking on an order at a certain period or completing consecutive trips during peak hours or in the busy parts of the town.
• Be professional and friendly: Consumers may tip you, and you get to keep 100% of any bonus that customers give you via the eats app or in cash.
• Take more orders: With Uber Eats, you can take as much work as you want to, making it possible to earn more money than scheduled employees in the long run.

Uber Eats Payment Methods

If you’re looking to load your earnings to your debit card, you can receive all the money you have earned right away. However, If you’re transferring salary to a bank account, processing time may vary as some banks may take up to a couple of days to make your funds available.

With Uber Eats, you can cash out all the earnings, including the tips as well. All you have to do is set up your bank account and track your next transfer.

Cashing out with Instant pay can be at any time, up to five times a day, while you have at least a $1 balance on your app.

How to cash out Uber Eats pay

Once in the app, tap the menu icon in the top left. After tapping Earnings, go to Cash out to transfer your earnings to your linked debit card. Once you do this, a $0.50 fee will apply unless you use Uber’s Visa Debit Card by GoBank. It’s important to note that your earnings will be transferred to you automatically by the end of the week if you haven’t cashed out your Uber Eats driver pay from the past week by Monday at 4 am local time.

In case of instant cashout when becoming a new driver, you’ll have to upload your profile photo and driver’s license or state ID (for bikers) to have access to it.

Setting up a bank transfer

Go to Payments in the app menu or the Banking tab in your dashboard after you Sign in online to add your bank account. After that, add your details, such as bank info, complete address, and date of birth. You can find all the relevant bank account information and your bank details on your bank statement.

Pros and Cons of Working for Uber Eats

Now, let’s summarize the advantages and drawbacks of becoming an Uber Etas driver:

Pros

• Flexible side job and working schedule
• Immediate pay
• Easy way to earn extra money
• Bonuses and incentives

Cons

• Car maintenance is on the driver
• Bugs and glitches with older smartphones

Key Takeaways

As an Uber Eats driver, you can accept an order when convenient and get paid for the delivery through the app. This flexibility makes the job a great alternative to other part-time delivery driver jobs, many rigid part-time employment options, temporary jobs, or seasonal work. It’s a great way to supplement your income in your free time while creating your working schedule.

If being an Uber Eats driver is the primary source of your income, you can still make a decent salary working as a contractor. All you have to do is locate where and how you can increase your Uber Eats average earnings by taking some, if not all, of the opportunities that Uber Eats offers. Minimizing your expenses should be your priority if you are determined to maximize your profit as an Uber Eats driver.

It’s individual if Uber Eats is worth your time and the best choice for you. It depends on many factors, including the location you operate in and the time of the day you can dedicate to this job. The best thing you can do is to weigh all the factors mentioned above and determine by yourself if this delivery platform offers you the best job opportunities.

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