19 Tips and Tricks to Earn More Money with Uber Eats
These tips and tricks will help you earn more money delivering food. They’ll work on Uber Eats, Door Dash, Skip the Dishes, etc. Basically any food or package delivery app.
1. Pick Your Orders Carefully
We only have so much time in the day. During the lunch and dinner rush orders might show up immediately. They pop up as soon as your available. But that doesn’t mean you must accept every order. Be choosy. Avoid deliveries from bad restaurants that are going a long distance. People that order from cheap restaurants that are far away probably won’t tip because they don’t have much money and their food will probably be cold/warm when you get it there.
2. Short Deliveries Pay More Than Long Deliveries
This is counterintuitive, I know. You’d think the customer would look at the app and see you’re travelling a long distance and say, “Wow, this guy is really hoofing it across the city. I’m taking up a lot of his time, so I should tip them well.”
Here’s what actually happens: The food takes 17 minutes to arrive and now the customer is eating soggy fries, sweaty wings, and lukewarm pizza. Their dining experience was mediocre, so later when Uber prompts them to tip you, they say, “Nah I’m good.”
If you’re travelling a short distance, the food arrives hot and fresh. The customer is amazed. They love the food and tip you more. A good tip pays more than the fare.
3. More Orders, More Money
Another reason short deliveries pay more is because you can complete more of them. It’s almost always better to do two short orders over one long order. Short orders keep you close to the restaurants. Long orders might take you into the suburbs. Then you have to hoof it back to the delivery zone.
On a short delivery, you might get pinged to pick up another order from a nearby restaurant. This increases the number of deliveries you can do per hour.
More deliveries, more money.
4. Avoid Delivering to Students
They rarely tip, and they often live in apartment buildings or on campus. Their housing is annoying to navigate, and did I mention they don’t tip? It’s not because they’re bad people, it’s because they have no money. That’s because they might not have a job. They have a credit card though because banks give them free t-shirts to sign up for one.
So, know your area, if you see a McDonald’s order that’s going to an intersection that’s near campus or a student housing apartment building, take a pass. On average these pay less.
5. Sit Next to Expensive Restaurants
Food delivery apps are run by algorithms. It takes a bunch of factors into consideration when handing out orders. One of these factors is distance. If you’re sitting next to nice restaurants, you’re more likely to get orders from those restaurants since you’re the closest driver.
The nicer the restaurant, the more expensive the food. People often tip a percentage of the bill, 15%,18%,20% etc. The higher the bill, the higher the tip.
6. Cross the Street as Soon as You Are Able
Sometimes you have to walk a few blocks because you couldn’t find parking or you’re on a bike/walking. Either way, eventually you must cross the street. Many people wait until the last possible intersection. This can lead to trouble. If you were planning on jaywalking at the last second, you might get caught up in a burst of traffic. So, check your app to see what side of the road your delivery is on, and cross the road as soon as you are able. It’s just more efficient this way.
7. Try to Get Apartment People to Meet you in the Lobby
Delivering to apartments is a major pain. They’re all laid out differently, have different buzzer boxes, and can be a huge waste of time. It could take you more time to get from the lobby to their door on the 18th floor than it did to get from the restaurant to the apartment building. Especially during Covid when some buildings are only allowing one person per elevator.
If one of the elevators is on service mode because someone is moving, forget it. You’re looking at 5-10 minutes of wasted time. During a lunch/dinner rush, delivering to the door of an apartment might cost you an entire other delivery.
Your app might also ping you to pick up another order as soon as you arrive at your destination. If it’s a house, that’s fine. But if it’s an apartment, the app doesn’t take that into consideration. It sees you as three minutes away from the next restaurant but doesn’t realize it’s going to take five extra minutes to find the apartment door.
Try sending a message like: “Hello, if you could meet me in the lobby that would save a lot of time.”
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, don’t waste time in an apartment building. If you buzz their number and they don’t pick up, leave the food in the lobby. Take a photo and tell them where you left it. Don’t stand around for 10 minutes buzzing them 100 times. The customer shares some responsibility in this transaction. They should be paying attention to your location and be ready to buzz you in.
8. Work Harder When Delivering Good Orders
If you’re delivering fries and a diet Coke to student housing, your chance of getting a $10 tip is zero. But if you’re delivering $70 in sushi to a million-dollar home, your chance of getting a $10 tip is much higher. These are the orders you want to hustle on.
We only have so much energy to spend during the day. Better clients get better service. That’s how the world works. Walk faster, bike harder, take a risk on a parking ticket. Anything you can do shave a few seconds off the delivery service. You want a good customer saying, “Wow, that was fast.”
Do anything you can (legally of course) to be faster than the last delivery person. People that order delivery usually do it a lot and often from the same restaurant. In their mind is a benchmark of how fast you should be. Imagine yourself racing against the ghost of previous delivery people. Just like in Mario Kart. If you want to set a record you have to beat the ghost.
9. Go Home When It’s Dead
You can’t force the app to give you orders. If you’re spending 15 minutes waiting on a street corner between orders, then the rush is over and it’s time to go home. Delivering food pays great when the wait time between orders is zero. Delivering food is the worst job in the world when you’re waiting in the rain at 10pm for students to order McDonald’s because they’re drunk.
10. Avoid Restaurants with Long Wait Times
Once you’ve been delivering for a while, you’ll get a sense of how long it takes each restaurant to prepare an order. The ideal order is being packaged just as you arrive. The food is fresh and hot. Some restaurants (like McDonald’s) get swamped during rush periods and are overwhelmed with orders. They might not start making your order until a few minutes after you arrive.
So, if it’s busy and your app is constantly pinging you, avoid orders from restaurants with long waits. Something better will be along shortly.
11. Cancel Bad Orders
The apps can be sneaky. Uber Eats especially. It’ll ping you with an order when you’re trying to take a photo or look at the map. Even if you’re careful, a slip of the thumb means you just accepted a McDonald’s order to student housing. Don’t be afraid to cancel it. If you haven’t picked up the food, the apps don’t care if you cancel the occasional order. Sometime else will pick it up. Cancel it quickly. Don’t wait forever.
(Cancelling an order AFTER picking it up is a bad idea. This will get you deactivated unless you have a very good reason. If you must cancel after picking it up, then return the food to the restaurant and call support.)
12. Test Your Market
When delivering in a new area, you need to test it. This means delivering from sunup to sundown to figure out the best times for you. Yes, lunch and dinner are always busy, but that also brings out more drivers. Maybe your sweet spot is 8-10pm after the other couriers have gone home, but before the good restaurants close. Or maybe there’s a great breakfast place that does a billion orders from 7am to 10am.
You’ll never know what the actual best times for food delivery in your area are until you test everything. This requires a lot of work but could mean the difference between $150 a day and $250 a day. In the long run, this initial hard work will pay off.
13. Don’t Hang Around Chatting
I always see other drivers hanging around chatting after they pick up an order. They say hi to their friends, they take a phone call, or sometimes they even run into a restaurant to grab something to eat. This is fine if you’re waiting for an order, but not after you’ve picked it up.
Your customer is watching your movements on their phone. They’re hungry. Hungry people get angry very quick. They know the food is ready because the restaurant flagged it as such. They know you picked it up if you’re standing outside the restaurant (even if you didn’t mark it as picked up.) They’re wondering what the heck you’re doing.
Wasting time chatting with other drivers will cost you money in tips and future orders.
14. Avoid Orders That Take You Out of Hot Zones
A Hot Zone is a pickup area with lots of restaurants. The more restaurants there are nearby, the more likely you are to get an order. So, you need to do your best to stick closely to these orders.
Say you get an order that pays $14. It takes you from a Hot Zone to the suburbs.
Compare that with an order that pays $12 but has you delivering to another Hot Zone.
They’re both the same distance, but in this case, the second order is better even though it pays less. That’s because when you’re done delivering it, you’ll be right next to more restaurants. You might get another order right away.
Many drivers look at the distance to the drop-off but don’t factor in the distance to get back to the Hot Zone. A five-mile delivery to the suburbs is actually a 10-mile delivery because you need to drive back to where you started.
Ideally you spend your entire day bouncing between Hot Zones. This will net you the maximum number of orders and minimize your travel time.
15. Bring a Bag Divider
If your bag doesn’t already have compartments, then you need to make some. This can be as simple as a towel, or a smaller reusable bag. You want something to separate the cold food (drinks) from the hot food. Warm drinks are a bad experience and will net you less tips.
Another reason to bring a bag divider is it can act as a stabilizer. If you have a giant bag but are delivering a tiny thing of soup, then it might spill. There’s nothing to keep the soup from bouncing around in your bag when you hit a pothole. If you spill a soup then you’re gonna lose your fare, your tips, and you’ll have to waste time cleaning your bag.
16. Consider Biking or Walking
If you’re working downtown, then it might be faster to do your deliveries walking or with a bike. You’ll save money on gas, insurance, depreciation, and parking tickets. It’s also great for cardio and will put you in better shape.
It might also be faster. You don’t have to find parking at the restaurant, parking at the drop-off, and you can go the wrong way down one-way streets. You can also cut through parking lots and alleyways.
It’s also less stressful. If you’re double-parked and the restaurant is delayed, or the customer isn’t answering their phone, then it’s no big deal. A few extra minutes for a biker are nothing. A few extra minutes for a driver could mean a tow or a huge fine.
A single parking ticket could erase all the money you made in the day, or even put you in the negative. You don’t have to worry about this if you’re biking or walking.
17. Double Check the Order
Just because the restaurant hands you an order for Jeff, doesn’t mean it’s the right order. Jeff is a common name. There could be two orders for two different Jeffs. Confirm the order number on the package with the order number on your phone.
You also want to make sure (if you can) that all the items are accounted for. Some restaurants, like McDonald’s and Starbucks put everything in a huge bag and seal it with stickers. It’s impossible to know if something is missing. But many smaller restaurants don’t do this. They just hand you the food and the bottled drink. So, make sure the stuff they hand you matches what the customer ordered.
Delivering a Coke Zero when the customer ordered a Diet Coke is a recipe for a thumbs down and no tip.
18. Don’t Give the Customer an Excuse Not to Tip You
People hate tipping. They see it subsidizing your unfairly low hourly wage. (Which they are.) Unfortunately, side gigs exist in this weird grey zone . You’re not an employee so you don’t get paid by the hour. You’re a contractor. You have no employment rights. You’re a business.
Without tips, delivery is a bad job. It would pay less than minimum wage. Then there are the expenses. Gas, insurance, depreciation, fines, tickets, accidents, etc. If you’re on the road a lot you’re probably also buying more food. This gets expensive.
Without tips, this job doesn’t make sense. So, you have to make sure you don’t give the customer a reason not to tip you. Trust me, they’re looking for one. If in their head they can justify not giving you extra money they’re not gonna tip you. This means you need to look at the delivery instructions and follow them to the letter. If it says to leave the food on the bench, leave it on the bench. Some customers want you to knock, others don’t. If you hear a dog whining behind the door, don’t knock. It’ll just set the dog off.
I never ring a doorbell unless the customer asks. It could wake the kids, the dog, interrupt their TV show, etc.
19. Fast Food is Usually Slow Food
McDonald’s is horrible for this. While many restaurants have your order ready just as you arrive, McDonald’s usually hasn’t even started it. You never want to get stuck waiting at a restaurant. If you do get stuck it’s usually at a fast-food place.
Picking up fast food is a trap. It’s a time sink and the customers rarely tip. Only do it if you get the sense that orders are being processed quickly.
A large McDonald’s order being delivered to a nice house is probably worth your time. French fries going to an apartment is not.
Here are some slogans for McDonald’s I came up with while waiting 10 minutes for them to a burger in a paper bag.
“I’m waitin’ for It.”
“McDonald’s, we take the fast out of fast food.”
“Look for the golden arches and avoid them.”
“You deserve a break today, so why don’t you wait outside in the cold?”
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
Also, don’t forget to check out: How to Make More Money with Uber Eats in 2022.
