The Best Delivery Services to Work For (2021)

As the years go on, we have become inundated with options for delivery services. Food delivery, grocery delivery, or even just delivering toilet paper from CVS—there are dozens of services or apps available to connect you with someone to do the job. If you’re searching for a new form of income, it is a great option to drive for delivery services. The benefits appeal to many because this form of work is flexible and convenient. You can make your own schedule and there are few start-up costs. So now the question is “which one?”. That’s why we are going to break down the best delivery services to work for.

It’s generally a good problem to have many options to choose from, but it is important to choose the best fit for you so you can make good use of your time and earn the most money possible. Just remember, each service has its own advantages and disadvantages, so a good fit for someone else might not always be a good fit for you.

DoorDash

Doordash provides a simple, on-demand food delivery service that was established by four Stanford students in 2013. While providing quick and easy financial opportunities for employees, Doordash makes money by charging restaurants a percentage fee of every order placed. Doordash couriers are known as “Dashers.”

Pay Overview

Drivers on Doordash earn $15-$20/hour on average.

1. Base pay: ranges from $2-$10 and is dependent on the time, distance, and desirability of the order. The level of complexity of your order determines the amount of your base bay.
2. Promotions: including peak pay [opportunities to earn more during especially busy time frames], challenges [incentivize Dashers to earn faster in a set time period] and drive [dashers can earn extra money for large catering orders].
3. Tips: Dashers receive 100% of the tip that customers give after they place their order on top of the base pay and promotions. Additionally, your tips don’t affect your base pay or any promotions earned.

Availability

DoorDash is currently available in over 850 cities across North America and is still growing. To see if DoorDash is available in your area visit http://www.doordash.com/food-delivery/.

Pros:

• Doordash offers some pretty worthwhile perks for Dashers, the first being through their referral program. Dashers can refer other drivers and earn up to 15 referral bonuses per year.
• The Top Dasher program incentivizes drivers to complete certain qualifications like customer rating of at least 4.7, acceptance rate of at least 70%, 100 completed deliveries during the last month, etc. Top Dashers earn priority when things are slower and are allowed to avoid scheduling and “Dash Now” at any time.
• Doordash additionally offers certain discounts and deals to its Dashers, from fuel rewards programs to financial help tools.
• They only ask for the bare minimum when it comes to signing up: a valid domestic driver’s license, insurance, and a clean driving record.

Cons:

• You have to schedule your hours in advance, meaning you can’t just log in to the app and drive if you happen to unexpectedly have a couple of extra hours.
• Driver support only operates via chat.

Postmates

Postmates provides one of the biggest, on-demand food pick up and delivery platforms, including food and grocery delivery.

Pay Overview

As a Postmates courier, you can make between $10 – 20/hour, you are paid for miles traveled, time spent waiting to pick up orders, and the number of orders you complete in an hour, the rate also depends on:

1. The location you work from – Pay varies depending on the area you’re working in, with a base pay for each pickup and dropoff is upwards of $1.00 each.

2. The duration of your journey – for every minute you’re waiting for an order you receive an additional $0.10.

3. The distance of your journey – you are paid $0.60 for every mile driven to reach the customer.

4. Tips received during deliveries – In addition to base pay, couriers for Postmates get to keep 100% of tips given by the customer.

5. Time of the day – Postmates offer occasional bonuses for drivers such as “Blitz pricing”, during high demand times of the day.

Availability

Postmates is available in all 50 states (and Washington, D.C.)!

Pros:

• Getting paid is quick and easy: If you choose the Instant Deposit payment method, you are able to withdraw your earnings whenever you want with a small fee of $0.50.
• Extra earnings: Postmates offers the potential to earn more through Crusher Bonuses, Guaranteed Earnings, and referral incentives.

Cons:

• Customer service provided isn’t great: Based on reviews, Postmates is not well known for their customer service. Postmates seems to expect that any issues that occur are figured out by the courier, restaurant, and customer themselves.
• Low-paying orders: Because people can order so many things on Postmates, drivers can get low-value orders that don’t pay well. Luckily, drivers can pass over those orders if they want.

Uber Eats

UberEats is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing food delivery companies in the world. If not already obvious, this delivery service was designed from the existing rideshare app “Uber.” It is based out of San Francisco and was established in 2014—making it one of the later on-demand food delivery platforms.

Pay Overview

UberEats drivers make about $8-$12/hour. The pay model for delivering for UberEats is as follows:

• Base fare (your pay for pickup, drop-off, time, and distance)
• Trip supplement (added based on time and distance to help make every trip worthwhile)
• Promotion period boosts (specific days and time frames when extra earnings are offered)
• Tips (100% of tips you earn belong to you and are always an addition to your earnings) = Total amount earned

Trip supplements and promotions will vary depending on the order but can greatly boost your earnings! Additionally, if a customer gives you a tip, you will receive a tip notification about one hour after you have dropped off their order. After you have completed the delivery, you will be able to see how much you have earned in the “Earnings” tab in the app.

Availability

Uber Eats is available in over 6,000 cities across 45 countries and is growing.

Pros:

• Your choice of vehicle: Whether it be a scooter, bicycle, or car, UberEats allows you to choose your mode of transportation.
• Every day can be payday: There are different options for payment methods: weekly direct deposit into your bank account or cash out with Instant Pay, which can be done 1-5 times a day.
• Incentives: Quest (reaching certain trip goals), Boost (multipliers during busy times), and Surge (higher pricing during busy times).

Cons:

• Pay can be low or unstable: Many drivers have reported on Glassdoor that it is difficult to make a substantial amount of money from each delivery, many times with pay equating to less than minimum wage.

Caviar

Caviar was founded and launched in 2012. It typically curates higher-end restaurants so that further partnerships can develop long term.

Caviar was purchased by Square in 2014, a company that was used by customers to order food and pick it up themselves, with no delivery option. This is the major difference between Caviar and other food delivery services, such as DoorDash. Caviar provides its delivery service to restaurants that do not offer a built-in delivery system, allowing Square’s initial service to be extended into the world of food delivery.

Pay Overview

Because Caviar tends to work with higher-end restaurants, couriers can expect to earn a bit more than with other delivery companies. The expected pay per delivery is roughly $10-$25/hour and tips arrive about 2 hours after a delivery has been made. Caviar also makes use of bonuses to incentivize drivers to make deliveries. There are a few different types of bonuses and promotions listed below.

• Peak boost: you can receive extra earnings for making deliveries during peak time frames listed by Caviar
• Ongoing milestones: You can earn more by completing a certain amount of deliveries in a certain amount of time (e.g. $15 for completing 4 deliveries during first session within 4 days)
• New driver sign up bonus: if you refer someone to deliver for Caviar, you and that person must complete a certain amount of deliveries for you to receive a referral bonus

Availability

Caviar is available in 20 different cities/regions, making it the least accessible on this list.

Pros:

• Parking ticket reimbursement program: With every 100 deliveries you make, you are allowed to send Caviar one parking ticket (as long as it is eligible) and you will be reimbursed.
• Details of an order are given before you accept an order: This feature is very important because couriers can decide whether or not a delivery is worth making based on the total distance, time, and estimated pay.
• No rating system for drivers: Without a rating system, drivers are not penalized for situations where they are not at fault—such as long restaurant wait times or the order not being ready on time.

Cons:

• Manual typing in of customer’s address: After you receive an order notification, you have to type in the address of the restaurant and the customer’s address yourself. This can be time-consuming and inefficient.
• Expected earnings can be confusing: In the order details, before you accept an order, Caviar gives you an expected earnings gauge. However, the expected earnings are not always correct.

GrubHub

GrubHub has partnered with over 245,000 restaurants in thousands of cities across the country. Grubhub is one of the more popular food delivery platforms and has decently high ratings. A few company statistics are listed below:

• Provided nearly $6 billion in gross food sales to local takeout restaurants in 2019
• Processes more than 668,000 daily orders
• Serves 30 million active diners
• Sent more than $3 billion in total tips to drivers

Pay Overview

On average, GrubHub couriers make about $12/hour, but this average can vary depending on the city one is delivering in.

Pay is based on:

• Miles: Gruhhub Drivers earn roughly 22 cents per mile, includes distance to and from restaurant and customer address locations
• Time spent: Courier earn about 13 cents per minute they spend driving and waiting for orders
• Tips: Couriers receive 100% of the tips left by customers

Availability

Grubhub features over 300,000 restaurants and is proud to partner with 245,000 of these restaurants in over 4,000 U.S. cities.

Pros:

• No prepaid card: Unlike other food delivery companies, there is no need for the hassle of a prepaid card with GrubHub. Customers only pay for their orders through the GrubHub app or online.
• Potential for more orders: Because grubhub and seamless are merged, couriers can earn more as they have the ability to receive double the amount of orders.

Cons:

• Difficult to get in touch with customer service: Based on reviews, it seems as though Grubhub’s customer service is not the best. This can be extremely frustrating for circumstances like an order not going through to a restaurant or handling a cancelled order.

Instacart

Instacart is a delivery platform that serves as an on-demand local service for people who are looking to have their groceries delivered to their doorstep. Founded in 2012, Instacart is available in over 5,500 cities across the nation.

Pay Overview

Instacart couriers make an average of $10-$15/hour, according to Glassdoor. However, because this job is based on independent contracting, there are no guaranteed earnings.

Focusing on full-service shoppers, Instacart pay varies depending on the size of a batch, type of items, distance driven, location and 100% of a tip, if given by the customer. Instacart also offers bonuses and incentives as listed below:

• Peak Boost: when the demands of customers are high and during rush hours, customers may be charged extra which will partly go to the shopper because for the extra effort they have put in during peak hours (order must be completed within a timely manner)
• Quality bonuses incentive: shoppers earn a $3 bonuses when they receive a 5-star rating from their customers
• Referral bonuses: Instacart offers bonus earnings when you refer a friend to shop with us

Availability

Instacart’s delivery and pickup services are available in thousands of cities globally.

Pros:

• Options: There are two options for work: full-service and in-store shoppers (who don’t need a car to work).
• Earnings Insight: You can see estimated earnings before accepting orders

Cons:

• Difficult customer service: Based on reviews from Glassdoor, Instacart does not seem to have the best or quickest customer service response.
• Scheduling: You need to schedule a week in advance, so you can’t just decide to work when you have extra time.

goPuff

GoPuff is a delivery system that provides a variety of different items including but not limited to snacks, cleaning supplies and electronics. goPuff offers service in over 500 cities with over 3,000 employees. GoPuff is different from other delivery platforms because you first need to schedule your shifts to work a week in advance. When your shift begins, go to the local goPuff warehouse and wait for orders to come in. Once orders are ready for delivery, pick up a few and head to the customers’ location.

Pay Overview

GoPuff pays its drivers using an hourly rate and this rate depending on the area drivers are delivering in. This hourly rate can range from $13 to $18/hour.

GoPuff’s basic pay model is as follows:

• Base fee per delivery
• Tips
• Mileage compensation

Delivering drivers can also receive extra bonuses and incentives as well!

Availability

goPuff currently has 200+ facilities delivering to 500 cities.

Pros:

• Guaranteed pay: Because goPuff pays its drivers using an hourly wage, drivers are guaranteed earnings.
• Single pickup location: Unlike other delivery services that offer pick-ups from multiple restaurants and stores, goPuff has warehouses that drivers can go straight to and pick up orders.

Cons:

• Lack of schedule flexibility: Although drivers are able to choose when they work, the hours worked are not as flexible since you need to schedule a week in advance.
• Delivery distance: Drivers only have to go to one location to pick up orders, but sometimes the warehouse can be up to 30 minutes away which can increase mileage.

Conclusion—The Best Delivery Services to Work For Overall

The rise of the gig economy has come with more than just delivery at the touch of a button. With this new system of employment through app-based rideshare and delivery services, there’s a whole new class of workers. Gig workers are starting to get more attention and rights, and the focus on limited contact has only boosted delivery services’ business.

Many of these services are very similar, so know that you can’t go wrong signing up for the companies on this list. Try out some that are available in your area and see which services work best for you!