I Did Uber Eats for a Week - Learn How to Best Use It to Actually Make Money — (2024)

So what made this New Jersey nurse hop in her car and do Uber Eats? No, I wasn’t because I was hard up for cash. Honestly, I found the concept of this side hustle idea intriguing and enticing. So in this post, I’ll share how I got started, how I maximized this income opportunity, the pros & cons of delivering for Uber Eats, and why you might consider doing it.

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How it started

I would join my friend on her Uber Eats trips and I would watch her complete quests. Quests are promotions where Uber Eats sets a number of orders to complete within a given timeframe. Completing these quests or promotions gets you bonuses. This is a great example of a SMART goal: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. It being framed this way made it very exciting to me.

So I downloaded the Uber Driver app* and signed up to be an Uber Eats driver. This entailed submitting my picture, my license, and my insurance information. They also completed a background check which includes your driving history. Even after being approved to start, I wasn’t sure when or if I would start making deliveries myself. But then, I got this notification.

I got this message from Uber Eats and I paused. I asked myself, “What would it take to make the extra $150?” In doing the math, I realized that to accomplish this goal I had to complete 25 deliveries in a week. So doable! Besides the fact that it was a goal completely in my reach, I also felt like the reason they would offer so much extra is that they didn’t think I could or would do it. That might just be the cynical side of me. Honestly, they likely just wanted to get me started since I didn’t do any trips for weeks after I signed up. Whatever the case may be, after this message, I created a plan in order to accomplish this goal.

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The end result? $373.47 for less than 10 hours of work.

That all depends on where you’re doing deliveries, which deliveries you accept, and how much you receive in tips.

How to Maximize Earnings

What was made clear to me that week is that it is a genuine side hustle job. Now I honestly don’t know if making almost $400 in less than 10 hours is replicable for everyone. After all, a weeklong quest seems atypical. However, even if you made $200 in that amount of time, you would be making about $20/hr.

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Choosing the best locations to complete deliveries

Location, location, location! If you live in an area outside of the blue lines pictured above, your income opportunity is lessened. Within the blue lines, you see opportunities to increase earnings in your state. I think it’s fair to presume that in those areas, there’s a better chance of getting more consistent delivery opportunities. So if you live in the areas highlighted in red, while you MIGHT be able to make money staying close to home, you’re likely better off driving to a blue area for however long you determine you want to make deliveries for that day.

In northeast New Jersey, this isn’t an issue at all. Still, the landscape can vary greatly within a few miles. When I made a delivery in a mountainous area by me in my sedan, I knew I wouldn’t do that again. I also didn’t deliver in areas I didn’t feel safe.

I also veered away from apartment buildings or areas where it would be hard to find parking. Apartment buildings because even though I come down to get my delivery orders, more often than not, customers expected you to go up. A lot of the apartment buildings in my area are elaborate so it is sometimes difficult to find the unit you’re delivering to. Not worth it to me. The parking issue is obvious. It’s not worth getting a ticket for parking illegally. It is like throwing the money you are earning in the trash. If the person comes down to meet you at the door, this is less of an issue.

Be Selective with the trips you accept

When you are alerted about a delivery, it tells you how much you can expect to make, where you are going to pick up the food, where you are going to drop it off, as well as how long the entire trip is expected to take. If you don’t respond in 15 seconds, the job will go away. You also have the option to decline it.

I learned quickly that I didn’t want to take any singular order that would take over 25 minutes. Since my area has pretty consistent orders, turning some down doesn’t hurt at all. It just means waiting at most an extra five minutes for a new job. This increases my earning potential because longer trips don’t make you any more money. So the more individual trips I can make in an hour, the more money I could make in that same hour. Does that make sense? If I decline an order that would pay $10 and take me 46 minutes, I might get two orders, simultaneously or back to back, that take 20 minutes each for $7 each. I would make more money in less time. Plus, less gas used and less wear on my tires. Win, win, win!

I also learned to limit trips to about 20 minutes from home. This is a comfort thing. I just hated the thought of being done and having to drive 30 minutes or more to get home. Fortunately, the area I live in makes this very feasible. I live off a multitude of major highways making a lot of towns and counties accessible to me. So whenever I complete an order and am waiting for another one to come through, I set my navigation to home as the Uber Driver app tries to connect you to orders near where you are located at the time.

Quests or Promotions

I try to complete orders ONLY within promo or quest periods. For me, this tends to be at lunchtime between 11 AM-2 PM or at dinnertime between 5 PM – 9 PM. On the weekends, I notice some 11 AM – 5 PM quests, as well as 5 PM – 9 PM ones. I work during the day so during the week I only did dinnertime runs. This is why, to me, this is a great side gig. While people might grab an Uber for any reason at any given time of day, people tend to all eat around the same time. While I have never tested how many jobs I would get outside of the lunch and dinner time hours, I think it’s safe to assume that the number of orders would be less.

To note, these quests do not compound on each other. So remember the initial offer was $30 for every 5 orders. So after completing 5 orders, I earned an extra $30. When I completed 10 orders, I earned another $30, not another $60. Though the initial message pictured at the beginning of the post made that clear, the quest page might be less clear to some.

Increasing Your Tips

If you’re just signing up, make sure your picture is presentable. This cannot be changed easily once you’re up and running.

By far the best way to increase your tips is to ask! So during the transaction, right before completing delivery, send a message wishing them well and saying you’d appreciate tips. With any business, you’re advised to have a CTA or call-to-action. This is yours.

If you’ve been doing Uber Eats for a while, try this and see if you have also seen an increase in how much you make an hour.

The Pros of Delivering for Uber Eats

• No strangers get in your car: this is not to disparage Uber drivers at all. I just feel uncomfortable having someone I don’t know in my car with my back against them. I’m uber paranoid. Pun intended.
• Great earning potential: with boosts, surges, and quests, you can make about $20-25 an hour or more making it a great side hustle to make money. Of course, this is dependent on where you are working.
• Flexible: there is no defined start or end time so you have a lot of control. I did it during times I would normally be watching TV. I didn’t sacrifice any time I have scheduled with my family, work, chores, etc.
• Weekly payment: The week ends on Sunday and you are paid by direct deposit on the following Thursday. You even have the option to cash out immediately if you have a debit card connected to your account. This feature only costs $0.50 per transaction at present.
• Efficiency: The Uber Driver app makes it so when you go to pick up an order, the order is usually ready upon your arrival. This was not the case when my friend started doing it and is an appreciated change. Otherwise, you could be standing there for 10-15 minutes waiting for an order to be prepared. Lost time = lost money.
• Benefits: the Uber Eats Pro Program is a tiered program with benefits ranging from roadside assistance and discounted car maintenance to tuition coverage at ASU online.
• Safety: the same safety features you have as a passenger are extended to drivers. You can share trips with friends and family. It also shares details about your location and vehicle automatically when you call 911 if you choose to keep that feature on.

The Cons of Delivering for Uber Eats

• Parts of the app don’t function as expected. The promotions page doesn’t load up all the time. I also sometimes get a notification that indicates there’s an order nearby that I can pick up but no way to accept it. I honestly have not reached out to Uber about these issues because it doesn’t affect me enough.
• The Uber driver app is a little obnoxious. The notifications are loud! Sometimes, although rarely, it will notify me again of a job that I have already declined. Also, I tend to put on my phone horizontally on my dash and the app’s map does not rotate. Fortunately, you can change the settings so that Google Maps or Waze can be used to navigate.
• Support via phone call: I prefer to email or text, especially when there are app issues so I can provide screenshots for reference. In the app though, the only option appears to be to call an agent.
• No minimum tip. This means that customers can have the convenience of having food come from wherever to their doorstep and they don’t have to tip. I didn’t realize before starting this how “normal” not tipping was. Knowing that I always thank the customers who do tip for being decent human beings. If you don’t want to tip, go to your corner store for your food.
• Taxes. You’ll have to put money aside for taxes as they are not automatically taken out of your earnings. That’s not an Uber problem but something you may not think of when you’re enjoying your earnings.

Considering doing Uber Eats?

If you haven’t started delivering yet or just starting, avoid costly mistakes with this comprehensive guide to making $20+/hr with Uber Eats. It is not only very detailed but has examples with tons of pictures. Enjoy!

I think Uber Eats, or similar platforms like Doordash or Postmates, is a great way to make money. I earned $370 in 10 hours. If someone has the flexibility to take advantage of the lunch and dinner quest opportunities, I see no reason why you couldn’t make $700 a week. $20/hr x 35 hours (3-hour lunch quest 11 AM – 2 PM, 4-hour dinner quest 5 PM – 9 PM Monday – Friday). You could switch any of those “shifts” for a weekend quest or just tack those hours on. What could you do with an extra $700 a week?

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I now think I’m going to do Uber Eats once a week. I don’t know how long I’ll do it for but we’ll see how long it is fun for.

If you are interested in trying this out, let me know and I will provide you a referral code* to get you started. You can click here to contact me. If you know someone who drives for Uber, reach out to them and get their referral code.

Your turn. What side hustles have you entertained? If you have considered or have delivered for Uber Eats, what do you like or not like about it? Share in the comments below.

Originally published in September 2020, this post has been updated by Prisca Benson.