Requirements
- Ideally 1 year of driving experience
- Owning a form of transportation (depends on your area) : Car, Motorcycle, Bike
- Smart Phone (Android / iOS )
- Bank account for Weekly Direct Deposits
Suggested Items
- Mileage Book for Tax Reasons
- Device to hold phone while driving
- Car Charger with Charging Cable
- Additional Food Bags (optional when starting)
What do I need?
Most importantly, you'll need a smart phone (I use an S5 Active just fine) and a reliable form of transportation. It doesn't need to be perfect, but at least something that will continuously get to point A to point B without much concern about deprecation of your transportation's value or failure.
If you own some bags that help keep food cold / warm, you'll most likely want to use them after getting set up. Some orders might take more then one bag.
Most orientations try to sell you "cheap" bags that might last you 6 months. If you have something that is better already, I'd suggest you use that instead. They also have shirts, hats, and larger catering bags. If you want something to wear, that is up to you, but I'd personally stay away from any bag they are selling and invest in something more durable.
They also have no issues with you having another person in the car with you while you drive around which is nice. This makes it simpler to find temporary parking spots and have someone watch the car as you do pick ups and drop offs.
Where do I start?
Doordash isn't available in every city, but it is in major cities. You can start the application process to find out at: https://www.doordash.com/dasher/signup/
Once successfully submitted, you'll ideally be asked to come in for an orientation to get familiar with the app, get a background check taken care of, how to add your bank info in the app, as well as get Doordash card to pay for orders that need to be placed in person, like McDonalds or Taco Bell.
Orientation usually takes about an hour to a hour and a half depending on how many people show up. Background checks normally with get processed and done with before you even leave so you can start doing delivering same day, but that might not happen for everyone.
The Pay
Pay goes as such. (This Payout Model will be changing in the coming Month(s) )
- Doordash pays you $1 per delivery
- You make 100% of order tips on top of the Delivery Pay from Doordash
- If you don't receive a tip from the customer in app, Doordash compensates you with an additional amount. This amount depends on your City. For example, Phoenix, Arizona is $5 min payout per order. Others cities might be higher.
- Peak Periods are rare, but mostly happen in either the morning, lunch, or dinner. These are bonuses that usually revolve around accepting all orders during a certain amount of time in a specific area to obtain a "bonus" per order. This bonus could range from $1-$5+ per order.
Conclusion
I've been with Doordash for nearly 4 years now and have gone through 3 different pay models, with a 4th coming around the corner as of this writing. I don't enjoy that they don't train new drivers on how to deal with situations on the road, but only on how to use their delivery app and that is it. However, if you're already experienced with doing food delivery, then I suppose that is alright. Catering orders are impossible to get through Doordash because people just snag up orders without thinking about it.
I used to do Doordash 25+ hours a week, but I usually just stick with the lunch run for 2-3 hours to avoid freeway traffic. Making any form of profit really depends on your area and where you're doing deliveries in. Doing lunch and dinner runs are usually the busiest and the best, as long as their is a time slot available and their isn't a "Bonus per order" going on.
I've tried Uber Eats, Postmates, and Amazon Prime (when they did food delivery), and I have always enjoyed, for the most part, working with Doordash versus the others. That is just me though and you mileage might be different.