Dinner Delivered

You can order almost anything online, from furniture to fast food. The best part is that getting the products you want no longer means getting dressed, leaving the house, fighting traffic and waiting in line. Thanks to worldwide delivery services like Amazon, and national food delivery services like AllHungry.com, convenience is in the palm of your hand. Another good aspect of these services is that they have provided hundreds of thousands of jobs for independent contractors like myself.

If you’re anything like me, sometimes working a full-time job does not quite pay the bills. In 2018 I decided to try to make a little extra money on the side by working as a food delivery driver. I signed up to become a driver for a popular food delivery app, which was a simple and painless process. Basically, the only requirements to sign-up are that you have a valid driver’s license and have reliable transportation.

After sign-up I pretty much worked whenever I wanted. There’s no set schedule, so I logged on to the app whenever I had some spare time. Every time I logged on to begin work, the orders came pouring in. On average I worked anywhere from 5-15 hours a week. Most weeks I made between $60-$175 depending on how many hours I worked and how well people tipped.

One of the major advantages to working as a food delivery driver is that it affords you the opportunity to make quick cash. With a traditional job you often must wait one to three weeks, or more, before you can start getting paid through the company’s payroll. With food delivery you can make money instantly through tips, or within one to two days when you cash-out your earnings through the company’s app.

My favorite part about being a food delivery driver was that it was easy, I got to ride around in my car and jam out to my favorite music while delivering orders, and I got to set my own hours. Whenever I logged on to the app, there were plenty of deliveries available for me. In this booming industry there’s no such thing as a slow night! I also like the fact that delivering food is good for quick cash. If you have a last-minute bill or small emergency that can’t wait until payday, this side-hustle can help you get by between paychecks from your 9-5 job.

Of course, with any job there’s good and bad. Sometimes the restaurants didn’t have the customers food ready when I got there, so I had to wait which made the order late getting to the client. Or, sometimes drop-offs involved weird locations at homes or offices that were hard to find or hard to get to. Another not-so glamorous side of this job is all of the traffic you have to fight to get food from the restaurant to the customer. Rush hour deliveries are the worst!

Then there’s the customer service part. People can be hard to deal with, so if someone’s food is cold or otherwise not perfect when it reaches them, they sometimes blame the driver. You may end up apologizing for cold food or restaurant mistakes on orders just to maintain a good customer service rating as a delivery driver.

All in all, being a food delivery driver was a pretty good experience for me. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fun and unique side-hustle that offers flexible hours. I would not recommend becoming a food delivery driver to anyone who is looking for consistent income or to someone who is easily bothered by traffic or difficult customers.

About the Author
My name is Shayla Patrick and I work in marketing at a large healthcare company. I’m a busy mom of two with a wonderful husband and supportive family. In my free time I enjoy traveling, writing, eating and playing volleyball.