I've never delivered for Uber Eats specifically, but I don't know how they managed less than $2 an hour without doing obviously impractical things like trying to deliver at off hours, or in a poor area for it. I average about $27/hour. This is however, with GrubHub that has a wait list for drivers and they deliberately don't overcrowd regions. Area really has a lot to do with it. I can imagine that if Uber doesn't cap the amount of drivers in an area, a full on city is probably the worst example of a place to try it. I know that DoorDash is the same way in Atlanta, and the few times I have tried there, it wasn't worth the trip. One thing you learn very fast through observations is that the "hot zones" mentioned in the article don't matter. All they mean is that someone ordered from a place there before the map refreshed.

I guess my point here, is that the pay isn't necessarily shit. You have to put in some leg work and learn the best areas around you as well as the times to work.

I do have a lot to say about doing this line of work with over 1k deliveries done across 3 apps, but it is kind of out of the scope of this comment unless someone asks.

Editing to add because people asked:

To address some comments here; I already had an LLC, and insured my car through that which made it cheaper. No, the driver doesn't get basically nothing if you don't tip. It's around $1/mile driven with an order (sorry, but I'm not up to doing the approximate .625 km/mile conversions here). I hate to say it, but if you are doing this even as a side job, you need to find overly gentrified suburbs, or a town that has almost nothing as far as restaurants go. I happen to be in a sweet spot between the two. My "assigned area" is Woodstock, GA but that still covers all the way up to Jasper. Woodstock is the overly gentrified suburb, and Jasper has almost nothing.

A discussion of the apps I've delivered for

• DoorDash: Extremely low barrier to entry. Good to start with. However, if you don't do 100 deliveries in your first month it falls apart (trust me, that's more than you realize). You will need to schedule everything and it is extremely competitive and low pay since DoorDash focuses more on fast food.
• InstaCart: You're entering waiting list territory here. My wait time was 3 months. It seems fantastic at first until you have to do an order that the customer will pick up. Do not accept these orders, because you will not only have to shop for potentially 40+ items, you will also have to do a large bagging job.... for maybe $15 that takes you an hour. The key with InstaCart is to do the smallest (in terms of distance) delivery orders.
• GrubHub: This is what I currently do. I had to wait 7 months. Because of marketing stuff, it focuses on sit down restaurant orders. This means the pay for the driver is much higher (not only tips, the orders tend to be high cost by themselves, also the $1/mile driven with an order thing still applies). The giant benefit for driving for GrubHub is that it is unique in that as a driver it is almost like being a taxi driver. You can turn on the meter whenever. You are, however, limited to an area (and that is, as I stated earlier, the most important thing).

Is it worth it?

Many have noted the operational costs. With the mileage deduction of ¢60 per mile for tax purposes, it adds up a lot. Remember that you make roughly $1/mile driven with an order. I net around $19/hour with expenses, including tax. For me, that very much makes it worth the time. There are roughly 7 hours a day for my area that are worth driving for. 11 AM-1 PM, and 5-9 PM. Expenses included, I can make around $500 on weekends. I do, however, own a compact car with very good mileage. That's an extra $2000/mo. So, yes, if you really do the leg work it is worth it. You can not, as shown in this article, show up with a bike in a major city and every hope to make money. Bare minimum, you'd need a car.

Tips Vs. Bids

I've seen comments here saying that your tip is not a tip, but a bid. This is partially true. I do need to reiterate that I've not done much of this work in a full fledged city (Atlanta being the only one I've covered). Your tip is not a bid. What happens is that your order (if just plain unprofitable) gets bounced from driver to driver. Your "tip" never has to escalate. What happens is that the pay from whatever service escalates. Say, someone makes an order and the total the potential driver might make is $10. If one driver declines, it gets passed to the next "best driver" - so on an so forth. Each time the pay from the company initially providing the service increases. There is no increased cost to the customer. This is why there is no reason, as a driver, one should never accept a low offer. That's how the bids work. It isn't from customer tips. There tends to be, however, a charge that will get you priority as a customer. Usually, drivers will have more than one order. You can pay to not get the meme of "lol took 20 mins over time, cold, and thrown around."

The Ways You Can Stick It To A Bad Delivery Person

• Rate them low. Seriously. It's based on an average. 1 ⭐ out of 5 can very easily get them fired. Most services require at least a 4.2 average, or they will be terminated. You need to be willing to do that, though. That's it. You can fire people almost on the spot for slow, cold, incorrect, or undelivered food. And, honestly - you should. There are those of us that give a shit.