How much to tip on UberEats?

What about Postmates? 

Uber owns Postmates so this page is relevant to both. It's technically relevant to all major food delivery apps including DoorDash and Grubhub but I've made separate sites for each. 

I used to have one page for all but decided it would be good to show the nuances for each since a lot of customers have a hard time believing how much each company pays its drivers.

Let's break it down!

Picture this: a rainy day. You're at home but don't want to go out. But you're craving food from your favorite spot. Maybe that's a fast food chain or a local gem.

What to do? Go out and brave the rain? Hardly!

UberEats probably has some promos like free delivery, right? 

Oh free delivery! Does this mean I don't have to tip either??

The cold hard truth about all food delivery apps is that tipping is not optional.

Preposterous! They say tipping is optional so the drivers probably get paid enough and tipping is just a nice extra, right?! 

As if!

Has tipping culture gotten out of hand?

By far the greatest disservice to the food delivery industry has been the memes about tipping culture getting out of hand.

Yes they're funny and ridiculous and no you shouldn't tip $10 for someone handing you a cup of coffee or a muffin but I want to distinguish between someone handing you a muffin and someone driving their own car, braving traffic and weather conditions to deliver your food.

But the fees on UberEats are ridiculous. Surely those charges get passed on to the drivers!

They don't. And don't call me Shirley.

Fine so how much does UberEats pay its drivers?

UberEats pays the driver between $2 and $3 for your order without giving money toward mileage.

So why deliver with UberEats? Because when people compensate their drivers, it's great fun and good money. I don't mind using my car and paying for gas when I'm being compensated. Weird right?

I often hear UberEats should pay more.

It doesn't though.

So now that argument is no longer valid. You really only have two options.

Don't use food delivery apps or tip more.

Or help start a union or something but that would take the fun out of food delivery so let's not do that. 

Wait a minute, UberEats pays the driver only $2ish to deliver my food?

Yes. I've delivered around around 2,500+ orders on food delivery apps including UberEats, DoorDash and Grubhub and $2ish is pretty standard across the board.

Aside from maybe an extra dollar or two during hazardous weather conditions or on especially busy nights and weekends, UberEats has consistently paid between $2-$3 for each order I've delivered. 

If UberEats groups two orders together, it may be a little over $4. 

You might say, that's very little in this economy. And I'll say, that would have been very little even 20 years ago.

Here are some real life examples of UberEats pay.

Here's another with just the pay details. A little bit higher at $2.75. Must have been a busy evening.

---

And another. But you get the point.

---

Here's a double order. You can see pay was a little higher for both orders but also really only $2ish per order. 

A lot of times UberEats will group a lower tipping customer with a higher tipping customer to ensure the lower tipping customer gets their order because they wouldn't otherwise. Sneaky!

UberEats used to show us how much it charged the customer. I have a video where I show the fees paid to UberEats compared to what I made for an order.

It's kind of wild so I don't blame anyone who assumes that UberEats passes those fees on to the drivers. 

Every food delivery app is guilty of this btw.

You also have to consider that UberEats charges you for using UberEats and the restaurant for being on UberEats.

Again, as you can see those fees don't get passed on to the drivers.

How long could it possibly take to deliver food?

Great question. If you remember back in the day before UberEats (eek, maybe you don't, good for you youngin'), some restaurants offered delivery directly through them.

There was a delivery radius of maybe five miles and if you weren't in that radius, they wouldn't deliver.

That's all changed since food delivery apps sprouted. UberEats has some of the most ridiculous delivery distances I've seen so it can take a while to deliver food. Even if you are within a five mile radius, the sheer volume of orders at restaurants across delivery apps is staggering so things do take a while.

Even if you look at my previous example, the delivery distance was just over two miles. It still took 21 minutes from me driving to the restaurant, waiting for the order at the restaurant to delivery. While almost $10 for 21 minutes isn't bad, I can usually only do two orders like that an hour since after delivery, I have to backtrack to a busy area and wait for another order.

Yes, distance matters

I can usually only deliver two orders in an hour so many times I earn between $25 and $35 an hour before gas and taxes.

Customers don't realize that we don't get paid mileage nor do we get paid to backtrack 30 miles if that's how far you live. 

If you live in a rural area, we won't get another order unless we do backtrack and we get paid for none of that. 

Here is one of those examples. 

There are virtually no restaurants in the customer's area so they're ordering Chipotle from almost 30 miles away. It's quite a rural juror situation.

I mean I guess they don't have to worry about the food getting cold since Chipotle is pretty much cold the moment you get it but this is no cakewalk for the driver.

The driver is gonna have to backtrack that distance to get back into busier areas and get another order so while that person clearly tipped a good bit, it's still not worth it.

I could just do two more orders with that 2 mile delivery radius for $10 and save quite a bit on gas. 

Can the driver see if you're tipping beforehand?

While it doesn't show the exact tip, since we know UberEats pays between $2 and $3, through deductive reasoning we can conclude when an order for $2 pops up, it is a no tip order and not worth our time.

So what happens if you don't tip?

In short: no one will take your order or you'll be waiting a while. The order will pop up on dozens of driver's phones and they'll just hit decline.

That'll keep going until a driver who maybe lives in your area and wants to get paid even a little to drive home and call it a night. Or maybe you'll get a newbie who doesn't know they can decline orders.

Your food will be cold and soggy and you'll have wasted your money. If you don't mind cold and soggy food, that's fine but most people do mind.

People find this preposterous, especially since tipping seems "optional" on most popular delivery apps, including on UberEats.

Well it's optional if you don't want your food delivered.

As you can see, these delivery apps don't pay so why would someone use their car and waste gas to get paid 2ish dollars?

If you don't like it, take it up with UberEats and do the whole union thing I mentioned earlier (Please don't)! I'm just the messenger.

Oh but I don't tip and I usually get my order. 

As I mentioned before, UberEats sometimes groups a higher tipping customer with a lower tipping to get drivers to take the order. That's really the only reason why you'd  get your order on time.

Unfortunately, next time you won't tip again because, well you got your food on time the last time. 

But as always, I digress...

So what's a decent tip?

Yes finally, let's get to it! 

Not the dreaded $2. UberEats already chooses to pay us $2, could you not? Many people assume that $2 is enough. It's not. Under any circumstances really. Ever.

A decent tip is anything that compensates your driver for having to drive to the restaurant (think gas), wait for your order (time) and drive to your home (gas and time).

Again, if you live in a more rural area, the driver isn't gonna get paid for another order until they're back in a more populated area so that's also a consideration.

How much is that convenience worth to you?

Some people say well, it's just popping in to the restaurant but let me tell you, I'm not your loved one on her way home who begrudgingly pops into a restaurant to pick up your food.

I'm not gonna show you all the amazing tips I've received in the past because I do want you to decide for yourself.

I do understand that not everyone has money to spend but you are springing for delivery, don't cut corners where it matters most.

OK fine, so how much??

Here is what I would recommend as a baseline for tipping:

• at least $3 in tip for lunch orders within a couple of miles from the restaurant
• at least $5 for dinner orders on weeknights if you live within a 5 mile radius of the restaurant.
• beyond 5 miles, you should add $ to account for mileage (58 cents per mile is standard)
• at least $8 for weekends during busy times from 5PM-8PM

I'm talking minimum here! No matter if you just order a sandwich from Panera or a full meal from your favorite local spot.

More than that is always appreciated and will get your food to you faster.

What about the restaurant tipping standard?

So we've already discussed compensating me for my time, gas and putting a price on the convenience of having food delivered to your doorstep.

Many people choose to use the 10-20% restaurant tipping standard based on the total of their order.

That works perfectly fine but many orders are around $20 so bear in mind that the process of picking up a $20 involves the same on my end as a $90 order.

In other words, tipping 10% off your $20 or a $2 tip isn't great and would most likely put your order in a similar holding pattern as a no tip order, especially on the weekends when it's busy and drivers are able to get orders between $15 and $25 a pop.

If we do the math from before, I'd get around $3 of base pay since it's the weekend plus your $2 for a total of $5 so that's not gonna be a priority unless you live around 1 mile from the restaurant. 

The restaurant tipping standard is fine for orders over $40 but please bear in mind that unlike waitstaff, I use my car to drive around and deliver to your doorstep so if you just have a $10 Panera order, don't just tip 10-20%.

Are cash tips OK?

I think by now you know that's not a good idea unless it's cash upon delivery in addition to what you tipped on UberEats before you placed the order.

If you plan on tipping cash only, your order will show up as a no tip order on the drivers' end and not get picked up in a timely manner or at all so cash is a super nice extra but not if you're adding $0 on UberEats beforehand.

You're doing yourself a disservice and you risk wasting a ton of money on your food that's gonna get to you in bad shape or not at all. 

UberEats gives us 100% of your tips so there's no reason to opt for just cash. 

What about terrible drivers?

I know you've probably wasted some money on a terrible driver and vowed to never tip that much again. Maybe that person was new or just not cut out for the job, who knows.

Even delivery driving isn't for everyone even though anyone who can pass a background check can be a driver. 

We don't receive training (I know you're thinking, how hard can it be to grab an order?) but trust me, I've had to deal with anything from missing orders to double orders to wrong addresses, etc.

I've created this site in hopes of providing relevant information to food delivery drivers so they can provide the best customer service since the companies we deliver for don't usually provide much, if any training.

I am a big advocate of drivers using professional insulated bags because UberEats doesn't provide bags for free. I’ve had to buy my own bags and yes that’s a tax write-off but most drivers don’t go the extra mile and don’t use bags, which is probably why you’ve received some lukewarm meals in the past.

One of the good things on UberEats (wow, I'm so generous!) is that you can increase or decrease your tips after delivery and in all honesty, I'm all for that.

You got crappy service? You should reduce your tip and leave a bad rating. 

I've ordered on UberEats and have had drivers look down and barely acknowledge me when handing me the order and other weird stuff.

I also know, drivers often leave the order right in front of a door that opens outward so your stuff gets knocked over and other dumb stuff. There is kind of the focus on speed so common sense falls by the wayside. 

Again, that's what ratings are for. Make it about that particular driver, not everyone who drives.

Here's a tip for a better delivery experience

I highly recommend leaving insanely detailed delivery instructions such as "door opens outward, do not block it". Seems obvious but honestly, a lot of times, we're rushing to get you your order and are probably lost so when we finally get to your place, we're like phew that's done.

People don't leave good delivery instructions. Some places don't show up on Google maps, if you know that you live in one of those places, leave delivery instructions.

OK, that's enough of that but it's super important to take charge of your order. You've already outsourced all the annoying parts like cooking and having to go out to grab the order so take a few seconds to leave good delivery instructions.

That's all she wrote... no really!

Hopefully, you have a better understanding as to why your tips matter so much. It's not someone spinning an iPad around after you've ordered a small coffee and expecting a tip.

It's for someone who is willing to go out when you're not. Someone who often braves weird weather and traffic conditions, wait for your order and use their car to deliver where no man has ever delivered before.

Well, that's a bit much but you get the point. 

You might like

How to tip on DoorDash (spoiler alert, it's kind of the same song and dance)

How much to tip on Grubhub (you guessed it)

How to tip on Instacart (one of my favorite pages I've written!)

How to tip your Amazon Flex driver when ordering from Whole Foods for delivery (ugh, you gotta tip those guys too?)

Back to top

© Your Gigeconomist. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy