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Last updated 21 August 2026
Every delivery app shows you one number: the offer. None of them show you the second number, which is what is left after your car has taken its share and you have set aside what you owe in April. That second number is the only one that pays your rent.
This page explains the difference, with the actual per-mile cost of six vehicle types, from a small car up to a 26ft box truck.
DoorDash pay is made of base pay plus promotions plus the customer's tip. Base pay is usually a few dollars per order and varies with distance and how long the delivery is expected to take. The tip is where most of the money comes from, and it is the part you cannot predict.
That produces wide, honest ranges rather than a single figure:
| Measure | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Per delivery, including tip | $5.00 – $12.00 |
| Deliveries per hour | 2 – 3 |
| Gross per hour | $15.00 – $25.00 |
Anyone quoting you a precise national average is guessing. Pay varies by city, by time of day, by whether it is raining, and by how many other drivers are online. What does not vary, and what you can know exactly, is what the driving costs you.
Three things come out of every mile: fuel, upkeep, and depreciation. Upkeep is tyres, brakes, oil and the repairs that come from putting delivery miles on a vehicle. Depreciation is the resale value you spend by adding those miles.
These are the figures the DeliverRev calculator uses, at $2.95 a gallon for petrol and $3.55 for diesel:
| Vehicle | MPG | Fuel | Upkeep | Depreciation | Total per mile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Car | 30 | $0.10 | $0.13 | $0.09 | $0.32 |
| SUV | 24 | $0.12 | $0.15 | $0.11 | $0.38 |
| Minivan | 20 | $0.15 | $0.18 | $0.10 | $0.43 |
| Pickup | 19 | $0.16 | $0.17 | $0.12 | $0.45 |
| Cargo van | 16 | $0.18 | $0.22 | $0.12 | $0.52 |
| Box truck, up to 26ft | 9 | $0.39 | $0.36 | $0.17 | $0.92 |
That bottom row is the one nobody writes about. A 26ft box truck is the largest vehicle you can run without a CDL, and it costs nearly three times what a car costs per mile. On food delivery that is ruinous. On the right freight it is fine. The vehicle does not decide whether you make money; the pairing of vehicle and work does.
A $9.00 DoorDash order, 4.2 miles round trip, driven in a minivan at $0.43 a mile:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Paid to you | $9.00 |
| Your fuel and wear, 4.2 mi | −$1.81 |
| Your tax set-aside | −$1.32 |
| True take-home | $5.87 |
DoorDash paid you the full $9.00. Nothing was deducted by anyone. But $3.13 of it was already spoken for, and the offer screen never said so.
Run the same order in a box truck and your vehicle cost alone is $3.86, which leaves under $4 before tax. Run it in a small car and you keep nearly $6.50. Same order, same screen, same driver.
Pick your exact vehicle, put in a real offer, and see the take-home before you accept. Free, no sign-up, no card.
Open the free calculatorDoorDash pays you as an independent contractor. Nothing is withheld. You owe self-employment tax on your profit, and income tax on top of that, and none of it is taken out along the way.
A common working figure is to set aside around 18% of profit after vehicle costs. That is not tax advice and your own rate depends on your total income, your state and your deductions. Speak to an accountant before you file. What matters here is that the money is not yours to spend, and no screen in the app will tell you that.
It depends on three things, and only one of them is DoorDash's doing:
The answer is not that food delivery is bad. It is that you cannot tell a good offer from a bad one by looking at the offer.
Most drivers gross $15 to $25 an hour before expenses. After fuel, vehicle wear and setting aside tax, take-home is usually $9 to $16 an hour. The range is wide because tips vary and because vehicle costs vary from $0.32 a mile in a car to $0.92 in a 26ft box truck.
No. You are an independent contractor and fuel is your own cost. It is deductible against your taxes, but it comes out of your pocket first. Fuel alone runs from about $0.10 a mile in an efficient car to $0.39 a mile in a diesel box truck.
Work out your vehicle's cost per mile first, then judge offers against it. If your car costs $0.32 a mile, an offer paying less than that per mile loses you money before you count a single minute of your time. That figure, not an hourly target, is the floor that matters.
Not on food orders. At $0.92 a mile a 26ft box truck needs freight that pays for its size, such as pallet runs, furniture, or contracted local delivery. The vehicle is not the problem; putting it on $9 orders is.
Put your vehicle and the offer into the DeliverRev calculator. It applies your vehicle's actual cost per mile and a tax set-aside, and returns the take-home figure. It is free, needs no account, and works with DoorDash, Uber Eats, Instacart, Grubhub and Amazon Flex.