Here’s how it works: whenever you're ready to dash, open up the Dasher app, choose the state of your neighborhood you'd like to dash in, press 'Dash Now', then choose how long you'd like to dash for. You’ll receive notifications whenever an offer comes in. You usually have 40 to 90 seconds to accept an offer before it expires, so be sure to select the best offers as quickly as possible. Once you complete your first delivery, you'll receive a welcome kit in the mail. This kit includes a hot bag for transporting food and a red card, which is a prepaid card that enables you to accept orders that require payment at pickup. This kit usually takes three to five days to arrive.

Now let’s get right into some of the hacks I tested while dashing:

Hack #1: Install the Gridwise app. Gridwise is an app designed for delivery and rideshare drivers, and here are some of the benefits: You can increase your earnings as Gridwise shows you the times and locations that are likely to be busiest. It also helps with time management by providing real-time traffic updates and alerts, so you can plan your routes and deliveries more effectively. There is also expense tracking and driver analytics built directly into Gridwise.

Hack #2: Download Upside. Upside is a gas cashback app that helps you get cashback rewards for buying gas at participating gas stations. These rewards can be redeemed for gift cards, travel credit, and more. You also get a gas price comparison tool, which shows you gas prices in your area so you can always find the cheapest gas. Lastly, route planning helps you find the most efficient route to your destination and avoid traffic, which is key when completing deliveries with multiple stops.

Hack #3: Choosing when to deliver. There are many ways to determine the best times to deliver: during peak times like lunch and dinner, when DoorDash is offering promos, on weekends, or even when Gridwise says it’s the busiest. There is no perfect answer, but the most important factor is you want to deliver when DoorDash is busy. If you open up the Dasher app and your neighborhood says busy or very busy, that means it's a good time to dash. So long as it's busy, that's your green light to DoorDash. But to earn even more money, you want to dash when DoorDash says it’s busy and when DoorDash is offering a promo of one, two, or three dollars extra pay per order. From my experience, weekends and evenings from 8 PM to midnight tend to be the busiest. You can earn even more during bad weather or storms, so long as you feel it’s safe enough to dash. You can also use Gridwise recommendations to help decide when to deliver. It will be best when both Gridwise and DoorDash say that it’s a good time to deliver.

Now, there will be times where it may make sense not to dash. You don’t want to deliver when a city or neighborhood in the Dasher app is not busy. You don’t want to deliver too late at night when most restaurants are closed or nearing closing times. In most cities, this may be around 2 AM or 3 AM, but depending on where you live, it can be as early as 10 PM. You also don’t want to deliver during peak rush hour, especially in areas with road construction. Doing so may significantly extend the time it takes to deliver an order, which may result in lower ratings and lower overall pay.

Now, let’s move on to Hack #4: Choosing where to deliver. Generally, you want to focus on cities and neighborhoods in the Dasher app that are busy or very busy. Next, you want to focus on delivering to wealthier cities and suburbs surrounding downtown areas. For example, I’m located in Michigan and have received higher tips delivering to suburbs surrounding downtown Detroit. This may not be the case across all cities, but this is a perfect opportunity for you to use your knowledge of your local area to determine where you might receive the highest tips. Lastly, you want to deliver to areas with high population density or high customer density. This means there are potentially more orders to deliver in a smaller geographic area. For example, if you receive two delivery requests in the same apartment complex, you can increase your efficiency and end up earning more per hour. To identify which areas have the highest customer density, you can use the Dasher app to see which areas are busy or very busy, then line them up with the densest cities or neighborhoods near you. To find the densest areas near you, you can use a website like CityData. For example, to find the densest areas near Chicago, go to CityData.com, select the state of Illinois, select all cities under the city filter, then select population density under the data dropdown menu. Then zoom in and look at the darkest areas on the map. On this map of Chicago, the densest areas are Inverness, Northfield south of the Chicago Loop, Niles, and Addison.

Hack #5: Choosing which orders to accept. Here, I’ll share five general guidelines I follow to help decide which orders to accept: I mostly accepted orders that had guaranteed pay of six dollars or higher. I mostly accepted orders that paid over a dollar to a dollar fifty per mile—the higher, the better. I checked the delivery location before accepting an order; if it was outside of my preferred delivery area, I would factor in the time and miles it would take to get back or make sure that it was also in a busy or very busy area on the map in the Dasher app, which increased the likelihood of receiving an order on the way back to my preferred delivery area. I avoided accepting offers from supermarkets and Walmarts; they are often time-consuming and low-paying. I prioritize regular restaurant orders over those from fast food chains; some fast food orders may be low-paying and time-consuming. You can also use your knowledge of your local area to your advantage. For example, if you receive what appears to be an acceptable order from a fast food chain, you may choose to decline it because it is at a location that is extremely busy or very slow. Here are some examples of orders I would accept: You won’t be able to follow these guidelines to a T, but after delivering a few orders, you’ll begin to clearly see which orders are worth your time. Now, deciding which orders to accept is more of an art than a science. On one hand, you want the highest paying orders, but you also need to make sure that your acceptance rate does not fall below 50 to 70 percent. So, use these as guidelines, but there may be times where you’ll have to accept lower-paying orders.

Moving on to Hack #6: Extra things I do while dashing to provide the best service and maximize the amount I can earn. There are some extra things I’ll do whenever I dash: I double-check with the restaurant staff that they have included any drinks, signed orders, and sauce packets. I read and follow delivery instructions provided by the customer. For example, if you receive instructions to leave an order at the door, do not knock on the door or ring the doorbell. Doing so could disturb sleeping babies. I dress nicely and greet customers with a smile in order to make a good impression. I make it a point to say, “Enjoy your food,” and “Thank you for your order,” instead of “Thank you for your tip,” as that can be perceived as impolite. Whenever an order will take longer than expected or there’s a possibility of me running late, I send a courtesy text to the customer letting them know the situation and the status of their order. This simple gesture helps ensure good communication and increases the possibility of me receiving higher ratings and higher tips. I complete each delivery as quickly as possible: I pick up the food quickly and I get it to the customer quickly. I assist the customer as well as I can; whenever there’s a missing item in their order, I will call the restaurant and see how this can be alleviated for the customer. If I am too far away to go back and retrieve the missing items, I always dash along the way. If I am not currently located in a busier or very busy area, I will dash along the way to the busier or very busy area I choose to dash in. When my current session is over and I’m ready to make my way home, I will dash along the way home, only accepting the orders that pay well and get me closer to my house. Then, once I’m close enough to my house, I’ll open up the app and manually end the current session. Doing so allows me to make the most of my time and maximize earnings.

Now, let’s analyze the results and see how much I made after dashing for five hours to determine whether it was worth my time. I made a total of $115.50: $65.50 of that was from base pay, and fifty dollars of that was from tips. DoorDash tracks dash time and active time. Dash time is the total time spent dashing, whether you’re delivering orders or not. Active time is the total time spent actively picking up orders or delivering them. I had a total dash time of 8 hours, and five of those eight hours were active hours. In total, this comes out to $22.80 per active hour or 68 cents per mile. I was active for 63% of my total dash time. The more efficient you are and the more of these hacks you can utilize, the more you will earn. On my most efficient day, I earned $34.29 per active hour. Ultimately, this proves that driving for DoorDash can be a worthwhile source of income if you use these hacks to maximize your earnings.

Once again, I earned $22.80 per hour with DoorDash. Some days I earn more per hour, and some days I earned a bit less. Here are the best hacks to help maximize your pay: First, download Upside so you can earn cashback rewards for buying gas. Next, be strategic about when you will deliver—focus on the busiest times that fit within your availability. I found that the busiest times that worked for me were weekends, evenings from 8 pm to about midnight, and weekend evenings. Be strategic about where you will deliver—focus on areas that are busy and areas where you are likely to receive a higher tip. Only accept the best orders, which are orders that pay over six dollars, or orders that pay a dollar to $1.50 per mile or more. Go the extra mile to provide quality and timely service. Once again, this can lead to higher tips. And then lastly, always dash along the way to the city or neighborhood you’ll be dashing in, and then dash along the way home once you’ve finished up your session. Now, if you have some spare time each week, why not make $20 to $25 per hour and even up to $30 to $35 per hour if you combine these hacks with your knowledge of your local area?