Should I ever accept a low offer?

Only if it moves you toward a better zone, keeps a streak/bonus alive, or fills dead time on your way home.

What is a good $/mile?

Most drivers target $1.50–$2.00 per mile minimum. Long highway runs can work lower; dense city runs should be higher.

Do I have to accept every offer?

No. Acceptance rate mostly affects priority tiers on some platforms — profit per hour matters more than acceptance rate.

Multi-apping — worth it?

Yes for short-radius food orders, risky for scheduled blocks and shop-and-deliver batches where lateness costs you.

How do I handle a stacked order?

Judge the whole batch: total pay ÷ total miles and total time. One bad leg can sink a good-looking stack.

Gig Driving 101

How the money really works behind an offer.

You're a business, not an employee

Every platform pays you as an independent contractor. Nobody covers your gas, tires, brakes or time between offers. Your job is to price your own work — the app just sends you proposals.

The only number that matters is what's left after miles, time and expenses.

How an offer is built

Most offers combine a base pay, a distance component and a customer tip. Tips can be hidden or adjusted after delivery, so treat a big payout on a long route with healthy suspicion.

Base pay — usually small and fixed
Distance / time pay — varies by market
Tip — can be the majority of the offer
Promotions — peak pay, surges, batch bonuses

The three numbers to check

1Dollars per mile

Offer pay ÷ total miles, including your drive to the pickup. Under your floor, it's a pass.

2Real hourly

Pay minus gas, divided by drive time + wait time + drive home. This is almost always lower than the app implies.

3Distance from home

A route that ends 40 miles out costs you an unpaid hour to return. That return leg is part of the offer whether the platform says so or not.

GigHack calculates all three for you on every screenshot you analyze.

Dead miles and hidden labor

Dead miles are every mile you drive unpaid: to the store, between zones, and back home. Hidden labor is the unpaid work inside a delivery.

Apartment complexes, gated lots and stairs
Waiting on a restaurant or warehouse staging
Shopping, scanning and substitutions
Heavy items, water cases and furniture
Parking downtown and walking the last block

Platform quick notes

DashLink / Spark: warehouse and store waits, multi-drop routes, long rural tails.
DoorDash / Uber Eats / Lyft: short radius, restaurant delays, apartment risk, rush-hour traffic.
Amazon Flex / Veho: fixed blocks — judge the block rate against station distance and drive home.
Instacart: shopping time is the real cost; item count matters more than miles.
Roadie: item size and loading effort decide whether the payout is fair.

Accept / pass checklist

$/mile above your floor

Set it in your dashboard

Real hourly beats your goal

After gas and drive home

Drive back is paid for

Dead miles cut earnings

Wait time is short

Warehouses and restaurants stall

Lots of apartment drops

Hidden unpaid labor

Heavy or bulky items

Slower pickup and drop

Deep rural final stop

Long unpaid return

Habits of profitable drivers

Know your cost per mile before you take anything
Work a tight zone instead of chasing pay across the map
Decline fast — a slow decline costs more than a bad offer
Track every trip so the numbers, not the vibes, decide
Log expenses and miles the same day you drive

Next lesson: keep more of what you earn with Business Expenses 101.

Common questions

Educational information only — pay rules vary by market and platform.