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A comment on A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas from DoorDash for $16 (2020). Parent comment

Re:A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas fro... by Mockapapella on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @06:59PM (#32490117)
I'd just like to add my own anecdote in here. Delivering food for Doordash/Uber Eats is the reason I was able to stave off homelessness last year. By adhering to a strict schedule, I was able to make ~$1000/week in a moderately populated area (~180k pop) where the average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is $800-$1000/month. The reasons I stopped was

1. Their "automated" systems are trash. I was supposed to receive some perks for being one of the better drivers (higher ratings, consistently accept offers, etc.). And I did receive them. Then I didn't. Then I did. Then I didn't. Over and over again over the course of a day, and none of their support staff could speak proper English, so trying to communicate that problem was absolutely miserable. Over all it was such an awful experience that I just gave up on delivery all together.

2. Hours were long. 12-14 hour days, 6-7 days per week. Great for learning discipline. Not so great for enjoying life.

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Re:A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas fro... by kibwen on Tuesday August 16, 2022 @09:23PM (#32491172)
> ~$1000/week

Does that include car-related expenses? If not, what did they amount to?

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Re:A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas fro... by Mockapapella on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @01:50PM (#32499540)
On the high end, gas was ~$200/week. I was getting a $70 oil change every 1.5 months. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head (I only delivered for 7 months with a much slower pace at the beginning, from about January to the beginning of August of last year). So nearly 25% of my income was going to just maintenance, but the miles from driving as well as all expenses to maintain my car could be written off on my taxes. I think with everything involved I only paid something stupid low like a couple hundred in taxes.
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Re:A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas fro... by MerelyMortal on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @11:43AM (#32497847)
That's a good point, and it's still probably higher than average, but one should also consider what car-related expenses someone has at a 52k/year salary job commuting 1 hour to and from work each day. (I imagine the delivery driver used their car cumulatively more than 2 hours per day, but how much more, I don't know.)
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Re:A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas fro... by Mockapapella on Wednesday August 17, 2022 @01:55PM (#32499585)
My car was sitting in parking lots, being turned on and turned off, and driven around for about 12-14 hours per day towards the end there. That only happened for maybe 2 months. After I was finished and managed to land a better paying job, I ended up getting some much needed repairs on my car that would have not been fun to make up the cost of while I was delivering.
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