Deliveroo vs JustEat vs UberEats: Which One Is Best For Drivers?

Ever since the food delivery and takeaway market started booming during the pandemic, more people than ever are considering taking up food delivery, whether as a full-time job or to complement other employment they have. It’s ideal for anybody looking for flexible work, but if you’re thinking of signing up you may be wondering—how much can I earn as a food delivery driver? This article will cover everything you need to know for the UK’s largest food delivery businesses, including Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats.

What's in this article

• How Much Can You Earn As A Food Delivery Driver?
  • Deliveroo
  • JustEat
  • UberEats
• Hidden Costs

How Much Can You Earn As A Food Delivery Driver?

According to our research of the UK market, a food delivery driver is likely to earn between £7-£13 per hour, depending on their local area, when they work and the food delivery app they use. In this article we'll deep dive into earnings potential for all three apps as well as other benefits to see which is truly the best for drivers.

When thinking about how much you can earn as a delivery driver, also keep in mind additional expenses you'll incur when working as a delivery driver like paying for delivery driver insurance.

As always, also consider the number of drivers online at any given time. Picking and choosing your spots can help push your hourly income upwards (especially on busy Friday/Saturday nights), and will inevitably increase your Deliveroo pay, UberEats pay or JustEat pay.

Average Earnings As A Food Delivery Driver

Research by PayScale has the average UK delivery driver earning £9.74 per hour, jwhich is actually below the UK’s National Minimum Wage of £10.42 for over 23's.

Potential drivers shouldn't be too concerned, however—the highly variable nature of customer orders simply means some hours will be busier than others, so it's very much possible to earn over minimum wage as a UK food delivery driver.

If you’re looking to optimize your earnings, we’ve put together a guide to help you earn more as a delivery driver. Without a doubt, the best way of all is to make sure you’re not sat around doing nothing—most businesses (whether an app or a single takeaway) will pay you a base hourly rate and a 'per drop' rate, so the more deliveries you make the more you’ll earn.

The exception to this is JustEat, where drivers are either an independent contractor (paid per delivery) or a salaried worker (paid per hour).

The UK Delivery App Market

While JustEat used to be the largest delivery app by a mile, Deliveroo and Uber Eats have been gaining market share.

According to Statista, UberEats was the most downloaded food delivery app of 2022, responsible for ~37% of downloads for UberEats, Deliveroo and JustEat. Deliveroo came in second place for downloads, at 34%, with JustEat in third with a still respectable 30%.

Simply put, all three can be a viable option for a driver if the app is available in their local area and the demand is there. Let’s take a look at each app's benefits and disadvantages.

How Much Does Deliveroo Pay?

Our research from sites like Indeed shows that the average Deliveroo driver earns around £14 per hour, with a range of £6.65 to over £19 per hour (although we suspect both extremes are pretty unusual). The company doesn’t publicly advertise the amounts they pay their drivers, so we must rely on driver-reported figures like these. You’re more likely to hit the higher end of the bracket during their busiest periods, such as bank holidays, weekends and special occasions (such as Valentine’s Day or New Years Eve).

Deliveroo pays you per drop—typically around £3-£4 per drop, as far as we know. If you're able to pick up more than one order from a single restaurant then this multiplies, making these journeys the most lucrative Deliveroo offers.

Deliveroo does have some good incentives, offering bonuses per drop for operating in busy regions or during some of the hectic periods mentioned above that can help increase your earnings, but these aren’t guaranteed and competition for shifts in these areas is fierce.

Here’s some positive comments from drivers on Indeed regarding pay:

"... it says you can earn £16 p/hr, this is not true and I have been working with Deliveroo for a month, I average out £8-10 p/hr depending how busy it gets, however the people I work with are nice and cool, I work in elephant and castle, it may be different in other areas."

“Can easily make £100 a day in Central London”

“I made about £11 an hour… really good thing to do on the side…”

However, as Deliveroo has grown, competition for drops has increased (a common theme for all the providers) as more and more drivers and riders have joined the company. You may find yourself, especially during slower periods, making 1-2 drops per hour (if that, according to some comments).

“After insurance/fuel average is [around] £2 a delivery”

“pay was very low, about £6.50 per hour, when the basic [rate] was £7.00 per hour”

"No jobs available, cannot make minimum wage doing this and you will have to stand around in the cold for hours in between earning a couple of pounds. Don't recommend."

As a side note, Deliveroo’s UK annual revenue growth had hovered around 50% from 2018 to 2021, however growth slowed significantly in 2022, with revenues up just 8% (compared to 56% the prior year, as an example).

How Much Does JustEat Pay?

JustEat drivers can earn at least the minimum or living wage rates (currently £10.42 for ages 23 and over), plus additional benefits. In an unprecedented move, JustEat recently announced it will be guaranteeing minimum or living wage to all UK couriers, as well as holiday/sick pay and parental leave/pay. This means if you work as a courier for Just Eat you will earn (at minimum) the National Minimum/Living Wage for your age bracket and location, irrespective of whether you’re a full-time, part-time or zero hour courier.

According to reported data from Indeed, on average Just Eat drivers can expect to earn an average of £9.78 per hour, but some report earning as much as £14.70 hourly. Also, they say on their site that drivers can earn up to £10.20 per hour in London (regardless of how many deliveries you make).

Here are a few things JustEat drivers said positively about their experience on Indeed:

“so simple… I usually get around £15-£20 an hour”

”Really good place to work.rewarding.good hours.easy.flexible..would definitely recommend such a job to anyone I know. Can be exhausted at end of shift but worth it"

We expect it's unusual to earn £15-£20 per hour, however, especially now. And as delivery driving became more popular, it seems like drivers were earning less than they had in, say, 2017/18.

"Generally a good company to work for but not flexible enough hours for me and sometimes with fuel cost didn't feel like I was earning enough to make it worth it"

"Terrible company. Extremely difficult to get in touch with don't have a number to call, don't always reply to emails and arrogant staff online not taking note of issues you may have. Loose documents and don't care and their drivers. DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS DISCRACE OF A COMPANY"

"Can be very uncomfortable when the weather is bad such as heavy rain since your outside 90% of the time also the they only give you 30 minutes break which is stupid and unfair considering all those hours."

"... it's awful if you get sick (I was never given sick pay when I got covid and provided proof)."

How Much Does UberEats Pay?

Our research indicates UberEats drivers earn around £9.81 per hour, ranging from around £6.65 to £16.60 in the UK.

Compared to working out what you might earn with Deliveroo or JustEat, estimating your earnings with UberEats used to be exceptionally easy—they provided a pay matrix online showing you were guaranteed your minimum fee even after Uber’s service charge, so if the 20%-30% took you below that Uber will top you up. The pay matrix below used to be readily available on their website but we don't see it anymore, so cannot be sure it's still valid. If any current riders can let us know their experience, we'd all be grateful.

It's also worth noting that UberEats is the only provider out of the three to take a cut of its drivers fees.

Note, these rates have come down starting in February 2022 to reflect the High Court ruling that changes how Uber pays. For example, the guaranteed minimum for London and Manchester used to be £3.50—it then came down 20% to £2.80. For the rest of the UK, the minimum dropped 25% from £4 to £3. They say: "Your take home rates (base, per mile and per minute) will stay the same, but you will notice that the rates on your earning statements will appear lower than today by 25% . This is because the rates drivers receive under the new model don’t include the Service fee that Uber charges today." So, while it looks like the pay became lower, in fact it did not, because Uber used to take a service fee off of the higher rates; now it seems they just pay a lower rate but don't take a service fee.

Uber, like Deliveroo, has incentives for drivers operating during busier times or in specific areas. It’s called Boost and acts a multiplier for your earnings if you’re in a “Boost Zone”, which can be seen through your UberEats driver app. Uber also has a driver-friendly “instant cashout”, allowing drivers to receive their pay for their completed work within minutes of request.

There are plenty of positive comments out there about drivers earnings with UberEats—here’s a few we found online:

“easily earn over £500 per week [working] 40 hours”

“it can be very profitable during peak hours”

Be careful of quiet periods, however—the way UberEats pays you means you could end up earning well below minimum wage for a shift.

“Dead periods lasting months, when you earn way below minimum wage”

“5 hours free… you will make MAYBE £30”

Be Careful Of Hidden Costs

If you’re going to be using your vehicle to deliver anything, it’s important to consider the costs you’re taking on to earn money. You’ll have to pay for your own fuel and sign up for a potentially expensive Courier Insurance policy—and that isn’t even considering the extra mileage and increased risk of an accident you’ll be taking on.

Insurance, especially, is something that drivers can often forget to think about when signing up as a courier. If you’re going to be working full-time, a monthly Courier Car Insurance policy can set you back over £200 a month—which may be a tough pill to swallow during quieter periods.

Mileage and wear and tear is important to factor in too: considering the average UK road user averaged just over 20 miles per day in 2019 (and some delivery drivers reported driving north of 100 miles per day) you’ll need to consider the impact on your vehicle's value if and when you decide to sell or trade it in.

Deliveroo vs JustEat vs UberEats Pay Comparison: The Final Verdict

As of writing, JustEat’s new model, guaranteeing (at least) National Minimum Wage to its couriers seems to be the safest bet for drivers. However, depending on how their incentives/per drop pay ends up looking, you may find higher upside working for Deliveroo or UberEats.

Of these two, our research of data from Indeed indicated drivers generally earned more with Deliveroo, although this was not anywhere near consistent, and some drivers certainly earned more through other apps.

There are many variables at play that will affect your individual pay, so your best bet is probably to try as many different delivery/courier apps as possible and find which works best for you in your area. There’s nothing stopping you from being signed up to all three (although you aren’t allowed to be logged in to multiple at the same time) so try them all out and see which works best—many drivers end up discovering that using a combination of the three, depending on which is busier/quieter, tends to work best. Also, ask around to find out about the experiences of other delivery drivers in your area.

What Next?

Our guides to signing up and getting properly insured with all three providers could be a good starting point, whether you’ve decided which one you’d like to work for or are still considering your options:

How to become a Deliveroo driver

Head to the Deliveroo website to begin the sign-up process. You'll need a scooter, bike or car (with correct licensing/equipment), a Smartphone (iOS 12/Android 6 or above), proof of your right to work in the UK and to be over the age of 18.

After that, check out our guide to insurance for Deliveroo drivers to make sure you're properly insured.

How to become an UberEats driver

Head over to Uber's "deliver" website to begin the process of becoming an UberEats driver. You'll need to have proof of your vehicle of choice (bike, motorbike, car, etc.), have your UberEats Insurance sorted beforehand and be able to submit your documents, before finally passing Uber's background check.

How to become a JustEat driver

There are now two ways to drive with JustEat, as an independent contractor or a salaried worker in a few select cities. Either way, click here to learn more and apply.

Deliveroo vs Just Eat vs Uber Eats—2023 UK Pay Update

Research by Rodeo (via The Independent) found that pay-per-order for couriers and delivery drivers dropped by around 2.5% year-on-year—with the biggest reduction coming for drivers/riders delivering for Just Eat, where pay was reduced by around 6.1% for every successful delivery completed.

Rodeo, an app used by couriers/delivery drivers to track their earnings, took the data from more than 10 million orders input by UK couriers—but were challenged on the data by a spokesperson for Deliveroo, who stated:

“These numbers are incorrect and misleading, based on unverified data [and] average pay for time Deliveroo riders spend on an order has increased over the past year.”

Finding the right insurance

Courier Insurance can be an extremely complicated business—our partners at QuoteZone aim to take the hassle of things out of the equation. Fill out a quote form and they’ll connect you with a number of insurance businesses that are happy to cover your work as a courier.