Uber Eats vs Dominos Pizza Delivery Driver: Which Pays Better?

Pizza delivery has been around long, long, long before the gig app economy boomed, allowing almost anyone to deliver for pay. So, which pays better—Domino’s or Uber Eats? There’s only one way to find out – and we’ll break it down for you!

You can watch our video interview with a Domino’s driver on Uber Eats vs Dominos Pay here: Uber Eats Driver Vs Dominos Delivery Driver (Which pays better?!)

 

We’re generalizing a bit in this article and video because there’s not an enormous difference between all of the gig apps, so we’re using Uber Eats, but it could really apply to any of the most popular delivery apps.

You won’t really know which is better unless you’ve personally done both. Just like with any gig, it depends on your market and other factors. But below is one of our YouTube subscriber’s experiences comparing the two, interviewed by RSG’s delivery expert Elijah.

Uber Eats vs Domino’s

Robert had been doing Lyft and Uber before the pandemic and within two days “it went to crickets down here.” Robert pivoted to delivering for Domino’s. He’d never done pizza delivery before, but it sounded fun and he’d be working with his son, who was also delivering pizza for Dominos.

In the beginning, Robert was doing about 50 hours a week at Domino’s because they were booming during the pandemic.

He had done Uber Eats before the pandemic and didn’t find them to be comparable to driving passengers. The pay just didn’t compare to ridesharing at that time. “Sometimes it worked out fine,” said Robert.

“I had a huge advantage over 95% of the new drivers since I’d been doing the delivery and Uber and Lyft, I knew my area backward and forward,” said Robert. He also was more aware of instances where the GPS is wrong. Plus, based on his previous gig app experience, he knew which roads to avoid at what times and was less likely to get lost than the new drivers.

How Does the Pay Compare Between Uber Eats and Domino’s Pizza?

As far as pay goes, Robert says it was close to the same amount of money when comparing gig apps to pizza delivery. “The biggest difference is with all the gigs I could keep track of my mileage and write off as a tax deduction,” said Robert.

According to Robert, Domino’s was paying $1.50 per delivery “for my vehicle”, so he wasn’t able to take the mileage deduction when doing pizza delivery because he was already being paid for that.

Need a guide to taxes for delivery and rideshare? Our Guide to Taxes resource: Ultimate Tax Guide for Uber & Lyft Drivers

Domino’s Advantage: Regular Shifts!

“The biggest difference for me is that I was actually working regular time shifts, or I would tell them that they could call me if they got really busy as opposed to just flip on my app and look at it and ‘Oh, I don’t want to do that one because it’s not going to be profitable’.

With Dominos, you get sent to wherever and it might be 15 miles round trip for my delivery. I’m generally lucky if I get more than a $5 or $7 tip for that.”

Driving for Domino’s, Robert says he definitely got a lot more tips, but he also said a greater percentage of his pay was based on the tips as well. At Domino’s, when Robert was on the road, he started out at $4.55 an hour. Now he’s up to $6.50 an hour while on the road.

With Domino’s, they provided the pizza bags, and the drivers are expected to use their bags during deliveries. As far as GPS and other necessities for delivery, he’d already had them on hand from his gig economy days.

One thing Robert finds essential is a flashlight so he can find house numbers more easily in the dark.

Similar to Uber Eats stacked deliveries, Robert said the only time he wanted to work for Domino’s was when he had multiple deliveries to complete at one time. “I get paid based on how many deliveries I have and tipping opportunities,” said Robert. “There’s been a huge shortage of drivers for Domino’s, like Uber and Lyft.”

To maximize his profits, Robert will snag upwards of 7 deliveries at a time. He says the mileage won’t change all that much, so that’s when he’s the most efficient, when doing multiple deliveries. Robert would route his own orders to make sure they were all in the same general area and he made sure he knew what order to do the deliveries in to make the most efficient route instead of having to rely on Uber Eats to route him for a stacked order.

Handling Customer Complaints

Another thing that both pizza delivery and gig app delivery drivers have to deal with are customer complaints. Robert says he’s gotten to the point in his life where he can just basically shrug it off and say, “Sorry you’re unhappy.” He said with Dominos he has no control over customer satisfaction, as far as fixing any issues is concerned.

For both delivery options, Robert says he’s in very little control to be able to make any adjustments to right any wrongs with the customers.

One upside is that with Domino’s Robert believes there’s a very low chance for repercussions if there’s a customer complaint. He said it’s very rare that instances occur in the first place, but he doesn’t feel his job is at risk if he makes a mistake.

Whereas with Uber Eats or other delivery apps, a customer complaint or a false claim of non-delivery can put a driver at risk for deactivation.

However, Robert does say that in a lot of ways, the gig app is better than Dominos when it comes to interactions on the phone with the customer trying to find them.

If he gets pushback from the customer or a nasty person on the other end, he can just hang up and cancel and move on with his day. With Domino’s, if he has a bad interaction, he still has to complete his delivery.

He also mentioned that bad instances with customers is fairly rare overall between the two. “In the past year, people have become more understanding overall and just appreciating that we’re actually out there doing it,” explained Robert.

Conclusion

They both have their merits, but it seems like Robert leans toward Domino’s delivery over gig apps mainly because he can choose his route and take more orders at once to maximize his earnings. Robert also enjoys being able to be called in when it’s busy instead of having to check the app to see if orders are worthwhile.

For drivers on the delivery fence, what do you think about Domino’s delivery vs. using a delivery app? Would you prefer more consistent hours, even if that meant less control over the orders you respond to?

-Paula @ RSG