Updated March 25, 2026 at 5:31 AM MDT
Drivers making deliveries for DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub are independent contractors, who have to keep a close eye on their bottom line.
"I run a simple spreadsheet every day," says Lee Dahl, who delivers for multiple food apps on Detroit's West Side. "How many hours, how many miles, what I made, tips, et cetera."
But a key variable in Dahl's calculations changed when the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran sent gas prices soaring. Before the conflict began, the national average for a gallon of gas was under $3. Nearly four weeks into the war, gas costs a lot more.
"Everything's getting up around $4 in this particular area," says Dahl, who gets about 25 miles per gallon driving his 2012 Hyundai Sonata.
A bit of relief emerged on Monday, when DoorDash announced an "emergency relief program" aimed to ease the crunch of high gas prices in the U.S. and Canada. It's similar to efforts in 2022, when fuel prices spiked after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Through late April, the program will offer 10% cash back on gas expenses for the majority of its drivers, with larger payouts for those who drive more than 125 miles a week. For drivers, it represents a rare — and temporary — chance at a pay increase, at a time when many other expenses have been going up.
"Cool gesture. Low impact," Dahl says of the DoorDash gas payments, noting their limited timeframe. He says that for him, the plan would be like getting paid for one or two more orders per week.
"It's like a death from a thousand cuts," says Kevin Hupe, a Canadian who makes DoorDash deliveries on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, citing the other higher costs drivers face, such as insurance.
Other delivery services haven't revealed plans similar to the DoorDash fuel payments. Grubhub says it's monitoring the situation, and Uber Eats did not reply to NPR's request for comment.
Drivers shift their strategies to adjust to high gas prices
Not every driver suffers the same from higher gas costs. Those driving hybrid or electric cars, for instance, are much less vulnerable to gas spikes than drivers like Hupe, 61, who drives a Honda CRV to deliver orders from DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart.
"For the last couple weeks I haven't worked much at all, partly due to a bothersome knee, and also because of fuel prices," Hupe says.
For Hupe, this work is optional, a way to earn a bit more spending money. But in Detroit, Dahl, 65, says he needs gig deliveries to supplement his Social Security payments and help cover rent. He says the higher costs have forced changes.
"I really have changed my strategy since the gas prices went up," Dahl says.
His goal is to keep his mileage as low as he can. So he's become more selective, accepting less than 25% of the orders he receives. He often confines himself to Detroit's North End area, where he's very familiar with the restaurants and roads.
While Dahl uses his spreadsheet to track how much he makes per hour, his key metric is dollars made per mile. Because along with gas costs, he's worried about wear and tear on his car, which needed $7,000 in repairs and upkeep last year. So he focuses on shorter delivery runs, and works to maximize incentive programs apps offer to drivers.
And it's working, Dahl says: "I've increased to well over $20, up to $23, $24 per hour."
Hupe says he only accepts orders that pay well or are close by. These days, he prefers orders that require him to shop at a grocery store.
"They pay more for those, and you're not driving your car while you're shopping," he says, adding that he can get some exercise, too.
Even before the war, drivers were feeling squeezed
The spike in gas prices comes as delivery drivers have seen their pay under pressure, from rising gas prices and living expenses to increased competition from more drivers, according to Ryan Green, CEO of the gig worker analytics firm Gridwise.
On one hand, demand is high, with large numbers of Americans — especially Millennials and Gen Z — saying food delivery is essential to their lifestyle, as NPR has reported. And on the other, Green says, food delivery companies have gradually lowered drivers' base pay.
DoorDash, for instance, dropped its minimum base pay to $2 per order in 2021, setting off protests and making tips even more vital to drivers. In 2024, the company said the median order value was about $30 across the platform, with 75% of orders below $43 in value.
"We see that about 50% of the delivery pay to a driver is coming from tips," Green says, adding that for rideshare trips, drivers only get about 9% of their pay from tipping.
"A lot of people don't realize the impact, especially on the delivery side, on the worker if you do not tip," Green says.
Because of that dynamic, Dahl in Detroit says drivers sometimes begrudge their customers. But he doesn't see it that way. For one thing, he likes the cool factor of the job, to bring someone a coffee and a bagel when they can't get it for themselves.
"The customers are our friends, not our enemies," Dahl says. "If it wasn't for the customers, I wouldn't be doing this, you know?"
But that doesn't mean it's easy. Hupe says he's glad he can choose how much he works.
"Anybody who's relying on this as their only source of income, I don't know how you do it, to tell you the truth," he says.
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