A Dashing We Will Go

Dashing

Its Sunday evening and there’s nothing on TV! I could just as well have stayed out dashing until it got too dark to see the sign posts but I didn’t. Let me tell you a little about why and how I “Dash”.  So far its working out pretty good for me. 

What’s a Dasher

You probably know what a dasher is. It’s basically a food delivery person who works through Door Dash. Notice I didn’t say works for Door Dash because you don’t. You might as well think of it as being your own business. You control when you work, where you work and how much you work. No punching time clocks, no bosses looking over your shoulders.  That’s not to say there aren’t rules and standards to meet but I haven’t found them to be too tough.

Dashers don’t just deliver food either. I’ve delivered balloons for parties and flowers to girl friends. There’s also “Shop & Go” orders where the “dasher” Gets a list and does the shopping and then delivers it. So there’s lots of variety.

Dasher Levels

There are 3 levels when you join Door Dash. The first is Silver. That’s where you learn the ropes. I was amazed when I first started how nervous I was. I’ve certainly done harder jobs so why was I so scared? Funny thing is as I’ve met other “Dashers” they mostly admit to the same thing. Newcomer nerves. 

On this first level you get small orders so its hard to make much money but I found I was kept busy because there are lots of small orders.  

The next level is Gold. To reach Gold you have to maintain a certain level on things like acceptance, customer ratings, and completion rate. I forget what they are but they need to be even higher to reach the top Tier which is Platinum. That’s where I’m sitting right now and where I try to stay.

Platinum Tier

Platinum is currently the highest level a “dasher” can reach. The perks are you are prioritized for large orders, you can dash whenever you want, and you also have priority for “High paying offers”. One requirement for Platinum is that you must have 100 completed orders in the last 3o days. That’s why I was Dashing today. It’s been really slow this week and my delivery count was down to exactly 100. I was afraid if I didn’t dash today it would drop below that magic number and I’d be downgraded to Gold. If that were to happen I would lose my dash anytime perk. Scheduling can be tricky and I love not having to do that.

How Much Do I Dash

I like my freedom. I putter around the house in the morning and usually go out to start a Dash around 11:30 or 12. I dash until around 3 or 3:30 depending on how busy it is. There is some downtime so my stats show that I actually make deliveries only about 10 hours over a 5 day week. I always have a book with me for the “Down times” .

Can Dashers Really Make Money?

I’ve met some folks that are really working at it close to full time and they are making a couple of grand a month. I make close to $1000 a month working , as I said above, about 10 hours a week .  I could work more days or longer shifts if I wanted to make more money but so far I like having the little extra but don’t feel the need for a huge payday. So there’s lots of things I like about it but most important I like the freedom to control my time and hours