Basics:
Dolly enlists freelancers to deliver heavy items and help with moves
Expected pay: $15 – $30 per hour, plus tips
Husl$core: $$$
Commissions & fees: NA
Where: Select U.S. cities, including Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston
Requirements: 18+ (21+, if you’re a driver), able to pass a background check and lift 75 pounds or more. Drivers must also have auto insurance and a truck or van
What is Dolly?
Dolly connects people who need help with deliveries and moves with able-bodied side hustlers who are willing to pitch in.
How it works
If you want to sign up as a “helper” — a person with a truck and/or van, who is willing to participate in moves — you register with the site and provide photographs of your truck or van; insurance information and undergo a background check and training.
If you don’t have a truck, but are willing to do some heavy lifting, you can sign up as a “hand.” Both helpers and hands must be over the age of 18 and able to lift and carry 75 pounds. You’ll also need to pay $30 for a background check.
Once registered, the site will start sending you gigs that can accept or ignore.
Dolly review:
Dolly is a moving app that enlists freelance movers — both with and without trucks — to assist with both full moves and with large-item deliveries. The site says that freelancers working through the site earn an average of $35 to $50. But, we see little evidence that you’ll earn that much.
Once registered, trained and approved, the site will start sending you job offers. They say what the job is, where, and how much it pays.
Multiple problems
However, movers say there are multiple problems with Dolly:
- The app is glitchy.
- Jobs are not well-described.
- Driver support is largely missing in action.
- Customers are hard to reach.
- And you’re penalized if you cancel a job that you took based on the site’s inadequate descriptions.
And, although the site says you can earn $35 to $50 per hour here, many movers say those figures are vastly inflated. Says one driver on Google Play: Most jobs you’ll find are between $18 to $35 for 1 hr of work.
Helper and Hand reviews of the site are almost universally bad. And, one of the most common complaints is that the pay is not even close to what’s advertised.
Recommendations:
There are a lot of moving apps that will pay you well to use your truck to assist their customers. Dolly isn’t one of them. You probably will make at least minimum wage. But for a job that requires you to lift heavy objects and potentially drive your own vehicle and pay for your own gas, you can do better.
Better sites for movers? Citizen Shipper, UShip, GoShare, Bungii, Frayt and HireAHelper. They all describe jobs better, pay better and have better driver support than Dolly.
If you want to sign up with Dolly anyway, you can find them here.
What their users say: (from the Apple App store)
They used to pay well, now the wages are a joke for the drive time/work time combination (at least here in CA). Is $20 worth driving 25 miles each way to load and unload a couch worth it? With gas near 5 dollars a gallon, not so much. Sad part is they can afford to give their workers quite a bit more or actually pay for a support team!!
BEWARE THE TEAMS SCAM. When you have someone (like a spouse) who can work with you, they’ll tell you to setup as a team rather than an individual helper and hands. When you do this, you get paid LESS than when you register separately. Beyond this, job descriptions and sizes are often inaccurate. Support claims quick response times, but average 3-24hrs. Sometimes they don’t respond at all. Decent money can be made but you’ll have to deal with the frustrations. Also, dolly posts pay rates low and only increases to what they are able to pay if no one takes the job. They make massive profits by lowballing us contractors.
Move a fridge for $20?
This company needs to learn to adapt to market conditions and understand that gas is near $6 gallon (higher in some places). Nobody in their right minds is gonna move a fridge for $20. It’s a smack in the face to the workers. You will be better off Starting your own moving company instead of working for Dolly. They can’t seem to keep their hands off your hard worked money.
This apps are making money while you waste gas , time, and just putting in work to your vehicle , if you add the numbers your just getting almost nothing ! Plus you will have to file taxes after an amount won . Your making these people rich and are not going to make any money. It’s the 2022 kind of slavery.
(from Glassdoor)
As of the end of last summer – early fall of 2016, they decided to literally start giving away their services on the app. Now all posted jobs are now as low as $18.00 per job including: your hard labor, use of your truck, fuel / mileage costs etc. They have now started to post Dollys for a two person job, for as little as $19.00 and this amount includes 2 people. The pay is ridiculously low, compared to jobs listed from last year, which were more in line with what the job entailed and what the job was paying.
Keep in mind that the $30 per hour doesn’t take your overhead into consideration. You supply your truck, fuel costs, maintenance on your vehicle, tolls, and all equipment. You’ll pay social security and taxes out of your own pocket. After all said and done, you’ll be lucky if you can make minimum wage.
From Google Play
App glitches too much and customer service always the same people that barely speak clear English so makes it difficult to understand them or get answers
Dolly is one of the worst ran companies. They outsource everything. Hardly anyone speaks English. Terrible company that low balls pay to contractors. Everyone should quit, but you people are too desperate and don’t know how to handle your money, so you take their low offers. You get what you deserve.
They give you minimal information about jobs. The clients rarely answer messages when asking specific questions. By the time you do get details, it’s usually too late to cancel the trip, and if you do cancel within a 24-hour window, they charge YOU $20. I have taken jobs based on information they provide and have found myself in very unsafe situations based on the details they left out of the order request. I suggest picking another app and using them
Waste of 30.00 for background check. In 1 week, there were 2 requests, and each was around 29.00. They should know if there is no business in the area the application is for.
Updated 6/15/2024
Leave a Reply