Favor Delivery: A Runner’s Guide

What is Favor Delivery?

Favor is a Texas delivery service that enlists freelance “runners” to delivery almost anything — from fast food to dry cleaning.

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Favor Delivery Review:

This site likes to tell its “runners” that they’re more like personal assistants than delivery drivers, since they can deliver everything from food to documents. That’s true. But what they don’t say is you do more for less money than a normal delivery driver.

How it works for customers

When customers order food from DoorDash or GrubHub, they typically fill out the order online. Delivery drivers simply pick up orders and bring them to the customer’s house.

When you order through Favor, you tell the driver what you want and the driver orders it for you. This allows you to order from fast-food joints, such as McDonalds and Subway, that don’t have contracts with the likes of DoorDash.

How it works for drivers

However, for drivers, this means that Favor orders are likely to take more time and involve low-value meals, where customers are less likely to tip generously. If someone orders a Subway sandwich at lunchtime, for example, the driver needs to stand in line to order it, wait while it’s made and then deliver it to the customer. That can easily take 45 minutes to an hour.

Since that sandwich costs only slightly more than the delivery fee, customers are less likely to give more than the minimum tip. Thus, drivers may make only the $2 delivery fee, plus the $2 minimum tip. That translates to rotten wages, particularly for drivers who are using their own cars and gas to provide this service.

Guaranteed pay

Favor does offer some guaranteed pay — ranging from $9 to $10 per hour. But that’s only if you schedule your shift in advance. If you don’t do that, the bulk of your pay is dependent on customer tips.

It’s no wonder that customers complain that Favor delivery drivers regularly decline orders. This app is unpleasant for customers and drivers alike.

Expenses

You use your own car, so you also have to account for gas and wear and tear, which eats into your net hourly wage. Moreover, you need to buy a cooler to keep meals fresh and a Favor Delivery shirt.

Recommendations

It’s hard to come up with an argument in favor of driving for this app, particularly in an era of high gas prices. You’d do vastly better with Amazon Flex, GrubHub, Uber Eats (sign up here) and DoorDash. (You can sign up with DoorDash here.)

Or, you can find a side hustle that suits your interests and skills by taking our Quiz.

What their drivers say (from Indeed):

Great for any time you need fast cash. I wish the pay was higher and the tip was higher requirement. Sometimes u don’t get a favor request for long periods of time or it’s a far delivery and not worth the gas or mileage.

Honestly, I am not sure if it’s even worth being a delivery driver anymore. You may average about $10 per delivery and a single delivery could take about 30 min. to an hour to complete. I wouldn’t try making this my full-time job. Just as a way to get a bit of extra money when I need it.

Favor itself doesn’t pay that well, mostly work for tips. Driving around uses a lot of gas and they do not reimburse you. Sometimes not worth the hassle if people have a small order.

Good money on weekends

“Great for extra money on weekends. If you aren’t scheduled, you can still work, but you won’t be guaranteed the $9/hour. With the expansion to Favor more Runners have been hitting the streets of Dallas, unfortunately that means less shifts have been opening up. If you plan on working 5:00pm-10:00pm you’ll make at least $12/hour!”

This job is literally the most flexible job you would have in your lifetime. You choose your hours on the app and you also can clock out early if you want to. The money is mainly made from tips, but I always got a tip higher than 5. They also have something set up called guaranteed pay. That comes into play when you earn less than $9 an hour during scheduled shifts. There’s also something where you can just work whenever you want. The only problem is you won’t get that guaranteed pay.

From the Apple App Store

The problem is the drivers who use the app to place your order have to be competent, sharp and customer service driven. If the driver orders in haste or doesn’t read the order correctly you won’t get what you ordered and it will be a disappointing experience. Or if they don’t care enough to make sure bag of food does flip over you get a box of mush.

This has been my history with using Favor over other food delivery apps. My history of receiving incorrect orders, or food delivered that looks like it went through a tumble dryer has happen more often than it should. The drivers every time answer my text and tell me “just call customer service, they’ll refund your money.” Which they do and the driver still gets the tip. So I’d say 30% of my orders placed on Favor have ended with me getting my money back, not getting to eat and more hassle than it was worth.

From Google Play

Have to contact costumer in order to give my runner a decent tip. If you’re able to tip a runner in person, please do so. They work hard, but should 100% not work for favor. 👎🏽👎🏽

This app used to be great. However, the last 3 times that I’ve ordered something, the runner has disconnected from the app so that I can not see arrival time. They have also not reached out to me or answered when I’ve texted or called. It has been a different runner each time and yet the same problem. As much as I love HEB, I’ve learned that their Favor app is completely undependable. I hope they listen to the many complaints they’ve had and find a solution.

Disappointed. been using this app for years but too many orders have been completely wrong and not properly refunded. I tip recommended or more every time, communicate w runners when they actually text for substitutions, and reach out for help when problems arose but just end up losing money while hangry. functionality of the app is fine, so are the options for food, so I’ll keep the two stars.

*Updated 5/31/2023