What: OrderUp, also known as Groupon-to-go, provides work delivering food primarily in college towns but deliver drivers get a pittance

Expected pay: $0 – $12 per hour

Husl $core: $

Where:

Bloomington, Ind.; Boulder, CO; Chesapeake, IA; Columbia, MO; Columbus, OH; Denver, CO; Eugene, OR; Mission Valley, CA; Northern Colorado, CO; Oklahoma City, OK; Pacific Beach, CA; San Diego, CA; Santa Barbara, CA; Stillwater, OK, Virginia Beach, VA, West Lafayette, IN

Requirements:

  • Be over the age of 18
  • Have a car and auto insurance
  • Have a smart phone with a good data plan
  • Pass a background check and telephone screening

Review: 

OrderUp, also known as Groupon-to-go, provides work delivering food primarily in college towns. The company’s pay formula is that you get a commission on the delivery fee, plus the tip. By and large, college students are not great tippers.

Drivers have complained on Glassdoor that they might make as little as $10 during a four-hour shift, though more when it’s busy. Either way, you’re not raking in the dough. And you are on the hook for the cost of gas, the wear and tear on your car and, in some areas, you’ll have to pay to park, too.

We give this opportunity two stars out of five only because, in a few markets, they do offer a guaranteed minimum wage. If you happen to work in one of those markets, it’s a slightly better deal. Otherwise, don’t waste your time. You’d make substantially more sweeping the floor at McDonalds.

Much better opportunities are available through Caviar, Grub Hub, Favor Delivery or Deliv.

What their drivers say:

(Comments are edited solely for grammar, clarity and space.)

“Unless you’re in a guaranteed pay area (new area that will be slow) you only make money from tips and part of the delivery fee. You can make $50 for a 4-hour shift, or on a slow night make $10. Slow nights can be really boring. It also adds a lot of miles to your car and you will use a good amount of gas.”

“Without tips you can make as little as $4.00/hr for orders that take a long time, the app does not have any vocal command features and you are supposed to use it while driving!”

“Driving is NOT self-employment. You are subject to how busy they are, the inefficiency of their dispatch system, the efficiency of the participating restaurants which always put OrderUp at the bottom of the priority list, and the customer giving the correct address and answering the door or their phone. If you dare reject a dispatch (which they claim is your right as an independent contractor) that is on the other side of the delivery area and makes no economical sense for you to accept, you can guarantee business will immediately slow down for YOU. If you reject 2 dispatches in one hour (or miss them due to the faulty app), they punish you by knocking you off the app for 15 minutes. You are at the mercy of their inefficiency and that of the restaurants. Dispatch does nothing for the driver when there is an issue with an order. They only push the driver to make more calls, wait around, or drive back to previous locations to ensure the orders get completed….[if they didn’t maintain you were “self-employed” they’d have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for you, plus a minimum wage].”