Delivery apps love to show a big number — "earn up to $30/hour!" — but that's the rate before fuel, before vehicle wear, and before all the time you spend waiting for orders. Your real hourly rate is what actually lands in your pocket per hour online. Here's how to work it out, and a real example.
The real-rate formula
Real hourly rate = (total earnings − running costs) ÷ total hours online. The key is "hours online", not "hours with an order" — the dead time between deliveries is unpaid, and it counts against your rate.
Worked example — a Friday night shift
You’re online for 5 hours and earn $120 in fees and tips. You drive 80 km and spend about $13 on fuel. So your net is $120 − $13 = $107, over 5 hours online = $21.40/hour. Not the $30 the app promised — but not bad, *if* Friday nights are consistently this busy. A quiet Tuesday with 2 hours of orders spread across 5 hours online tells a very different story.
The hidden costs people forget
| Cost | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Fuel | The obvious one — track it every shift. |
| Vehicle wear & servicing | Tyres, brakes, oil, depreciation add up per km. |
| Phone & data | You’re using your own device and plan. |
| No super, leave or sick pay | As a contractor you fund your own safety net. |
| Tax | You set aside your own — but you can also deduct (see below). |
The tax flip side — claim your kilometres
Those costs aren’t all bad news. In Australia you can deduct work kilometres at the ATO cents-per-km rate (around $0.88/km). That 80 km Friday night is roughly 80 × $0.88 = $70 of deductions — money off your taxable income. Over a year of driving, logging every kilometre can be worth thousands at tax time, so track km from day one.
So, is it worth it?
It depends entirely on *your* real rate in *your* city, on *your* busy days — not the app's headline number. The only way to know is to track a few weeks honestly: earnings, fuel, kilometres and hours online. Then compare your real $/hour to other work you could do.
Track your real rate automatically
Orary’s delivery mode is built for exactly this: log each session’s earnings, tips, kilometres and fuel, and it shows your real per-hour and per-order rates, your estimated mileage deduction, and a breakdown by platform — so you can see at a glance which apps and shifts are actually worth your time.
See your real delivery hourly rate — across every platform, free.
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