To calculate delivery earnings per hour, divide earnings by total work hours, including waiting between deliveries. For earnings after costs, subtract the costs you are including first, then divide by the same hours.
Gross earnings per hour = total earnings ÷ total work hours
Use this method for food, grocery, parcel, or courier deliveries. The USD examples below are fictional.
Step 1 Add the earnings for the work you are measuring
Choose a shift, day, or week and use its final earnings. DoorDash’s pay guide lists base pay, tips, and promotions as pay components. Uber’s earnings guide explains that adjustments and additional tips can arrive after a trip.
Suppose Friday’s shift earns $58 in base pay, $25 in tips, and a $10 delivery promotion. Record the $93 total once, without adding the included tips again.
Match later adjustments to the work they cover. Reconcile bank deposits with earnings statements: a deposit may cover several sessions or reflect cash-out fees. Keep unrelated referral payments separate from delivery performance comparisons.
Step 2 Convert work time into decimal hours
Include time working or available for deliveries, including waits between offers. Keep personal breaks separate. Working from 10 AM to 3 PM with a 30-minute offline personal break gives 4 hours 30 minutes of work.
Divide minutes by 60 and add the whole hours. Four hours 30 minutes becomes 4.5 hours. Entering 4.30 undercounts the time and inflates the hourly result.
For a verified session matching your work, use DoorDash Dash Time or Uber Eats Online Time. Active Time covers a narrower portion. The active time versus total time guide explains these measures.
Step 3 Calculate gross delivery earnings per hour
Friday’s $93 divided by 4.5 hours gives $20.67 per total work hour, rounded to cents. This is gross hourly earnings, before costs.
If that shift had 3 active hours, it earned $31.00 per active hour. Keep this separate from the total-hour result when comparing records.
Step 4 Calculate hourly earnings after costs
Earnings after costs per hour = (earnings − included costs) ÷ work hours
Friday’s 30 delivery-work miles at an illustrative $0.30 per mile for operating and maintenance costs produce a $9 estimate. That leaves $84 from the $93 earnings. Dividing $84 by 4.5 hours gives $18.67 per hour after those costs.
Choose a rate supported by your vehicle and records. The example rate is not a recommendation. For kilometers, use a cost per kilometer; keep distance and rate units matched.
State which costs you include. Drovm Analysis subtracts distance-based operating and maintenance estimates, excluding separately logged expenses and tax reserves. The $18.67 result is not after-tax take-home pay. Our delivery earnings after costs guide explains the distinctions and how to avoid counting costs twice.
Step 5 Calculate a weekly hourly average from the totals
Add weekly earnings and work hours separately, then divide. This weights every hour equally. These three fictional, nonoverlapping shifts include Friday’s example.
| Shift | Work hours | Gross earnings | Gross per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 2.0 | $48.00 | $24.00 |
| Wednesday | 3.0 | $54.00 | $18.00 |
| Friday | 4.5 | $93.00 | $20.67 |
| Weekly total | 9.5 | $195.00 | $20.53 |
Divide $195 by 9.5 hours to get $20.53 per hour. Averaging the three displayed shift rates gives $20.89, overstating the result by giving the two-hour shift the same weight as longer shifts.
If those shifts’ included costs total $24, weekly earnings after costs are $171, or $18.00 per hour. Use original earnings and time totals, then round the final result.
Count overlapping app hours once
Add each app’s earnings once and divide by actual combined work time. One app online from 1–4 PM and another from 2–4 PM cover three continuous hours overall. Adding their durations would incorrectly report five.
Keep each app’s own hours for platform comparisons. Use the multi-app earnings guide for overlapping sessions, and count shared delivery-work distance only once when estimating combined costs.
Handle missing time and zero earnings correctly
A verified hour spent working with no earnings contributes $0 and one hour to the weekly calculation. Omitting it inflates your result. Missing earnings are different from confirmed zero earnings and need checking.
If work time is missing or zero, leave the hourly rate uncalculated until you verify it. Keep currencies separate, and match every earnings total to the same date range as its hours.
Check the calculation with your own delivery records
Enter Friday’s $93 earnings, 4 hours 30 minutes, 30 miles, and $0.30 per mile in Drovm’s free hourly-pay calculator. Expect $20.67 gross and $18.67 after distance costs per total hour. No account is required.
Save session dates, start times, earnings, work durations, and distances in Drovm. Verify screenshot imports and keep time and cost definitions consistent across comparisons.