Glossary
Every term a UK gig driver runs into, defined in one plain sentence, with what it actually means for your money.
Stacked order (batched order, multi-collect)
A stacked order is two or more orders given to one rider on one trip. Deliveroo calls them stacked orders, Uber Eats batched orders and Just Eat multi-collect offers.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
Cash out (instant pay)
Cash out is taking your earnings before the normal weekly payment, usually for a small fee. Deliveroo and Uber charge 50p a time.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
Substitute (right of substitution)
A substitute is someone a self-employed rider or courier appoints to do the work on their account in their place. The right to use one is a mark of self-employment.
Account & platform problemsUpdated 29/09/2026
Pay floor (Deliveroo)
A pay floor is a guaranteed minimum rate. Deliveroo's, agreed each year with the GMB union, is a minimum fee per hour of estimated order time, set separately for cars, scooters, e-bikes and bicycles.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
Quest (Uber)
A Quest is an Uber incentive: an extra payment for completing a set number of trips or deliveries in a set time and area, on top of the fares.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
Multiplier (Stuart)
A multiplier is Stuart's incentive: it multiplies the base delivery fee by a factor shown on the invitation, so a £3.20 fee at x1.5 pays £4.80.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
Delivery run (Just Eat)
A delivery run is a scheduled block of time, usually three to five hours, when a Just Eat courier is on duty in a zone and receives offers.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
Owner driver franchise (ODF)
An owner driver franchise is a self-employed contract to run a parcel route for a carrier, in your own or a leased van, as your own business. DPD's is the best known.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Private hire driver licence (PHV or PCO licence)
A private hire driver licence is the licence from a council, or Transport for London, that you need to carry pre-booked paying passengers. In London it is often called a PCO licence.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Social, domestic and pleasure (SD&P) insurance
Social, domestic and pleasure, or SD&P, is the most basic use class on a car insurance policy: private use, not including commuting or any business use.
InsuranceUpdated 29/09/2026
Reporting rules for digital platforms (DAC7)
The reporting rules for digital platforms require apps that pay people for services to report who they paid, and how much, to HMRC every year. In Europe the same rules are known as DAC7.
HMRC & taxUpdated 29/09/2026
Acceptance rate
Your acceptance rate is the share of offers you accept. Some apps use it to decide who gets offers first, and others say it makes no difference.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
AMAP (approved mileage allowance payments)
AMAP is the flat per-mile rate HMRC lets you claim instead of working out what your vehicle actually costs. For a car or van it is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year and 25p after that.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 27/08/2026
Business mile
A business mile is a mile driven wholly and exclusively for the work. For a delivery driver that means the miles from the point you start working to the point you stop, including driving between drops and back to a depot.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 27/08/2026
Simplified expenses
Simplified expenses are HMRC flat rates you can use instead of adding up what something really cost. For drivers the important one is the mileage rate, which replaces every running cost of the vehicle with a rate per mile.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 27/08/2026
UTR (unique taxpayer reference)
A UTR is the ten-digit number HMRC gives you when you register for Self Assessment. It identifies you as a taxpayer, it never changes, and you cannot file a return without it.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Sole trader
A sole trader is a self-employed person trading as themselves rather than through a company. You and the business are the same legal person: you keep the profit and you carry the risk personally.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Self Assessment
Self Assessment is the system HMRC uses to collect tax from people whose tax is not taken at source. You report your income and costs once a year and pay what falls out, by 31 January.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Taxable profit
Taxable profit is what you are taxed on: everything the platforms paid you, minus the costs HMRC allows you to deduct. It is almost never the same as what landed in your bank account.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Turnover
Turnover is everything you earned from the work before a single cost comes off. For a gig driver that is the gross figure on the platform statement, including tips and including the fees the platform took.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Allowable expense
An allowable expense is a cost you can take off your income before tax. To qualify it has to be incurred wholly and exclusively for the work, which rules out anything with a private benefit attached.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Trading allowance
The trading allowance lets you earn £1,000 of self-employed income in a tax year without paying tax on it or, in most cases, telling HMRC. It is measured on turnover, before any expenses.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Personal allowance
The personal allowance is the amount of income you can have in a tax year before income tax starts. It is £12,570 for 2026/27, and it covers all your income together, not each job separately.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Payment on account
A payment on account is an advance instalment towards next year's tax bill. HMRC asks for them once your bill passes £1,000, in two halves, each equal to 50% of the year just filed.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Balancing payment
The balancing payment is the difference between the tax you actually owe for a year and what you already paid towards it in payments on account. It is due on 31 January with the return.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Class 4 National Insurance
Class 4 is the National Insurance self-employed people pay on their profits. It runs at 6% on profit between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above that, and it is collected with your income tax.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Class 2 National Insurance
Class 2 is the flat weekly National Insurance contribution that builds state pension entitlement. Compulsory Class 2 was abolished from 6 April 2024; you can still pay it voluntarily at £3.65 a week.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Capital allowance
A capital allowance is tax relief on something you bought to keep and use in the business, such as a vehicle. Instead of deducting the whole cost in one year, you deduct a percentage of what is left each year.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Writing down allowance
A writing down allowance is the percentage of an asset's remaining value you can deduct each year. Cars go into a pool and are written down at a rate that depends on their CO2 emissions.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs)
HMRC is the UK tax authority. It collects income tax and National Insurance, runs Self Assessment, and is the only organisation that decides what you owe.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Compliance check
A compliance check is HMRC looking at a return in detail. It usually starts with a letter naming the year and asking for specific records, most often the mileage log and the income figures.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Making Tax Digital (MTD)
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax replaces the single annual return with four quarterly updates and a final declaration, for people over an income threshold. It starts at £50,000 of qualifying income from 6 April 2026.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Minimum income floor
The minimum income floor is an assumed level of earnings Universal Credit uses for self-employed claimants past their start-up period. If you earn less than it, your award is worked out as though you had earned it anyway.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
Block (Amazon Flex)
A block is a scheduled slot of delivery work on Amazon Flex, offered at a fixed price for a fixed length of time, usually between two and five hours from a named delivery station.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
Surge
Surge is a temporary uplift on top of the normal fare or fee, applied when demand in an area is higher than the number of drivers available. Uber calls it surge, Deliveroo calls it boost, and the mechanic is the same.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
Deactivation
Deactivation is a platform switching off your access to work. It can be temporary or permanent, it is usually automated in the first instance, and it does not end your obligation to file a tax return for what you already earned.
Account & platform problemsUpdated 27/08/2026
Multi-apping
Multi-apping is working on two or more delivery platforms at the same time, taking whichever job is offered first. It keeps you busier and it complicates both your mileage log and your tax return.
Multi-app drivingUpdated 27/08/2026
Hire and reward insurance
Hire and reward is the class of motor insurance that covers carrying goods or passengers for payment. Ordinary social, domestic and pleasure cover, and even business use, does not include it.
InsuranceUpdated 27/08/2026
Gross earnings
Gross earnings are what a platform says it paid you, before your costs and before tax. It is the headline figure in the app and it is the one that makes gig driving look better paid than it is.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
Net earnings
Net earnings are what is actually left after the costs of doing the work and the tax on the profit. It is the only figure worth comparing between platforms, and no app shows it.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
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