Guides
Long-form guides covering a whole subject end to end - tax, mileage, insurance, getting started and multi-apping.
Riding for Deliveroo: the full guide
How Deliveroo works for a rider: what you need to join, how each fee is worked out, the pay floor agreed with the GMB union, when the money arrives, the insurance Deliveroo gives you for free, and the parts that are left to you.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Delivering for Uber Eats: the full guide
How Uber Eats works for a courier: signing up, how each delivery is paid, Quests and batched orders, the weekly pay cycle and the two ways to cash out early, the free Allianz cover, Uber Eats Pro, and the tax side.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Delivering for Just Eat: the full guide
Just Eat works differently from the other food apps. You set your availability each week and are scheduled into delivery runs, each order pays Transit Pay, and your acceptance rate decides how quickly offers reach you. Here is how all of it fits together.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Delivering for Evri: the full guide
Evri couriers are self-employed and paid per parcel, once a month. You choose between Evri Flex and Evri Plus, which trades a five-day commitment for holiday pay, a pension and guaranteed earnings. Here is how it works and what it means for your tax.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Driving for DPD: owner driver, employed or Connect
There are three ways to deliver for DPD, and they are three different jobs for tax. An owner driver runs a route as a business, an employed driver is on PAYE, and a DPD Connect courier uses their own car on a local round. Here is how to tell which suits you.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Delivering for Stuart: the full guide
Stuart pays a base fee per delivery set by distance and vehicle, multiplies it at busy times, pays for long waits at pick-up, and pays weekly. It also has a written substitution policy and regular face checks. Here is how each part works.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Driving for Bolt: the full guide
What it takes to drive for Bolt in the UK, how the weekly payout is worked out, what the 2024 tribunal ruling on worker status means, why the 2026 VAT change is Bolt's problem rather than yours, and how to report the income correctly.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Driving for Addison Lee: the full guide
Addison Lee is London's largest private hire and courier firm, and it works differently from the apps: most drivers rent a car from it, the work leans on corporate accounts, and holiday pay is paid on every job. Here is how that shapes your money and your tax.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Driving with Freenow: black cab and private hire
Freenow, now owned by Lyft, sends jobs to London black cabs and to private hire drivers. It charges commission only on completed jobs, rewards drivers who carry its advertising, and will pay for private hire drivers to do the Knowledge. Here is how each of those lands on your tax return.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Starting on Amazon Flex: requirements, insurance and pay day
What you need before your first Amazon Flex block: the right car, or an e-bike where it is offered, the two insurance policies Amazon asks for, the checks, how blocks are booked, and the day the money arrives.
Getting startedUpdated 29/09/2026
Uber driver benefits: holiday pay, pension, cover and Uber Pro
Since 2021 Uber drivers in the UK are workers, which brings a minimum earnings guarantee, 12.07% holiday pay and a pension. On top sit free Allianz insurance, the Uber Pro rewards tiers and early cash out. Here is what each one pays and how it is taxed.
Employment rights & legalUpdated 29/09/2026
What each platform insures, and what it leaves to you
Several apps give you free accident cover, and some pay out when you are ill or have a baby. None of them insures your car. Here is what each platform provides, when it applies, and the policy you still have to buy yourself.
InsuranceUpdated 29/09/2026
When each app pays you, and why the date matters for tax
Most apps pay weekly, on different days, with a fee to get it sooner. Evri pays monthly. The pay date decides how much cash you need in reserve and, at the start and end of the year, which tax year the money falls in.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 29/09/2026
Substitutes, account sharing and the new right to work rules
Self-employed riders can usually send someone else to do the work. That right comes with rules on every platform, a tax position most substitutes and account holders get wrong, and from October 2026 a legal duty on the platforms to check who is actually working.
Account & platform problemsUpdated 29/09/2026
What the platforms tell HMRC about your earnings
Since 2024 every delivery and ride app has to collect your tax details and report what it paid you to HMRC once a year. There is no minimum for services. Here is what is reported, when, why it will not match your return, and what to do with the copy you are sent.
HMRC & taxUpdated 29/09/2026
Business miles, commuting and the depot run
A business mile is one driven wholly for the work. Commuting between home and a regular workplace is never claimable. For most gig drivers the working day starts when the app goes on, which makes the drive to a chosen pickup zone personal and the drive between drops business.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 27/08/2026
Payments on account, explained with a first bill
A payment on account is an advance instalment towards next year's tax. HMRC asks for them once a bill passes £1,000, in two halves each worth 50% of the year just filed. It is why a first bill can be one and a half years of tax at once.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Budgeting for a tax bill you have not had yet
Set aside a percentage of every payment as it arrives, into an account you do not spend from. For most full-time drivers claiming mileage, somewhere between 20% and 30% of what the platforms pay is enough, and the first year needs more because of payments on account.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Record keeping, and how long to keep it
You have to keep enough to show how every figure on your return was arrived at: what you were paid, what you spent, and how far you drove for the work. Records have to be kept for 5 years after the filing deadline for the year they cover.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
What a compliance check looks like
A compliance check is HMRC examining a return in detail. It starts with a letter naming a tax year and asking for specific records, usually the mileage log and the income figures. It is not an accusation, and how it goes depends almost entirely on what you can produce.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Capital allowances on a vehicle
A capital allowance is tax relief on something you bought to keep and use, spread over years rather than deducted at once. You cannot claim capital allowances on a vehicle and use the mileage rate for it, so for most gig drivers this is a road not taken.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 27/08/2026
Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance for drivers
Class 4 National Insurance is charged on your profits at 6% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above, and is paid with your income tax. Compulsory Class 2 ended from 6 April 2024, but voluntary Class 2 at £3.65 a week still buys state pension years.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Tax when you have a PAYE job as well
You get one personal allowance across all your income, and your job has usually used it. That means delivery profit is often taxed from the first pound, at whatever band your total income reaches. You file one return covering both, and you do not pay twice.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Late filing and late payment penalties
Miss 31 January and there is an immediate £100 penalty even if you owe nothing. It escalates at three months, six months and twelve. Late payment carries separate penalties and interest, and the two run alongside each other rather than instead of each other.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
What HMRC asks for on your return, box by box
Most drivers file the short self-employment pages, which want four things: your turnover, your allowable expenses, your taxable profit, and the dates you traded. Everything else on the form either does not apply or follows from those.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
What it really costs you per mile
Your cost per mile is fuel plus tyres, servicing, insurance, repairs and the value the car loses, divided by the miles you drive. Fuel is usually less than half of it, which is why a driver who only counts fuel thinks the work pays better than it does.
Vehicles & equipmentUpdated 27/08/2026
Fuel against electric for gig driving
On home charging an electric car is dramatically cheaper per mile than petrol, often by a factor of four or five. On public rapid charging the gap narrows to very little. Whether it works for you is mostly a question of where you charge, not of what you drive.
Vehicles & equipmentUpdated 27/08/2026
ULEZ, clean air zones and the congestion charge
If your vehicle does not meet the emissions standard, driving into a charging zone costs a daily fee. London ULEZ and the seven English clean air zones each set their own rules, and a Class C zone charges vans and taxis but not private cars.
Vehicles & equipmentUpdated 27/08/2026
Hire and reward against courier and food delivery cover
Hire and reward is the class of cover you need to carry goods or people for payment. Within it, food delivery cover suits short local hot-food runs, courier cover suits parcels, and goods in transit covers the value of what you are carrying rather than the driving.
InsuranceUpdated 27/08/2026
Buying, leasing or PCP as a gig driver
For high-mileage gig work, buying a cheap car outright is usually cheapest, because leases and PCP deals price mileage and you will exceed the allowance. The exception is an electric lease where the fuel saving and the zone exemptions outweigh the monthly cost.
Vehicles & equipmentUpdated 27/08/2026
How Amazon Flex pay works
Amazon Flex pays a fixed price for a block of time, quoted before you accept it. The figure is gross, it says nothing about the miles the route will run, and everything after that, fuel, insurance, wear and tax, comes out of it.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
How Uber driver pay works
Uber quotes a fare to the rider, takes a service fee, and pays you the balance. Your turnover for tax is the figure before the service fee, and the fee itself is a business expense. Reporting only what landed in your account is the most common error on a driver's return.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
Getting your earnings statements out of each app
Every platform holds your earnings history somewhere and none of them keeps it forever. Download a statement every month, in the app or on the partner web portal, and keep it outside the app. A deactivated account is an account you cannot get history out of.
HMRC & taxUpdated 27/08/2026
Deactivation and how to appeal it
Deactivation is a platform switching off your access to work, often automatically. Appeal in writing, ask for the specific reason and the evidence behind it, and make a subject access request if the answer is vague. Your tax obligations for what you already earned do not stop.
Account & platform problemsUpdated 27/08/2026
Which miles the app counts, and which HMRC counts
A delivery app measures the miles it pays you for, which is usually the distance from pickup to drop. HMRC lets you claim every business mile you drove, including getting to the pickup, waiting, repositioning and returning. The app figure is almost always the smaller one.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 27/08/2026
Your real hourly rate, and how to work it out
Your real hourly rate is what the platforms paid you, minus what the vehicle cost you, minus the tax on the profit, divided by every hour you were working. It is commonly a quarter below the headline figure, and it is the only number worth comparing between platforms.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
Worker status and what the Uber ruling changed
UK law has three categories: employee, worker and self-employed. The Supreme Court held in 2021 that Uber drivers are workers, which brings minimum wage and holiday pay. It did not change the tax position, so a driver can be a worker for rights and self-employed for tax at the same time.
Employment rights & legalUpdated 27/08/2026
Subject access requests and your data rights
A subject access request obliges a platform to give you the personal data it holds about you, normally within one month and free of charge. For drivers it is the way to get earnings history out of a deactivated account and to find out what a decision was based on.
Employment rights & legalUpdated 27/08/2026
Universal Credit when you drive
Universal Credit for a self-employed driver works on monthly reported earnings, not on the tax year, and once your start-up period ends a minimum income floor can be applied. That combination makes an award unpredictable when earnings swing week to week.
Earnings & profitabilityUpdated 27/08/2026
Registering as a sole trader: the whole process
Everything from deciding whether you need to register, through getting a UTR, to the 5 October deadline and what arrives in the post.
HMRC & taxUpdated 20/08/2026
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: what delivery drivers need to do
Who it applies to and when, what a quarterly update actually is, and what changes about your records. The thresholds run £50,000 from 6 April 2026, then £30,000, then £20,000.
HMRC & taxUpdated 20/08/2026
Allowable expenses for delivery drivers: the full list
What you can claim, what you cannot, and the ones that depend on how you have claimed for your vehicle. Written for drivers using the mileage method, because most are.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 20/08/2026
Self Assessment for delivery drivers: the complete guide
Registering, what counts as income, what you can claim, how much tax you will owe and when it is due - written for UK delivery and courier drivers, correct for the 2026/27 tax year.
HMRC & taxUpdated 19/08/2026
The complete mileage guide for delivery drivers
What counts as a business mile, the 55p and 25p approved rates, the 10,000-mile threshold, and whether mileage or actual costs leaves you better off.
Mileage & expensesUpdated 19/08/2026
Insurance for delivery drivers: what you actually need
Hire and reward, courier cover, goods in transit and public liability - what each one is for, and why your ordinary car policy will not cover you.
InsuranceUpdated 19/08/2026
How to become a delivery driver in the UK
What you need before your first shift: the right licence and insurance, which platform to start with, what it costs to set up, and how to tell HMRC.
Getting startedUpdated 19/08/2026
Multi-apping: driving for more than one platform
Running two or three delivery apps at once - whether it is allowed, whether it pays, and how to keep records that still make sense at tax time.
Multi-app drivingUpdated 19/08/2026
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