Delivering for Uber Eats: the full guide

Uber Eats runs on the same Driver app as Uber's private hire side, which is why the pay cycle, the cash out rules and the insurance all look alike. The difference is status: Uber Eats couriers contract with Uber Portier BV as independent couriers, and the worker rights Uber private hire drivers won in 2021 do not apply to them.

Signing up

You choose a bicycle, a motorbike or scooter, or a car, and the documents asked for follow from that choice. Every courier completes a background check covering right to work and a basic criminal record disclosure, run by Uber's screening partner, which may ask for its own copies of your documents. Uber says the whole process takes a few weeks. Uploads need all four corners of the document in the photo and every word readable, which is where most delays start.

If you already drive for Uber, you can switch on delivery requests in the same app rather than applying again.

How a delivery is paid

Each request shows what you will be paid before you accept, decline or ignore it, and that is the amount you get, plus any tip. On top of the fares sit incentives:

• Quests: a bonus for completing a number of deliveries in a set time and area, listed under Opportunities in the app and shown on the map while live.
• Batched orders: two orders from the same restaurant. The pair pays one pick-up fee, shown as a batch promotion, and the second order's mileage runs from the first drop to the second. There is no way to opt out of being offered them, but you can decline.
• Surge and trip supplements at busy times, shown in the app.

If the first customer on a batch cannot be found, follow the app's no-answer process. When the timer runs out you are paid for the first delivery and it does not count against your completion rate.

When the money arrives

The pay week runs from 4am on Monday to 3:59am the next Monday. Earnings are transferred automatically after that, and the weekly statement arrives on Tuesday. Two ways to get money sooner:

You may need to reach a trip threshold before either is available. Tips, promotions and fares can all be cashed out. Anything not cashed out by 4am on Monday is paid in the normal weekly transfer.

Ratings and age-restricted orders

Your rating is a thumbs-up or thumbs-down average of your last 100 ratings from restaurants and customers. It appears once you have ten. Cancelled or unaccepted orders are not rated. A rating that stays poor can lose you access to the app, so keep an eye on it if a few bad evenings have dragged it down.

Alcohol and tobacco orders need an ID check at the door, and the app will ask for it. If the customer looks underage, has a doubtful ID or is drunk, you refuse, follow the prompt to return the items, and you are still paid for the distance.

The free insurance, and what it is not

Uber gives couriers Partner Protection from Allianz Partners at no cost and with no sign-up. It pays out in two situations:

• On a trip, from accepting a request until 15 minutes after completing it: medical expenses, a lump sum for more than 24 hours in hospital, a daily payment for up to 30 days if an accident stops you working, and death and disability payments.
• Off a trip, for active couriers who completed 90 deliveries in the previous eight weeks: a daily payment if serious illness or injury keeps you off for more than seven days, starting on day eight for up to 15 more days, plus one-off payments for a new baby and for jury service. A courier who is the birth mother qualifies with 60 deliveries in the previous eight weeks.

Sickness claims are limited to two in any 12 months, and nothing is paid for days you took trips. Partner Protection is not motor insurance. Delivering by car, motorbike or scooter still needs your own policy that covers food delivery.

Uber Eats Pro

Uber Eats Pro is a monthly rewards scheme. You earn a point per delivery, two at lunchtime between 12pm and 2pm, and four at dinnertime between 5pm and 9pm. Points reset each calendar month, and the total sets your level for the next month.

Rewards include points on fuel at BP, discounted gym membership, priority support, Open University courses at the higher levels, money off e-bike hire from Zoomo and up to 15% off a Zego delivery policy bought for 30 days or a year. There is also optional Vehicle Interruption Cover from AIG, charged at 1p per on-delivery mile, which pays a lump sum if your vehicle is off the road for 24 hours or more after an accident, breakdown or windscreen damage.

Tax

You are self-employed and nothing is deducted. Everything Uber pays you, fares, tips, Quests and promotions, is turnover. If your statement shows a service fee taken before payment, the figure before the fee is turnover and the fee is an expense. Business miles are claimed at 55p a mile in a car for the first 10,000, 24p on a motorbike and 20p on a bicycle.

The miles the app shows are only the ones it measured on a trip. HMRC lets you claim every business mile, including driving back to a busy area between orders, so your own log will normally show more. Which miles the app counts, and which HMRC counts explains the gap.