This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Today's caller wants to drive for Uber Eats, and also for DoorDash, and also for Postmates, maybe some others as well, but it's not what you think. Okay, he's not looking for a new part-time job. I often encourage people not to drive for Uber. There's something you can do that's much better, much more profitable for you. But he actually has an idea to collect the bonuses that each service offers, then quit.
So he wants to kind of dine in Dash his way through DoorDash and similar services. And that's because these companies are all about getting people, their contractors, contractors/maybe employees, depending on who you ask, getting them to jump ship from one service or one platform to another. And then of course trying to get them to stay, just because it's a very competitive industry. So once again, longtime listeners know that I want to help you create real income, not just get those part-time jobs. But is our caller here on to a smart strategy?
Let's talk about it. I want to be a DoorDash driver for a day, coming up in just 30 seconds. This is Rick, and I'm wondering about driving for DoorDash, but it's not what you think. I don't want to do it for long. I just want to do it long enough to get the bonus for new drivers.
Then I want to do it for Uber Eats, Postmates, any other services. Is there anything wrong with this? I know that driving for these companies isn't a great long-term play. But I figure if I can get the bonuses, it makes the introductory pay much higher, and then I can quit. Let me know if you've heard of anyone else doing this, or if you have any pointers.
Hey man, thanks so much for the question. Is there anything wrong with it? Absolutely not. Nothing at all wrong with it. I mean, certainly nothing unethical or against the rules of these services.
They know it's a competition. They're trying to get people to stick around, and that's why they offer these bonuses in the first place. So I think it's actually pretty smart. If you're going to do it at all, you might as well try to go out and get every particular bonus, meet that quota, whatever you have to do. In some ways, it reminds me of getting bank bonuses for opening new accounts, which I have done many times.
I used to do it all the time, and I still do it once in a while, whenever there's a good bonus. There's often a $200 bonus, sometimes $300, sometimes a little bit more than that, even just to open a new checking account. And the banks are doing that because, you know, they're hoping that you'll stick with the account, right? They're hoping you're going to use it as a primary account. But of course you don't have to.
You can just open the account, meet the requirements, you know, and take the bonus. So same kind of situation here. The only thing to be aware of is that the bonuses for these services, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Postmates, et cetera, they're not as lucrative as they used to be, just because there are so many drivers now, and they've kind of gotten smarter at the platforms in terms of, you know, what's the minimum that they can offer to get people to stay or to join in the first place. Also, over time, they have tended to incentivize long-term weekly driving, not just the intro bonus. Because again, you know, they want people to stick around.
And also our caller isn't the only one who's thought of this. So when he says, you know, "Has anybody else done this?" Well, yeah, you know, a lot of people have, and it's smart for them to do it. So he's not the first, but, you know, nothing wrong with it at all. Probably won't be a huge windfall, but you might as well get what you can. So that's what I think about that.
Good luck out there. Listeners, let me know if you have a question or an idea to make some extra money or maybe even build an asset for yourselves that you have more options going into the new year and beyond. I hope you'll continue to listen. We've got a short daily episode every day. You can always leave questions at sidehustleschool.com/questions.
That's it for now, but a new episode's coming out tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
