If you have ever made deliveries for delivery platforms like Uber Eats or DoorDash, you know it can be an interesting way to make money.
Rather than spending your time in an office or store, you can listen to the music and explore the local scene while you work.
In many cases, you also get to meet tons of interesting people.
However, the work can sometimes feel tedious, leading to a lack of motivation to pull up the app and complete deliveries.
While the extra cash is helpful, it’s not always enough to keep Dashers fully engaged.
One remedy to the monotony lies in DoorDash challenges.
DoorDash has introduced challenges, motivating and incentivizing Dashers to work more often and with a little more efficiency.
So, are DoorDash challenges worth the effort?.
Table Of Contents
What Are DoorDash Challenges?
DoorDash Challenges are the company’s way of getting you to hustle and get more restaurant and grocery delivery orders done quickly.
To get their drivers to accept more orders and complete them as soon as possible, DoorDash will routinely offer a bonus to anyone who completes a challenge.
The challenge could be simple, such as giving you an extra $25 if you can complete six orders in a specific amount of time.
DoorDash might do this if there are not enough drivers in an area to handle all the orders.
A challenge could motivate someone to sign in and make some extra money.
Or, it could be that a lot of the orders coming in are small and do not have tips attached to them.
Many drivers will not accept a food delivery order that small.
The bonus attached to a challenge could be incentive enough to get them to take some.
How Do DoorDash Challenges Work?
When you open your DoorDash drive food delivery app and sign in that you are ready to start delivering in an area, you will see any active challenges.
Currently, there will only be one challenge in any given area at a time.
DoorDash will automatically put their delivery person in any challenges they qualify for.
How Do You Qualify for DoorDash Challenges?
DoorDash does not always offer a challenge to everyone, but there is no way for you to do anything to get picked for one.
Much of it has to do with being in the right place at the right time.
DoorDash may want to direct more people to certain areas of town.
So checking the delivery app daily when you are normally available is the best way to find one.
Who Gets Sent DoorDash Challenges?
There are a lot of criteria that DoorDash goes through to come up with the perfect challenge.
It comes from customer data, the hour of the day, and how much business local independent restaurants do.
You could qualify for several of them, so you should be logging in every day to see if you qualify for one.
Here are some of the various groups that DoorDash may want to target.
Location
If an area tends to get a lot of restaurant delivery orders, but not many drivers sign on to deliver them.
It may be because drivers think they will make more money in a more populated part of town.
Or the amount of gas they will spend will not make delivering in that area worth it to them.
DoorDash may set up challenges just for those parts of town.
And to take part in the challenge, all you have to do is log in and start Dashing.
DoorDash will automatically enroll you in the challenge.
New Dashers
DoorDash wants to keep their dashers around for as long as they want to keep coming.
Keeping trustworthy drivers helps them keep their restaurant operator clients happy.
They may issue a challenge to give newbies an incentive to keep coming.
Making a little extra money on their first week could boost their confidence to keep coming back for a while.
Long-Time Dashers
They would not want to shut out a chance for their devoted long-time drivers to earn extra money.
DoorDash offers challenges for people that have been working for a while.
A lot of them are for people who Dash consistently.
So if you only go out once a month, you might not see an invitation to these challenges.
Haven’t Dashed in a While
Many people sign up for DoorDash because their employment situation changes.
They need a place to earn money while looking for a new job.
Some of those people might not have logged in for months.
Check the app periodically because DoorDash will offer a way for you to earn some bonus money.
What Do You Get for Completing DoorDash Challenges?
The short answer is cash.
You essentially get paid a bonus for completing DoorDash challenges, and you get it quickly.
And if those challenges coincide with peak pay, you could find yourself experiencing an exceptionally good week of earnings.
Challenges are happening all the time for different groups, and you can qualify for more than one at a time.
For instance, if there is a challenge for a long-term DoorDash driver and another for a certain area, you can qualify for both.
You can pick the one that pays the most.
How Much Extra Do DoorDash Challenges Pay?
For the most part, DoorDash Challenges are great for some extra cash.
You can usually expect a challenge to pay between $20 to $50 and last 3 to 5 days.
There have been a few times when there were more substantial bonuses available.
For instance, during the height of the pandemic, DoorDash knew that a lot of new Dashers had started.
Many of them had lost their jobs due to COVID regulations.
So they offered a challenge where new Dashers could earn an extra $150 by completing ten deliveries by a particular date.
DoorDash also offers guaranteed earnings from time to time.
During these periods, they will guarantee their Dashers will earn a certain amount of money.
For instance, they may send out a challenge that says drivers are guaranteed to make $500 if they complete fifty deliveries for local restaurants in the next seven days.
If the delivery driver meets those numbers and their combined earnings and customer tip totals do not add up to $500, DoorDash will pay the difference on their next payday.
Is It Worth It To Do DoorDash Challenges?
If you have been driving for DoorDash for a while, you may have seen the challenges pop up on your phone screen and wondered if they were worth your time.
Take a look at some of the pros and cons.
Pros
- You have an opportunity to make some extra money.
- The challenges are not an unreachable amount of deliveries.
- You have a chance to earn money doing what you are already doing.
- Small business profits in your area increase as online ordering keep them in business.
Cons
- You can not sign up for every challenge.
- You can only do one challenge at a time.
Conclusion: Yes, DoorDash Challenges Are Worth It
Since you do not have to sign up for challenges, there is a good chance that you will complete them without even knowing it until you get paid.
DoorDash challenges are an excellent chance for people to earn extra money.
Keep in mind that even if challenges are available in your area, not all Dashers will be eligible for all of them.
If you see another Dasher talking about their challenge, know that one will be coming to you eventually.
DoorDash Challenge FAQs
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions people have about DoorDash challenges.
Where Do You See Challenges in the App?
If there is a challenge in your area that you are eligible for, you will see it on the DoorDash Dasher app.
Go to the Dash Now screen on your app and select the part of town you want to use as your starting point.
All the open challenges for that hour will be listed.
If you touch it, you will be able to see the details of the challenge.
It will tell you how much money you can earn and how long the challenge will last.
How Do Challenges Work With Peak Pay?
Peak Pay is another of the incentives DoorDash offers to their drivers during times of day when ordering traffic is expected to be heavy.
For instance, if they believe there will be a lot of orders between 7:00 and 9:00 PM, they might offer an extra $3.00 delivery fee for every order completed during that hour or two.
This is an incentive to get more Dashers in the area to cover all of the orders.
Dashers who are in a running challenge during a time that Peak Pay is active, your deliveries will not cause them to affect each other.
For instance, if you complete four deliveries during a $3.00 Peak Pay, those orders will count toward your challenge.
You will also receive $12.00 for the Peak Pay of that day.
So it can add up quickly if you Dash during the right time of day.
Where Do You See Your Challenge Earnings?
When the challenge is over, you can go to your weekly earnings screen in the app.
There you will see all the money you made so far that week, including what you earned from the challenge.
You will also see a breakdown under a “Challenge Details” heading.
After the total is there, you can wait until it pays out on Tuesday, or you can use Doordash Fast Pay to get it immediately.
How Do You Track Your Challenge Progress?
If you look at your active “Dash Now” home screen, you will be able to track your progress in a challenge.
A status bar at the top of the screen will tell you how much money the current incentives are for and how many deliveries you have left to make your goal.
If you tap that status bar, you will see more details about the challenge, such as the dates that it will be running through.
Can You Cheat On DoorDash?
The system for DoorDash Challenges is so simple that there is no reason to cheat it.
But there are no ways for Dashers to cheat the challenge and make it think you completed it when you did not.
The app tracks your progress as you work.
You are doing the same restaurant pickups that you would normally be doing.
There are a few hacks that Dashers can use to make the most of their food delivery time.
None of them are illegal or against any of the rules, nor will they affect the average Doordash customer.
They are just tips on doing things more efficiently to make the most money you can.
- Sign up for a DasherDirect card to get instant deposits and free ATM withdrawals.
- Stay in areas with many restaurants so that new orders will come to you first.
- Dash regularly and keep a user experience rating of 4.6 in the app to qualify for early scheduling.
- Try a nearby town every now and then. Maybe the surrounding cities do better business. Or maybe you just need a little change of scenery.
Outro
DoorDash is a delivery service founded by Tony Xu, offering people an innovative and exciting way to earn extra money.
The introduction of DoorDash challenges provides even more opportunity and incentive for Dashers to get on the road and complete more deliveries.
If you would like to sign up for DoorDash and start earning extra cash, download the DoorDash Dasher app on your smartphone and get started!
