Choosing which vehicle to use is one of the biggest decisions that we have to make as independent couriers. Each have their advantages and disadvantages:

We did a post earlier this year where we estimated the costs of running each vehicle. Interestingly Deliveroo did their own estimates and, unsurprisingly came out with much lower numbers (ebikes from Zoomo, Deliveroo’s preferred bike rental partner, cost at least 6 times as much as Deliveroo’s estimated cost).

Who gets paid the most?

Which vehicle you choose will affect your earnings as well as your costs. Different vehicle types get offered different fees and are prioritised for different jobs.

We ran the numbers to see how much Just Eat pay for each vehicle type (data for 2024):

Motorbike drivers get the highest average fee and they don’t have to travel as far as car drivers.

The fee per additional mile shows how much fees increase on average for each extra mile. By this metric bicycles get the highest pay, although it should be noted that each additional mile is likely to take longer.

Who gets the most orders?

When it comes to who gets the most orders, cars are the winner. For each day that a car driver is active on the Just Eat app they complete on average 9 orders. This compares to just 7.7 for cyclists.

Who works the most hours?

We also see that car drivers are more likely to work longer hours throughout the week: 20 hours on average vs just 16 for cyclists.

Top earnings by a single driver for 2023