Best Time To Do Uber Eats

Understanding the best time to do Uber Eats is one of the most important things you need to figure out if you want to maximize your delivery earnings. I’ve been delivering with Uber Eats for years – more than 5 years at this point – so I’ve acquired a lot of personal experience on the best times to do Uber Eats.

In this post, we’ll look at the best time to do Uber Eats and how those times might change depending on what day it is. Hopefully, the information and tactics in this post can help you maximize your delivery earnings.

As with any food delivery or gig economy app, you’re only making money if you’re working. As a result, it’s important to work during times when you’ll get the most delivery requests. Sitting around doing nothing isn’t what you want to be doing when you’re delivering for Uber Eats.

The busiest times for food delivery coincide with when people eat – typically during the lunch and dinner hours. That means, in general, the best times to do Uber Eats are from 11 am to 2 pm, and from 5 pm to 8 pm. These hours coincide with the typical lunch and dinner rushes.

It can sometimes make sense to look at other hours, but this will mainly depend on your schedule and where you live. If you can only work during the morning or late night hours, for example, then you have to work with what you have.

In my experience, working early in the morning (during breakfast hours) usually isn’t worthwhile. I’ve rarely had busy mornings delivering for Uber Eats.

Working during late night hours could be worthwhile in some circumstances, but the main reason I’d work late at night is for scheduling reasons. If you’re like most people, you might have to work or be busy with other things during the day, so working late at night might be the only option you have.

Best Days To Do Uber Eats

In addition to the hours that you work, picking the right days to work matters too. Certain days are always going to be busier than others. And the best time and places to work will differ depending on what day it is.

In general, here’s what I’ve noticed with my deliveries:

During weekdays, the lunch and dinner rush is best. For the lunch rush, I recommend sticking to busy urban areas, mainly in downtown areas where people are working. For dinner, busy residential areas will usually be the busiest (think hip, young professional neighborhoods or college campuses).
On weekends, I find that demand is generally steady throughout the day. The dinner hours will usually be the busiest times.
If you’re looking to do late-night delivery, you’ll want to stick to weekends, mainly Friday and Saturday nights. These are usually the days when people are up late and still ordering food.
Mondays and Tuesdays are usually the slowest days of the week. It’s not clear why, but I think it’s that people are starting the work week and aren’t “treating” themselves the way they do towards the end of the week.
Big events where people are at home watching TV are typically good for Uber Eats drivers. You’ll usually find things are busier during large sporting events, awards shows, or similar types of events where people are in front of the TV and ordering food.
Most holidays tend to be slow. The major holidays especially will always be slow (think Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc). Summer holidays like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day also tend to be slow (people are either on vacation or are grilling food at home, rather than ordering delivery).

In short, the time and the day matter. Stick to working during lunch and dinner hours and consider what day it is to determine whether you’re working at the optimal time.

Final Thoughts

When you work is important. Uber Eats isn’t like a normal job – you need to think like a business and be strategic about when you work. Simply turning on the app whenever you want isn’t going to be the best way to earn money with Uber Eats.

For me, I usually stick to working during lunch hours, mainly because I’m at home with my family during the dinner rush. During weekends, I can usually make solid money at any time, even during the middle of the afternoon (people seem to order more randomly during the weekend).

Hopefully, this post was helpful to you. For some additional strategies to maximize your Uber Eats earnings, check out this post: How To Make $1,000 A Week With Uber Eats.

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Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
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Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
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Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.

Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.

Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:

SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
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M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.

Feel free to send Kevin a message here.

Best Time To Do Uber Eats – Lessons From My Real World Experience