Glovo
Rappi
iFood
Angkas
Lalamove
Chazki
uShip
Hipcamp
Airbnb
Booking.com
BeMyEye
Observa
Airtasker
Urban CompanyCompiled with AI-assisted research from the official pages and studies listed at the end. Earnings vary widely — the figures show what is typical, not what is guaranteed. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Tip: not every platform here accepts people in every country. Check which ones you can join with your country and age before you sign up anywhere.
Food delivery and Amazon Flex are the quickest ways to earn with a car, and most apps can pay you within days of your first shift. Rideshare can pay more per trip but asks more of your car, your record and your insurance. Renting the car out earns without driving but puts your biggest asset at risk. Whatever you choose, subtract the real cost of driving, which the IRS puts at 76 cents per business mile from July 2026.
How to choose
- Your car. Rideshare usually needs a newer 4-door car that passes a local inspection. Amazon Flex asks for a 4-door mid-sized sedan or larger, such as an SUV, van or truck with a covered bed. Food delivery accepts almost any working car.
- Your age and record. Amazon Flex requires drivers to be 21 or older and to pass a background check that includes motor vehicle records. Spark Driver requires you to be 18 or older, with a REAL ID-compliant licence, proof of auto insurance and a background check.
- Startup cost. Delivery and package apps cost nothing to join beyond a phone, fuel and insurance. Rideshare may add an inspection and a pricier insurance endorsement. Long-distance shipping on CitizenShipper costs $39.99 a month after a 30-day free trial.
- Time to first payment. Uber lets drivers cash out up to six times a day for $1.25 per cash-out. Amazon Flex lets you choose which weekdays you get paid, including every day. Instacart shoppers can cash out batch earnings within minutes of a delivery for a small fee.
- Where you live. Uber, Lyft and
Bolt cover most of the US and Europe, while 
inDrive lets riders and drivers agree fares in 40+ countries. Car-sharing is patchier. Getaround shut its US business in February 2025 and sold its European operations to GoMore, which still runs the Getaround service in several European countries. - Risk. More miles mean more wear, more accident exposure and a bigger insurance question. Renting the car out swaps your time for risk to the car itself.
Rideshare: Uber, Lyft, Bolt and inDrive
The work: carrying passengers on demand. The app sets pay from time and distance, and you keep tips.
Realistic earnings: platforms rarely publish hourly averages. Uber's earnings page says it does not guarantee earnings and that pay structures differ by city. Lyft caps its fee at 30% of passenger payments before external fees, and if its fee across your rides tops 30% in a month it pays you an earnings adjustment. So at least 70% of what riders pay reaches you, before your own costs.
Those costs are what new drivers underestimate. The IRS standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile for January to June 2026 and 76 cents from July 1, 2026. A shift with 150 miles of driving, including empty miles between trips, therefore represents about $114 of vehicle cost at the IRS rate. The rate is a tax figure, not a bill, but it is a sensible yardstick for fuel, maintenance, depreciation and insurance combined.
Payout speed: weekly by default, with instant cash-out on the big apps.
Start with How to start driving with Uber or How to start driving with inDrive, then compare platforms in best ride-hailing apps to drive for. Platforms: 
Uber, 
Lyft, Bolt, inDrive.
Food and grocery delivery: DoorDash, Instacart and Grubhub
The work: picking up restaurant orders or shopping for groceries and dropping them off. There are no passengers, so car standards are lower and you can often start faster than with rideshare.
Realistic earnings: pay is per offer, not per hour. Instacart says batch pay reflects the expected effort of a batch, including travel, item count and weight, that upfront batch pay never decreases if you complete the batch as accepted, and that shoppers keep 100% of customer tips. Our 
DoorDash profile lists base pay of about $2 to $10+ per offer plus 100% of tips. Because tips make up so much of the total, the drivers who net the most are usually the ones who decline long, low-pay offers.
Payout speed: weekly, with paid instant cash-out on most apps.
Platforms: DoorDash, 
Instacart, 
Grubhub. More in best food delivery apps for couriers.
Package blocks: Amazon Flex and Spark Driver
The work: you book a block, collect parcels from a delivery station or store and follow an app-planned route. Amazon Flex blocks are typically 3 to 6 hours for Amazon.com parcels and 2 to 4 hours for Amazon Fresh.
Realistic earnings: Amazon says most Flex drivers earn $18 to $25 an hour, and notes that actual earnings vary with location, tips, delivery time and other factors. That figure is before your fuel and vehicle costs. 
Spark Driver, Walmart's delivery app, pays per trip plus incentives and offers a digital wallet for faster access.
Payout speed: Flex pays on the weekdays you pick, up to daily.
Platforms: 
Amazon Flex, Spark Driver.
Bigger loads and long distance: Roadie, GoShare and CitizenShipper
If you have an SUV, pickup or van, shipping gigs pay for things that do not fit in a courier's back seat. 
Roadie is free to join and pays per gig by distance and size. 
GoShare pays per moving or delivery project by vehicle type. 
CitizenShipper works differently: drivers pay $39.99 a month, set their own per-mile rates and bid on jobs, with pet transport the highest-volume category. CitizenShipper's own page claims drivers earn $6,000 to $10,000 a month, which describes full-time long-haul driving, not a side gig. Compare them in best shipping gigs.
Renting your car out: Turo and local car-sharing
The work: listing the car, handing over keys or using remote unlock, cleaning between trips and handling damage claims. You drive nothing, but the car earns only on booked days.
Realistic earnings: 
Turo runs in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and France, and had 360,000 active vehicle listings in March 2024. Your fee depends on the protection plan you choose, so model a few bookings at each plan before listing. Earnings depend heavily on the car, the city and the season, and Turo publishes no typical host figure we could verify.
Payout speed: Turo pays hosts by direct deposit to a bank account, and our Turo profile tracks current payout timing.
See every car and home rental option in best rental platforms and earn from what you own.
Small errands with a car
Field Agent pays for quick in-store photo and audit tasks, generally $2 to $12 each, and a car widens the area you can cover. On 
TaskRabbit, helping with moves and hauling is a common way to use a larger vehicle. Neither is a full income, but both fill gaps between delivery peaks.
Compare the options
| Option | Skills needed | Startup cost | Typical pay | First payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rideshare (Uber, Lyft) | Clean record, people skills | Inspection, insurance upgrade | At least 70% of fares on Lyft, before costs | Same day with paid instant cash-out |
| Food and grocery delivery | Navigation, speed | Phone and insurance | Per-offer pay plus 100% of tips | Same day with paid cash-out |
| Amazon Flex | Lifting parcels, route planning | 4-door mid-size car or larger | $18 to $25 an hour before costs, per Amazon | Weekdays you choose |
| Bulky and long-distance shipping | Loading, larger vehicle | CitizenShipper $39.99 a month | Per job, by distance and size | After delivery |
| Renting on Turo | Hosting, cleaning, photos | Cleaning kit, key handover | Varies by car, city and plan | After each trip |
| Field Agent tasks | Smartphone, attention to detail | None | $2 to $12 per task | Varies |
First steps this week
- Call your insurer. Ask whether your policy covers rideshare, delivery or car-sharing, and get a price for a rideshare or delivery endorsement.
- Photograph your odometer and start a simple log of miles, hours, fuel and gross pay.
- Apply to two apps at once, such as one delivery app and Amazon Flex, because background checks can take several days.
- Work three short test shifts at different times of day.
- Work out your net hourly: gross pay minus miles driven times $0.76, divided by hours online. Keep going only if that number beats your alternatives.
- Set aside part of every payout for tax, since platforms treat you as an independent contractor.
What to avoid
- The insurance gap. Uber's insurance page says your personal policy covers you while offline. With the app on and waiting for a request, Uber maintains only third-party liability of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for injuries and $25,000 for property damage. Repairs to your own car en route or on a trip are covered up to actual cash value with a $2,500 deductible, and only if your personal policy includes comprehensive and collision coverage.
- Car wrap offers. The FTC describes a fake check scam in which an ad-wrap "company" has you deposit a check and send money on to decal installers. Fake checks can take weeks to be discovered, and you owe the bank the full amount.
- Paying for a job. The FTC says honest employers do not charge for the promise of work. Reported job scam losses jumped from $90 million in 2020 to $501 million in 2024.
- Renting someone else's driver account. It usually breaks platform terms and can leave you without the platform's insurance.
- Counting gross as profit. A $25 hour that burns 20 miles is really about $10 at the IRS rate.
Sources
- IRS: standard mileage rates
- Lyft: driver earnings guide
- Uber: how much drivers make
- Uber: Instant Pay
- Uber: insurance for drivers
- Amazon Flex: home page
- Amazon Flex: FAQ
- Instacart: shopper earnings
- Spark Driver: home page
- CitizenShipper: new drivers
- Wikipedia: Getaround
- Wikipedia: Turo)
- Wikipedia: Field Agent)
- FTC: fake check scams
- FTC: job scams
- FTC: 2024 fraud loss data