Done DD, UE, Uber passenger, Lyft passenger recently, amazon flex recently
First of all, I got into this gig stuff in early 2023 and the first 2 years I just did UE , DD. Could average 25-27ish hour doing bulk hours but that became increasingly tough as time went on mainly because of dealing with doordash tier system,etc. Doordash requires you to play ball to get better orders and not only that , but even to be able to login when you want.
I didn't do it much last year until the fall. I started doing passengers along with the food and still do. In my area, the passengers are not coming in steady so doing both keeps you busy most of the time on weekends and I'm able to make 30/hr usually and sometimes in the 35/hr range. This is primarily doing it during the best times, friday and saturday evenings into late night. In my experience, passengers is much better because the offer rate is usually at least $1mile plus including all miles and sometimes $2/mile. You also get surprise tips in there, unlike food. The wait times are generally way less and both apps allow you to cancel while receiving a fee for the riders who do not show up. This is also much better than the food policies both apps have where they send you to a restaurant and you can't get the order but receive no comp from either app. (wasted your time and gas driving to the place).
The reason you make more? Well, liability is much greater and if we get into an accident while drive passengers, its likely you may have problems collecing on certain collision policies. Uber handles the passenger liability but if your insurance company finds out you were using it as a commercial vehicle, your collision will most likely not pay. This is a big part of it and then theres the risk of having strangers behind you that could be looking to do you harm or mess up your car, etc.
Then , there is Flex, which I have only done once but must say I am not very high on this. This is a lot of manual labor where you have no control on where they send you. In my 1 try, they sent me to an area 25 miles away from the amazon warehouse, took the whole time to complete which put it barely at 25/hr busting your butt lifting somewhat heavy packages ,dealing with traffic, constant stopping ,etc. When I finished was also very far away in a dead area. Almost deadheaded the whole way back.
That said, I think passengers is the best way to go although it is risky for the reasons I mentioned. If you can do both at the same time this can open things up more so you can make a decent, liveable wage from doing this. If I wanted to do this full time, I could probably drive up north during the dead times around here to make it worthwhile. Not sure what you guys have experienced so comment on what Ive found out if you want. I know these gigs are not a good future but some of us need to do them to supplement other things we have going on. I hope this helps and maybe someone could give me some pointers too. Hopefully , I dont have to do this too much longer but while I do, I try to maximize my time. Im also a mid aged guy so I cant be busting ass too much at this point. Nor do I think this is a good idea for someone younger too.