Every major UK delivery platform advertises a rate, and none of them says what is left once fuel and insurance come out. Those costs differ enough between platforms that the best rate on paper is not always the one that leaves the most in your bank account.
Our guide to the best delivery driver jobs in the UK compares conditions, flexibility, vehicle requirements and what each job is like day to day. The comparison below sticks to money: who pays for what, and what you keep.
Headline rates by delivery company
| Company | Pay model | Advertised or indicative rate |
|---|---|---|
| DPD Connect | Per parcel, self-employed | Around £18 an hour on average, per DPD franchise job ads |
| Amazon Flex | Per block, fixed and known upfront | Up to £14 to £18 an hour[1] |
| Evri | Per parcel, self-employed | 50p to £1.50 a parcel, about £13.72 an hour effective (indicative, aggregator and courier-community sourced) |
| Uber Eats | Per delivery, plus distance and time | £9 to £15 an hour |
| Deliveroo | Per delivery, distance-weighted, GMB pay floor on estimated order time[2] | £8 to £14 an hour |
| Just Eat | Per delivery | £8 to £13 an hour |
That ordering mixes two kinds of number. Amazon Flex publishes a block rate you know before you accept it. Evri and DPD pay per parcel, so their hourly figure is an effective rate that moves with how dense your round is. The food platform bands are indicative, drawn from aggregator and courier community reporting rather than published by the platforms, and they describe active delivery time during busy periods.
Every band in the table dips below the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour[3] at its lower end, a floor that only applies to employed work.
Who pays for insurance on each platform
Insurance is the largest cost difference between these platforms, and no advertised rate shows it.
| Hire and reward cover | Fuel | Vehicle maintenance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Flex | Your cost (Inshur and Zego are its named partner insurers)[4] | Your cost | Your cost |
| Evri | Required, but Evri's own top-up, developed with Marsh Insurance, provides it at £1.35 per working day[5][7] | Your cost | Your cost |
| DPD Connect | Your cost | Your cost | Your cost |
| Just Eat | Your cost | Your cost | Your cost |
| Uber Eats | Your cost | Your cost | Your cost |
| Deliveroo | Your cost | Your cost | Your cost |
Hire and reward cover for a car runs £800 to £1,500 a year, which over roughly 260 working days is £3 to £6 a day before you have turned the key. Evri's top-up at £1.35 a day is cheaper than almost any annual policy worked out per day. Amazon Flex UK has nothing equivalent: its requirements page lists hire and reward as the driver's to hold,[4] whatever the American version of the programme does.
DPD Connect, at around £18 an hour on average, and Amazon Flex, at up to £18, both leave that cost with you, so they stay level with each other once it comes off. Against Evri, whose top-up costs £1.35 a day, the insurance difference is about £1.65 to £4.65 a day, or roughly 25p to 65p an hour on a 7-hour day.
A cyclist needs no hire and reward and buys no fuel, and public liability cover costs £50 to £200 a year instead of £800 to £1,500. On a bike, the food platforms at the bottom of the gross table come out considerably better on what you keep.
What a car driver keeps each week: our estimates
These are our own estimates, not published rates. The inputs vary a lot from driver to driver, so swap in your own wherever you know them. We assumed:
- A car driver working 5 days a week, 7 active hours a day, so 35 hours.
- A petrol car doing around 40mpg, which works out at roughly 15p a mile at current pump prices.
- Parcel rounds covering 60 to 80 miles a day, so about £9 to £12 of fuel. Food delivery covering 30 to 50 miles of shorter hops, so about £4.50 to £7.50, though more of it is spent idling.
- Hire and reward at £800 to £1,500 a year over 260 days, so £3 to £6 a day, on the platforms where the driver pays it.
- The gross rates from the first table, at the middle to upper part of each band, which assumes you are past the learning curve and working peak hours.
We left out vehicle depreciation, tyres, servicing, repairs, your phone and data, and your tax reserve, because they vary too much to model. Every one of them still comes off these numbers.
| Gross a week | Insurance a week | Fuel a week | Our net estimate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Flex | £490 to £630 | £15 to £30 | £45 to £60 | £400 to £570 |
| DPD Connect | £490 to £630 | £15 to £30 | £45 to £60 | £400 to £570 |
| Evri | £400 to £560 | £7 | £45 to £60 | £335 to £510 |
| Uber Eats | £315 to £525 | £15 to £30 | £23 to £38 | £250 to £490 |
| Deliveroo | £280 to £490 | £15 to £30 | £23 to £38 | £215 to £455 |
| Just Eat | £280 to £455 | £15 to £30 | £23 to £38 | £215 to £420 |
The Amazon Flex row assumes you can book 35 hours of blocks a week. Block availability is not guaranteed anywhere and is noticeably thinner outside major cities, so the row shows what the rate produces when the work is there, which may not be every week. Food platforms in a low-demand area have the same problem: the limit is how many orders come in, however many hours you are willing to work.
Which pays most for you?
Car drivers in cities
Amazon Flex on the better blocks, and DPD Connect for experienced drivers on dense rounds, reach the highest net figures. Since both leave the insurance with you, neither has the cheaper cost structure. Flex has the advantage of a rate you know before you start; Connect is more consistent once your round is established and you know it well.
Car drivers in suburban or semi-rural areas
Evri's assigned round and low-cost top-up cover make it the more predictable option here, because your income depends on your round rather than on demand appearing near you. Flex is viable, but block availability drops away from urban centres.
Van drivers
DPD Connect's higher-volume rounds produce the strongest figures once you have modelled the van's running costs, which are materially higher than a car's. Owner-driver franchise routes pay more again but need real capital upfront.
Cyclists
Uber Eats and Deliveroo, which are a better deal on a bike than the gross table implies. With no fuel to buy and cheap public liability in place of hire and reward, a city cyclist working dinner peaks keeps a much larger share of a smaller gross.
Drivers who want a floor under a quiet week
Evri Plus is the only option here with one. For couriers working five or more days a week including a weekend day, it adds an earnings guarantee set above the National Living Wage, up to 28 days paid holiday and a pension with 5% from you and 3% from Evri.[6]
Why most high earners run more than one platform
One platform on its own leaves you exposed to its quiet periods with nothing underneath. Among drivers reporting the strongest weekly totals, the common pattern is a parcel platform as the base, because rounds and blocks are predictable, with a food platform on top for evening and weekend peaks, when restaurant demand is at its highest and parcel volume is done for the day. Running two also spreads the risk of a round being reassigned or blocks drying up.
Current openings across the parcel and food platforms are on the jobs board.
FAQs about delivery company pay in the UK
Which delivery company pays the most per hour in the UK?
Amazon Flex and DPD Connect sit at the top on gross rate: Amazon quotes £14 to £18 an hour for Flex blocks and DPD franchise job ads put Connect at around £18 an hour on average. Both leave hire and reward cover with the driver at £800 to £1,500 a year, so on our estimates a car driver nets roughly £400 to £570 a week on either. Flex depends on block availability where you live and Connect on the density of the round you are given. Evri sits lower on gross but is the only one with its own low-cost cover: you still need insurance, and its top-up provides it at £1.35 a day.
Does Amazon Flex or DPD pay more?
They are close on gross, Flex at up to £18 an hour by Amazon's figures and Connect at around £18 on average by DPD franchise job ads, and close on costs too: Amazon Flex UK lists hire and reward cover as the driver to hold, with Inshur and Zego as partner insurers, and DPD Connect does the same. The difference is the shape of the work. Flex depends on blocks being available in your area; Connect depends on the density of the round you are given.
Does Evri or Amazon Flex pay more?
Amazon Flex is generally higher and more predictable on gross, because you see the block rate before accepting it, and it pays weekly rather than monthly. Evri pays per parcel, so your effective rate depends on round density and takes a few weeks to build. Evri replaces an annual hire and reward policy with its own £1.35-a-day top-up; Flex does not, so the gap on gross narrows once insurance comes off the Flex figure. Evri's real edge is Evri Plus, which is the only earnings floor available on any of these platforms.
Which delivery companies pay weekly?
Amazon Flex, DPD Connect, Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo all pay weekly. Evri pays monthly by BACS, which means your first payment lands a full month after you start. It does not change your effective hourly rate, but it is the most commonly cited practical frustration among new Evri couriers, so build a cash buffer before your first shift.
Do delivery drivers earn more in London?
Generally yes, because density drives earnings on every model here: more drops per hour on parcel rounds, shorter hops on food platforms and more blocks available on Amazon Flex. Effective Evri rates run around £15 to £17 an hour in London against roughly £11 to £13 across much of the north. Costs are higher too, so compare net rather than gross before moving for the rate.
How much can a delivery driver earn per week in the UK?
Realistically £215 to £570 a week net on our estimates for a car driver working 35 hours, depending almost entirely on platform, area and whether the driver pays for their own insurance. Multi-platform drivers in urban areas cluster at the top of that. Remember that these are figures before vehicle wear, maintenance and your tax reserve, and that self-employed delivery work has no minimum wage underneath a quiet week.
Checking the ranking against your own costs
The net table holds only for our assumptions, and insurance accounts for most of the distance between the gross ranking and the net one. Put your own mileage, premium and hours into it before you pick a platform. If delivery work is new to you, our complete guide to becoming a delivery driver in the UK is the place to begin; to weigh conditions as well as pay, see the best delivery driver jobs guide. Who is hiring near you is in the form below.