Every major UK delivery platform advertises a rate. None of them tell you what is left once fuel and insurance come out, and that gap is not small: on some platforms it is the difference between the best-paying option on paper and the third-best in your bank account.
This page is about that gap specifically. If you want the broader comparison, covering conditions, flexibility, vehicle requirements and what each job is actually like, that is our guide to the best delivery driver jobs in the UK. Here we are only interested in one question: who pays for what, and what do you keep?
The headline rates
| Company | Pay model | Advertised or indicative rate |
|---|---|---|
| DPD Connect | Per parcel, self-employed | Up to £18 an hour |
| Amazon Flex | Per block, fixed and known upfront | £14 to £18 an hour |
| Evri | Per parcel, self-employed | 50p to £1.50 a parcel, about £13.72 an hour effective |
| Uber Eats | Per delivery, plus distance and time | £9 to £15 an hour |
| Deliveroo | Per delivery, distance-weighted | £8 to £14 an hour |
| Just Eat | Per delivery | £8 to £13 an hour |
Two notes before you read anything into that ordering.
The parcel and food figures are not the same kind of number. Amazon Flex publishes a block rate you know before you accept it. Evri and DPD pay per parcel, so an 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.
They are all revenue, not wages. Every band on that table dips below the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour at its lower end, and that floor only applies to employed work anyway. As a self-employed driver you carry the quiet hours yourself, and no minimum wage underwrites a shift where the orders do not come.
The part that changes the ranking: who pays for insurance
This is the single largest cost difference between these platforms, and it is invisible in every advertised rate.
| Hire and reward cover | Fuel | Vehicle maintenance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Flex | Included, Amazon's own commercial policy during active blocks | Your cost | Your cost |
| Evri | Not needed, Marsh top-up at £1.35 per working day | 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. Spread across roughly 260 working days that is £3 to £6 off every single day you work, before you have turned the key. Amazon Flex removes that cost entirely during blocks. Evri replaces it with £1.35 a day, which is cheaper than almost any annual policy pro-rated.
So DPD Connect and Amazon Flex both top out at £18 an hour on paper, and they are not equivalent offers. On a 7-hour day the insurance difference alone is worth £3 to £6 to the Flex driver, or roughly 40p to 90p an hour.
For a cyclist the whole calculation changes. No hire and reward, no fuel, and public liability cover at £50 to £200 a year instead of £800 to £1,500. That makes the food platforms considerably more attractive on a net basis than the gross table suggests, even though they sit at the bottom of it.
What we estimate you actually keep
The figures below are our own estimates, not published rates. We are showing the arithmetic so you can substitute your own numbers, because the inputs vary a lot by driver.
What 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.
What we excluded, because it varies too much to model: vehicle depreciation, tyres, servicing, repairs, your phone and data, and your tax reserve. All of them are real, and all of them come off these numbers.
| Gross a week | Insurance a week | Fuel a week | Our net estimate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Flex | £490 to £630 | Included | £45 to £60 | £430 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 |
Read the Amazon Flex row with a caveat. It assumes you can book 35 hours of blocks a week, and block availability is not guaranteed anywhere and is noticeably thinner outside major cities. Treat it as what the rate produces when the work is there, not as a weekly income you can rely on. The same caution applies to the food platforms in a low-demand area, where the constraint is order volume rather than your willingness to work.
Which pays most for you?
Car drivers in cities. Amazon Flex on the better blocks, and experienced DPD Connect drivers on dense rounds, reach the highest net figures. Flex wins on cost structure because of the insurance; Connect wins on consistency once your round is established and you know it well.
Car drivers in suburban or semi-rural areas. Evri's assigned round and included cover make it the more predictable option, 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, and it is a better deal than the gross table implies. With no fuel and cheap public liability instead of hire and reward, a city cyclist working dinner peaks keeps a much larger share of a smaller gross.
If you want a floor under a quiet week. Evri Plus is the only option here that provides 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. No other platform on this page offers an equivalent structure.
Why most high earners run more than one platform
The drivers reporting the strongest weekly totals rarely depend on one app, and the reason is structural rather than clever: a single platform exposes you to its own quiet periods with nothing underneath you.
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. That also spreads the risk of a round being reassigned or blocks drying up.
One free profile lets you hold accounts across Evri, Amazon Flex, DPD Connect, Just Eat, Deliveroo, Stuart and 5,000+ other delivery networks in the UK. You pick the platforms, the vehicle and the areas that suit you. Current openings 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, both reaching £18 an hour. Amazon Flex comes out ahead on what you keep, because it includes commercial insurance during blocks while DPD Connect leaves you to buy hire and reward at £800 to £1,500 a year. On our estimates a car driver nets roughly £430 to £570 a week on Flex against £400 to £570 on Connect, though Flex depends on block availability where you live.
Does Amazon Flex or DPD pay more?
They are close on gross, both up to £18 an hour. The difference is the cost structure: Flex includes insurance during active blocks, DPD does not. Removing a £1,000-ish annual policy is worth £3 to £6 for every day you work, which is what puts Flex ahead for a driver who would otherwise buy that cover. DPD's advantage is the consistency of an established round, where Flex depends on blocks being available.
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. Both avoid the hire and reward cost that comes off DPD Connect and the food platforms. 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 is what drives earnings on every model here. More drops per hour on parcel rounds, shorter hops on food platforms, and higher block availability 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.
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