Dasher Diary: Is Securing Top Dasher in Amarillo Worth the Hustle?

Since I started my journey of having a side hustle I have also heard about being Top Dasher. It's a sort of rewards program you can earn while you are DoorDashing. I thought I obtained it last month.

I was then disappointed to find out I did not have the overall two hundred lifetime deliveries to secure the top-dasher status. I wanted to see what it was all about. So I was determined to finish October with everything I needed.

• 200 Lifetime Deliveries
• 100 Deliveries during the previous month
• Customer Rating of at least 4.7
• Acceptance Rate of at least 70%

Most all of these are pretty easy to achieve. The tough one is that acceptance rate because seventy percent is tough when you get a pretty bad order. You want to decline. For the most part, I do just that. I am not doing an order that pays me $2.25 to drive fifteen miles. Hopefully, the new DoorDash alert will stop those.

So I busted it at the end of October because I wanted to see what Top Dasher would do for me. Is it even worth it.

So I received the email.

Oh, and I got an alert too when I signed in to the app.

They wanted me to for sure know that I accomplished the goal. So I was set for the month of November. What does that even mean?

Well, I can sign in and dash anytime that I want. I don't have to schedule out six days in advanced like I previously had to. So that is nice. I would have an alarm set on my phone at 3:15 pm every day so I wouldn't forget to schedule. It's nice not having to do that.

If there are peak pay promos, where they will pay you extra to dash during that time I can automatically go in and earn that extra pay. I don't have to hope there is a spot for me. There usually is not. Everyone wants that peak pay.

Do I Get Better Orders?

This has always been one of the perks of being Top Dasher is that you would get better offers. Some I get are really good. There are still those ones I will decline. I got a really good high high-paying drop-off to Northwest Texas Hospital. I dread those because hospitals are huge. This one was easy once I asked how to find Labor and Delivery. So it was definitely worth the fifteen dollars.

I received another one driving to Eastern Street from Georgia. The pay was going to be just under nine dollars. I messaged him to tell him I was taking the back way due to the mess in I40 East. When I got there he got back on the app and tipped me an extra five dollars for the extra work. Those people we always appreciate. Communicating when something is up is always good.

That payout had nothing to do with being Top Dasher. Sometimes you just get good people and he was. I have noticed I am making better money in a shorter amount of time. So maybe the hustle was worth it.

In the first several days it sure has seemed that way. The perk I do like the most is not having to plan out my following week so much. If I wake up early on a Saturday and want to make some money I can. That to me is definitely the biggest plus. I don't have to hope it's busy enough to just hope I can get on. That is not always the case.

Also if I log on and there are people that scheduled I am supposed to have priority. I shouldn't have to wait around as much. There is no way to test that out though. So far in the month of November I have decided being Top Dasher has been worth it for me.