What does gig delivery actually pay per hour in the UK?

The short answer

Nobody publishes a reliable figure for what gig delivery pays per hour in the UK. Official pay statistics cover employees, and most gig couriers are self-employed, so they are excluded. The only number that means anything is your own: take what the app offers, subtract your mileage and other costs, then divide by every hour the job really takes, waiting included.

Ask what a gig courier earns per hour and someone will give you a number. Here is the problem: nobody publishes a reliable one. Official pay statistics measure employees. Most gig couriers are self-employed, so they are excluded by definition.

Every 'couriers make this much an hour' figure online comes from a site with no stated method. You can't see how many hours were counted, or whether waiting time and fuel were included. Treat any page that hands you a tidy average as a page that doesn't know.

That's not a cop-out. It's the finding. And it points to the only number that means anything: your own, worked out from your own jobs. This guide covers what is actually known, then how to do that sum.

What the Low Pay Commission found

The best evidence is a Low Pay Commission report published in May 2024. It draws on conversations held in spring 2023 with people working in food delivery, private hire, parcel delivery and other sectors. The Commission says plainly that these conversations are not claimed to be representative. Treat what follows as reported experiences from spring 2023, not a rate card.

Riders put the usual minimum for one order at around £3.80, and around £5 for two orders (paragraph 11).
Surges, multipliers and boosts were 'inconsistently applied, hard to predict' (paragraph 11). Couriers estimated their pay would only match the minimum wage if they received all three of the available bonuses (paragraph 12).
One rider said the same job could pay £3.40 when quiet and £4.50 when busy (paragraph 13).
Private hire drivers reported platform deductions of about 30 to 40%, and felt transparency had worsened (paragraph 15).
Parcel drivers reported 75p for a standard parcel, 56p for a smaller packet and £1 for a 17kg heavy. Parcels were regularly mis-categorised (paragraph 20).

The Commission's summary of all this was blunt: 'Pay transparency is a real problem.' Pay was 'composite and variable; rates changed from hour to hour' (paragraph 31). When even the official body for low pay can't turn that into an hourly figure, a website that claims one is guessing.

Here is the part both sides quote. Riders thought hourly pay for time spent actually delivering was likely above the National Living Wage on average, which was £10.42 at the time. But they said this 'would change if you included waiting times'. Many thought in daily targets instead: around £80 to £100 on weekdays and £100 to £150 at weekends, and those targets had grown harder to reach (paragraph 14).

So the honest summary is mixed, and this page won't pretend otherwise. The rate while you're moving can look decent. The rate across your whole working time is a different question, and it's one only you can answer.

Waiting time is what moves the number

Across every sector in the report, people described substantial unpaid time waiting between jobs (paragraph 26). Couriers said pay was counted from the first parcel scanned to the last delivery, with no account of time spent sorting (paragraph 28). Private hire drivers calculated that 10 hours on the app could be 14 hours once waiting was included (paragraph 29).

A union representative told the Commission that after fuel and wear and tear, drivers 'would easily fall below' the minimum wage. That's a view from spring 2023, not a measurement. The arithmetic underneath it, though, isn't opinion: the same money spread over more hours is a lower hourly rate.

Work out your own number

The sum is short. Take the offered pay. Subtract your mileage cost and any other costs. Divide what's left by the hours the job really takes, door to door, with the waiting at pickup and drop-off included.

Here is a worked example with invented numbers. It shows the arithmetic and nothing else. It's not a claim about what any job pays.

Step	Sum	Result
Offered pay	What the app shows for one job	£10.00
Mileage cost	6 miles x 55p per mile	£3.30
Other costs	Set to £0 for this example	£0
Net pay	£10.00 - £3.30 - £0	£6.70
Hours	45 minutes / 60	0.75 hours
Net pay per hour	£6.70 / 0.75	£8.93

Now take 15 minutes of waiting out of the same job. Same £10.00, same 6 miles, but 30 minutes door to door. The net pay is still £6.70. The hourly figure becomes £13.40. Nothing moved except the wait.

Judge it against a floor you set. Suppose your floor is £12.71, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over. The 45-minute version lands more than 10% under it, which Zippabout flags as 'below your floor'. The 30-minute version comes out 'good'. A result within 10% under the floor reads 'marginal'. Same money, same miles, and the wait alone decides whether the job was worth taking.

Zippabout runs these sums before you accept a job. You enter the offered pay, the miles and the total minutes door to door. It applies your saved cost per mile, your hourly floor and any other hourly costs. The weekly summary divides total money kept by total hours worked, rather than averaging per-job rates, so the quiet hours count properly.

It's free, with no account, no ads and no backend. Your figures stay on your own device, and you can export them as a JSON file. The output is an estimate, not a wage slip, and not tax advice.

Why your number is not their number

Two couriers on the same patch can end the same week on different hourly figures. There's no mystery in it. The inputs differ.

Vehicle. Two people can drive the same miles and spend very different amounts doing it. HMRC's approved mileage rate, 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a car or van, is a tax rule of thumb meant to cover fuel plus wear. It's not a measurement of what your vehicle costs to run.
Patch. How far apart the jobs are, and how long the waits run where you work, feeds straight into the hourly figure.
When you log on. The same job could pay £3.40 when quiet and £4.50 when busy, one rider told the Commission (paragraph 13).
What you count as time. Count only the moving minutes and your rate will always flatter the job. The Commission heard that unclear working time makes the minimum wage hard to use as a benchmark (paragraph 33).

The minimum wage question

Self-employed people are not entitled to the minimum wage. The Commission states it directly (paragraph 2). From April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over, £10.85 for people aged 18 to 20, and £8.00 for under 18s and apprentices. The rates change on 1 April each year. Use them as a yardstick if you like. They're not a floor you can claim.

There's a gap under the headline rate too. An employee on £12.71 also gets paid holiday and a pension. A self-employed courier gets neither. Match £12.71 after costs and you're still behind an employee on the same number.

In [Uber BV and others v Aslam and others [2021] UKSC 5](https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2019-0029.html), decided in February 2021, the Supreme Court held that the drivers in that case were workers, not self-employed contractors, entitled to the minimum wage and paid holiday. The court looked past the wording of the contracts to the reality of the working relationship. What it didn't do is reclassify every gig worker in the country. Status still turns on the facts of each arrangement.

The short version, then. No official statistic covers what gig delivery pays per hour, and no website averages it reliably. The number that matters is the one you work out from your own jobs, counting every hour. Once you have it, each new offer gets easier to judge.

Common questions

How much does gig delivery pay per hour in the UK?

There is no reliable published figure. Official pay statistics measure employees, and most gig couriers are self-employed, so they are excluded by definition. The only hourly figure worth having is your own, worked out from your offers, your costs and every hour you actually spend.

Is gig delivery worth it?

It depends on numbers only you have: your vehicle costs, your patch and how much unpaid waiting you absorb. Riders who spoke to the Low Pay Commission in spring 2023 thought their rate while actually delivering was likely above the minimum wage on average. They also said it changed once waiting time was counted. Work out your real figure over a full week before you judge it.

Do gig workers get the minimum wage?

If you are self-employed, no. The minimum wage covers employees and workers. In [Uber BV and others v Aslam and others [2021] UKSC 5](https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2019-0029.html), the Supreme Court found the drivers in that case were workers entitled to the minimum wage and paid holiday, because the reality of the relationship mattered more than the contract. Whether any other arrangement counts turns on its own facts.

Does the app show my hourly rate?

Not the one that matters. The app shows what a job offers, before your fuel, wear and waiting come off. Couriers told the Low Pay Commission their pay was counted from the first parcel scanned to the last delivery, ignoring sorting time. To get an hourly rate you divide what you keep by the hours you count, and you decide what counts.

How do I work out my hourly rate?

Multiply your miles by your cost per mile, subtract that and any other costs from the offered pay, then divide by your hours door to door, waits included. For a week, divide total money kept by total hours worked rather than averaging per-job rates. Zippabout does these sums free, and your data stays on your own device.

Why do two riders get paid differently for the same job?

Because the rate is often not a fixed price. Veena Dubal's research describes gig pay as set by opaque, variable and personalised calculation. The Low Pay Commission heard the same in spring 2023: one rider said a job paid £3.40 when quiet and £4.50 when busy, and boosts were 'inconsistently applied, hard to predict'. Identical work can be offered different money, with no explanation.

What should I count as working time?

Everything the job takes: the run to pickup, the wait at the counter, the drop itself and the gaps between jobs when you are logged on and available. Private hire drivers told the Low Pay Commission that 10 hours on the app could be 14 hours once waiting was included. Count only the moving minutes and the figure will always flatter the job.

Is the HMRC 55p mileage rate what my vehicle costs?

No. It is a tax rule of thumb meant to cover fuel plus wear, not a measurement of any particular vehicle. From 6 April 2026 the approved rate is 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a car or van, then 25p, with 24p for motorcycles and 20p for bicycles. Your real cost may be higher or lower, and fuel prices move weekly: check current pump prices.

Sources

Every figure on this page traces to one of these. Rates change, usually each April, so the date below is when they were last checked against the source.

Figures checked 29 July 2026. If one of them is out of date, that is a real bug in this page: tell me and it gets fixed.