How much DoorDash drivers make in Australia: $32 floor, $11 net

Since August 17, 2026, DoorDash has had to pay drivers in Australia at least $32.00 per active hour in a car. The numbers say that works out to roughly $11 per logged-in hour once you count unpaid time between orders and the cost of the car. After setting money aside for tax, it’s about $8.80. There’s no verified pay floor for New Zealand, so the NZ section gives the formula and the inputs DoorDash publishes.

The numbers (Australia, car, AUD)

Assumptions: the $32.00 car floor per active hour from DoorDash’s guide to Australia’s Minimum Standards Order; 70% of logged-in time active; 12 km per logged-in hour, costed at the 91c/km 2026-27 ATO rate as reported by Driversnote; $0.50 an hour for phone and data; no tips; 20% of net set aside for tax. Rounded to the nearest 10 cents.

Australian figures here are AUD and New Zealand figures are NZD. US Dasher rules (Prop 22, IRS mileage rates, 1099 thresholds) don’t apply in either country.

The floor: what DoorDash now pays per active hour

Australia’s first minimum standards order for on-demand food delivery workers took effect on August 17, 2026. The Fair Work Commission made it after an application by the Transport Workers Union, and it names Uber Eats and DoorDash (ABC News). DoorDash’s minimum depends on what you deliver with:

The car rate is only $0.70 an hour above the pedal bike rate, and the floor has no per-kilometer amount. A car driver pays for every kilometer out of that extra 70 cents. Australia’s national minimum wage, for comparison, is $26.44 an hour (ABC). The delivery floor is higher, but it covers only active time and you supply the vehicle.

The order is interim and could change. ABC quoted one academic calling it a “living document.”

What counts as active time

Active time runs from accepting an offer until it’s completed, including waiting at the restaurant. For batched orders, the clock runs from the first acceptance to the last drop-off.

Time spent waiting for an offer doesn’t count. Neither does paused time, or time lost to breakdowns or accidents outside DoorDash’s control. ABC put it plainly: workers “are not paid while waiting for a new job.”

Tips don’t count toward the floor, and you keep 100% of them on top. DoorDash checks your pay against the floor every week, and any shortfall arrives automatically as a “DoorDash pay adjustment” in the Earnings tab. The first top-ups were paid on September 7, 2026.

The floor is promised per active hour, but your evening runs on logged-in hours. Divide pay by logged-in hours to get the rate you actually earned.

Pay above the floor

Normal per-offer pay still applies above the floor. DoorDash’s Australian pay page puts base pay at about $2 to $10+ per offer, depending on distance, time and how desirable the offer is. The amount on the acceptance screen is the minimum guaranteed for that offer. Promotions (Peak Pay, Challenges and Delivery Streaks) come on top.

DoorDash also runs a Fuel Price Relief Program. Base pay may rise to offset fuel costs, based on a fortnightly check of state capital fuel prices against a March 6, 2026 baseline. The program continues while prices stay high and the Fair Work order is in force.

Public sources have no independent average of what Australian Dashers actually earn, and US tracker figures don’t carry over. So the math here starts from the floor and works up. Read the result as the bottom of the range: a quiet week with no tips.

Assumptions

Change any of these to match your own week:

1. Vehicle: a car, at the 2026 floor of $32.00 per active hour.
2. Pay: exactly the floor for active time, with per-offer pay and promotions not pushing you above it.
3. Active share: 70% of logged-in time is active. The other 30% is spent waiting for offers.
4. Distance: 12 km driven per logged-in hour, counting pickups, drop-offs and driving back to a busy area.
5. Vehicle cost: 91c per km, the ATO cents-per-km rate for 2026-27, used as a stand-in for the full cost of running the car. Fuel alone costs less per km than this, but the car wears out either way.
6. Phone and data: $0.50 per logged-in hour.
7. Tips: zero, which keeps the result conservative.
8. Tax: 20% of net set aside. This is a round planning number, not an ATO rate. Your real rate depends on your total income for the year.

Worked example: a four-hour evening shift by car

Logged in:                 4.0 hours
Active (70%):              4.0 x 0.70 = 2.8 hours
Floor pay:                 2.8 x $32.00 = $89.60

Distance:                  4.0 x 12 km = 48 km
Vehicle cost:              48 x $0.91 = $43.68
Phone and data:            4.0 x $0.50 = $2.00
Total costs:               $45.68

Net for the shift:         $89.60 - $45.68 = $43.92
Net per logged-in hour:    $43.92 / 4 = $10.98  (about $11.00)

Tax set-aside (20%):       $43.92 x 0.20 = $8.78
Kept after set-aside:      $35.14, or $8.78 per hour (about $8.80)

Tips move these margins quickly. Every $10 in tips across the shift adds $2.50 per logged-in hour before tax.

What changes the answer

Each row changes one assumption and leaves the rest at the base case. Figures are per logged-in hour, before tax.

The two biggest levers are the active share and the distance driven. Going from 50% to 85% active more than triples net pay. The 2027 rate increase adds about 30 cents.

Bike versus car under the order

The floor barely changes between vehicles, but costs change a lot. Here’s the same calculation with a $31.30 floor and an assumed $1.00 per logged-in hour for tires, servicing and charging:

Gross:       $31.30 x 0.70 = $21.91
Costs:       $1.00
Net:         $20.91 per logged-in hour  (about $20.90)
After 20%:   $20.91 x 0.80 = $16.73     (about $16.70)

That’s almost twice the car’s net. The limits are range and weather. A bike can’t cover a spread-out zone, and riding in rain or heat costs effort, which doesn’t show up in the arithmetic.

Compared with

The comparison isn’t exact. An employer withholds an employee’s tax, while a Dasher handles their own. Even so, once car costs and waiting time are counted, the base-case car Dasher earns well under the national minimum wage for each hour spent logged in.

For the same math on US platforms, see the US DoorDash driver math after gas, wear and tax and how Uber Eats drivers can raise a median of $4.79 an hour. For other options, see side hustles ranked by after-tax pay per hour.

If you planned to run a second app alongside DoorDash, note that Menulog is closing its Australian business on November 26, 2026 (ABC).

How much DoorDash drivers make in New Zealand

New Zealand has fewer fixed numbers. The Australian order is Australian law, and the math below assumes no NZ pay floor. DoorDash’s NZ help page says this about pay (NZD):

• When you earn per offer, base pay is $2 to $10+ per offer, depending on estimated time, distance and how popular the offer is. Longer, slower and less popular offers pay more.
• Tips don’t change base pay, and 100% of tips go to the Dasher.
• Promotions are Peak Pay, Challenges and Delivery Streaks.
• Total earnings = base pay + promotions + tips.
• There is also an earn-by-time option that pays differently. If your area offers it, check its terms in the app before you compare it with per-offer pay.

With no independent average to work from, here is the NZ calculation. We assume 2 offers per logged-in hour:

Base pay per hour:   2 offers x $2 = $4    (bottom of range)
                     2 offers x $10 = $20  (top of the stated range)
Plus:                promotions + tips
Minus:               km per hour x your cost per km
Minus:               phone and data

The cost line works the same way as in Australia. At 12 km per hour, every 10 cents of cost per km takes $1.20 off your hourly rate. Your cost per km comes from your own fuel, servicing, insurance and car value. On a bicycle it’s close to zero, and that alone often decides whether NZ dashing pays.

Log a month of logged-in hours, kilometers and payouts, then divide net pay by logged-in hours. That gives you a real NZ hourly figure, which no public source currently does.

Tax in Australia: ABN, GST and the km deduction

This is arithmetic, not tax advice. For your own situation, check with a registered tax agent or the ATO.

• ABN: DoorDash tells Dashers to get a free sole trader ABN (“Individual (Sole trader)”) and give it to DoorDash.
• GST: food delivery isn’t ride-sourcing, so the general $75,000 GST registration threshold applies. The catch comes if you also drive Uber rides. Ride-sourcing drivers must register for GST from their first trip, whatever they earn, and once you’re registered under an ABN, GST applies to all business income under it. That pulls your DoorDash income in too.
• Car deduction: the cents-per-km rate is 91c for 2026-27, capped at 5,000 business km per car, so the maximum claim is $4,550. At 12 km per logged-in hour, you hit the cap after about 417 logged-in hours (5,000 / 12), which is roughly eight hours a week for a year. Past that point the cents-per-km method stops counting extra kilometers, so ask a tax agent whether another method suits you better.
• Withholding: the math here assumes none, which is why the 20% set-aside exists. Move it to a separate account each week.

Tax in New Zealand: IRD number and the $60,000 GST line

Under the IRD’s guidance for ride-sharing and food delivery, food delivery drivers:

• need an IRD number
• must include gross delivery fees in their income tax return
• can claim only expenses directly related to the delivery service
• must keep records of all income and expenses.

You must register for GST if you have earned, or will earn, more than $60,000 from all your taxable activities in any 12-month period, counting gross delivery fees. The same caveat applies: this isn’t tax advice, so check your situation with IRD or a tax agent.

Costs nobody pays you back for

• Vehicle insurance. Under the order, DoorDash pays for a personal accident policy covering injury, disability or death while you’re using the Dasher app. Insurance for your vehicle is still your cost. Ask your insurer whether your policy covers delivery work before your first shift.
• Waiting time. In the base case, 30% of every hour is unpaid.
• Phone and data. It’s small per hour, but it never goes away.
• Time to start. You must be 18 or older and have a smartphone. The police and right-to-work check through National Crime Check usually takes 24 to 48 hours but can take up to 14 business days. If there are no disclosable court outcomes, activation generally follows within 48 hours of the results.
• Rule risk. The order is interim. Rates are set through 2027, but the terms could be revised.

Before you sign up

1. Pick your vehicle using the bike-versus-car math above. It’s the biggest single decision.
2. Estimate your zone’s kilometers per hour. Dense inner-city zones look like the 8 km row in the table, and outer suburbs look like the 18 km row.
3. If the numbers work, apply through DoorDash and allow up to 14 business days for the check.
4. For the first month, log logged-in hours, active hours, kilometers and pay, then rerun the calculation with your own figures.

Sources

• DoorDash: Guide to Australia’s Minimum Standards Order
• ABC News, August 17, 2026: what is changing about how food delivery workers are paid
• DoorDash Australia: how Dasher pay is calculated
• DoorDash New Zealand: how Dasher earnings work
• ATO: registering for GST
• Driversnote: ATO cents-per-km rate 2026-27
• IRD: ride-sharing or food delivery overview

Verdict in one number

$11.00 per logged-in hour. That’s what the $32.00 floor leaves an Australian car Dasher after 30% unpaid waiting and 91c/km, before tax and tips.