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May 29, 2024
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If you’re based in Texas, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Favor, the local delivery app that’s “proudly unavailable in 49 states.”
If you’re interested in becoming a Favor delivery driver, you’re probably also wondering what it’s actually like working for them these days. How does this app compare to the bigger names in the courier industry, such as DoorDash and Instacart, and more importantly, how much do they pay?
Read on for our comprehensive review of Favor.
Favor is a Texas-based delivery driver app that’s owned and operated by H-E-B, one of the largest supermarket chains in the state.
Freelance drivers, referred to as “Runners,” deliver just about everything, ranging from fast food from franchises like Subway and McDonald’s to documents and dry cleaning.
You can set your own schedule as a Favor Runner. You don’t have to book shifts in advance; you can open the app whenever you like and accept (or decline) orders as they pop up. (Notably, Favor used to allow drivers to schedule shifts in advance, which came with certain benefits, but they phased this feature out in 2023; it’s no longer available anywhere as of May 2024.)
One of the key differences between Favor and its competitors is how users place orders, which will heavily affect your experience as a driver.
On apps like Uber Eats and Instacart, users fill out their own orders, and the app handles the rest. All you have to do is drive to the restaurant or store in question and pick the goods up.
Conversely, on Favor, your customers will contact you (the Runner) and tell you what they want. You’ll then place the order yourself.
Frequently, you’ll have to do this by calling the store on the phone, although some businesses have their own mobile apps that you can use to reserve items. That’s between you and the store; you can’t place orders directly in Favor’s interface.
After placing the order, you’ll drive to the outlet, pick the items up, pay for them (using a “Runner Card” that Favor will issue when you sign up), and take them to the customer’s location.
This somewhat cumbersome order-placing process increases the amount of work you have to do to earn money on Favor, and is a significant downside of using the app.
Favor itself claims that its Runners make an average of $12–$18 per hour. 1 If that’s true, it’s roughly in line with what you can make by driving for most of its competitors (our past research has shown that most of them pay around $15–$20 per hour).
That said, there’s reason to believe that Favor’s claims about how much you can make are a bit optimistic.
They aren’t very transparent about how they produced those figures, and on the same page on their site, they make several claims about their own payment process that are out of date or simply inaccurate (e.g., they say that they still provide a guaranteed hourly minimum rate for Runners who “choose to schedule themselves ahead of time,” even though they removed this feature in 2023).
Anecdotal reports from drivers claim that Favor pays relatively low rates, something that we’ll explore in more detail further down.
Several components contribute to the payout you’ll receive for each order:
All told, since not all customers tip, many orders pay just over $2. That’s a very low rate for a gig app, and after accounting for gas and other expenses, it’s possible you won’t break even on those deliveries.
Fortunately, as mentioned, some orders (referred to as “Fleet Favors”) pay more. Favor also sometimes offers promotional offers (“promos”) that will boost your earnings.
Many of Favor’s current and former gig workers claim that these are the only circumstances under which it’s worth accepting deliveries on the app at all.
Fleet Favors are orders placed directly by businesses, not customers. In contrast to most Favor deliveries, you don’t have to call the store, pay with your Favor Runner card, or communicate with the customer—all you have to do is drive to the pickup location, collect the items, and deliver them.
Fleet Favors often pay a higher base rate and sometimes even have guaranteed tips (e.g., a base pay of $3 with a $5 minimum tip). This makes them considerably more lucrative than typical orders, although they’re still relatively poorly paid in absolute terms.
Fleet Favors also save you from having to process and pay for the order yourself. Because you can complete them more quickly, they enable you to take on more work and earn more money, although you can’t accept any new orders until you’ve completed your current delivery.
Depending on the time of day and the city you work in, you may be eligible for “promos.” These come in several varieties:
The upshot of all of this is that most Favor orders pay relatively little, especially given how much work they involve.
You can bring up your earnings substantially by making strategic use of Favor’s promotions and being selective about the gigs you accept, prioritizing Fleet Favors and rejecting lowball offers.
However, even then, you’ll still be making rates comparable to (and perhaps a bit below) what you’ll get on other, similar gig apps, like DoorDash.
Favor offers two payment options:
| Payment method | Schedule | Fees |
|---|---|---|
| Direct deposit (to your bank account) | Weekly (every Wednesday, with pay for promos arriving on Tuesday) | None |
| Instant Pay (to your debit card) | At will | $0.99 (with 5 complimentary transfers to use within 90 days of signing up) |
If you want to start driving with Favor, you need to be at least 18 years old. You also must have a:
Note that you can also deliver with a bicycle, but only in a select neighborhood in downtown Austin, which Favor refers to as their bike zone. 2 If you’re signing up to work there and don’t plan on driving a motorized vehicle, you don’t need a driver’s license, but you’ll still need some sort of official ID to sign up.
Like many other delivery apps, Favor will run a criminal background and driving record check before you can start working with them.
They won’t run this check themselves; they contract with a third-party company called Checkr, which also conducts background checks for other gig apps, such as Uber Eats and Instacart.
Most people pass this check without any problems. If you have a few blips on your record (e.g., speeding or parking tickets), you’ll probably be fine. You’ll only run into trouble if you have felonies on your record or major vehicular offenses (such as DUIs) from the past 7 years.
Favor is based in Austin and only operates in Texas.
They’re active in over 100 cities across the state. You can check if they operate in yours by reviewing their Runner Applicant FAQ, although that list isn’t exhaustive, so if you live in a smaller town that doesn’t appear there, it’s still worth attempting to sign up.
To sign up as a Favor Runner, visit their site, input your ZIP code, and click “Get Started.”
Favor will prompt you to fill out your name, email, phone number, vehicle type, and promo or referral code, if you have one. Favor will also ask for your Social Security number for the background check.
After you enter all the requisite information, you’ll need to complete a short orientation, which will go through the basics of accepting and completing favors, using the app, and receiving your payment.
Once you’ve cleared Favor’s background check, you’ll be ready to start driving.
During the signup process, you’ll be prompted to download Favor’s mobile app for Runners. You can also install it using the buttons below.
As we’ve explained, Favor’s rates are quite low. On average, delivery drivers for gig apps tend to make $15–$20 per hour; it’s possible to achieve earnings like that with Favor, but it takes a fair amount of work.
What’s more, your potential earnings don’t tell the full story. It’s also important to consider your expense ratio when you’re calculating how much you’ll actually take home at the end of the day.
All driving-based side hustles come with substantial overhead costs, and Favor is no exception.
Your biggest expense will be gas, which Favor won’t reimburse you for. You’ll also have to pay for regular oil changes, tune-ups, and other vehicle maintenance expenses (which will probably cost more than you’re anticipating—as a delivery driver, you’ll put a lot of wear and tear on your car).
Lastly, as a gig worker, you’re legally classified as an independent contractor, not an employee, which means you’ll be saddled with a hefty tax burden. You can write off some of your expenses (for instance, in 2024, the IRS allows you to deduct $0.67 per mile you drive from your taxes), but you’ll still have to pay something.
It’s impossible to predict your expenses exactly—they depend on several factors, such as how fuel-efficient your car is. However, as a general rule, the gig drivers we’ve interviewed have recommended budgeting the following:
This means that you can expect your expenses to eat up about 35% of what you make. Setting this much aside from the beginning will protect you from receiving an unpleasant surprise the next time you need to take your car to the shop (or when tax season rolls around).
To put this into context, if you make $6 for completing a delivery on Favor, you’ll only keep $3.90 of that as profit ($6 minus 35%). Particularly given Favor’s relatively low pay, this is an important piece of the puzzle if you’re evaluating whether or not the app is worth your time.
To get a clearer idea of whether driving for Favor is right for you, it can be helpful to look at reviews from other gig workers on websites like Indeed and Glassdoor, as well as posts on Reddit communities like r/couriersofreddit and r/favordelivery.
To help you out, we’ve rounded up a fairly representative selection of reviews:
One poster on Reddit claims that there’s a fair amount of work available on Favor in their area, which is a positive. One of the most common complaints we see about delivery apps is that there simply isn’t much work on many of them.
However, they claim that most deliveries simply don’t pay very much, including Favor Fleet orders (which, again, are the only ones we recommend taking at all). They claim that they haven’t seen any orders lately that pay more than $9, despite many involving 8–14 miles of driving (each way).
Unfortunately, this sentiment seems to be common among Favor drivers. The general consensus is that these days, the app just doesn’t pay very much, which makes it very hard to recommend.
Another reviewer on Favor’s Indeed page has similar complaints about the app. In a lengthy review, they claim that the app’s promos (and overall pay) used to be reasonably high, but that over the course of the 3 years they spent as a driver, both dropped substantially.
Like the previous Redditor, they acknowledge that there’s enough work on the app to keep you busy, but write that “orders worth running are few and far between.” Moreover, they allege that Favor’s app itself can be glitchy, writing that it:
Their conclusion is that Favor is “not a company worth working for,” as they “do not value your time or effort.”
One reviewer on Glassdoor is somewhat more positive toward the app, praising its flexibility as a big perk and writing that it’s “great for a part-time or summer job.”
However, they disagree with the reviewers we cited above, claiming that there are “too many Favor drivers and not enough orders” and that they frequently experienced 1–2 hour lulls on the app with no work.
This is a common issue with gig apps like Favor: they can vary greatly from location to location, which means it can be difficult to definitively establish whether they’re worth it for everybody or not.
Our impression is that overall, Favor isn’t a very good app to drive for, and you’d be better off with one of its competitors. However, it’s possible that in your city, the market will be more favorable (no pun intended), with more lucrative orders and better promotions.
The good news is that delivery driving is a side hustle with a very low barrier to entry, so if you’re still interested in Favor, you can easily give it a try. Even if you ultimately conclude that it isn’t a good fit, you won’t have lost anything but your time (and not that much time, either).
Given how most of the app’s former and current drivers talk about it, our advice is not to get your hopes up, but it’s possible you’ll have a better experience as a Favor Runner.
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