Unworthy $28.16 Double Order Instacart Batch ($5.00 Tip)
Looking at a $28.16 payout on a phone screen might tempt a driver who needs a quick win, even with a small $5 tip included. But when you map out the actual distance, this $28.16 double order Instacart batch quickly reveals itself to be an absolute disaster for your business. Check out as this order is broken down into hourly pay BEFORE car maintenance, insurance, and taxes. This calculation is based on an average speed of 60 MPG, fuel economy of 50 MPG, Shopping speed of 1 item per minute, and a fuel cost of $4.00 per gallon. Check it out!
The Breakdown of Time for This $28.16 Double Order Instacart Batch
The actual labor inside the store is minimal. Knocking out 38 items should take a standard 38 minutes if you are moving efficiently at an item-per-minute pace. Although this may take longer since there are a whopping 92 units!
The real trap is out on the highway. The delivery destination is 42.8 miles away from the store. Since a driver cannot secure consistent new orders out in the middle of nowhere, you have to drive those same miles back to your home zone. That brings the reality of this run to an 85.6-mile round trip. Keeping your speedometer at a steady 60 mph means you are locked behind the wheel for, at a minimum, 86 minutes.
When you combine those 38 minutes of shopping with the 86 minutes of highway driving, this single contract eats up a total of 124 minutes of your day—over two full hours.
The True Net Payout
Operating expenses quickly drain the gross payment of this $28.16 double order Instacart batch. Even if you are driving a highly optimized hybrid or very fuel-efficient vehicle that gets an incredible 50 MPG, covering an 85.6-mile loop requires 1.71 gallons of gas. With fuel priced at $4.00 a gallon, you are burning $6.85 straight out of your pocket just to keep the car rolling.
Subtracting that $6.85 fuel expense from the $28.16 gross payout leaves you with a true net profit of only $21.31.
The Minimum Wage Reality
To find out what your energy is actually worth on this run, we divide that remaining $21.31 net profit by the 124 minutes it took to complete the work. The math reveals you are earning just under 17 cents per minute.
When scaled out across a full hour, this high-mileage batch yields a true earnings rate of just $10.20 per hour.
To put that into perspective, while $10.20 technically sits above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, that comparison is a total illusion. A regular minimum wage employee doesn’t have to fund an 86-mile commute out of their own pocket just to show up to work. Once you take that $10.20 and subtract the massive vehicle depreciation of putting nearly 90 miles on your car in one shot, plus tire wear, oil changes, and self-employment taxes, your actual take-home pay plunges far below the national minimum wage baseline. Taking this order means you are actively paying the customer to let you carry their groceries. This $28.16 double order Instacart batch belongs straight in the trash and is officially DECLINED.
BONUS INFO
This is not in the video, but I just started figuring out the cost of regular maintenance, including oil changes, new tires, and new brakes. Based on averages, it is about $0.04 additional per mile. So let’s add this to the calculation! You have $28.16; minus the fuel cost of $6.85, you get $21.31; minus the estimated average maintenance cost of $3.42 for 85.6 miles, you get a net payout of $17.89. So after adding maintenance cost, now the payout is $8.65 per hour! That is $1.55 less per hour than just accounting for fuel! But, still, that does not include the cost of surprise car repairs, insurance, taxes, and so forth! This is slave labor!
Order Rating
A Disastrous Single-Digit Trap That’s Pure Exploitation