Gig work economics after costs

What follows is an argument about gig work earnings, and about where the received version of it stops being true.

The costs are yours

Fuel, insurance, maintenance, tyres and depreciation on a vehicle used for work are real and continuous costs. Depreciation in particular is invisible month to month and substantial over a year of heavy use. Platform earnings figures are typically quoted before any of it.

Depreciation becomes visible at the point of sale, when a vehicle carrying heavy delivery mileage fetches noticeably less than the same model used privately.

Unpaid time is still time

Waiting for work, repositioning between jobs and travelling to a busy area are all hours given to the work. Dividing earnings by total hours away from home rather than by paid hours produces a very different rate. That is the figure to compare against alternatives.

In practice, pay per job also moves with allocation rules you cannot see, so an hourly figure worked out from one good week is not a rate anyone can budget a month against.

Insurance is a common gap

Ordinary personal vehicle insurance frequently excludes commercial use, including delivery. Driving without the correct cover can invalidate a claim entirely and carries legal consequences.

Appropriate cover costs more and is not optional. Check whether any platform cover applies only while a job is accepted, because the gaps between jobs are usually the driver's own responsibility and account for a large share of the miles.

Status is contested and changing

Courts and regulators in several jurisdictions have found gig workers to be workers rather than self-employed, unlocking minimum wage and holiday rights. Outcomes vary by country and by platform, and the position continues to move. Following the position locally is worth doing, since back pay has been awarded in some cases.

Put simply, deactivation from an app can end the income overnight, and whether any notice, reason or appeal is owed turns on that same status question, which is why it is worth knowing the answer before it happens.

Where it genuinely suits

The flexibility has real value for people fitting work around study or caring responsibilities. It is a poor primary income where costs are high and demand is variable.

On an ordinary week, doing the honest hourly calculation before committing to a vehicle purchase is the decisive step. Finance or rental arranged through a platform ties the debt to the work, so a fall in available jobs leaves the payment intact while the income that was covering it is not.

None of this is a substitute for talking to a clinician if something feels wrong.

Keeping your own numbers

Recording mileage, fuel, repairs and hours as they happen is what makes a tax return accurate and what turns an impression of the pay into a figure that can be compared with anything else. Most systems allow either a flat mileage allowance or actual costs, and which is better depends on the vehicle, so the comparison is worth running once rather than defaulting to whichever is easier.

Platform statements are not a substitute for your own record, since they report gross earnings, may exclude tips or adjustments, and are not always retrievable once an account is closed. Where the income is irregular, moving the tax share aside as each payment lands is what stops a bill falling due in a month that happened to have no work in it.

The takeaway

Divide earnings by all the hours and subtract vehicle costs. That is the actual rate.

The version you keep doing is the version that works.