Uber Eats Acceptance And Cancellation Rates – What Drivers Need To Know
When it comes to making money in the gig economy, food delivery jobs are incredibly popular.
Jobs like DoorDash and Uber Eats are perfect examples, and both gigs let you deliver food in your spare time to make extra money.
But one thing many new food delivery drivers don't realize is that food apps have different rules regarding your acceptance and completion rates.
And, if you want to maximize your hourly income and avoid potential driver deactivation, you need to know these rules.
That's why this post is covering the Uber Eats acceptance rate policy, why it matters, and what drivers should do to make as much money as possible.
Let's get to it!
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How Does Uber Eats Acceptance Rate Work?
Your Uber Eats acceptance rate is the percentage of order requests you accept. For example, if you receive 100 order requests and accept 75 of them, you have a 75% acceptance rate for Uber Eats.
Uber states that your driver acceptance rate isn't shown in the app anymore and that it doesn't impact your ability to get orders or qualify for promotions.
This is similar to DoorDash's acceptance rate since you can't face deactivation on DoorDash even with a super low acceptance rate.
Does Your Uber Eats Acceptance Rate Matter?
Uber Eats states it's important to accept orders whenever possible, but the takeaway is that you can't get deactivated for having a low Uber Eats acceptance rate.
Now, despite Uber Eats not showing your acceptance rate within the app, it probably still calculates this information in the background.
However, one of the most important tips for Uber Eats drivers is to only accept orders that pay enough to be worth the mileage.
A common rule many DoorDash and Uber Eats drivers follow is to accept orders that pay approximately $1 per mile.
So, always consider your earnings first before making a decision to accept or decline an order; your Uber Eats acceptance rating is a metric you don't need to worry too much about.
That said, Uber Eats is slowly unrolling its new Uber Pro program in different markets. With Uber Pro, drivers get perks like:
- Discount car maintenance
- Cash-back rewards on gas
- Tuition coverage from Arizona State University
- Perks like discounts at various Uber Eats partners
Uber Pro places you into different reward tiers depending on how many points you earn per month. You earn points for completing deliveries, maintaining a high driver rating, and keeping a high acceptance rating.
Here's the thing: this still doesn't mean you should maintain a high acceptance rate on Uber Eats.
If orders don't pay enough to be worth it for you, don't take them. It's as simple as that!
DoorDash has a similar program with its Top Dasher program, but again, the perks you get aren't worth keeping such a high acceptance rating.
How Do You Check Your Uber Eats Acceptance Rate?
You can't check your Uber Eats driver acceptance rating anymore in the app. However, if you qualify for Uber Pro, you might be able to check your current acceptance rating and the threshold you need to maintain to earn perks.
You can also take a rough estimate of your acceptance rate by checking your lifetime completed deliveries and factoring in how many orders you skip versus accept.
Does Your Uber Eats Cancellation Rate Matter?
Your Uber Eats cancellation rate is the percentage of deliveries you cancel after accepting them. For example, if you accept 50 deliveries but end up cancelling one of them for whatever reason, your cancellation rate is 2%.
Like other apps that pay you for driving, Uber Eats takes cancellations much more seriously than acceptance rates.
This is because frequently cancelling active orders results in a bad customer experience, which is bad for business.
Here's what Uber Eats says about its cancellation rate policy: “Each city has its own cancellation policy. If your cancellation rate goes above the average for your city, you'll receive a notification. If it continues to be high after multiple notifications, your delivery partner account may be deactivated.”
The bottom line is you should avoid cancelling active trips whenever possible since this is a risk for deactivation from Uber Eats.
The only times you should cancel trips is if there's an emergency. You can also sparingly cancel active trips if you realize completing it is going to ruin your hourly pay.
This is another common DoorDash trick that also applies to Uber Eats.
For example, if you get to a restaurant and find out the food is going to take another 30 minutes to get ready because the kitchen is slow, you're probably best to cancel the active order so you can get back to making money.
Again, this has to be done sparingly since a high cancellation rate is a risk.
What Do Other Couriers Think?
So, I don't think your Uber Eats acceptance rate matters. Really, you can keep a super low acceptance rate and you just have to ensure your cancellation rate is low.
But, what do other food delivery drivers think about this topic?
Well, here's what some Uber Eats couriers are saying about acceptance rates on Reddit and what rates they actually have themselves:
- Desperate_Ad489 says: “Mine is 9%….25 from 280.”
- Jimbeambeamer says: “I got 5%. Accepted 40 out of 826.”
- dstant06 says: “Has to be close to $8 for me to think about accepting. Haven’t checked my acceptance rating in a while. I drive 20-30 minutes from my house to turn on the app, to a more affluent neighborhood that typically tips pretty well. Today was an exception.”
- Godsmackedlife-19 says: “Cancel rate is 2 percent. 5 stars , 800 trips and 37 acceptance rate…At its highest of 37 percent and honestly I’m surprised it’s only because I’ve been getting great offers, promotions and quests. I still don’t do anything less than 2 dollars a mile before quests.”
As you can see, all of these Uber Eats couriers have acceptance rates well under 50%, and two drivers are in single digits!
This is common for experienced gig workers, and again, it's your hourly rate that's most important.
This is also why things like driving at peak Uber Eats times and double-apping with other jobs like Instacart when Uber Eats is slow is so important.
In this video, gig economy YouTuber MooshiMoo also goes over a new Uber Eats update that is showing driver's acceptance rates to customers when they order food.
This is a very recent change to Uber Eats' customer-facing app, and it's honestly pretty weird and not great for drivers.
I mean, you're probably going to have a low acceptance rate because you're cherry-picking orders that are worth it.
But now, customers who don't really understand how gig economy jobs work might think that means you're a bad driver and potentially tip less.
Overall, this update makes very little sense, but we have to wait and see if it's rolled out to more markets and how it impacts food couriers.
Extra Reading – How To Make 400 Dollars A Day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Uber Eats Deactivate Me For Low Acceptance Rate?
No, Uber Eats doesn't deactivate drivers for having low acceptance rates. In fact, your acceptance rate doesn't impact how many order requests you receive. However, having a high cancellation rate is one way to get deactivated.
What Is The Minimum Acceptance Rate For Uber Eats?
Uber Eats doesn't have a minimum acceptance rate. In some markets with the Uber Pro rewards program, you need to maintain a certain acceptance rate to qualify. However, for most markets and in general, there isn't a minimum rate to maintain.
Final Thoughts
I hope this guide on acceptance rates on Uber Eats helps clarify what this metric means and why it ultimately doesn't matter very much for drivers.
Honestly, high acceptance ratings are one of those things most gig jobs try really hard to encourage.
But at the end of the day, you need to make sure you're getting paid enough for a side hustle to be worth your while.
So, accept orders that are worth it to you, and just make sure you keep your cancellation rate as low as possible.
It doesn't matter if you're making money with Uber Eats or making money with DoorDash; working efficiently is important!
Best of luck out on the roads!
You can also sign up for Uber Eats if you haven't started driving yet.
Additionally, consider trying out DoorDash and Instacart so you can test which delivery gig pays the most in your market.
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