Drive Your Way to Wealth

Whether you’re looking to supplement your income, save up for something special, or just linger behind the wheel, there are plenty of side hustles that allow you to drive your way to wealth. And most of them have nothing to do with ride share.

If you love being behind the wheel, here are more than a dozen sites that can help you drive your way to wealth.

Drive Kids

If you have both a clean driving record and can pass a background check, several sites will help you find gigs driving kids to and from school and activities, and sometimes elsewhere.

Kango operates in California and Arizona, matching drivers with parents who need children to be picked up and dropped off at school, paying between $20 and $35 an hour. Kango also lets you set up regular schedules by matching drivers with clients who use their services often.

HopSkipDrive offers a similar service in several major states including California, Texas, and Florida.

RubiRides, operating in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., also provides rides to kids going to and from school. And this site stands out for having a highly transparent pay structure for both parents and drivers. Specifically, drivers get paid $15 for rides of 5 miles or less. They get an additional $1 for each added mile. If parents need them to chaperone a child into class or practice, drivers earn at least $5 extra. There’s also a 75 cent per minute wait fee for riders who keep drivers waiting for more than 5 minutes.

KidCar works with TLC drivers in New York City to take kids to and from activities, sometimes with their parents, paying from $27 to $77 per ride. You must complete training on car seat installation. This site is perfect for TLC drivers who want to make the most money possible without having to deal with the uncertainty of normal ride sharing jobs.

Drive a bus

A site called Zum used to enlist freelance drivers to drive kids to school — just like HopSkipDrive and Kango. But now, if focuses on hiring bus drivers. And while this site wants to hire you — likely full time — instead of allowing you to drive your way to wealth as a side gig, it will train you. And you can earn between $26 and $33 per hour.

Deliver cars

Two sites — Draiver and Kyte — want freelance drivers to deliver cars to renters and car dealers. Pay ranges from $10 to $25 per hour. But both sites have some shortcomings. And, while Kyte purports to pay $35 an hour, it doesn’t count the time it takes you to get to and from jobs. That normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but Kyte leaves you stranded at the delivery location, suggesting you get back to your own car by bike, scooter or bus.

Courier Services

Courier services offer a flexible way to make money using your personal car to deliver packages.

Amazon Flex, among the best known of these courier services, enlists freelance drivers to deliver packages for its signature retail site. Drivers earn between $18 and $25 an hour.

Roadie enlists drivers to deliver everything from lost luggage to food and tools. Pay ranges from $8 to over $100 per gig, based on how far the delivery is and how hard it is. You can take gigs that fit routes you’re already driving or go out of your way, it’s up to you.

Food Delivery

Food delivery remains a popular way to drive your way to wealth. However, the main source of income from this side gig is tips. DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub all work roughly the same, paying a small delivery fee, plus the customer’s tip, to drivers. The best way to do food delivery? Sign up for all three apps and cherry pick your assignments based on how close they are and how generous the tipper.

Ride share

Naturally, you can talk about driving your way to wealth without discussing the vibrant ride share industry, lead by Uber and Lyft. In many cities, demand for these services is so great that freelancers can earn a full-time living with these apps. Those who drive during high-demand hours say they can make $30 or more per hour.

Long-haul ride share

If you happen to regularly commute a long way in Texas, Oklahoma or Florida, a site called Hitch can hook you up with commuters wanting to share the cost of your ride. The beauty of this app is that the bulk of rides are done with people who are already commuting in this direction. The site says that professional drivers, who want to go out of their way to provide Hitch rides, earn an average of $22 per hour.

Drive a billboard

You can earn extra money, when you’re a regular driver, by signing up with Carvertise, Wrapify and Nickelytics. These sites propose to place advertising on your car, paying you a monthly fee in exchange for driving as usual. These fees vary by company, advertiser and how much of your car is covered, but they typically range from $100 to $500 per month.

Don’t provide non-emergency medical transportation

The one way that we don’t recommend you try to drive your way to wealth is through non-emergency medical transportation for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Two companies — Veyo and Wingz — provide these opportunities. We don’t recommend either one.

Why? Both sites promise to pay more than $1 per mile — and, often, sign up bonuses amounting to hundreds, even thousands, of dollars — to take regular gigs for them. That draws plenty of drivers, optimistic about their prospects with these sites.

But the reality of non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) is unpleasant. You are often driving Medicaid patients to drug treatment centers. These Medicaid patients are often homeless and inconsistent about keeping their appointments. Veyo drivers complain that roughly half of their rides ghost them, for instance. And neither site pays anything for no-shows. Not even costs.

Understandably, that’s because these sites are getting paid through government programs that only pay for completed rides. But the result for drivers is cost, frustration and wasted time.