CASPER — By the time Laura Thomas finished DoorDashing one recent Friday night, she had made $93.
Then she looked at the gas pump receipt.
“I put $86 worth of gas in my vehicle,” Thomas said. That left her with $7 for her night of delivering food around town — before taxes, maintenance, and insurance.
That also doesn’t include adding another weekend’s worth of wear and tear to a 15-year-old Chevy Tahoe.
For Thomas, an electrician and mother who DoorDashes on the side to make some extra money, the math behind Wyoming’s delivery economy is starting to feel impossible.
“Everything is so damn expensive,” she said.
Across Wyoming, delivery drivers say rising gas prices, expensive vehicle maintenance and long-distance deliveries are eating away at already-thin profits.
Many say that forces them to become far more selective about which orders they’ll even accept, which could explain why small orders and small tippers don’t get claimed.
Welcome To Wyoming, Where Your Burrito Is 11 Miles Away
A “quick” food delivery in places like Casper or Sheridan can mean driving across town, down dark, county roads and into sprawling subdivisions where houses are separated by long stretches of pavement and dirt.
Thomas drives a 2011 Chevy Tahoe with variable-cylinder technology meant to improve gas mileage. Even so, she said the cost of driving is becoming brutal.
One recent Papa John’s order would have paid her just $2.38 to drive a pizza to Mills.
She declined it immediately.
For years, Thomas said she accepted nearly every order sent to her phone. Not anymore.
“I used to never decline orders,” she said. “But the last month or so I’ve dropped my completion rate from 100% to around 80 or 85 because I’m not taking those orders.”
Drivers call it “cherry-picking," refusing deliveries that don’t financially make sense.
And in Wyoming, that threshold is fairly low because every order has mileage attached to it at a time when the average gas price has jumped nearly $2.10 a gallon across the state, or about 82%.
'I Won’t Accept Anything Less Than $1 A Mile'
In Sheridan, 73-year-old Scotty Bosworth has developed strict rules about what he’ll deliver.
“I won’t accept an order unless it’s $1 a mile or more,” said Bosworth, who has been DoorDashing for six years, usually about three hours a night.
He retired nearly a decade ago after working for Renew Rehabilitation Enterprises in northeast Wyoming.
Now, the extra income helps cover growing medical expenses for he and his wife.
“As we’ve been getting older, our medical expenses have been more,” Bosworth said. “So it really comes in handy to help pay for medications and things like that.”
When he first started dashing, Bosworth accepted almost every order.
Then gas prices climbed.
He said he now declines several deliveries every week because the payout simply doesn’t justify the drive.
One recent order offered him $5.21 to drive 21 miles, or less than 25 cents a mile.
“That one was obviously declined,” he said.
Gas alone has noticeably cut into his earnings.
“When I started, I was paying about $35 to fill up my car every three days,” Bosworth said. “Now I’m paying about $55.”
The Hidden Cost Is The Vehicle
Gas isn’t the only expense that's haunting drivers. There's also the wear and tear on brakes, tires, suspensions, and more.
DoorDash drivers absorb all of it themselves.
Bosworth says he’s meticulous about servicing his Honda CR-V because the job is hard on vehicles.
“I try to keep up on any problems that we’re having,” he said. “Making sure you have your oil changed and you have good tires is probably the main thing.”
Thomas said some Wyoming deliveries feel more like off-roading than food delivery.
“Anything out in Mills,” she said when asked which deliveries drivers dread most. “Nothing is lit and everything is super difficult.”
Some roads become so rough she said smaller cars would struggle to make the trip.
“There’s a few roads where if I was in a little car, I’d have to take the penalty for unassigning,” she said, referencing a DoorDash practice to offer drivers fewer orders if they don’t meet certain performance metrics or turn town too many deliveries.
Sometimes the orders themselves become physically unrealistic.
Bosworth recalled one Home Depot delivery request for 17 35-pound bags of sand.
Not only did he not want to haul that kind of weight at 73 years old, he said, but there wasn’t enough room in his SUV anyway.
“Sometimes we have to go up three flights of stairs,” he added. “If they have grocery orders that have four or five cases of soda, that becomes a problem, especially for someone my age.”
'DoorDash’s Way To Punish You'
The frustration doesn’t stop with gas and repairs.
Drivers say DoorDash’s ranking system pressures them into accepting orders they don’t want.
Thomas says DoorDash rewards drivers who maintain “platinum” status, which gives them priority access to better-paying deliveries.
But declining too many bad orders can hurt that status.
“It’s kind of like DoorDash’s way to punish you back,” Thomas said.
Restaurant delays add another layer of frustration.
Thomas said some restaurants can keep drivers waiting 30 to 45 minutes for food during busy nights.
An $8 order can quickly become an hour-long commitment.
Customers Often Don’t Understand The Economics
Both drivers say many customers misunderstand how little DoorDash itself actually pays.
According to Bosworth, many deliveries pay drivers only around $2 to $2.50 before tips.
“I think some customers believe we’re getting paid a lot more from DoorDash than we are,” he said.
That misunderstanding becomes especially frustrating on long-distance deliveries with little or no tip.
Thomas said some customers also underestimate how expensive Wyoming geography makes delivery work.
Unlike major cities where deliveries happen in compact urban zones, Wyoming drivers often spend large chunks of time simply driving.
“I think people never think about what it actually costs the person delivering the food,” Thomas said.
'Nobody Can Live Off One Income Anymore'
Anne Clement, executive director of Wyoming 211, said her organization regularly hears from working Wyoming residents struggling financially despite holding jobs.
“Absolutely, we get calls all the time,” Clement said.
She said rising transportation costs uniquely affect Wyoming because driving is unavoidable in most communities.
At the same time, she said, many people are increasingly turning to flexible side hustles and gig work simply to stay afloat.
“I’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of people looking for maybe nontraditional side hustles,” Clement said.
Still, despite the frustrations, both drivers continue logging into the app.
Partly because they need the money, and partly because every once in a while, the job still surprises them.
Thomas says nobody tips better than drunk customers ordering Taco Bell after midnight.
One New Year’s customer tipped her $100 for delivering a hamburger.
Bosworth said some nights still feel worth it too.
“Last week I was making $100 every time I went out for about four days,” he said. “So that was a blessing.”
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
