The TRUTH Behind $2000/Week Food Delivery Earnings in Australia

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00][music] >> You probably would have seen some videos where some influencers say that they have earned $2,000 this week doing food deliveries in Australia. And lately I've seen those sort of videos a lot. So in this video we'll talk about that and try to explain how the things actually work. Without wasting much time, let's get into it. So right in front of us we have $2,000 here and we'll start taking out some of the expenses from this list. As some of you might already know that if you're going to do food deliveries in Australia, you are an independent contractor, which means you're basically running your own business. So you have to manage all the expenses yourself. By the way, we're going to assume couple of things in this video. One thing is that we have made this money by delivering via car. You're likely not be able to earn $2,000 if you're going to deliver via bike, e-bike or scooter. And the numbers we are going to give you for expenses are rough estimations. You obviously could spend more or less depending upon the situation as well. But this is to give you a rough idea on how much be spending if you are going to earn around $2,000 per week doing food deliveries. So we'll start talking about all the expenses that you have to deduct from this income you have just made. Starting off with one of the major expense, which is fuel.

[00:01:14]Now as you know that fuel costs have been rising a lot lately. But regardless of that, if you're going to make that much money, you're probably going to spend some money in your fuel expenses.

[00:01:24]And I've spoken to some of the people who are doing food deliveries these days here and they told me it can be anywhere 2 to 300 dollars depending upon how much money you make. Basically, the more money you make, likely you're going to be spending more money. So first thing's first, we're going to take $300 from here as our fuel expenses. Let's do that.

[00:01:44]So now the second major expense if you're going to do food deliveries in your own vehicle, it's going to be maintenance and depreciation. So for that, the more you use the car basically, the more maintenance you need to do, which is servicing, changing the oil, filters, tires, and obviously the more the car you use, the more depreciation there will be for the car's value. Now, this can vary again, but it can be around on an average of $100 per week as well. So, we'll take out $100 from this list.

[00:02:13]And that is your maintenance and depreciation.

[00:02:17]Next on our list is insurances and registration. Now, if you are going to do food deliveries or ride sharing services in Australia, you'll need to have a separate sort of insurance for your car because the normal car insurances usually don't cover ride sharing services or if you're doing food deliveries using your car. And usually these ride sharing services or food delivery car insurances a bit more expensive than the normal car insurances. And also you have to be mindful of the registration as well.

[00:02:45]Every year we have to pay a registration fee, which is also known as rego. It varies by the state as well, but for both registration and insurances, you can also expect to pay around $100 for that. So, let's take out another $100 from this list for registration and insurances.

[00:03:03]Now, obviously there are some other associated expenses as well if you are going to do food deliveries in Australia. Things like you'll need a phone and you obviously need to get a phone plan. And ideally you need to get a phone plan with a fair bit of data.

[00:03:15]And then if you're going to drive around for the most part of your day, you will probably need to eat and drink something as well. If you're cooking your food at home, great, but most of the people I know who are doing this sort of a side hustle, basically have to buy their coffees and snacks and food as well. And sometimes you may have to pay for a parking fee, toll fee, or sometimes even a fine for that. And importantly, if you're going to manage the taxes, which we're going to talk next after this, it will cost you some money if you're going to do that with an accountant. So, for all other expenses, we're going to take another $100 off from this list.

[00:03:49]And last but not the least, the most important thing, taxes. Now, the income you have made doing food deliveries in Australia, >> [music] >> you'll have to manage your own taxes for that. So, it can be anywhere from 20 to 30%. Obviously, if you're earning that sort of money, which is around $2,000 per week, you are going to be in a pretty high bracket, but it can be anywhere from 20 to 30% depending upon how much money you have made during the year. It's not just for 1 week only. So, we've got around $1,400 left here. On an average, if it's 30%, you're looking at around $420 for that. But, to round it off, let's take out another $400 from here as your taxes.

[00:04:30]Now, you can see how much you might be actually earning after making $2,000 in a week. Now, this is $1,000, which is fairly decent income still. And, I have to be clear with one thing here, that I'm not against students doing food delivery sort of side hustle. It's actually pretty great for a student life. You don't need to have a resume to apply for it. It's quite flexible. You can choose your own work hours. You don't have any boss who you have to report to. And, honestly, in a student life, it works out pretty decently. But, the problem starts when people don't show you the complete picture. They just show you the one side of the things.

[00:05:06]And, the people who are probably watching from overseas, they may get wrong idea about the things. They don't get the realistic information. And, that is what we try to do in this channel.

[00:05:16]And, I hope you get the point of this video, which is not to discourage you to do food deliveries, ride sharing, or any sort of side hustle you want to do when you are a student in Australia. The idea here is to give you a realistic picture of what actually happens. So, when you are earning that sort of a money, you have to be mindful of the expenses and the taxes as well. And, one important thing to note is that you may not be earning that sort of a money if you are doing only 24 hours per week. As a student visa holder in Australia, you need to abide by your work hour limits, which is 48 hours per fortnight, which works out to be around 24 hours per week. And for those people who are telling you that they are making $2,000 per week, either they are not students anymore, or they're probably not following their work hour limits, which as you can tell is quite dangerous.

[00:06:05]Because if you're going to work more hours than what you're legally allowed to, you're jeopardizing your whole career for small amount of money. And sad part of social media is that it just shows you about the exciting part. It never shows you about the other side of the story. And for the students who might be watching from overseas, or students who have just arrived in Australia, this might give them a false, unrealistic financial expectations.

[00:06:28]Because ask some of the people who are currently doing these food deliveries if they're actually making $2,000 per week as well. And most of them said, "No."

[00:06:37]They said, "Maybe if you're lucky in few times in a year, that's like four, five times in a whole year, then you could make around $2,000." Most of them told me that they make on an average of around $1,500 a week. Of course, some weeks could be better than the others, and some weeks could be worse than the others. But that's not what social media influencers show us. They only show us some weeks where they have made a good money, and they never talk about expenses they are paying, and the taxes as well. And importantly, if they are following the work hour limits or not.

[00:07:08]So hopefully this video gave you some realistic perspective on those $2,000 per week videos you might have seen on social media. I'm certainly not against students doing the food deliveries as part of their side hustle. It is a pretty good side hustle when you are a student. In fact, if you want to sign up for any of these services, you can use our link in the description box below.

[00:07:28]But just keep in mind whatever you are shown on reels may not always be real.

[00:07:33][music] So that's it for today's video.

[00:07:35]I hope you find this information useful.

[00:07:37]Or if you have some similar sort of experience as an international student in Australia, please let us know about that in the comment section below as well. If you are planning to study in Australia, I highly recommend you to download our overseas student guide.

[00:07:48]It's available for free from our website. As always, the link will be in the description box below. And thank you for watching. See you in the next one.