💰 The Pink Paycheck: Breaking Down a Typical 1500 SEK Week
Scroll down to see the weekly payments.
The most common question I get—besides “Is it cold out there?”—is “How much do you actually make?”
It’s a fair question, but in the gig economy, the answer is never a simple salary figure. It depends on hustle, timing, and luck. But now that I have some road experience, I can share what an average week looks like for me.
It is important to remember my context: I am a full-time student. I can’t ride 40 hours a week. My shifts are strategic, fitted in around studies, which means I am almost exclusively on the road during late nights and weekends.
Here is the breakdown of a typical week behind the wheel.
The Schedule: The Student Hustle
Because of my studies, I am only available when most people are relaxing or sleeping. Fortunately, these happen to be the busiest times for food delivery.
- Typical Shifts per Week: 3
- Average Shift Length: 3.5 hours
- Total Weekly Hours: Approximately 10.5 hours
The Income: The Gross Numbers
On an average week working these three specific shifts, my total gross income sits around 1500 SEK.
How does that 1500 SEK break down?
It’s a volume game. In those ~10.5 hours, I usually manage to deliver around 30 orders.
While my contract guarantees a minimum of 100 SEK per hour, during busy weekend nights, I almost always earn more through the per-order commission structure. The guarantee is a nice safety net for slow Tuesdays, but it’s not the goal on a Saturday night.
The pay is built brick by brick:
- The Pick-up: Every time I grab food from a restaurant, that’s 12.50 SEK.
- The Drop-off: Every successful delivery to a customer adds 30.00 SEK.
- The Distance: I get paid for the driving in between, calculated at 2.5 SEK per kilometer.
- The Tips: Every rear but every now and then I get some tip from customer generally about 10 SEK
When the orders are flowing back-to-back on a Friday night, these small fees stack up fast to reach that 1500 SEK weekly total.
The Reality Check: Timing and Costs
There are three massive caveats to that 1500 SEK figure.
1. Timing is Everything My earnings are highly dependent on when I work. Because I am a student limited to nights and weekends, I am naturally working peak hours. If I tried to work these same 10.5 hours during weekday mornings, my order volume would drop significantly, and I’d likely be relying on the hourly guarantee, making far less total money.
2. Gross is not Net (The Fuel Factor) That 1500 SEK is what Foodora pays me, not what I keep. Before I can count my actual profit, I have to feed the car. Fuel is my single biggest expense, and city driving with constant stopping and starting is thirsty work.
3. Street Tolls In Gothenburg, there are congestion charges to consider. Depending on where I ride, these can eat into my earnings as well. specifically during peak hours, these fees can add up.
The Weekly Insight
Here is a table summarizing my weekly earnings: the income is pretax and before expenses. For simplicity, I rounded the numbers to the nearest 0. I will update the table every few weeks. If you got questions please reach out.
| Week # | Average per hour | Hours | Deliveries | Delivery fees | Distance + fees | Minimum fees | Tips | Total Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46 | 140 SEK | 3 | 8 | 340 SEK | (27 km) 80 SEK | 0 SEK | 0 SEK | 420 SEK |
| 47 | 140 SEK | 6 | 16 | 640 SEK | 160 SEK | 10 SEK | 40 SEK | 850 SEK |
| 48 | 180 SEK | 22 | 72 | 2860 SEK | 338 Km 1090 SEK | 0 SEK | 20 SEK | 3 970 SEK |
| 49 | 200 SEK | 12 | 40 | 1600 SEK | 192 Km 620 SEK | 0 SEK | 60 SEK | 2 280 SEK |
| 50 | 140 SEK | 8 | 21 | 810 SEK | 88 Km 270 SEK | 0 SEK | 40 SEK | 1 120 SEK |