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Scheduling Dashes on Doordash - EVERYTHING You MUST Know!! STEAL THESE TRICKS!!

Unless you're a Top Dasher, Platnium Dasher or it's really not busy in your area ever, you're going to need to schedule your dash on a daily basis.


In order to actually make money on the platform and there are a lot of strategies and nuances that people don't really talk about.


In terms of actually scheduling dashes, that can either help you make money or lose money in the process.


So with that said, I want to go over:

  • Everything you must know about scheduling dashes on Doordash

  • What they tell you versus how it ACTUALLY is

  • Everything in between


Disclaimer: the content of this article does not contain is never intended to be legal, business, financial tax or health advice of any kind. This video is for entertainment purposes only is advice so you conduct your own research control qualified professionals before applying anything you find online.



I also want to be clear that everything that we're going to be going over in this article is very market dependent, and what applies to me and my market, may not apply to you!


Doordash: How to schedule and or edit a dash


Note: Doordash support cannot schedule add edit or extend your dash our app updates in real time and you are able to do this in the app


That's one of the things that kind of keep independent contractors independent, we are the ones that schedule ourselves. Literally, no one else can do it for us.


Not to mention, Doordash support is the north side of useless anyway.


Doordash: Schedule a Dash


In the Dasher app, go to the Schedule tab.


Note: If your Dash Now button says Schedule a Dash, you can do the scheduling from there too.


9 times out of 10, I just go straight to the schedule tab. I would basically do everything from the schedule tab so I have a strong sense of time management as well.


Doordash: In the Available tab, you’ll see the upcoming days of the week at the top. Select a day.


You can choose a starting point and available times for your Dash.


Note: If your preferred time is not shown, we’ve reached scheduled Dasher capacity for that time slot. Our schedule is constantly updating and we suggest checking back later, or choosing another starting point.


Another point to be added on to that is that scheduled drivers do actually have priority. I ended up stumbling upon that fact during recording my troubleshooting video on YouTube


Doordash: Once you see a Dash you like, tap on it to select your preferred Start and End Times within the given timeframe.


Tap Save Dash.


That’s it! You’re now scheduled to Dash for that area, day and time.


Now let's say you schedule as far out as possible, (which is exactly what I recommend) and you see it just when it drops and you're the type of driver that schedule themselves at 8:00 a.m. and they kind of just don't choose an end time, right?


Like they're going to go for as long as they have to in order to hit their goal I would personally recommend break breaking up that block as much as possible!


If something happens and you're running late you're going to lose the whole block, if you don't address it as soon as possible!


I have a theory about schedule utilization and the more active time you have, versus the amount of dash time you have, the more the apps are going to prioritize you in terms of getting orders, not necessarily quality orders but more orders in general.


I am a cherry picker by heart like 20 30% AR is usually where I dangle. The further out that you schedule yourself the more priority you're going to have.


Then let's say you decided to cut out early and the entire block goes right back to the main pool of other drivers they can end up sniping the rest of the route if you decide to go back in again leave yourself some options, you know?


Doordash: Delete or Edit a Scheduled Dash


We understand that things may come up and you may need to delete or edit the start and/or end times for your scheduled Dash. You can do this within the app!


  1. Go to the Schedule page.

  2. Tap on the day you’ve scheduled a Dash.

  3. Tap on the Scheduled tab.

  4. Scroll through the times and tap on the Dash you’d like to delete or edit.

    1. To delete, tap on Delete in the top right corner.

    2. To edit the start or end time, tap on the time, select your new time, click Done and then Save Dash.


Editing means reducing the time, not necessarily extending it. If there is no availability to extend it, they're not going to. So you would have to start up another Dash on top of that!


Doordash: Scheduling Tips


If you don’t see a city and time that works for you (i.e. can’t schedule a dash), this means that we have enough Dashers on the road for your preferred area and time. Check back later as additional time slots may open up.


It could open up for a lot of different reasons, like the dinner rush is a stronger rush than they thought, or there's just a lot of orders going around and not enough drivers in general, or maybe a lot of drivers cut out so you could go in!


That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get quality orders but it's something to keep in mind!


Doordash: Remember that you can always sign in to the app at any time and Dash Now if available. If Dash Now isn't available, it means that we have reached the number of Dashers needed in that area. Please try again later.


Of course if you're a top Dasher you always have Dash now, but at the same time I've actually been a top Dasher and I've been a cherry picker, and I have found that if I schedule myself out as much as possible, I get more orders than I would as a top Dasher!


If you have a previous Dash scheduled, you will not be able to schedule a new Dash or extend a current Dash within 30 minutes of the scheduled Dash start. This is to give you enough time to head to that scheduled area.


Let's say you have a dash going from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., and you want to schedule another one for lunch you can't have another Dash starting at 11:00 it has to start at 11:30 and there's no overlapping


Doordash: Why can't I Schedule a Dash, Extend a Dash or Dash Now?


New Dashers: if you're a new Dasher but have not received a welcome email from Doordash stating yet your account is activated the app and its features will be limited.


Be sure you have completed:

  • Dasher signup process

  • Set up your red card to activate your account


Even though you may not have received your red card yet, you may be in a market that allows you to instant Dash without having a welcome kit.


Existing Dashers: You can Dash now or schedule a dash for later when dashing drive to a hot spot to maximize your opportunity to receive orders. You can also edit or delete an existing Dash.


Now I'm going to tell you right now, hotspots are not typically a great place to actually Dash. Hotpots act almost like a moth to a flame, the closer you get to the flame the greater chance you're going to get burned!


All of the moths around it are surrounding that flame, so it's going to be oversaturated and not to mention the reason it's a hot spot!


There's a lot of orders within that 10-minute time frame, that doesn't mean the orders are good! that doesn't mean that it's actually worth being in that area, it's just the fact that!


There are more orders so you're better off making your own hotspots!


Schedule Drop Times


There's going to be two different answers to this particular point. Well, really three different times.


The first is when the scheduled drop time this kind of person: You're just a Dasher, you have no access to any of the programs that allow you any kind of benefits.


The drop times are going to be either Midnight or 1:00 a.m., and that is for the furthest day on the schedule.


Example: it's Tuesday the schedule for Monday is going to be available midnight or 1:00 a.m., depending on the market and in some areas those schedule dashes disappear FAST, so keep that in mind too.


Now the exception to that rule is if you have access to the Early Access scheduling system, but that is only available for those who qualify.


Checking into your dash


You could check into a scheduled Dash up to 15 minutes before the start time and up to 30 minutes after. Example: let's say your dash starts at 11:00 am, you can check into that 11:00

a.m. dash between 10:45 a.m.-11:30 a.m.


You're also going to get text messages reminding you over and over again to get into your dash! Yes, they do kind of annoy you about that


Top Dasher vs Scheduling


I'm going to be real with you some markets may actually require Top Dasher, just for the innate need to actually get online and actually schedule yourself, if you absolutely can.


Sometimes you will and sometimes you won't but for me I have always preferred scheduling, because while it is kind of cool to dash now whenever you want to with Top Dasher, I've always just gotten more orders just scheduling myself out.


I've made more money having better time management and scheduling myself ahead of time, than depending on top Dasher to feed into my bad habits and not serve me to make as much money as possible!


Building Momentum with Scheduling


Momentum is a Concepts that Dashers know about, and the apps are funny about, but not a lot of people talk about.


These apps don't want to make you busy, they want to keep you busy.


If you're somebody who's accepting a lot of different orders, they're going to keep sending you orders, especially if you have orders!


Have you ever noticed that a lot of times when you accept an order order you're going to get a bunch of different add-ons and then it's going to totally break for a while?


Or just when you're about to finish an order they send you a bunch of different orders?


Or you just finish in order you just completing all that you go back to the home screen and it's immediately another order hits your account? That's when you have momentum!


Now again, momentum doesn't mean you're getting better orders, it means you're getting more orders. In order for you to get the better orders, you do need to have more orders coming through, so there's a healthy balance that you need to find and maintain.


When you Start a Scheduled Dash vs the Middle and End


Now another way that people like to build momentum is understanding when you start a dash, that's when you're going to get a lot of orders hitting your account!


Let's say you decline every single one of those orders and you feel this time lag and then you feel a bunch of more orders and then there's even more time lag. Not only are you killing your momentum you're killing your priority!


It's like Doordash puts you in a Timeout or something... so much for independent contractor right?


There is a trick that a lot of people like to use especially if you're multi-apper (like myself) and that is having just a whole lot of half an hour blocks and just filling your schedule with those half an hour blocks!


If you were planning to deliver anywhere between 8:00 a.m. to 10: p.m., you would have half an hour blocks at 8 am, 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm , 7 pm, 8 pm, and 9 pm. and you would just use the innate momentum at that point to actually just continue to get orders.


Then there's also the point of using scheduling to maximize your promo pay, depending on what the promo pay actually is.


Let's say there is a 11 to 2 p.m. promo pay that's coming out and there's also a 2-5 p.m. and a 5 to 9 p.m. all promo pays.


What I used to do is where I would make 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. block and then 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. to actually maximize the value of the schedule and the promo pay so I could capitalize on as much of it as possible.


Especially if they just drop it in front of you and you don't even notice it until after you complete an order. However, they have started implementing Dynamic Peak pay so keep that in mind as well and Dynamic Peak pay doesn't have a schedule


Never Chase Promo Pay.


Don't use your schedule to chase promo pay pay that's a great way to oversaturate an area too, is having a bunch of promo pay in a single location and then having all the drivers in the area just funnel into that place.


Again, a moth to a flame and you're going to get burned!


Momentum is more important than Multi-Apping


If you have momentum and you are getting good orders and quality orders on Doordash, there's no reason to start opening up other apps if that app is feeding you that well!


If they're just throwing a bunch of nonsense at you and all it is doing is just distracting you while you're driving, yeah go ahead and use Uber Eats, use GrubHub, use all the other apps, it makes sense.


If you don't have momentum at all, you definitely should be multi-app, but prioritize momentum if you have it.


What I like to do is when I finish an order on Doordash or finish an order on Uber Eats or GrubHub, I count backwards from 10, and if I did not receive orders or I didn't receive good orders, I'll turn on the other apps.


Until then I'm not turning them on again there's just going to be a distraction. Of course if GrubHub isn't sending you many orders it's not going to be very distracting but that's not the point.


Another quick point on multi-apping, just because momentum is more important than multi-apping, that doesn't mean you don't multi-app at all! It is vital that you're never too dependent on any one gig app.


If Doordash isn't sending you orders and you are scheduled and you're doing everything right on the platform it is irresponsible to not have other opportunities available to you!


You're an independent contractor not a 1099 employee, so sign up for as many apps as possible while at the same time maximizing the value of each of those apps!


If you would like to add some other perspective to how Scheduling Dashes on Doordash works, feel free to email me: drivenwyld@gmail.com and who knows? Maybe your email or perspective and be featured in a post as well!


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