10. Paycheck

💰 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.

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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.

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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.

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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	58 Km 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
51	165 SEK	17	58	1950 SEK	245 Km 850 SEK	0 SEK	120 SEK	2 920 SEK
52	150 SEK	16	44	1800 SEK	193 Km 550 SEK	0 SEK	100 SEK	2 450 SEK
01	160 SEK	7	20	800 SEK	80 Km 250 SEK	0 SEK	50 SEK	1 100 SEK
02	0 SEK	0	0	0 SEK	0 Km 0 SEK	0 SEK	0 SEK	0 SEK
03	180 SEK	8	24	950 SEK	115 Km 370 SEK	0 SEK	80 SEK	1 400 SEK
04	170 SEK	18	58	2300 SEK	270 Km 850 SEK	0 SEK	20 SEK	3 170 SEK
05	160 SEK	12	31	1190 SEK	150 Km 480 SEK	0 SEK	60 SEK	1 730 SEK
06	175 SEK	13	41	1700 SEK	180 Km 500 SEK	0 SEK	30 SEK	2 230 SEK
07	175 SEK	19	57	2300 SEK	260 Km 800 SEK	0 SEK	140 SEK	3 240 SEK
08	175 SEK	20	61	2450 SEK	300 Km 900 SEK	0 SEK	40 SEK	3 390 SEK
09	170 SEK	14	43	1720 SEK	210 Km 620 SEK	0 SEK	70 SEK	2 410 SEK
10	175 SEK	18	56	2240 SEK	265 Km 820 SEK	0 SEK	90 SEK	3 150 SEK
11	160 SEK	10	29	1160 SEK	132 Km 410 SEK	0 SEK	40 SEK	1 610 SEK
12	175 SEK	16	49	1960 SEK	230 Km 700 SEK	0 SEK	110 SEK	2 770 SEK
13	170 SEK	12	36	1440 SEK	170 Km 520 SEK	0 SEK	50 SEK	2 010 SEK
14	180 SEK	20	63	2520 SEK	310 Km 950 SEK	0 SEK	130 SEK	3 600 SEK
15	150 SEK	8	22	880 SEK	95 Km 290 SEK	10 SEK	20 SEK	1 200 SEK
16	175 SEK	15	47	1880 SEK	225 Km 680 SEK	0 SEK	80 SEK	2 640 SEK
17	175 SEK	17	52	2080 SEK	248 Km 760 SEK	0 SEK	100 SEK	2 940 SEK
18	175 SEK	11	34	1360 SEK	160 Km 490 SEK	0 SEK	60 SEK	1 910 SEK
19	185 SEK	21	68	2720 SEK	335 Km 1020 SEK	0 SEK	150 SEK	3 890 SEK
20	140 SEK	6	15	600 SEK	65 Km 200 SEK	20 SEK	10 SEK	830 SEK
21	170 SEK	13	39	1560 SEK	185 Km 560 SEK	0 SEK	70 SEK	2 190 SEK
22	180 SEK	19	60	2400 SEK	290 Km 880 SEK	0 SEK	120 SEK	3 400 SEK
23	165 SEK	9	27	1080 SEK	120 Km 370 SEK	0 SEK	30 SEK	1 480 SEK
24	175 SEK	16	50	2000 SEK	240 Km 730 SEK	0 SEK	90 SEK	2 820 SEK
25	185 SEK	18	59	2360 SEK	280 Km 850 SEK	0 SEK	140 SEK	3 350 SEK
26	150 SEK	7	19	760 SEK	82 Km 250 SEK	0 SEK	30 SEK	1 040 SEK
27	175 SEK	14	44	1760 SEK	205 Km 630 SEK	0 SEK	60 SEK	2 450 SEK
28	180 SEK	22	70	2800 SEK	345 Km 1050 SEK	0 SEK	160 SEK	4 010 SEK
29	175 SEK	12	37	1480 SEK	175 Km 540 SEK	0 SEK	80 SEK	2 100 SEK
30	180 SEK	17	54	2160 SEK	255 Km 780 SEK	0 SEK	100 SEK	3 040 SEK
31	175 SEK	10	31	1240 SEK	145 Km 440 SEK	0 SEK	50 SEK	1 730 SEK
32	175 SEK	15	46	1840 SEK	215 Km 660 SEK	0 SEK	90 SEK	2 590 SEK
33	185 SEK	20	64	2560 SEK	315 Km 960 SEK	0 SEK	130 SEK	3 650 SEK