How To Make Money With My Car

If you enjoy spending time in your car, you might be able to parlay that into a nice side hustle for some extra cash. Which prompted me to collect the best ways to make money with your car in this article.

With the proliferation of ridesharing apps and others in an increasingly growing "side gig economy," there are a lot of reputable ways you can earn money doing side jobs involving your car. The most notable are those where you drive people around… but you can earn money shuttling packages too.

One thing to keep in mind is that all of these side hustles will add miles to your car's odometer and the associated wear and tear. When you calculate how much you earn, remember to include that in your decisions on what opportunities to take advantage of. You can deduct your mileage when you drive, and you will want to, so keep good records of it so you can use it without fear of a tax audit when it's time to file.

(if you're the worrying type, maybe consider audit defense since it's free)

Here are some of the best ways to make money with your car:

Table of Contents

Deliver Food
Deliver Groceries
Deliver Alcohol
Deliver Amazon Packages
Drive for Ridesharing Apps
Advertise On Your Car
Haul Stuff

Deliver Food

If you don't mind delivering food, you could take a look at DoorDash, Postmates, and UberEATS.

Sometimes you don't want to deliver people, or risk having to go very far, so consider these two if you don't mind hustling around food. This is also a good option for folks who don't have a car all the time – you can deliver DoorDash, Postmates, and uberEATS by scooter and even bicycle!

DoorDash is one of the fastest-growing delivery services I've seen in a long time and there are a lot of opportunities on the platform. We even have a guide on how to maximize earnings as a DoorDasher written by someone with 5,600+ deliveries!

Deliver Groceries

With Instacart, you can sign up to be a grocery shopper and deliver groceries.

There are two types of jobs in the Instacart world, you can be a "full-service shopper" and an "in-store shopper."

With the full-service shopper, you're going to need a car and will shop groceries on-demand. You take on jobs, do the shopping, and deliver the orders. You'll need a car but you can choose the hours that are best for your schedule.

With the in-store shopper, you're just shopping in the store and collecting all the items within an order. You have to commit to a schedule, which is flexible, but you only have to shop and do not need a car to do this role.

Just pick the one that works best for you!

Deliver Alcohol

You can deliver alcohol via Instacart in some areas but otherwise you're left with another platform.

You can make money delivering alcohol (beer, wine, liquor) if you are in an area serviced by Saucey. Saucey is available in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, San Diego, Sacramento, Oakland, Brooklyn, and Dallas. If you are in those markets, you can help meet their 30-minute delivery promise and earn money in the process.

It's $5 per delivery plus fifty cents per item, plus tips. You can delivery by car, truck, or motorcycle.

Deliver Amazon Packages

AmazonFlex is Amazon's flexible work program where you deliver packages. If you've ever gotten a Same Day Delivery parcel from Amazon, with a carrier of "Carrier: AMZL US," that's an Amazon Flex driver. If you live in one of the operating cities, you could make $18-$25 an hour, be your own boss and set your own schedule.

The work itself is straightforward. You get packages and then deliver them using their Android app. When you drop off the package, scan the barcode and move onto the next address.

Drive for Ridesharing Apps

One of the best ways to make money with your car is to drive people around. Apps like Uber and Lyft has changed the way taxis are operated, especially if you live in a suburban area and have no idea who to call if you want a ride to the airport.

Years ago, my parents would pay nearly a hundred dollars for the 60-minute drive from our home to the airport (this was in the 1980s and 1990s, the equivalent of $200+ today). We'd be going to Taiwan for a month so it beat parking at the airport by a longshot. Today, uberX will take me there for $130 – half the price and I don't need to schedule it days in advance.

This means that if you own a car, you could start earning money in your spare time too. Many of my friends who drive for Uber will fire up the app, see if there are fares, and just grab a few as they wait.

Advertise On Your Car

If you do a lot of driving, you might be able to make several hundred dollars a month as a rolling billboard. Register with a company like FreeCarMedia.com or Wrapify.com and they will try to match you with a company that wants to advertise on your regular driving route. If you have any extraordinary driving situations, like your regular commute is a significant distance, include those in your application so potential sponsors know.

Not all advertising opportunities are the full car wrap variety – sometimes it's as little as a rear window decal you can apply on your own. The full wraps are more lucrative, sometimes up to $400 a month, but the rear window decals can still net you $50+. Not bad!

The main requirements are much like any of the other services on this list – 18+, clean driving record, background and credit check, plus what you'd expect of vehicle maintenance.

Haul Stuff

If you own a truck and don't mind lifting heavy things, you could join Task Rabbit and haul away people's stuff. It could be helping them move from one place to another or just hauling a few items down to the dump for them.

Moving / Hauling is one of their biggest categories and becoming a Tasker is easy. The best part is you work at your schedule and pick the ones you want to complete based on your rates. Moving, delivery and hauling are some of their most popular categories.

Which one piques your interest?

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Jim Wang is a thirty-something father of four who is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Vanguard's Blog. He has also been fortunate to have appeared in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Entrepreneur, and Marketplace Money.

Jim has a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Information Technology - Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. His approach to personal finance is that of an engineer, breaking down complex subjects into bite-sized easily understood concepts that you can use in your daily life.

One of his favorite tools (here's my treasure chest of tools,, everything I use) is Personal Capital, which enables him to manage his finances in just 15-minutes each month. They also offer financial planning, such as a Retirement Planning Tool that can tell you if you're on track to retire when you want. It's free.

He is also diversifying his investment portfolio by adding a little bit of real estate. But not rental homes, because he doesn't want a second job, it's diversified small investments in a few commercial properties and farms in Illinois, Louisiana, and California through AcreTrader.

Recently, he's invested in a few pieces of art on Masterworks too.

Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank or financial institution. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.