It has never been easier to make ends meet behind the wheel. Since the official launch of Uber in 2011, the transportation/rideshare industry has been turned on its head. Almost anyone with a driver’s license who can pass a background check can earn extra cash or even a full-time income as a driver.

Transporting people via a rideshare app like Uber or Lyft isn’t the only option. You can also transport groceries, meals, or other necessities through. Many gig-economy delivery services have sprung up to fill the demand gap created by Amazon Prime’s (current) inability to offer same-day deliveries of tasty cheeseburgers. Examples include Grubhub, Postmates, DoorDash, and Uber Eats.

Let’s not forget the granddaddy of behind-the-wheel businesses—long-haul trucking. With more goods crisscrossing the country than ever before, trucking easily piques the interest of entrepreneurial spirits who love the open road. So what’s the best way to make money by driving? It depends on your goals and preferences, of course. Here is a high-level look at the pros and cons of rideshare vs. delivery vs. long-haul truck driving …

Rideshare

Pros:

1. Stable Apps – The big rideshare apps, Uber and Lyft, are stable, easy to use, and plot the entire journey for you.
2. Local – Rideshare drivers can do their job in their own town or nearby cities, maintaining their social life and connections to the community.
3. Use Your Own Car – Within some limits, you can use your own car to be an Uber or Lyft driver.
4. Work-Life Balance – While in practice the best times to drive are 7 AM-11 AM and 3 PM-8 PM, rideshare drivers can set their own schedules, easily integrating health, wellness, and social activities. Rideshare driving also easily integrates with other job schedules—you won’t “lose” your rideshare gig because your shift at your other job changes unexpectedly.
5. Compatible with Delivery – Not only can you work for more than one rideshare app—you can also seamlessly integrate delivery into your driving business alongside rideshare! Each company you drive for will require an orientation and come with a learning curve, but if you invest the time you can turn one app off and turn the other one on when you want to work for someone else. With time you can even discover which services are more lucrative at different times.

Cons:

1. Strangers In Your Car – The idea of strangers in your car makes many people uncomfortable, from the prospect of a rider being a criminal to the more likely prospect that a drunk rider may throw up in your car.
2. Wear and Tear – Rideshare drivers are not compensated for wear and tear on their vehicle from the extra driving. It is debatable whether this makes rideshare earnings worth it. The best vehicles for rideshare are reliable cars with long lifespans, like Hondas or Toyotas.
3. Rising Costs, Lower Pay – Rideshare drivers are responsible for all their own costs, from gas to tolls to the snacks drivers provide riders to get better feedback. If the price of gas increases, Uber drivers’ take-home pay decreases. Meanwhile, some rideshare drivers report fewer bonuses and fewer opportunities to earn than before.
4. Car Restrictions – Uber and Lyft place some restrictions on the quality of cars in their fleet of contractors. If your car is a beater, you can’t use it for rideshare.
5. Reputation-Based – If riders leave bad reviews, your income could suffer. The rideshare service may even let you go.

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Delivery

Pros:

1. No One In your Car – Delivery drivers don’t have to allow anyone into their cars, eliminating the risks of both vomit and violent crime.
2. Local – Like rideshare, delivery services allow you to stay local.
3. Use your Own Car – Not only can you use your own car, but delivery services are also less picky about how new or clean the car is. Some delivery drivers actually “drive” bicycles or motorbikes.
4. Work-Life Balance – As with rideshare, delivery drivers can easily maintain their work-life balance.
5. Compatible with Rideshare – It works both ways—delivery drivers can easily switch to rideshare if experience tells them they will make more money driving people than they will by driving food at a particular time or place.

Cons:

1. Tip-Based Earnings – Delivery drivers depend on tips more than rideshare drivers. The apps do what they can to encourage tipping, but bad tippers are a big problem for delivery drivers.
2. Less Stable Apps – The various delivery apps are much quirkier and more unreliable compared to the rideshare apps. DoorDash, for example, becomes barely usable if your mobile data loses a bar of signal. Uber Eats doesn’t disclose the delivery address until you accept the order. Postmates has notoriously bad driver support.
3. Wear and Tear – The same wear-and-tear concerns apply to vehicles used for delivery driving as with rideshare driving.

Trucking

Pros:

1. Predictable Earning Potential – Compared to rideshare and delivery drivers, truckers enjoy a more predictable income in the form of pay-per-mile. While this sets a cap on what you can earn, at least you aren’t at the mercy of surge hours, tips, or the chance you won’t get a job at all.
2. See the Country – People who want to get out of their comfort zone and see the world find trucking attractive. You get to see long stretches of the often-beautiful country from behind the wheel of a big rig.
3. Scalable – Truckers who network and learn to locate their own loads can truly go into business for themselves, buying more trucks and employing other truckers.

Cons:

1. Licensure – Rideshare and delivery drivers need not be licensed commercial drivers. Truckers, on the other hand, need a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) and additional coursework and training to learn to operate a big rig. This training is time-consuming and expensive. Just getting certified for the job can cost between $3,000 and $7,000.
2. Cost of a Truck – Truckers who truly want to be their own boss will need to become an “owner-operator,” which means buying their own long-haul truck. These vehicles are much more expensive to purchase, fuel, and insure.
3. Hard to Put Down Roots – Unlike rideshare or delivery, trucking is not a local job. Truck drivers find it hard to have relationships or be a member of a community because they spend long periods of time on the road. This leads to the risk of depression and loneliness.
4. Work-Life Balance – Truck drivers notoriously find it hard to balance work with other priorities, like health and relationships. Relationships do not come easy to people who are always traveling. Sitting behind the wheel of a truck for long hours and eating food on the road makes it hard to stay healthy. Some truck drivers yield to the temptation to use stimulant s to try to rack up more miles with less sleep, which is very bad for their health.
5. Dangerous – Trucking is one of the ten most dangerous jobs in America, with a fatality rate of over 600% more than the average.

About the author

From selling flowers door-to-door at hair salons when he was 16 to starting his own auto detailing business, Brett Shapiro has had an entrepreneurial spirit since he was young. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Global and International Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and years traveling the world planning and executing cause marketing events, Brett decided to test out his entrepreneurial chops with his own medical supply distribution company.

During the formation of this business, Brett made a handful of simple, avoidable mistakes due to lack of experience and guidance. It was then that Brett realized there was a real, consistent need for a company to support businesses as they start, build and grow. He set his sights on creating Easy Doc Filing — an honest, transparent and simple resource center that takes care of the mundane, yet critical, formation documentation. Brett continues to lead Easy Doc Filing in developing services and partnerships that support and encourage entrepreneurship across all industries.