Is driving for PrimeRoutes passive income? A straight answer

The honest answer first

Passive income means money that arrives without your ongoing time, such as rent from a property or dividends from shares. Driving for any platform is the opposite: you earn while you drive, and when you stop, the earnings stop. Anyone who sells delivery or ride-hail work as passive income is selling something else.

What courier driving can be is flexible. If you already own a reliable vehicle, have free days or half-days in your week and like the highway, intercity courier runs can turn those gaps into paid work on your terms. Here is how that works at PrimeRoutes.

What you control

• Where: you choose your service areas. Runs start in the Niagara region, Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area.
• When: you switch yourself available when you want same-day offers. There is no minimum number of jobs, hours or days.
• Which jobs: every offer shows the job fee and estimated total before you accept, and you can decline or let it expire with no penalty.
• Who else you work with: you are an independent contractor and can work with other companies.

How pay is set

Your job fee is 70% of the job price before tax and tips, or a fixed fee agreed for that job, and you keep 100% of tips on top. The fee shown when you accept is what you are paid; it is never reduced afterwards. Published routes start at $59.99 before HST, which pays a $41.99 job fee, and longer intercity runs are priced higher.

Pay is weekly. The pay period runs Monday to Sunday, and you are paid the Friday after by direct deposit, or by Interac e-Transfer if your bank account is not set up yet. There is no minimum payout, no fees and no deductions. Ontario's Digital Platform Workers' Rights Act also applies: if your job fees for a week come to less than the general minimum wage for your job time, $17.95 an hour from October 1, 2026, PrimeRoutes pays the difference as a top-up.

How offers reach you

Work reaches PrimeRoutes drivers two ways: offers sent to you directly, and a job board where you can take open jobs yourself. Every offer has a time limit, and you can accept, decline or let it expire. A job is yours only once you accept it; dispatch cannot assign you a job you have not agreed to.

Offers are ranked by how well each job fits you. The ranking looks at the lanes and corridors you have declared, including return trips that bring you home, whether you usually run that lane on that day, your coverage areas, where you start your day and your distance to the pickup, and your completion rate on jobs you accepted. Customer ratings play no part, and there is no acceptance rate target: declining an offer never counts against you.

How to start

1. 01Check your insurance: ask whether a commercial-use endorsement for deliveries can be added to your policy.
2. 02Read the pay information, the same document every driver receives under Ontario law.
3. 03Create a driver account with your contact details and vehicle. It takes a few minutes.
4. 04Complete verification: identity check, licence, insurance, driver's abstract and criminal record check, reviewed by a person.
5. 05Set your service areas and the lanes you run, then switch yourself available when you want same-day offers.

What it takes

The insurance endorsement is the requirement most people need to arrange. Ask your insurer whether courier delivery use can be added before you apply; the endorsement is confirmed before approval.

The costs to plan for

• Fuel, maintenance and depreciation. The CRA's 2026 reference rate of 73 cents a kilometre for the first 5,000 km is a reasonable upper benchmark for what kilometres cost.
• The return trip after a one-way run, which is part of your costs even though it is not a separate job.
• The insurance endorsement for deliveries.
• Income tax on your earnings. Delivery work generally follows the ordinary $30,000 GST/HST small-supplier threshold; if you register, PrimeRoutes adds 13% HST to your job fees once your number is verified.

Who it suits

It suits retirees and semi-retirees who enjoy driving, people with flexible weekday schedules, small business owners with a capable vehicle, and ride-hail drivers who want longer, pre-priced jobs during business hours. It does not suit anyone looking for guaranteed hours or income, or money without work. If that fits, read the full pay information and apply in a few minutes.