Make more money with your car: adding courier runs to ride-hail driving

The hours your car is not earning

Most ride-hail drivers learn the rhythm quickly: commutes, evenings, Friday and Saturday nights, airport waves and big events. Between those peaks, the requests thin out and the waiting starts. A 2025 study of 84 million Toronto trips put numbers on it: median gross earnings of $33.52 per engaged hour, but $5.97 per logged-in hour in 2024 once vehicle costs and waiting were counted.

Business deliveries run on a different clock. Law firms, pharmacies, labs, dealerships and manufacturers ship during business hours, and many same-day intercity runs are booked for morning or afternoon pickup. That is the gap a second kind of driving work can fill.

What a PrimeRoutes run is

PrimeRoutes is a same-day courier between cities in Ontario and Quebec, based in Welland. One driver carries each job from pickup to delivery, with no depot or transfer in between, and takes a photo at every stop. Runs start in the Niagara region, Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area and go to cities such as London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Barrie, Ottawa and Montreal. You use your own car, SUV, van, pickup or cube truck, choose your service areas, and switch yourself available when you want same-day offers.

How the pay works

• Job fee: 70% of the job price before tax and tips, or a fixed fee agreed for that job.
• Tips: you keep 100%, paid on top of the job fee.
• Before you accept: every offer shows your job fee and estimated total. Declining has no penalty.
• Pay day: weekly, on the Friday after each Monday to Sunday pay period, by direct deposit or Interac e-Transfer. No minimum, no fees, no deductions.
• Minimum wage: if your job fees for a week come to less than Ontario's minimum wage for your job time, the difference is paid as a top-up.

Published routes start at $59.99 before HST, which pays a $41.99 job fee. Longer runs between cities are priced higher and quoted per job, and the fee scales with the price. The driver agreement's own example: a $200.00 job pays a $140.00 job fee.

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.

A sample week that uses both

Get these right before your first run

1. 01Insurance: ride-share coverage from a ride-hail platform does not cover courier work. PrimeRoutes requires your own policy with at least $1 million in liability and a commercial-use endorsement that allows deliveries. Ask your insurer first.
2. 02Records: keep separate earnings records for each platform and a kilometre log. The 2026 CRA reference rate, 73 cents a km for the first 5,000 km, is a useful benchmark for vehicle cost.
3. 03GST/HST: ride-share drivers must already be registered from the first fare. If you are registered, PrimeRoutes adds 13% HST to your job fees once your number is verified.
4. 04Documents: an Ontario G, G2 or D licence, a driver's abstract, a criminal record check and an identity check, all reviewed once during onboarding.

Five questions to ask yourself first

1. 01Is my car idle on weekday mornings and afternoons? If your ride-hail hours are already full, courier runs compete with them rather than filling gaps.
2. 02Am I comfortable on the 401, the QEW and the 400 in all seasons? Intercity runs mean highway driving, often in winter.
3. 03Can I get a commercial-use endorsement at a price that makes sense? Get the quote before you apply.
4. 04Do I know my cost per kilometre? Without it, no job fee can be judged fairly, ride-hail or courier.
5. 05Can I declare lanes that bring me home? Runs along your own regular corridors, in both directions, are the most efficient way to use the same kilometres.

Is it worth it?

It is worth it if your car sits idle on weekday business hours and you are comfortable on the highway. Longer runs mean fewer unpaid gaps between paid minutes, but you still drive home after a one-way job, so price your return kilometres honestly. Offers depend on what customers book in your areas, and nobody can promise a number of runs. Start by reading the full pay information, then apply and set your availability for the days your car would otherwise be quiet.

A good first month is a test, not a commitment. Keep ride-hail as your base, take a handful of courier runs on quiet weekdays, and log the paid time, total time and kilometres for each kind of work. After four weeks the numbers will tell you how much of each belongs in your week, and which lanes are worth declaring as your regulars.