Everyone hates it when your Uber Eats driver does extra stops before dropping off your order.
Your food might be the second or third delivery, and it might be cold by the time it gets to you.
Did you know that Uber Eats has a priority delivery option to help you get your food faster?
When you select priority delivery, your order will be delivered first if it is part of a stacked delivery.
The priority fee costs around $1.99–$3.99, and you can select it during the checkout process.
Select priority delivery during checkout. The price varies
But wait! Priority delivery doesn’t always guarantee that your driver will only pick up and deliver your order. We’ll explain why below.
The Uber Eats priority delivery fee
Uber Eats offers a priority delivery option during the checkout process. If you pay for priority delivery, your driver will make fewer stops between the pickup and drop-off.
Your driver may still pick up another order, but your order will be delivered first.
Priority delivery costs around $1.99–$3.99, depending on how busy your city currently is.
How to find the priority delivery option
To select priority delivery, create your order and select ‘Go to checkout.‘
Look for the priority option on the ‘Delivery details‘ page. The app will list the price for priority delivery next to the option.
Select priority delivery during checkout. The price is variable
Your delivery driver doesn’t know that you paid for priority
Uber Eats drivers are not notified when you pay for priority delivery. They don’t know that you paid for priority!
There is no special note or alert informing them that you paid for priority. Instead of a note on the order with special info, the app simply tells the driver to deliver your order first.
And your driver doesn’t get anything extra when you pay priority: The priority fee is not directly paid to drivers and they don’t receive any additional pay.
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Another way to prevent your driver from making stops: Add-on items
After you place an order, Uber may ask if you want to add items from another store to your delivery. Usually the add-on items are for drinks, desserts, or alcohol.
One secret benefit of buying add-on items is that your driver won’t be assigned any stops from other customers. They will only do your original delivery and your add-on order.
It’s a backdoor to priority delivery that may be worth it if you want drinks or dessert.
Buying add-on items is another way to prevent drivers from stopping for other customers
Ordered priority but your driver is still making stops? Here’s what’s happening
If you paid for priority delivery and your driver still seems to be making stops, there are a few things that might be going on.
Remember that priority orders will be delivered first. That means that the driver might do another pickup.
After they complete the additional pickup, you should be the first to get your order.
Delays when you pay for priority? Your driver might be multi-apping
Let’s say you see your driver’s car icon move to a residential area with no other restaurants, or their car icon might stop moving in the app.
In that case, there’s a chance that the driver is doing a delivery for another delivery app, also known as multi-apping.
Drivers may juggle orders from multiple apps
Some drivers choose to drive for more than one delivery app at the same time to maximize the number of orders that they can do.
Your driver might have picked up an order from another app before they picked up yours. They chose to deliver the other order first, then yours second.
Drivers are independent contractors and the delivery apps don’t prohibit multi-apping.
The Uber Eats app won’t know that your driver is doing a delivery for another app, but the driver’s location data may indicate that they have gone off the expected course for your delivery.
And there’s no special alert or note on your order when you pay for priority delivery, so there’s nothing to let your driver know that they should prioritize your order over the other app’s order.
It’s not a perfect system, and some customers get upset when they pay an extra fee only to get disappointing service.
Upset about your order? Contact Uber Eats customer service
If you paid for priority delivery but your driver made other stops along the way, you can let Uber know. You might be able to receive a partial refund for the order.
To complain about your order, tap the cart icon on the bottom of the app, then tap the gray Orders button in the upper corner.
Tap on your order, then scroll to Get Help. Select My order took longer than expected to get the ball rolling.
Let Uber know if your order took too long
More about Uber Eats
Mb says
On Ubers website it says the priority fee goes to the driver, are they lying to the public and keeping the fee?
Doug H says
If possible, can you send a link or screenshot where you saw that? If it does go to the driver, it’s indirectly via base pay. There isn’t a separate line item to prove to drivers that the priority fee is going directly to them.
JMcGrath says
This Priority delivery is not true! I paid $3.99 extra for priority last night – I am 2 mins from restaurant, and my order took 30 mins – I could see it going all over the place making multiple deliveries before me. I reached out to driver who didn’t care, said he has to follow Uber map. When I asked Uber they said that wasn’t how priority worked. Yes after 30 mins in the car my order was cold. I’m still waiting to hear from them about a resolution.
Doug H says
The most likely explanation is that your driver was doing orders for another delivery app. The Uber app probably said to go directly to your location, but they chose to do other drop-offs instead. Unfortunately priority delivery can’t prevent the driver from making that choice