Stacking means carrying a second order before the first one is delivered, whether an app adds it to your trip or you accept it from the other app you run. Done well, one drive covers two payouts. Done badly, two customers get cold food late. This guide gives you five checks to run before you accept: how close the pickup is, which way the drop-off goes, how much slack your current deadline has, what kind of food you’re carrying, and what both orders pay together per mile and per hour. For running two apps in one shift, start with How to DoorDash and Uber Eats at the same time.
Pickup proximity
The second pickup costs you the detour to reach it plus the wait once you arrive. A restaurant next door to your current pickup, or along the way to your first drop-off, adds little. One in the opposite direction adds a drive there and back while the first order sits in your car.
Count the likely wait as part of the extra time, alongside the detour distance. A restaurant you know usually has orders ready is a smaller risk than one where you’ve often waited. If the first order is already in your bag, every minute at the second counter is a minute the first customer waits too.
Drop-off direction
Look at where both customers are before you accept. If both drop-offs lie the same way, you deliver one on the way to the other. If they lie in opposite directions, the second customer’s miles come on top of the first trip, and one order rides along for the whole of the other.
Also look at where the last drop-off leaves you. A stack that ends far from where you want to work adds unpaid miles on the way back. If an offer doesn’t show where the drop-off is, treat its direction as unknown, not as on your way.
Deadline slack
Your current order has a delivery time in its app. Slack is the gap between when you’d arrive without the second order and that deadline. Estimate the minutes the second order adds before your first drop-off: the detour, the wait at the restaurant, and parking and handing over. If that’s more than your slack, your first customer will be late.
For orders from different apps, each app plans only its own order, so its estimate does not include your other commitment. For an add-on from the same app, check whether the updated route and time already include both orders before adding anything yourself.
Food type
Some orders travel well and some don’t. Hot meals cool, fries go soft, ice cream and iced drinks melt, and soups and drinks can spill through extra turns. Sealed, sturdy orders handle a short detour better.
Keep hot and cold food in separate insulated bags, with room for both orders to stay upright and apart so they don’t get mixed up at the door. Orders that need an ID check, a code or extra steps at handover take longer, so count that time against your slack.
Combined pay per mile and per hour
Work out two numbers for the stack as a whole: total pay ÷ total miles, and total pay ÷ total hours, from accepting the first order to the last drop-off. Compare both with the first order on its own and with your own goals.
Then check what the second order adds by itself: divide its pay by the extra miles for pay per mile, or by the extra minutes and multiply by 60 for an hourly equivalent. These are gross offer rates, not net profit or expected shift earnings. The invented example below is not typical earnings.
| Offer detail | First order alone | Both orders together | What the second order adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay shown | $7.50 | $13.50 | $6.00 |
| Distance | 4.2 mi | 6.0 mi | 1.8 mi |
| Minutes | 22 min | 33 min | 11 min |
| Pay per mile | about $1.79 | $2.25 | about $3.33 |
| Pay per hour | about $20.45 | about $24.55 | about $32.73 |
When a second order drags the stack down
Keep the same first order, but say the second one adds $4.00 for 5 extra miles and 20 extra minutes. The stack becomes $11.50 over 9.2 miles in 42 minutes: $1.25 a mile and about $16.43 an hour, lower on both counts than the first order alone. A second payout doesn’t always make the trip better.
For Uber and DoorDash offers, Giga Driver compares each offer’s pay, time and distance with your hourly target and minimum pay per mile. It never accepts or declines anything, so whether to stack is always your call.
Run all five checks together
If any answer is no, finish the order you have before taking another. Declining an offer that doesn’t fit is always fine. To stop new requests while you finish, use the pause controls in section 3 of the main DoorDash and Uber Eats guide.
Pickup
Is the second restaurant on your way, with a wait you can live with?
Drop-off
Do both customers lie in the same direction?
Deadline
Does the extra time fit inside the slack on your current order?
Food
Will both orders arrive in good shape after the extra stop?
Pay
Do the combined pay per mile and per hour beat the first order alone and meet your goals?
