How many kilometres pay off for you? Your personal break-even point
Every order pays by the formula fixed fee + €/km. Seems simple — take the ones that pay more. The problem: this formula never answers the only question that matters: how much will you earn per hour? And you're paid by the hour, not by the order.
Why the visible fee is misleading
Two orders at €5 each: one you deliver in 8 minutes in a neighbouring block, the other in 35 minutes on the city edge with waiting and a long ride back. The first is €37.5/h. The second is €8.6/h. The platform shows both identically: “€5”.
Union research (e.g., Finland's PAM report on Wolt couriers) shows that after expenses — transport, fuel or charging, insurance, taxes — the real hourly rate can fall to €3–4.50/h. The gap between the “shown” and the “real” income hides exactly in the long and slow orders.
How to calculate your break-even kilometre
You need only two numbers of your own — and both are already sitting in your statistics:
- Your “fixed time” — how long the full cycle really takes: ride there, wait at the restaurant, find the customer, deliver, return to the flow. This time is personal: it depends on your city, vehicle, knowledge of the district, buildings with or without lifts.
- Your actual city speed — not the theoretical one, but with lights, traffic and courtyards. E.g., a realistic 15 km/h on a bike downtown.
Then: order duration = fixed time + distance / actual speed. Hourly income = (fixed fee + €/km × distance) / duration. The distance at which your €/hour drops below the alternatives available in that same shift — that is your break-even kilometre. Beyond it, every extra kilometre isn't income — it's a subsidy to the platform.
The same offer is profit for one courier and a loss for another. The only way to know which one you are is to have your own numbers.
How much is “already” and how much is “still”
From the break-even kilometre come two useful metrics: how much time you have already spent below your break-even point (an audit of past shifts) and how much you still will spend if you keep accepting every offer in sequence (a forecast). The difference is the price of the lesson most couriers pay every week without ever seeing it.
Why this is impossible without Logger
You can't guess your fixed time and actual speed — you have to measure them. Courier Logger records both automatically and computes your personal break-even point by order type. And Courier Assistant shows on every offer whether it exceeds your limit — not the market average.