Why this exists
A software studio, built in daylight.
One way to build something of your own is nights and weekends, around a job. I chose the other way: delivery blocks on my own schedule, then software, events and clients in the hours between, with the car and the numbers on a public record.
Paddock20 is a software studio. The Test Track is its proving ground, and Case 01 is one 2024 Model Y, with its drives, charges and income written up day by day, each figure on those pages labeled measured, modeled or stated.
- 44days on the record
- 3,427miles driven
- 94.5%of miles on FSD (Supervised)
- 12.9¢a mile for energy, measured
The data
Three questions. One car. 44 days.
- How much does it cost to charge a Model Y? 41.7¢ a kWh across 35 sessions, measured from the carmaker's invoices: 12.9¢ a mile for energy. Across 28 reconciled sessions, 7.44% of the energy drawn never reached the battery.Measured
- How much of the driving is FSD (Supervised)? One car's use of it: 94.5% of the miles. FSD (Supervised) needs an attentive driver for every one of them. What it costs by the mile is a line on the Ledger.Measured
- Is a Model Y good for Uber Eats and Instacart? One driver, day by day: the charging, the delivery apps' own counts and miles, and the income by channel, each with its status, slow days included.Measured
Income, worked out
On the apps' clock, this car's delivery days pay about like a $56K job.
Net dollars for each hour, after payroll tax and the car's running costs, before income tax. The job counts every hour it takes: 50 hours a week on site and a daily commute of 80 miles. This car's delivery hours are the apps' own clock, which leaves out the waiting between orders, so its bar reads high. The $25 an hour target would pay about like a $61K job.
Net dollars an hour
This car's bar pools 7 of the Record's 10 delivery days, the ones with the car's own miles, and the line marks its best and worst day. The Gridwise bars rest on Gridwise's 2025 driver data (101,709 Uber Eats drivers, 20,538 Instacart shoppers) and a pace it does not publish, so read them as a scale, not a measurement. The job is an example, and so are its pay levels. These are this car's days, not an average and not a promise to anyone. Every bar is modeled.
How each bar is worked out
Delivery: pay an hour, less the miles an hour at 23.1¢ a mile, then less self-employment tax of 14.13% of what is left. The job: pay less payroll tax of 7.65%, less 20,000 commute miles a year at 23.1¢, over 2,944 hours a year: 50 hours a week on site and 8.9 hours driving (80 miles a day at an assumed 45 miles an hour), for 50 weeks.
| Bar | Pay an hour | Miles an hour | Net an hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| This car, Uber Eats, 4 days | $24.55 | 25.5 | $16.03 |
| This car, Instacart, 3 days | $20.27 | 7.9 | $15.84 |
| This car, all 7 days (its bar) | $23.31 | 20.4 | $15.97 |
| Gridwise, Uber Eats, top 10% of Gridwise drivers | $20.83 | 14.2 | $15.07 |
| Gridwise, Uber Eats, median Gridwise driver | $14.07 | 14.2 | $9.27 |
| Gridwise, Instacart, median Gridwise shopper | $12.21 | 4.3 | $9.63 |
| The target | $25.00 | 20.4 | $17.42 |
23.1¢ a mile is the Ledger's running cost at this car's pace: energy, insurance, FSD (Supervised) and connectivity. Tires, registration, maintenance and depreciation are not in it, because the Ledger prices only what it has an invoice for. Each 10 cents a mile more would take about $1.75 an hour off this car's bar and about 68 cents off a job's, which lowers the headline by about $3K.
App hours are what the app itself counted: Instacart's active clock, and for Uber Eats each delivery's own minutes added up, so two orders made together are each counted in full. This car's bar uses the 7 of the Record's 10 delivery days that have the car's own miles in the shift, over the same lines' app hours. Bonus lines have no app hours and are left out ($150.00 on 1 line), as trip pay leaves promotions out; 2 lines are still pending ($189.01) and count, as they do on the Record.
Gridwise's pay is for 2025: 101,709 Uber Eats drivers (page dated September 8, 2026) and 20,538 Instacart shoppers (page dated April 1, 2026). The median bars are trip pay with tips, before promotions and before vehicle costs, and the top-10% bar is the pay the top tenth of drivers reach or pass. Its pages call the hour a work hour and do not say whether waiting is in it, and they give no miles an hour, so each of its bars takes the pace its own pay a mile implies, 14.2 on Uber Eats and 4.3 on Instacart, and charges this car's cost a mile; a driver's own car could cost more or less. Those paces are rough: at 18 miles an hour the Uber Eats median bar would be $8.52 and at 10 it would be $10.10, so the order of the two lowest bars is not firm. Each mile an hour more or less moves a delivery bar by about 20¢ an hour. On the one day the Record has start to finish, the app counted 4.1 of 5.3 hours on shift, 30 minutes of the gap a charging stop, so counting every hour the way the job does would lower that day's net by about 23%. How much waiting the other days hold is not measured.
Left out: income tax, which applies to both; the job's benefits, which would raise its bars; and the IRS mileage rate, which deducts more per mile than the car costs and would lower delivery's tax a little. The 45 miles an hour and the 50 weeks are assumptions.
Sources: Gridwise on Uber Eats and Gridwise on Instacart.
Who this is for
Pick the one that sounds like you.
- I run a business with vans or a fleetA vehicle's cost per mile, receipt by receipt. Paddock20 builds software for service businesses.Book a Fit Call
- I'm deciding on an EVA charging bill, a battery reading and a cost per mile, from one car.Run your numbers
- I drive gigsThinking about a Model Y for delivery work? One driver's pay and miles, day by day, beside the car's own numbers.Open the Record
- I serve EV owners, back events or host a showTell me what you would want measured: detailing, chargers, insurance, accessories, events, a show.Say hello
- I'm following along, or I know someone who should see thisA page for every week, built from the car's own numbers, and a feed to follow it.Read Field Notes
How it stays honest
Measured, modeled or stated.
- Measured
- From the car, a document or an app's own screen.
- Modeled
- Worked out from measured figures, and the page says how.
- Stated
- My word, with no document behind it.
FSD (Supervised) is driver assistance and needs an attentive driver. What does not flatter stays in: this car returns 76% of its rated efficiency, 9 points under the 85% average of 20 Model Ys nearby. A figure that changes later carries a dated correction. If a company gives me something to use, or a link pays me, the page says so beside it. Sources include the carmaker's invoices and TezLab.
An independent record kept by Paddock20. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the carmaker, TezLab, Uber, Instacart or Gridwise. Product names are their owners' marks.
Work with Paddock20
Talk to the builder.
Paddock20 is built for service businesses outgrowing their software. A Fit Call is 60 to 90 minutes with the builder, and you leave with a written build order: what we'd build, what it costs, how long it takes. Yours to keep either way.
Hosting a podcast, running an event or making something for EV owners? Say hello and tell me what you have in mind.
Ready to talk now? Book a Fit Call.
