Gridwise has officially published the results from its Gridwise Analytics’ Annual Gig Mobility Report 2025, a report which conducted the deepest of all analysis on gig mobility trends throughout U.S.
Going by the available details, the stated exercise was based upon a dataset of over 720 million trips and $8.3 billion in driver earnings. As for 2024 alone, these insights were able to draw upon more than 171 million trips and $1.9 billion in gig driver earnings.
Talk about the given results on a slightly deeper level, we begin from how they indicate a shift across rideshare and delivery platforms, as well as detail how driver earnings, consumer behavior, and platform competition are shaping the future of today’s gig economy.
Gridwise’s report, for instance, discovered that drivers across the board are actually earning less despite working more than the historical levels. To expand upon the same, Uber and Lyft drivers reported a decline in their hourly earnings, with Uber drivers making 4% less per hour ($23.33) and Lyft drivers’ earnings down by almost 6% ($23.23 per hour).
Next up, the report goes on to reveal a rise in rideshare pricing. You see, median rideshare prices increased by 7.2% in 2024, bringing the median fare to $15.99. Having said so, though, 72.3% of surveyed riders say they will reduce or stop using rideshare if prices rise again, signaling a potential demand slowdown.
We referred to a decline in the hourly earnings of Uber and Lyft drivers, but food and grocery delivery drivers also experienced a decline in their hourly earnings across most major platforms. This can be better contextualized once you take into account how Uber Eats drivers saw a cumulative drop of 5% in hourly pay to $14.96. DoorDash drivers’ hourly earnings, on the other hand, fell by 3% to $12.23, whereas Grubhub and Gopuff also reported significant declines.
Markedly enough, against this all-consuming downturn, Favor’s delivery workers would post a 10% increase in their hourly earnings, breaching the mark of $11.97 and indicating improved efficiency across delivery assignments.
Another detail worth a mention here is rooted in a piece of data, which claims that tipping actually dominates food and grocery delivery earnings. This happens to be the case because 53.4% of food delivery earnings and 45.7% of grocery delivery earnings were found to come from tips. In complete contrast, no more than 10.4% of rideshare drivers’ income comes from tipping.
Hold on, we still have a few bits left to unpack, considering we haven’t yet touched upon a surge in retail delivery. To break the stated surge down to platform-level, DoorDash’s retail delivery volume has shot by 34.1% in 2024, while Uber Eats comfortably beats that growth by recording growth worth 46.6%.
However, the biggest highlight in retail delivery space came from Macy’s, who experienced a staggering 4,500% growth in the stated space, highlighting rising demand for same-day and on-demand retail fulfillment. This presents a strong opportunity for retailers to drive revenue through third-party delivery services.
As a result of these surges, retail deliveries now also take up a bigger chunk of the total deliveries. For instance, DoorDash’s retail deliveries grew from 7.2% to 8.4% of total volume. Uber Eats, on its part, again bested that number by rising from 9.0% to 11.3%.
“2025 is a pivotal year for the gig mobility space,” said Ryan Green, CEO at Gridwise. “Drivers are looking to maximize earnings per hour. Meanwhile, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of pricing dynamics, putting pressure on platforms to find efficiencies. It will be interesting to see how gig platforms leverage data to minimize driver downtime and improve marketplace efficiency—ensuring that consumers aren’t forced to pay more while drivers still earn more over time.”
