Looking to increase your earnings as a Bolt driver? Or maybe you’re searching for opportunities to earn more money on the side? Well, whether you’re still considering driving with Bolt or you already do so on a regular basis, you’re in the right place! This blog post will, hopefully, give you some key pointers and explain how to make more money while driving. Let’s go!

How to make more money? It’s all about proper time-management

Oh, yes, the magical concept of time-management. This is something you’ll find stuffed in all those books with titles like “How to make more money?” or “The key ideas to make money”. You know the ones.

Yay… This is another “inspirational” article full of buzzwords? No! Before you disappear, you should know that we’re going to be super practical here. You’ll end up with some top tips on how to manage your time, be more effective as a Bolt driver and may help you increase your earnings.

Here are our top tips for earning more while driving:

1. Go online at the busiest times;
2. Accept all orders;
3. Turn on Back-to-Back rides;
4. Read your messages and keep an eye on the news;
5. Be nice to people;
6. Take breaks.

Now, let’s cover all of these points in a little more detail and help you find out how to make more money as a Bolt driver.

Go online at the busiest times

One of the biggest misconceptions about driving with Bolt is the belief that you need to be online all the time to increase your earnings. First of all, that’s not healthy, nor safe, and secondly, it’s not very clever either.

You’ve probably noticed that, when it comes to traffic, there are busier times and slower times, right? There are many players in this equation — the day of the week, the time of the month and even the weather. So, be smart about when you go online and drive. Rush hour is your friend, as is rainy weather and those late night/early morning weekend hours. Be sure to fill up your tank before these peak times to avoid empty rides when you could earn more money.

Learn to plan your day around these busy times — more people needing a ride should lead to a higher weekly income for you.

If you’re interested in cutting down on fuel costs, check out this handy little cheat sheet.

Accept all orders

This is about the mindset mentioned earlier. If you’re online, be active. If you’re active, don’t go cherry-picking which requests to accept and which to ignore.

Some drivers turn down requests “just because”. This isn’t a great idea if you think about it — you’re just reducing your opportunities to earn more money. Also, rejecting rides will have an impact on your activity score.

Accept all incoming orders to be efficient. While we’re on the subject of efficiency, you should always turn on number 3 in our list…

Turn on Back-to-Back rides

The Back-to-Back feature is designed to help you reduce waiting time between rides. Here’s how it works:

• You enable Back-to-Back rides in the Bolt Driver app;
• You accept an incoming ride request;
• When another rider requests a pick-up near your destination, you’ll receive a new request from them;
• When you complete the ride you’re on, you can head to the new pick-up location straight away.

So, if you’re wondering how to earn more money in a really simple way, just turn on the Back-to-Back function!

Stay updated

This goes two ways. Let’s start with the one that takes less effort from you. From time to time, you’ll receive notifications from Bolt. Why should you read them? They include information about campaigns and bonuses that will work in your favour by increasing your weekly earnings. So, open the app, tap on the message and read carefully.

The second thing is about you either listening to the radio, scrolling the news channels or socialising with your peers. This way, you can be sure that you’re aware of the things going on in your own city — big concerts, conferences, sports games or any other sorts of big gatherings lead to an increased number of ride requests. Find 5 minutes in your day to check what’s happening around your city and where. Think of it as a cool and creative way of making more money.

It’s also worth getting to know your city’s popular gathering spots. There are places that are buzzing, and there are places that aren’t. Easy math — there’s a higher chance of ride requests from places that are full of people than those full of tumbleweed, right?

Be nice!

Politeness costs nothing, but it sure pays off, especially when you’re working with people on a daily basis. And with Bolt, that’s exactly the case.

Being nice isn’t actually that hard — make sure you greet your passengers, help them out when they need it and drive safely. Leaving a good impression will reflect well on your driver rating.

Take a break

You also need to look after yourself on this “how to make more money” journey. This is actually the most important tip in this whole list.

Put yourself first, use all of the tips listed above to find the best times to take a breather from driving. Stay healthy, get enough sleep and don’t go out if you’re not feeling well.

If you’ve made it this far and you’re still wondering if you should sign up or not, here are at least 7 reasons why driving with Bolt is better than a part-time job. Surely worth a shot!