DELIVERY WORK · GERMANY
Lieferando, Wolt and Uber Eats all put riders on the same streets. But they hire in three completely different ways, and picking the wrong one costs students their visa status every year.
Written September 2026. Rules and pay rates change — always check the company's own page before you sign anything.
This is the one thing nobody explains, and it changes everything about tax, insurance and your residence permit.
| Company | Who employs you |
|---|---|
| Lieferando | Lieferando itself. Real employment contract. |
| Wolt | Wolt itself. Employment with fixed shifts. |
| Uber Eats | Nobody at Uber. You must join a separate fleet partner company, and that company is your employer. |
For most international students, being a normal employee is the simpler and safer path. Your employer handles social insurance and tax, and your working days are easy to prove if the Ausländerbehörde ever asks.
Get this folder ready before you start any application. Missing one piece is the most common reason people wait three weeks instead of three days.
Uploads get rejected constantly for silly reasons. Take a photo of the original document, not a photocopy or a scan. All four corners visible. No shadow across it, no flash reflection, nothing lying on top. Do it on a table in daylight, not on your bed at midnight.
Lieferando does not use self-employed riders. Everyone gets a proper employment contract: full time, part time, Werkstudent or Minijob. They also give you the equipment and a work phone with a data plan, so your own phone bill stays out of it.
If you already hold a Werkstudent job somewhere else, Lieferando cannot give you a second contract. A compulsory internship does not count against this. Sort out your main job first, then decide.
In Germany Wolt also employs its couriers. You get holiday, insurance and pension contributions, a guaranteed hourly rate that starts at €13.90, plus compensation for the distance you cover and for using your own phone and data. Tips are yours. Shifts are booked in advance rather than switching an app on and off.
You need your own bicycle, scooter or car, a smartphone with data, and basic German or English. If you ride a bicycle they run regular bike safety checks, so keep your brakes and lights working.
Wolt pays a referral bonus to both people — the one who refers and the new courier — once the new courier completes a set number of deliveries within their first weeks. Ask a friend who already rides to refer you instead of applying cold. It costs neither of you anything. Note that this does not apply to Minijob contracts.
Uber Eats does not employ drivers in Germany at all. Uber provides the app and the orders. A separate company, called a Flottenpartner or fleet partner, is your actual employer or client. You apply to the fleet, not to Uber.
Fleet partners are ordinary small companies, and they are not all the same. Some are decent employers. Others pay late, deduct strange amounts, or hand you a "selbstständig" arrangement while telling you it is a job.
Ask these four questions before you give anyone your documents, and get the answers in writing:
1. Am I employed by you, or self-employed? If self-employed, you must register a Gewerbe yourself, do your own tax, and — for a non-EU student — your residence permit usually does not permit self-employment without separate permission. That mistake can put your stay in Germany at risk.
2. What exactly do I get per hour or per delivery, and what do you deduct?
3. When is payday, and can I see a real Lohnabrechnung?
4. Are you insuring me, and what happens if I crash?
If a fleet asks you for money to start, or wants your documents before answering any of that, walk away. There are other fleets.
Setting up your own fleet is a different thing entirely and needs a Gewerbeanmeldung, a VAT number and business registration papers. That is running a company, not taking a part-time job.
Grocery apps hire riders from a hub instead of restaurants. The work is steadier and less weather-dependent, because you always start and end at the same warehouse. Hours can be less flexible.
You use your own car and book delivery blocks. This is self-employed work, which means the same warning as above applies with full force if you are on a student residence permit. Do not take it just because it looks easy to start.
These hire either directly or through subcontractors. Direct employment with the parcel company itself is usually the better deal — proper contract, proper hours, and German language practice every single day. Look on their own career pages rather than in Facebook groups.
Plenty of Indian, Turkish and pizza restaurants deliver with their own drivers and never appear on any app. Walk in and ask. It is old fashioned and it still works, especially if you speak the owner's language.
A non-EU student on a §16b residence permit can work 140 full days or 280 half days in a calendar year. A shift longer than four hours counts as a full day, so a five-hour Saturday evening burns a whole day from your allowance. During lecture periods there is also a 20 hours per week ceiling, and both limits apply at the same time.
The minimum wage in 2026 is €13.90 per hour. If someone offers you less, something is wrong with what they are asking you to sign.
Keep your own record of every shift in a phone note. Employers make mistakes with dates, and when a permit renewal comes around, your own honest record is what saves you.
It is not a fine you pay and forget. It can block a residence permit extension. No delivery job in Germany is worth that. If you need more money, the answer is a better paid job, not more hours than your permit allows.
The job itself is simple. The winter is what beats people. Riders quit in November not because the work is hard, but because they are wet, their hands hurt and their phone died at hour three.
Around €200 of the right gear — lights, rain trousers, gloves, a powerbank and a proper lock — is about a day and a half of pay, and it carries you through the months when shifts are easiest to get.
We put the full list together here: the delivery rider kit for Germany, with what matters and what is a waste of money.
Delivery pays quickly but it does not build a CV. If you want something that does, we keep a separate guide to jobs and applications in Germany at desijobsde.com.