Jobbing in Craiova, the verdict: is it worth it?
ECB reference rates published 16.10.2026, frozen. 1 EUR = 5.0904 RON, 0.8767 GBP, 1.1731 USD, 2.0189 NZD, 1.7594 AUD, 37.0 THB, 0.9333 CHF.
Range for the riding table and charts
Change the numbers
Everything starts on my own situation. Change any number to try yours. Nothing here moves when you scroll; use the buttons or type.
1. Your room
2. Your vehicle
What do you ride?
Rent it or own it?
3. Your body weight
A heavier rider burns more energy and eats more. My food bill is scaled to your weight.
Side by side
Week by week
Week starting Monday. The last week is still running.
Where the gross went
Where the living money went
Food is what I bought, not what I ate on the day; food for 07-09.09 is one booked total.
Per unit
No pension, no health cover
This is also a political page. Here is what this work looks like for a Swiss citizen who goes abroad to earn a living, inside the EU, under the rules as they are.
What my contract gives me
- I am not employed. I ride under a contract of association with the fleet. It is not a job contract, and the fleet's own published terms for this contract state that health insurance is not included.
- The fleet takes its share and withholds income tax. It pays nothing into a pension and nothing into health insurance for me.
- Accidents are mine alone. The contract puts sole liability on the rider and the fleet insures nothing.
Why Romania collects nothing for my pension
- In 2026 a self-employed person in Romania must pay pension contributions (CAS, 25%) only if net income reaches 12 minimum wages a year: 48'600 RON. Below that, paying is optional, and opting in costs at least 12'150 RON.
- At my measured pace, riding every day, my net comes to about 47'125 RON a year. That is just under the line.
- In 2026 I started on 07.09. At the same pace, those 116 days come to about 14'977 RON, far below the line. So 2026 builds no Romanian pension at all, unless I pay 12'150 RON myself out of earnings that do not even cover my living costs.
Why Switzerland will not take my contributions either
- Swiss citizens abroad can stay in the Swiss old-age and invalidity insurance (AHV/IV) voluntarily, but only if they live outside the EU and EFTA.
- Living in Romania, an EU country, that door is closed. The EU agreement puts me in the Romanian system, and the Romanian system asks nothing of me at this income.
- Result: a Swiss can work full time in the EU, every day, and pay into no pension anywhere. Every such year is a gap in the Swiss pension for life, and Romania pays nothing for it later.
The question for Switzerland
How many Swiss work like this in EU countries, on platform jobs, contracts of association or small self-employment below the local line? None of them can pay into AHV voluntarily, and the country they live in may never pay them a pension, or may not be stable enough to. The voluntary AHV should be open to Swiss citizens living in the EU too.
Sources: Romanian 2026 thresholds (minimum wage 4,050 RON, CAS 25% from 12 minimum wages) as published for the 2026 income year; AHV/IV information office, voluntary insurance only for residence outside the EU/EFTA. My own contract of association, read in full.
Every evening: the day close
After every shift I close the day against the courier app and the bank. These are the public figures, newest first.
Net = what I keep from the app after the fleet's 10% commission, plus cash tips. Before fuel and scooter rent. Hours = time online in the app. From 10.09 to 26.09 I did not log my online time, so those days show – and are left out of the hours and per-hour totals. No customer, address, order or restaurant data is shown.
Riding: earned per day
Living: latest day
Living: daily spend vs 85 lei cap
↑ 🇷🇴 RON, per day · → day
Living: over / under the cap
↑ 🇷🇴 RON, over (+) / under (−) the 85 lei cap · → day
Living: category, whole period
Bar values in 🇷🇴 RON, whole period
Living: groceries vs eating out
Bar values in 🇷🇴 RON, whole period
Living: shops, top 10
Bar values in 🇷🇴 RON, whole period
Living: payment channels
Bar values in 🇷🇴 RON, whole period
Health: free sugar per day
↑ g, free sugar per day · → day of October
Health: protein per day
↑ g, protein per day · → day of October
Health: dry-day streak
↑ days, dry days in a row · → date
Health: recovery timeline
→ days since the last drink
Where the vehicle numbers come from
- Moped 49cc, rented: my real setup. 250 RON a week to the owner, maintenance included. Fuel is what I actually paid, about 4.3 litres per 100 km as the app counts distance.
- Petrol price: 10.06 RON a litre, from my own pump receipts in Craiova, latest 19 October 2026 (other stations up to 10.12).
- Electricity: 1.20 RON per kWh, the middle of the 1.10-1.22 range quoted for households after the price cap ended.
- Moped insurance: 311.69 RON a year, the real third-party policy on my moped.
- Car insurance: 2,500 RON a year. The national average quote was about 2,600 in August 2026, Dacia Logan about 2,530. Young drivers pay far more.
- Car tax, ITP, vignette: about 160 tax, 250 ITP and 250 vignette a year for a normal 1.4-1.6 litre car.
- Moped prices: a new 50cc sells for about 6,000-6,750 RON, used ones from about 2,200. I set 3,000 used.
- Estimates without a hard source: bicycle and e-bike prices, 125cc price and insurance, maintenance for every vehicle, resale values, and fuel use for the 125cc and the car. Change them if you know better.
- Bicycle and e-bike change only the costs. Earnings stay as I made them on a moped; on a bicycle you would do fewer drops.
How the numbers were made
- Income comes from the Bolt courier app, counted drop by drop every day; cash tips are my own pocket count.
- The fleet share is the fleet commission and weekly fee, taken from gross before payout.
- Kit is the thermal bag and a powerbank, bought once and charged in full here. Only one SIM top-up is booked.
- Food is scaled by energy need: about 1 kcal per kg of body weight per hour at rest, plus about 6 hours a day on shift at roughly four times that. Energy need, and so the food bill, rises and falls in step with weight. My own figures are for 93 kg.
- Owning a vehicle is spread per day: what you lose when you sell it again, plus insurance, tax and maintenance, over the years you keep it.
- Cost of living is every lei I spent on myself in Craiova over the same days, from receipts and card statements.
- Not counted: health insurance and pension, because I pay neither (see above), travel to and from Romania, and anything paid outside Romania.