“For most markets where DoorDash operates, customers are prompted to tip on the checkout screen, with a middle option already selected by default. If they want to, they can adjust the tip later from the status screen while awaiting their food, or even after it’s delivered. That’s changing today; while blaming New York City’s minimum wage increase for delivery workers, DoorDash announced that for “select markets, including New York City,” tipping is now exclusively a post-checkout option”
It seems so ridiculous given tipping fatigue, that DoorDash is making what should be a given sound like a negative.
I’d be more satisfied if they just stopped calling them tips. They aren’t a tip. Door Dash gives drivers about a $2.50 incentive to even bother looking at the orders that pop up, but it’s up to them to decide whether to take the orders. So you’re quietly negotiating with a complete stranger to go pick up some taco bell and bring it to your house at 3 a.m. it’s a bid. Not a tip.
Calling it a tip is disingenuous and why a hell of a lot of people never “tip” at all.
Edit to add: The real abuse of their workers is that they talk out both sides of their mouth about how independent drivers are, but then they weight the system to punish drivers who don’t take bad jobs. If that mess ended the service would improve for everyone on both sides of the order.
They’ve recently lowered the base pay to $2. I’ve had ‘offers’ pop up for $2 on a 10 mile delivery. If I were to accept that I’d be losing money on the delivery.
You say “losing money”, but I want to quantify that for those reading along:
IRS allows us to claim $0.655 per mile in expenses. DoorDash’s $2 base fee covers only the expenses on a 3 mile trip.
A 10 mile trip costs $6.55. DD pays $2.
But that’s not the end of it. That 10-mile trip took me at least 4 miles outside of my zone. I need to get back to it before I can reasonably expect to receive offers again. I need about $9.17 before I earn one red cent. All that driving and waiting for your food took me about an hour. Just to make minimum wage, I need to gross $16.42. DD pays $2. I need about a $15 tip from you to make minimum wage.
at that point, just quit. Right?
Pretty much, yeah. Don’t accept that particular order, unless it is stacked on another order that shares much of the trip.
That doesn’t make sense.
Doordash doesn’t pay you based on the order? Customers are charged more based on how much they order (everything has an upcharge), so I assumed some of that extra money went to the drivers. There’s also I think 2 mandatory fees: a delivery fee and a maintenance fee or some shit. I don’t know if these scale based on how much you order or how far the delivery is etc, but it’s a lot of money. Way more than $2.
I just find it hard to believe the app could exist at all with drivers having the experience you described. Or maybe I misunderstand you. Are you saying that delivery would make you $8.55? (not counting your expenses, obviously.)
DD pays $2-$3 per order in my markets. It is not based on size of order. It is not based on distance. I have seen small, short-distance orders offered for $3, and large, long-distance orders for $2.
They will occasionally offer “peak pay” of an additional $1. This is usually for 2-4 hours an evening, Friday through Sunday. Sometimes, during very busy times in undesirable markets, that will rise to $2 for an hour or two. Rarely (1-2 hours a month) more.
Shop and deliver orders seem to add a per-item fee, but makea no allowance for mileage.
The only other pay I receive from DD is the occasional half-pay when I arrive at a closed store. Uber Eats pays only $3 for this. N
Some markets might have a higher base pay, and/or higher peak pay, but those are still not based on order size or distance. If DD is charging fees based on the size of orders, they are not passing that on to the driver delivering your order.
On average, (counting both short distance and long distance orders together) the base pay does not quite cover the $0.655 per mile that the IRS says I can claim as my expenses. Effectively, the only money I can count as “income” from DD is peak pay and tips.
UberEats has a much more complicated algorithm that seems to be based primarily on actual mileage, but I don’t think it takes the cost of the order into account either.
I would actually be interested in using an app like this where it’s truly a bid… Sounds interesting.
I would argue that that’s what we already were supposed to have. Or at least that’s how it’s marketed to prospective drivers. And then they find out that Door Dash can make you hurt if you don’t want to drive 12 miles into a dangerous neighborhood for two dollars.