Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

payup.wtf

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 572 posts

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#81

Post by cc439 »

jefftk wrote: post #69
triceratops wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Becoming a commodity supplier to an aggregator is a losing proposition. If the value is in delivering the food, restaurants slowly stop being able to differentiate based on branding, experience, presentation, location, or offering and instead compete mostly on price and speed. It's a shit position to be in.

Can't they still differentiate on the food? What they put on their menu, how it tastes, etc?

How can you compete on quality when every delivery has been sitting in a box for ~10 minutes prior to pickup and ~15 minutes awaiting delivery? Pizza delivery companies like Dominoes spend $$$$$$$ to develop ingredients and methods that ensure that 25 minutes cold pizza is still palatable. That local hibachi or taco joint can't do the same. A cold, premium taco is just as unpalatable as the janky one from the cheap place.

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#82

Post by slenk »

seibelj wrote: post #37
tempsy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A major negative consequence for restaurant workers as a result of food delivery apps is that they are busier than ever because they are now fulfilling orders all day from these apps in addition to orders from people that walk in. I went to Popeyes last week and there’s just a stream of receipts from online orders constantly printing, and they have to fulfill all those while dealing with everyone that comes in. And o…

Aren’t minimum wage raises responsible for this? If restaurants are forced to pay $15 an hour minimum, how can it be profitable without them being more productive?

They aren't forced to pay $15/hour so it makes no excuse to the current circumstances.

Also, this article isn't about making restaurants pay...it's about making DoorDash pay fairly

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#83

Post by cc439 »

burlesona wrote: post #67

What I struggle with is why anyone would deliver for Door Dash if the pay is so bad. The article closes with a statement that they want $15/hour plus expenses for drivers. The obvious problem is that I can’t see customers paying that much for delivery - ie. at those wages Door Dash can’t exist. The fact that people choose to do the work makes me think there are people who find it worthwhile, and I can explain a few s…

"The obvious problem is that I can’t see customers paying that much for delivery - ie. at those wages Door Dash can’t exist."

I am 100% ok with DoorDash and that entire market not existing. We somehow managed without it just 3-4 years ago and it's not like Americans need another ridiculously unhealthy eating option provided with even greater convenience.

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#84

Post by denkmoon »

chrisseaton wrote: post #56
bcyn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is classic Stockholm syndrome with commutes that I see all too often. What's wrong with the commute? The fact that, if you didn't have the commute, you could do all those same things and also anything else you can think of. The opportunity cost is enormous.

> if you didn't have the commute, you could do all those same things and also anything else you can think of I don't think that's true. In my case, I'd pay the opportunity cost of not being able to both do the PhD with the advisor I wanted and also have my daughter live where I wanted. If I didn't take the commute, I could do my hobbies, but not simultaneously both do the PhD I wanted and have my daughter live where…

Always an edge case.

You can't have your PhD advisor at home, but consider how many people commute to jobs that could be done just as effectively from home/remotely. How many man-hours are lost to that.

Also, it seems like you're using public transport. You're lucky that that is a) a viable option and b) pleasant enough that you don't want to murder people after a few weeks of doing it. The majority of commuters around the world are using personal transport, which has a huge carbon cost and does not allow for doing other things while commuting.

Finally, there are plenty of studies demonstrating the link between longer commute and lower well-being and mental health. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11116-019-09983-9

Personally, I wouldn't mind a 40 minute train trip and a 5 minute walk either side, but a 40 minute drive is awful. I've gone from a 40 minute drive to a 10 minute drive, and I feel "free-er" because of it.

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#85

Post by zamfi »

lukeschlather wrote: post #66
zamfi wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also: why is the service fee separate from the delivery fee? Why do hotels charge an invisible “resort fee”? Why do airlines and utilities have so many extra fees you don’t find out about until later? These are all dark patterns that try to hide the actual cost. If doordash was upfront, saying “your total extra charge from doordash for delivering this to you is $25” instead of “$3.99 delivery; $12.57 service charge;…

I'm not sure Doordash necessarily has that visibility. It seems like the restaurants build a service charge into their Doordash orders that isn't present if you go there and get a menu.

I’m just talking about the stuff that shows up literally when I check out using doordash. doordash knows about them, obviously, because it’s showing them to me as line items.

Hypothetical increased prices from the restaurant are a whole extra layer!

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#86

Post by paxys »

cc439 wrote: post #83
burlesona wrote: post #67

What I struggle with is why anyone would deliver for Door Dash if the pay is so bad. The article closes with a statement that they want $15/hour plus expenses for drivers. The obvious problem is that I can’t see customers paying that much for delivery - ie. at those wages Door Dash can’t exist. The fact that people choose to do the work makes me think there are people who find it worthwhile, and I can explain a few s…

"The obvious problem is that I can’t see customers paying that much for delivery - ie. at those wages Door Dash can’t exist." I am 100% ok with DoorDash and that entire market not existing. We somehow managed without it just 3-4 years ago and it's not like Americans need another ridiculously unhealthy eating option provided with even greater convenience.

Pizza, Chinese food etc. delivery has existed forever, and the model for drivers was always the same - get paid nothing and rely on customers tipping you. Now there are billion dollar brands and fancy apps, but on the whole nothing has changed.

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#87

Post by Can_Not »

jlarocco wrote: post #68
Can_Not wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bike commute for me would be a minimum of 2 hours (twice a day) and I'm almost at the years of experience the vast majority of remote jobs start at (which isn't a small number like 2), so you could say I "have to".

Well, apparently there's something more important to you than moving closer to work. That's your choice.

> apparently there's something more important to you

Yup, it's called living in the real world.

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#89

Post by JumpCrisscross »

loceng wrote: post #88

I think legislation is needed for 100% of "gig economy" platforms to in real-time state to the customer exactly how much the service provider is getting paid: how much if my Lyft driver getting - and what cut is Lyft taking, etc.

> in real-time state to the customer exactly how much the service provider is getting paid: how much if my Lyft driver getting - and what cut is Lyft taking, etc.

What’s the benefit of real-time reporting? Just require disclosure on the receipt.

Re: What DoorDash pays, after expenses, and what’s happening with tips

#90

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

BurningFrog wrote: post #75
marcell wrote: post #30

> “These orders don’t pay for our expenses or our time. We actually lose money when we take those orders. If I pick up an order that is 10 miles away and deliver it 6 miles I’m traveling 16 miles for a $3 order — so I have lost money. I’m in the negative when I account for gas, wear and tear, and other expenses. Not to mention my time.” This begs an obvious question: why are people choosing to do this if it pays $0/h…

> This begs an obvious question: why are people choosing to do this if it pays $0/hr? The obvious answer is that it actually pays more.

I am curious about how they selected workers to sample. If the advertisement was, "Pissed about your DoorDash wages? Share them with us!" or anything similar, I'm not sure what conclusions can be drawn from the analysis.
Post reply on HN