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

payup.wtf

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

#91
post #28

Can't say I'm surprised -- having people in food delivery (read: waitstaff) work for virtually nothing and hoping to make it up in tips is entirely consistent with the American restaurant experience. Although at least restaurants are theoretically supposed to guarantee minimum wage, and don't exploit the car maintenance and depreciation of their workers.

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…

Yes but they quickly run the risk of ruining the in-person customer’s experience. In NYC the use of ghost kitchens[1] is booming. There are 2 within a block of my office - one is a multi-tenant space that serves several restaurants and the other is a pickup-only storefront for a salad chain. These outposts increase capacity but also require way less staff to manage and fewer skills to train.

It makes sense but it’s also sad to see that the best use of valuable retail-level real estate is restaurants designed for no one to go to.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_kitchen

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

#92
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.

That's basically real-time.

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

#93
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…

These jobs basically allow you to take a line of credit out against depreciation on your vehicle. Sure you lost money, but you get cash today.

Same with pizza delivery since forever.

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

#94
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…

These jobs basically allow you to take a line of credit out against depreciation on your vehicle. Sure you lost money, but you get cash today.

What does that even mean?

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

#96
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These jobs basically allow you to take a line of credit out against depreciation on your vehicle. Sure you lost money, but you get cash today.

What does that even mean?

Really simplistic view: Before the hour of work I had $10003 of vehicle, $0 in my pocket, and an hour of time. After the hour of work I had $10000 of vehicle, and $3 in my pocket.

With the assumption that you are going to eventually pay that $3 back into your vehicle, by paying for repairs or buying a new one, you basically just "borrowed" money from your vehicle.

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

#97
post #71
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…

"However, if a worker rejects too many jobs too frequently, they may receive fewer job offers as a result." They take those jobs because they lose all access to the chance of profitable jobs otherwise. The people working for door dash aren't exactly the sort of person with the ability to fully understand probabilities and statistics either. I'd say it's fair to assume their business model works by bullying the same p…

I would also add that people take the jobs because of initial sign-up bonuses (although those have greatly diminished over the years) and because the sales pitch is often compelling. It isn’t until the person signs up that they realize it’s harder to get jobs and that the average pay isn’t worth the hassle. At that point, people quit. It’s why turnover is so high for the food delivery apps (I’m excluding Seamless/Grubhub, who I believe offer a different model. Or at least it did — Seamless used to rely on a restaurants own delivery staff). Turnover is still high for car services, but there are stricter requirements to get approved there and in a busy area, the average pay is going to be better than for DoorDash or Postmates or whatever.

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

#98

This is why when I do order from Doordash, I only tip in cash and make sure to write it in the comments. Still the best online delivery by me even if they are a shit company. Hate Grubhub more.

I do also. As I hand them the cash I say very deliberately, "Thank you. This is for you, not them". I've been doing it for ubers lately as well.

Nice line, I'll borrow it. Also tip in cash, exclusively and well.

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

#99
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These jobs basically allow you to take a line of credit out against depreciation on your vehicle. Sure you lost money, but you get cash today.

Same with pizza delivery since forever.

I'd say pizza delivery is far more lucrative. At least, it was when I was a teen.

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

#100
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.

Not necessarily. I think it’s a combination of easy money and lack of understanding of net income.
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