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

241–250 of 572 posts

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

#241

Post by eru »

mjevans wrote: post #173
dmode wrote: post #160

Why can’t we have normal businesses where you employ your workers and charge your customers the real cost of the transaction ? If that is not viable, don’t start the business to begin with. Let’s just go back to first principles, can we ?

Can we please do that for all jobs? I want the workers at places I get food and such from to actually just have good base pay. Tips should be about rewarding going BEYOND the normal... not as a basis of someone's wage.

> Tips should be about rewarding going BEYOND the normal... not as a basis of someone's wage.

For game theoretic reasons / general equilibrium, you can't restrict tips like that. Even if you try.

Your shop can ban tips, though.

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

#242

Post by Reedx »

ravenstine wrote: post #150
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…

Not all orders are like that, but a lot can be, and it depends on the region. I worked GrubHub back in 2018 when I was between jobs(took some time off to do side projects and did deliveries to make ends meet). These apps play this psychological game on you where you have to accept something like 95% of orders in order to get more quantity and quality(supposedly), so some people are desperate to take all the shitty no…

> the shitty no-tip orders just so they have a shot at getting better ones.

Wait a second... Are people not giving a cash tip in these cases? I do no-tip and give cash instead (which I thought was preferred). Is that a bad strategy?

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

#243

Post by shanemlk »

dmode wrote: post #160

Why can’t we have normal businesses where you employ your workers and charge your customers the real cost of the transaction ? If that is not viable, don’t start the business to begin with. Let’s just go back to first principles, can we ?

https://feedflight.com/

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

#244

Post by blondin »

xapata wrote: post #134
axaxs wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It was until my $1k car repair.

wow, how did you manage to get a $1k car repair? hope you sold the car!

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

#245

Post by kohtatsu »

lwansbrough wrote: post #202
CaptainZapp wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahh, what you lose on every transaction you make up in volume. Got it!

Except what every startup in Silicon Valley doesn’t seem to realize is there’s a revolving door of VC funded “businesses” that fail because they can’t make a profit after 10 years. And if they try to make a profit (for example by raising prices) users move on to the new cheap option.

I don't think it's the startups that don't realize, rather the stock market that slurps up the IPOs and fuel it.

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

#246

Post by shanemlk »

tempsy wrote: post #162
dmode wrote: post #160

Why can’t we have normal businesses where you employ your workers and charge your customers the real cost of the transaction ? If that is not viable, don’t start the business to begin with. Let’s just go back to first principles, can we ?

That’s what Grubhub does

For 30% extra charged to the struggling small restaurant.

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

#247

Post by Reedx »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #211
Sevrene wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just a natural outcome of the way venture capital funding works at the moment. When you care more about speculation than what's actually fundamentally occuring, you're going to get businesses funded that are not even able to survive on those basic fundamentals. If it weren't backed by large capital, it couldn't exist. This isn't always a bad thing, but on a whole, it does distort the market. At some point you…

I thought the plan was Dumping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy) Step 1) Use VC money to subsidize the price so that the market price is below cost Step 2) Continue to use VC money to subsidize while competitors, who don't have the same cash, lose customers and eventually contract or die off Step 3) Once you are the only real player, use your dominant position to raise prices

Here's another version:

1) Invest in startups and show/push fast growth

2) Leverage FOMO to get more investors

3) Collect management fees

Once in a while get lucky with a unicorn. Bonus.

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

#248

Post by deft »

cc439 wrote: post #71
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…

"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…

They market to drivers in the same way with the same language as MLMs.

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

#249

Post by mschuster91 »

PanosJee wrote: post #236
sombremesa wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because these companies are still finding enough labor after lowering what they pay out drastically. It's the market in action. You're right that as a society we have a duty to step in with policy here, as we do with minimum wage, but this isn't a violation of "first principles".

That's when I thought the economy was doing really great and unemployment was all time low. But wait people want to work for below minimum wage? Something is broken

Well that happens when there is no meaningful social security system... when the options are working for a dollar an hour or not having anything to eat, people are forced to work such "jobs".

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

#250

Post by hocuspocus »

jopsen wrote: post #228
sschueller wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can, stop using and supporting these predatory companies. Never use Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Uber Eats, AirBnB etc. No exception irregardless how easy or cheap it may be. It's a small sacrifice but can and will make a difference. Using these services to me is like asking a waiter to pay for part of my meal. When it comes around to paying the bill are you able to face someone and ask them to pay for part of what they…

Taxis, restaurants, relocation assistants, fast food, online shopping, ... If you live in the US, you have to give up a lot of services if you don't want to buy from people who are underpaid..

> relocation assistants

Does this mean something completely different in the US compared to the rest of the world? How is anyone in this business being underpaid?!

Post reply on HN