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

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

#391

Post by huehehue »

TheHypnotist wrote: post #358
Reedx wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

If i read the article correctly, that may be the optimal strategy. Trouble is, if these drivers see what they are making up front, they may be more inclined to turn you down.

There is (or was) a movement on Instacart where you'd tip $0.22 to show that you intended to either tip cash or increase the tip amount after delivery (which somehow benefits the shopper).

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

#392

Post by ghaff »

BelleOfTheBall wrote: post #347
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…

Out of curiosity, are there any more ethical alternatives to AirBnB? My partner travels a lot for work and doesn't like staying in hotels. He's fine with staying in rooms vs. whole apartments (which seems to be the biggest strike on AirBnB's model) but it's pretty tough to dig up credible renters for each place he visits. Is there a Craigslist-like option or are hotels the best bet if we decide to drop AirBnB?

There are traditional B&Bs--though much less so in cities and many presumably cross-list on AirBnB these days. Honestly, for regular business travel, chain hotels may be boring but they have 24 hour desks and a certain level of standards (which varies by chain). When I'm travelling for business, the last thing I need is lack of predictability.

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

#393

Post by arcticfox »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #370

According to the article, the standard delivery fee is 5.99 and there's a 10% service charge. Surely the purchaser thinks "I'm paying 5.99 to the driver and 10% to DoorDash". It feels like theft. The company is telling the customer one thing, the driver another thing, and stealing the difference.

That's plausible, although as a relatively naive user, I always thought the 5.99 + 10% was just how they decided to calculate the price to scale with the cost of the order. I never thought that the 5.99 was all for the driver. I might be in the minority though, it would be interesting to see how masses of people generally read that language.

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

#394

Post by thomk »

Yeah, fck DoorDash.

DoorDash is the worst of all of these types of gig services. They are expensive, late, forget to grab items from the restaurant and they are not careful with food.

After a few times using them (and getting a different delivery person every time) a chilling thought occurred to me. There is nothing preventing a driver from either eating part of your food or tampering with it. Think about that. A total stranger is completely alone* with your food with zero oversight.

Once I was at a Starbucks when I saw the strangest thing. Some dude rushes in with a carryout bag and sat at the nearest table. He opened the bag, opened one (of many) styrofoam containers and hurriedly ate only part of one meal. Then he packaged it all back up and drove away without buying anything from Starbucks.

At least in a restaurant you are dealing with employees and people are everywhere. DoorDashers work for a massive faceless corporation who has been shitty about pay and tips.

Why wouldn't they grab a bite or two?

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

#395

Post by swiley »

boh wrote: post #341

It's becoming abundantly clear the real innovation from on-demand services (including ride-sharing companies), is their ability to transfer more money from labor to capital with complex pay structures. For many if not most of these companies, its their only means towards profitability. For instance, any rise in revenue Uber experienced in the last 3 years was exclusively due to cuts in pay for drivers. Tech has long…

I expected to see something like this here.

I had a period where I wasn't doing any class work but didn't have my degree and couldn't get a job because of that. The ability to trade time and tires for some of the extra VC money was kind of awesome honestly and I'd imagine it gives people who are in worse situations options they really need (essentially borrowing against car components.)

I know in a few years it will change when they try to become profitable but there will be another thing by then.

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

#396

Post by Spivak »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #370

According to the article, the standard delivery fee is 5.99 and there's a 10% service charge. Surely the purchaser thinks "I'm paying 5.99 to the driver and 10% to DoorDash". It feels like theft. The company is telling the customer one thing, the driver another thing, and stealing the difference.

I have never assumed that the "delivery" and "service" fees went straight to the driver. The "delivery fee" is the premium I pay to get my food delivered and the "service fee" is the premium I pay for using X service to place the order. Trying to assume anything about where each dollar goes once you pay is a little silly. Those line items are prices for services.

I mean when you order Papa John's for example they tell you explicitly that the delivery fee isn't a tip for the driver. In some vague but not terribly meaningful way your delivery fee does pay for the driver's wage but so does the every other form of revenue.

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

#397

Post by macspoofing »

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 ?

>Why can’t we have normal businesses where you employ your workers and charge your customers the real cost of the transaction ?

You have those. What's wrong with trying alternatives? There are good reasons to contract out services. If you're building widgets maybe it doesn't make sense for you to also employee cleaning crews or maintain your own transportation infrastructure - why not contract out these non-core services?

On a side note, the kind of question you raised typically can be reduced to "I don't understand why anyone would do something different, therefore they shouldn't do something different" ... it's in the same spirit as a UFO consipracy theorist who may say "This light in the sky isn't Venus, isn't a satellite or a plane and isn't anything else I'm familiar with, therefore it must be aliens". You have to be careful with setting constraints on innovation because YOU can't envision why it makes sense.

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

#398

Post by doctorOb »

uptown wrote: post #374

Almost none of these DoorDash / Uber / Lyft drivers are doing the math with consideration of the wear-and-tear on their vehicles, nor the increased likelihood of accidents given they're out on the road more than they otherwise would have been. These are net negative "jobs".

A job in the hand is worth two in the bush. The friends I've had who drove for DoorDash and/or Lyft were in between proper jobs (e.g CVS and reception at a hospital or something), and that in between period was lasting longer than they had the savings for.

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

#399

Post by Lavery »

scarface74 wrote: post #389
boh wrote: post #341

It's becoming abundantly clear the real innovation from on-demand services (including ride-sharing companies), is their ability to transfer more money from labor to capital with complex pay structures. For many if not most of these companies, its their only means towards profitability. For instance, any rise in revenue Uber experienced in the last 3 years was exclusively due to cuts in pay for drivers. Tech has long…

How could cutting drivers pay without cutting prices to increase demand raise revenue ? It would raise profit possibly or in Uber’s case reduce losses.

The cost to Uber users is not the same as revenue to Uber corporate. Uber corporate revenue is net of driver pay.

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

#400

Post by everdrive »

asah wrote: post #361
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…

We can, but.. - incumbent taxis are also predatory services that abuse drivers, arguably worse than Uber/Lyft - and they're a shitty rider experience in many many ways. - hotels are OK but rarely provide kitchens, let alone friendly hosts who bake you killer banana bread (yesterday's stay) - delivery from individual restaurants is rarely available at all, and thus you're going to call a Postmates/etc to help pickup.…

None of these things are real problems. Not every lazy whim must be catered to by a company.
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