Tipping Again
Here is a follow-up on my Tipping post from May 2023. If you haven’t seen this video of a Doordash driver complaining about a $5 tip then you need to see this. But first, I want to preface that her order was $22 and she tipped him $5 which is 22%, and well over what she should have tipped the driver.
This caused me to search YouTube for similar videos and I was not disappointed.
It also seems to be a trend that Doordash drivers are stealing your food if you are not tipping very well.
Then you flip the script and have asshats who are reporting that their actual received order that they took possession of, and they are reporting it as stolen or not received. This means that the driver will likely have to pay for your food. So don’t be one of those asshole and play that fucked up game.
So for those that are not in the know about how a service like Doordash works. The drivers make a very small stipend for each delivery. This depends on the distance and the cost of the overall meal. This is usually somewhere between $2-10 a delivery, usually on the smaller end. So you order a $50 meal that is at 6 pm on a Friday and you leave 15 miles away. The driver goes from where ever they are and picks up the order and delivers it to you. They are paying for their own time and gas to deliver your meal. They make say $3 on that meal from Doordash, which barely covers their gas money for that trip in traffic, plus the wear and tear on their car, because Doordash doesn’t pay for gas and service to your personal car. So if you tip the driver say 15% that is $7 that you are paying the driver to deliver your food to you. If you were eating at the restaurant, you would be tipping the waiter or waitress $7 for serving your meal, refilling your drinks, and all that normal stuff, so it works out.
I know people that don’t tip at a restaurant, as they don’t understand that most wait staff work for tips and only make around $3 an hour because they work for tips. So don’t be that asshole either.
Now if you are doing the Instacart thing, you need to understand that the delivery person is not only going to the store and delivering your items to you, but they also go into the store and push the cart and get every item for you, bag it and deliver it to you. So you are not only paying for their gas but their time to do the shopping for you. So do not be an asshole for tipping nothing.
As an example, here is a video from Pedro DoorDash Santiago, who makes a living doing Doordash and Instacart. In the below video, he steps you through the entire process to make a tip ($8.75) plus his InstaCart earnings. the entire process took him over an hour of his time, it was snowing out as well.
The best advice I can give you is if you want your food to be fresh, hot, and quick, then tip the driver. If you are a driver and you don’t like the 22% tip, then do not accept the job, it is that simple.Â
