This entire tipping thing is terrible - including for dashers themselves.
It means dashers income heavily relies on strangers being kind enough to leave some extra.
It means customers are gonna feel bad for not paying more than their order amount (and they probably will pay the tip)
It means company can employ slave labor for extremely low pay and still have people willing to do this.
Tipping benefits only one party - the companies. We need to stop it.
I stopped ordering from these apps because I got tired of watching the driver take my food on a tour of my city and having it arrive cold and wrong.
The last time I went to pick up my food from a restaurant I saw a dasher standing outside a restaurant staring at his phone with food in his hand, I went inside and while I was waiting the dude came back in, dropped the food and asked for another order because the one he took wasn't tipping.
Fuck this system and fuck these apps, pick up your own food (if you can).
What I do:
$0 tip
In the special instructions: "Ring doorbell for cash tip. Do not just leave at door".
Traffic in my area is awful so I always tip $20 no matter the order. Sometimes that comes to almost an 80% tip but a) I know it goes to the driver, b) I don't have to drive in that shitshow, and c) I reward a driver for actually reading the special instructions.
I used DoorDash today and the add tip screen said that 100% of the tip goes to the driver. I know they got a lot of bad PR for stealing part of the tips some time ago and had to make public statements about improving their policies. Are we saying that even after all that, they’re just outright completely lying?
They get 100% of the tip, it's a legal requirement. The scummy part is the company does this to give you the opportunity NOT to tip, and therefore subsidize the food for shitty people.
Just in case, the few times I have ordered food, I put a dollar or two tip in the app, and add a note saying I'll give them a cash tip. Usually I'll give them a 2-4 Dollars more depending. If you're using these services you need to tip, that's how they make their livelyhood and feed their families.
It's a scummy business, and you should definitely try to avoid using it unless it's your only option for some reason. Your order will probably be at least $30, but do you know how much spaghetti you can make with $30??
Solution is stop using delivery services.
All the bullshit with tipping on food delivery apps made me stop using them years ago.
First I hear the apps are stealing tips. Then they're not stealing tips anymore. Then maybe they're stealing some of the tips.
To try and avoid all that I tried to use cash. The drivers don't get their base rate reduced and they get the entire, non-reportable cash tip. Then my food started taking twice as long and arriving cold because the drivers thought I was stiffing them.
My theory is the apps do this (pre-tipping) on purpose to discourage cash and after-tipping so they can lower what they pay the driver and they'll still accept the order because they see the higher after tip amount. So now the apps might not be technically stealing tips, but they're using up front tips to allow them to reduce their shitty base rate for everyone.
Now if want delivery it's pizza, Chinese, or one of the few other places with their own drivers. I've had this policy for years now and I don't see myself ever going back unless it's an emergency.
Bonus to me: all my takeout/delivery is now 20-30% cheaper. Everyone should really take a look at the inflated prices they're paying and decide if it's really worth saving a short drive.
For tipping countries like the US, the driver would only get a "has a tip" notification on the order (if they get any information like that at all!) so they can decide. There is no way the driver can see that there is a $40 order with a $4 tip, or a $40 order with a $16 dollar tip. Orders would be ignored all the time, and the service would fail.
Oh, and if they did get a "has tip" flag for the order, then customers could just game it, by selecting "add tip" and setting it to $0 or $0.10 or something so their order gets that "has tip" flag!!
Here is AU, there is no tipping, so the drivers get paid like normal people. None of this work for tip bullshit that seems to have survived this long in the US, its incredible that it has gotten this far. Now the US get asked for tips using self-service machines, that is the height of lunacy!
People on all these astro-turfed anti-tipping posts always have the same AI generated talking points. Rarely ever do these people actually talk about STOPPING using the apps and STOPPING going to restaurants. Stop making "tip culture" the fault of the worker. It is 100% on the business owner for not paying their staff appropriately for the work performed. Not tipping rewards the business and punishes the worker.
That's just the opposite of how tipping is supposed to work. If I'm happy with the service, I'll tip (and I'm far, far from the US - in a place where you don't get frowned upon if you don't tip) - and by "happy" I don't even mean something extraordinary - but I can't know if I will be happy in advance. Moreover I'd prefer tipping in cash as opposed to through an app - this way I know the money can go directly in the worker's pocket, not in the company's.
The tip does go to the driver
Tips are completely optional, but it would be a shame if something happened to your order. Would you like to tip so we can, uh... protect you from such unfortunate circumstances?
I know another industry that asks to pre tip before services rendered. Asian Spas... In both cases, you can get fucked.
I'm a dasher. Yes, drivers do get tips, and our livelihoods depend on people tipping. Yes, you should tip, yes, you're just being cheap if you don't. Yes, it is bullshit that doordash doesn't pay us more, yes, tipping culture is bullshit. But you still eat out at your favorite greasy spoon knowing full well the staff depends on tips to pay their rent so you tip them.
If you don't want to tip, get off your ass and get the food yourself. We're dying out there and don't need a hundred 15-mile-0-tip deliveries declined a day dragging down our acceptance rates. Just treat us like fucking humans, ffs. Please. Tip. Your. Drivers.
"Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered"
That's not a tip, that's a bribe.
As someone who both drives for doordash and uses doordash to order. At least in my state. You cannot opt to not tip. Its not an option. Theres a mandatory tip of 4.00$ per order regardless of what you order, how far the location is from delivery etc.
They need a "cash tip at the door" option
This is much "America" for my european brain
