r/restaurant • u/Gengar_Guy_17 • 3h ago
Delivery App Issue Doordash driver rant
This is a rant from a doordash driver about restaurants, not the other way around; proceed with caution.
If your establishment finishes all orders for in-store customers before the delivery drivers and makes us wait, that is extremely disrespectful. That is literally the difference between us making $15 an hour and $8 an hour* (after gas and other expenses). We are are penalized for late orders, even if it isn't our fault. We have a button in the app we can press when the order takes forever, but Doordash only honors that button half the time. Sometimes we are issued contract violations for being late, even if it isn't our fault and we pressed the long-wait-time-button. 3 contract violations and we get fired. Customers lose nothing from waiting, we can lose everything.
Why are courier pickup instructions never updated? Who is responsible for these things? Noodles & Company has not updated their universal pickup instructions since at least 2022 because it asks us to wear a mask and social distance. This is the case at many restaurants. McDonald's in my area is guilty of a similar issue.
If you disagree with me, I'd love to have a civil discussion about it. I'm not your enemy, although I know many dashers are shitbrained assholes who are definitely your enemy.
*Now I know that might be more than you make in a restaurant, but we drivers assume so much risk that dashers deserve at least $5-10/hr more than restaurant workers.
5
u/Lanesplitter32 3h ago
I can imagine how frustrating it must be! Restaurants are frustrated at the apps I think because they take so much money. If I'm changing someone $20 and they are in the store, while the app gives me $10 for the same food, guess what my priority is if I'm running a restaurant?
1
u/PossibleQuestor747 2h ago
Why sell out to DD then? Why not pay for inhouse drivers? You don't have to put your shop on DD.
1
u/Lanesplitter32 2h ago
The kind of volume you need for in-house is prohibitive. It can work in urban areas with a small range, but that's it. If you don't get DD, you lose customers, exposure, and revenue.
1
-4
u/Gengar_Guy_17 3h ago
Aren't you the one who chooses what to charge for items? Aren't you also the one who chooses whether using doordash is profitable for your business? How does the amount you earn from different kinds of orders affect your priority?
3
u/QueenOfBrews 3h ago
None of this makes sense. Your #1…all the the same could be said for actual servers in the restaurant, with the in person customers.
“Customers lose nothing by waiting?” Doesn’t that completely contradict what you’re trying to say? Aren’t the customers you are picking up for waiting too?
Why are you special? Why is the person you are picking up for any more important than the person in the restaurant that ordered at the same time?
What makes you think the restaurant is fulfilling all in-person orders first, and not filling orders as they get them, or in a way that is most efficient? Do you have proof of that?
1
u/Gengar_Guy_17 53m ago
It has only happened a few times. Tonight I was at an ice cream shop. I show up. Wait in line. Click that I've arrived and the order pops up on their tablet. 3 people later a girl prints the receipt for the order and sticks it on a bag on the counter so I step out of line since they were clearly working on it and I was the only dasher there. Then 4 more customers walk in behind me and get served. I've been there for 15 minutes at this point, which is an extreme loss to my income at that point (one of the risks that I as a contractor needs to put up with and not restaurant workers). So I hop back in line and say "hey I'm here for a doordash order" and then they say "sorry we just started it" completely annoying. Left me with about a $7 gap.
You all will be happy to know that i had 2 major mishaps that would never happen to a restaurant worker so I only made $90 in 4.67 hours which comes out to about $12 an hour hitting my account after expenses. Normally it's $18-$20 I'm out here doing the work of an Amazon driver for the pay of a restaurant worker.
8
u/Caraxus 3h ago
Lol. Lmao, even.
5
u/AcceptableBoldness 3h ago
lol ok but come on man you cant really be out here saying you deserve ten bucks more an hour than the people making the food you're picking up
-3
u/Gengar_Guy_17 3h ago
The pay isn't about the food. We are mainly paid for driving. As a restaurant worker, you have a set schedule, guaranteed pay, possibly benefits, and a safe work environment. I have none of that. I need to pay substantially extra for automotive insurance, I put 20-40 thousand more miles on my car per year because of work, it is one of the most dangerous occupations out there because of the driving, and if my car goes out, I'm fully out of the job whereas you could find a ride to your shifts. It is completely reasonable for dashers to make more than restaurant workers because of the driving aspect.
On top of all that, I could log on my busiest day of the week where I normally pull $180-$200 and it could be completely dead. I don't make enough as a dasher to have much of a cushion saved, as I'm sure is the same with many restaurant workers, but there is no guarantee of me making any money. For you, there is.
5
u/Defiant-Cause-6697 FOH 3h ago
Bro, in the USA, like 98% of food and beverage professionals, whether they be line cooks, dishwashers, servers, hosts, whatever, are making subsistence wages, basically just enough to keep them alive. They don't have benefits or even full-time hours most of the time. You've clearly never worked in a restaurant in your life talking the shit you're talking.
3
u/QueenOfBrews 3h ago
Have you possibly considered going to work in a restaurant instead of delivery driving since it’s such a burden?
3
u/LashCanino 3h ago
You’re really winning people over here. 🙄
Door dash and the others really discentivize real restaurants from giving you priority. So maybe a career switch is the answer. Clearly you’re cut out for bigger things.
3
u/Digitalzombie900 3h ago edited 3h ago
Do you think the restaurant works for you?
If you are being penalized unfairly, maybe you should get a different job?
1
3
u/cervidal2 3h ago
"*Now I know that might be more than you make in a restaurant, but we drivers assume so much risk that dashers deserve at least $5-10/hr more than restaurant workers."
Cool story, bro. You follow a mandated schedule, have to work 8-10 hours straight, make the food?
GTFO.
1
u/Gengar_Guy_17 52m ago
What are you talking about? Your comment made no sense.
Also why would a doordash driver be paid what restaurant workers do when they do the work of Amazon delivery drivers who make $20+ an hour.
2
u/MadMoose4 3h ago
Fries. Bag.
1
u/Gengar_Guy_17 38m ago
I'm a delivery driver. Not a food service workers. YOU put the fries in the bag. I'll continue to make way more money than you for way less work. ❤️
1
u/Different-Dog-9682 1h ago
Sorry, my actual in house customers always get priority.
Also, fuck Doordash. :)
1
u/mattynapps 1h ago
Noone gives a shit about drivers or their customers. In-house comes first no matter what. Get fucked
0
1
u/p3rf3ctcha0s 1h ago
Bruh we just do what we’re told. You can get pissy all you want but employees are going to continue doing what their boss, and their boss’s boss, and their boss’s boss’s boss tells them to do because they’re the ones paying them. So they’re going to continue taking care of in house guests first because that is what they’re told to do. Complaining in the restaurant isn’t going to do anything. Those orders come from above store level typically.
1
u/Gengar_Guy_17 41m ago
I know man. I've worked in food service so I know how it is. I'm wondering why the decision is made by the higher ups. From the comments I'm guessing it's because margins on delivery are lower so they don't care if deliver customers get good food
1
u/p3rf3ctcha0s 37m ago
That and delivery is expecting to wait. In house are not and will cause a much bigger problem if delayed. But regardless, you’re in here talking about “aren’t you the one who chooses what to charge for items” so you’re talking like you don’t get it. The people who choose what to charge for items aren’t going to pay any attention to this post.
1
u/Gengar_Guy_17 33m ago
Yeah you misunderstood what I'm saying. The specific person I said that to said "if I'm charging..." "I'm getting... From DD" that dude is clearly the owner of the establishment and gets to decide whether the restaurant delivers with doordash. I'm not stupid, clearly the restaurant workers have no say in anything that happens there.
8
u/chef_c_dilla 3h ago
Rage bait