Do you hang out at a Doordash hotspot?

When a person first begins dashing, and everything is new to them, they learn about the hotspots on their Doordash app. Actually, they most likely learned about the hotspots during their Doordash orientation. Every region has a hotspot, and most have more than one. As a new dasher, common sense will tell you that this is where you need to park yourself to increase your chance of receiving an order.

 

This is what a Doordash Hotspot looks like. The little flame of fire supposed to be were you will receive the most orders

 

How does Doordash determine where a hotspot will be?

They will choose where the hotspots are based on where a lot of restaurants are. A hotspot will usually be around shopping malls and shopping centers. When a dasher parks himself in a hotspot, he will be close to many restaurants, and this will naturally increase his chance of receiving orders. Most regions will  have at least a couple of hotspots, and each one will be a good distance away from each other. For example, one hotspot will be located around the west side of the region while the other hotspot will be located on the east side of the region. Basically, where most of the restaurants are is where the hotspots will be.

 

Is it worth sitting at a Doordash hotspot?

It can be beneficial to wait for an order at a hot spot. After all, you will be in close proximity to the restaurants. If what Doordash says is true about the closest dasher to the restaurant getting the ping for an order, then hanging out at a hotspot will do you good. We have all been told that the closest dasher always gets the ping for an order. I think generally this is true, but not always. It has been proven to myself that the closest dasher does not always get the call, but I will write about that in another post.

 

If you are a dasher that lives close to a hotspot, you may have an advantage over other dashers. You might be able to hang out at your house while waiting for a call. Personally, I live right in the middle of my regions two hot spots. If it is a really slow day, and I am sitting at a hotspot for an hour without a call, I will not wait any longer and waste my time. Instead, I will just go home and hope I get a call. I will always eventually get a ping from my house and start dashing again.

Do dashers really get more orders when they are at a hotspot?

I think every dasher will have their own opinion on this, but I have to say that it does not seem like there is any difference to me whether I am posted at a hotspot or not. All I know is that once Doordash gets you going, orders come in one after another. For example, I get a call, pick up from the merchant and drop off the food to the customer. As soon as I get back in my car and slide that the order was delivered. Within a few seconds, I get a new ping for a new order. When I deliver that order and slide, another new order will immediately pop up. Doordash will have me on their good list, and I will get call after call. Keep in mind that I am getting the pings from the residential streets or commercial businesses where I am making deliveries. I do not have to drive back to a hotspot to get a new order. 

Making your own hotspot

If I am not near a hotspot, I will not go out of way to get there. Instead, I will park at a near-by shopping center that has a good amount of restaurants that I normally pick up from for Doordash. To me, the amount of calls that I get from these locations are the same as if I park at a hotspot. On a slow day, I will sometimes park myself at a hotspot only because it is close to me.

 

Sometimes, I will park near a local Jack-In-The-Box (which is not near the hot spot.) Most of the time, I will get a ping for that Jack-In-The-Box within 20 minutes. If you have a favorite restaurant that you like delivering for, you might want to consider posting up there instead of the hotspot where other dashers may be parked. If it is a very popular Doordash restaurant that  normally gets a lot of calls, you just might end up doing half of your total dashes for this restaurant.

My hotspot story when I first started dashing

When I first started dashing, I remember going to a near-by region to work. I tried to dash for my home region, but I could not get on. I ended up using the dash-now option to get a 9p.m. to 10p.m. shift. I took my daughter with me, and we drove about eight miles away to the hotspot of this near-by region. The hotspot was at a large shopping center with a near-by mall. I tried to get as close as I could to the hotspot symbol that is displayed on the Doordash app. I was not satisfied until I was right on top of it. Once I was satisfied, I noticed that the shopping center seemed dead. The only people around were workers from a closed restaurant that were taking out the trash. So there me and my daughter sat waiting for an order to come in. Eventually, the whole hour had went by, and I did not receive one call. I drove back home thinking what a waste of gas money this was!

 

 

My cousins Doordash story when he first started dashing

I have a cousin that I would eventually bring in to the world of dashing. As I write this post, he has probably been dashing for a couple of months, but recently he told me a story about his first experience with the hotspot. I am not sure what region he was working, and it does not really matter, but he went out dashing, and like me, he also tried to get as close as possible to that hotspot symbol that is displayed on the Doordash app.





He did take it a bit further than I did though. To make his way to the hotspot symbol, he left his vehicle and went into a Ross department store. While in there, with his phone in hand and following the hotspot symbol, he eventually ended up in the men's shoe department. So there he is standing there in the men's shoe department staring at his phone while he waits for a ping. Meanwhile, the security guard is looking at him like he is crazy. This story gave me a good laugh when I first heard it, but when you are a new dasher, sometimes you just have to learn.

My conclusion:

Do I hang out at Doordash hotspots? Yes, I do. Do I think that a dasher will get more dashes if they are at a hotspot? No, I do not. There is nothing wrong with hanging out at a hotspot, but it is not necessary to get calls. When I am hanging out at a hotspot it is because it is near me. How about you? Do you hang out at a Doordash hotspot?