Does the Closest Dasher Always get the Call?

When I attended the Doordash orientation, they explained the basics about how Doordash works. One of the things that they mentioned was that when an order came in for a particular restaurant, the dasher that was closest to that restaurant would get the ping for that order. In my experience, this generally seems true, but it has been proven to me that this is not always the case.

A dasher shouldn't have to fight to get this close to a restaurant to get a call!

Is it true that the closest dasher gets the call?

I do believe that generally Doordash give an assignment to the closest dasher. I used the word "Generally" because I know it is not always true. I will talk more about that later, but there have been many times when I was sitting in my car parked right in front of a restaurant and received the ping for that restaurant. It's always great when this happens as you are already there. If you have been dashing for a while, this has most likely happened to you.

 

 

 

By this happening more than a few times, it always had me believing that the closest dasher always received the call. There have been times though when I was at one side of town and received a call for a restaurant located at the other side of town. This has happened in the day time when it was extremely busy. When this happens, my first thought is damn, are you serious, there is not another dasher that is closer. Then I think that apparently there is not because if there was I would not be receiving the call.

Why would the closest dasher get the call?

It makes sense for Doordash to give an assignment to the closest dasher. Why? Well, so they can get the customer's order delivered quicker. Fast service is a very important aspect in the food delivery business, and Doordash wants their drivers to complete orders as soon as possible. There is nothing worse than an order being delivered late to a customer. By giving the assignment to the closest dasher, Doordash is doing themselves a favor by increasing the odds of an on-time delivery. This is also good for the driver as he does not have to travel very far to the restaurant. This is basically a triple-win that will satisfy the customer, the driver and Doordash.

How it was proven to me that the closest dasher does not always get the call

When I am dashing, there are certain days when I have my wife and two other comrades out dashing at the same time. We will sometimes keep in touch with each other throughout the day and even have a group chat that we use for Doordash. One particular day, I was getting call after call. As soon as I dropped off one order, I would immediately receive a ping for my next order. This was continuous throughout the whole day.

 

As my day went on, there was a particular delivery that sent me way out of my region. I ended up about five miles out of my region. Meanwhile, my wife had not had a call for hours and was posted up in front of a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant which is in our region. As soon as I delivered that order and slid that the order was completed, I received an order for you guessed it, Buffalo Wild Wings. I got the call while I was seven miles away. My wife was sitting right in front of the restaurant and did not receive the call. This is only one incident to prove my point. There have been other similar instances that I can mention, and with many of those calls I was the one singled out, but this one stands out the most as I was so far away.

I received a dash when I was 30 miles away from the restaurant

There was one night when I had a full days shift. I was on until midnight. Around 9p.m., I had a situation that required me to give my mom a ride from my house to her house which is about 30 miles away. I should mention that the region that I dash in is located where my home is. I did not want to end my dash, but I had to get her home. I decided that I was going to drive her home, and hopefully I would not receive any calls.

 

I started driving my mom home and was hoping that I would not get a call for the next hour. This would allow me enough time to get back home to my region and continue dashing. As I got on the freeway, I figured that the further I got away from my region, the less the chances would be of me hearing a ping. During the half-hour drive to her house, I did not receive a call. This was a good thing.

When I began driving back home to my region, I received a ping on my phone. It was a Taco Bell order. I hadn't even drove onto the freeway ramp yet, and here I was 30 miles away, yet I received this call. I couldn't believe it! All I could think of is how it is possible that there is no closer dasher. I accepted the call of course. Why wouldn't I? Sure, it was 30 miles away, but I was driving home anyways.

 

It has been proven that the closest dasher does not always receive the call, but generally the closest dasher will. When the closest dasher does not receive the call, I really have no explanation as to why. I have read in a few places that a driver's rating sometimes influence this, but I don't think that it is true because trust me when I say that I do not have ratings that anybody would wish for. I have also heard that there are times when a first time Doordash customer orders food, and Doordash wants a particular well-proven dasher to make the delivery. Again, my ratings are not the best, and this explanation would not make any sense. I believe that Doordash has the system set up for an order to go to the closest dasher, and I also believe that when the closest dasher does not receive an order it is a glitch in the system. God knows that every dasher has at one time or another had to deal with a glitch, bugs or some other problem.