Doordash Driver - Accepting Calls that are Already Late

As a Doordash driver, we are often concerned about our ratings. One of the sure ways to get a bad rating from a customer is to be late on their order. Unfortunately, if you are not paying attention to a new order that you get, you may be set up to deliver late orders no matter how quick you think you are.

When I first started dashing, I did not really pay too much attention to the delivery time that an order had to be to the customer until after I accepted the order. Now, I pay attention to the delivery time that is displayed when the order is offered. When we are pinged with an order, the Doordash app will show us the restaurant that we have to go to and some other information about the order. Included with that information will be the estimated delivery time. The problem is that sometimes that time is only five minutes away or may have even past.

Is it worth accepting Doordash orders that are already late?

By accepting orders that are already late, or are about to be late, you are setting yourself up for a bad rating from the customer. Of course, you can accept these calls if you want to, and to tell you the truth, I used to, but I would not anymore. If yo do accept these calls, you just need to be warned that when you show up at the customer's door, they are most likely going to be thinking that you are the reason that their order is late.

Why does this happen? Why are you receiving these Doordash orders so late?

An order was accepted and assigned to another dasher, and for whatever reason, they held on to the order for a long time and eventually dropped the order. Doordash then has to find a replacement driver, and if you are the sucker it will be you. I remember one time accepting an order, and in less than 5 seconds I received a call from an angry lady yelling at me and telling me that she's been waiting for 3 hours. What did I do? I unassigned her order of course. This ladies order must have went around 3 dashers already by the time it got to me.

As an example of a situation like this happening goes a little something like this. I will receive a ping at 2 p.m and see that the expected delivery time to the customer is at 2:05 p.m. Well, I certainly cannot drive to the restaurant, pick up the food and have it delivered to the customer in five minutes. Only Superman would be able to do that, and I am certainly not Superman.




If a dasher were to receive an order like this, the best thing for them to do would be to text the customer right away. Letting them know that their order was just received is very important. Mentioning the expected delivery time on the app should also be shared with the customer. Letting them know that it would be impossible to delivery their food by the expected delivery time would be good to let them know. Also, tell the customer that you will deliver as soon as you can, and give them a realistic delivery time. Either they will appreciate you and thank you, or they will be angry at Doordash and cancel the order.

Most of the time customers will be understanding. When I first started dashing, I would wonder why some customers would have a little bit of a attitude when I delivered their food. Now I understand why. They thought that I was some guy just messing around and taking my sweet time.

By texting them and letting them know the deal upfront, you'll never have an unexpected problem. It also gives them the opportunity to cancel the order just in case they don't want to wait that long. If dealing with a very angry customer, I would much rather have them cancel their order than have to deliver the food to them. Chances are that they will leave a very bad rating.