Doordash Always Knew That Their Pay Model Scheme Would Not Last Forever

In this article we are going to give a brief history about the Doordash pay model scheme. Why do I call it a scheme? Because I believe that the whole thing was planned and devised to rip a lot of people off. Yes, I believe that it was premeditated. Actually, there is no doubt in my mind that it was premeditated.

I believe that Doordash planned to run with this scheme as long as they could. By stealing the customer's tips from Doordash drivers, there was millions of dollars to be made. Doordash knew that they could not do this forever, but they were sure going to do it as long as possible.

A few weeks ago, the end of the scheme finally came when the pressure finally was hard enough on Doordash. They had no where else to run. There time had come, and their CEO, Tony Xu, finally announced that the controversial pay model would be changed. he didn't give any details or say when the change would happen, but he did indeed say that a change is coming. 

Is Doordash trying to pull their dashers strings for as long as they can?

Doordash has claimed that the pay model strategy was not built to pay the dashers less. They have said that they thought that they were doing the right thing by making dashers whole when a customer did not leave any tip for the driver. Doordash would of course make up for this non-tipper by giving the driver what they call a pay boost. I want to add here that only 15 percent of Doordash customers don't tip; according to Doordash.

Doordash has also recently said that what they missed was that some customers who did tip would feel like their tips did not matter. Well, really? Are you telling me that Doordash thought customers would be okay with this? When all of these Doordash customers found out that the tip money that they intended to go to their driver instead went to Doordash; of course they are going to think that their tip did not matter. Is Doordash playing dumb here? Was it an accident that customers have always seen "100 percent of your tips go to the driver." What were these customers supposed to think? Anybody with a brain knows that the whole pay model scheme of stealing tips was a well orchestrated scam.

The beginning of the Doordash pay model scheme

In the good old dashing days, dashers would receive $5 per delivery and the customer tip. There was nothing complicated about it. Very simple and straight forward.

Then in September of 2017 Doordash introduced a new pay model. With this new pay model, Doordash made it sound like dashers were now going to make even more money than what they were used of. They introduced something that they called pay boost. They said that dashers will now receive what they actually deserved for a call. Basically, the more complicated a delivery was, the more the dasher would earn. Doordash claimed that they wanted to be more fair and transparent.

Even though I did not quite understand it all at first, it sure sounded good. As I would later learn though, Doordash is great at twisting words and making things sound good. They are masters at using a play with words to make something sound entirely different than what the reality of it is.

It didn't take too long for me and some other dashers to figure out that Doordash was stealing our tips. Sure, Doordash had a defense for that accusations too though. They could defend themselves by saying that the dasher is actually receiving the customer's tip. They could say that they only promise $1 per delivery, and anything after that is the customer's tip. If the customer's tip does not may the guarantee, (here's the kicker) they would make it up by giving you a pay boost. Sure makes them sound like good guys doesn't it. Like I said, it was a well planned scheme, and it went on for about two years.

Instacart brought the negative attention to Doordash

We now move forward to February of 2019. Instacart, a grocery delivery company that also uses independent contractors, was accused of stealing tips after it was exposed that they were subsidizing the tip money that customers left in to the drivers pay. This led to an uproar which Instacart quickly resolved by revising the controversial pay policy. No harm, no foul. Everybody thought that Instacart handled the situation well.

With the negative attention that Instacart was receiving, many looked at Doordash also as they too were subsidizing the customer tips in to a Doordash driver's pay. This put a bit of pressure on Doordash. They were not going to change their pay model, but with all of the media attention they were getting, they had to do something. What was it they were going to do though?

Doordash, being Doordash tried to sound like the good guys once again. They began to try and convince dashers that they were looking out for their best interest. They told dashers that they are going to give them what they want. Unfortunately, they didn't say that they would stop stealing tips.

Doordash started showing dashers how they were stealing their tips

Doordash told dashers that they were going to be more transparent with earnings. They started breaking down and showing dashers their earnings for each individual call. Doordash claimed that this is what dashers wanted more than anything, but this was not true at all. Sure it was nice to see the breakdown of each call, but that was not the main subject here. Doordash ignored the fact that dashers were getting more and more tired of having their tip money ripped off.

When Doordash started showing the pay breakdown for each call, they really did not do themselves any favors. Many drivers already understood the breakdown before Doordash shared this information. Shoot - We have been writing about it for years. Then you had those that were not sure about how things worked. They felt like Doordash was stealing some of their tip money, but they did not know how it was being done. The last group here is the dashers that completely had no idea that Doordash was stealing their tips. Heck - most of these people just thought that most Doordash customers did not tip.

When Doordash started showing the breakdown of earnings for each call, they basically started showing every dasher how they were being ripped off. It was nice for those that already knew to see it in writing. Many of those that did not understand how Doordash was stealing their tips now understood. Those completely ignorant now understood Doordashs scheme. Doordash basically started showing everybody how they were screwing them over.

 

 

 

More pressure on Doordash to change their tipping policy
After Doordash stood firm and would not change their pay model in February things were quiet, but then the can of worms was opened up again in July, 2019. Large media outlets such as the New York Times and others were again exposing the Doordash scheme. More and more people were learning how Doordash customer's tips generally went to Doordash instead of the person delivering their food.

A New York Times reporter even went out on the field as a food delivery driver. This reporter learned that when a customer tipped on Doordash, the vast majority of time he did not earn one penny more than if the customer did not tip anything. This was far off from a person's normal thinking of a tip going on top of what an individual is already earning. Doordash had indeed been using customer tips to subsidize drivers guaranteed earnings (the amount a driver was guaranteed to earn.)

 

 

Doordash finally changes its pay policy

All of the negative media attention finally pressured Doordash CEO, Tony Xu to make an announcement that Doordash will be changing its controversial pay model. Even with the announcement, Doordash still claims that they never had any ill intent. Doordash has defended itself and stated that they created their pay model so that Doordash drivers will make more money. In other words, there was never any ill intent, and they were looking out for their drivers.

I completely disagree with this. I believe that Doordash had a plan all along and were going to get away with stealing tips for as long as they could. They knew the time would come when they would have to stop, but in the mean time they were gong to earn millions off of this scheme. Believe it or not, they even have some dashers to this day convinced that they make more with the pay model scheme that they set up. They always liked to preach about how they were protecting their drivers from the no-tippers out there. They would state that when a customer did not tip that they would apply pay boost to ensure that their drivers receive what they deserve. I might add that those no-tippers are only 15 percent of their customers. Sure, there are many $1 and $2 tippers out there, but even with small tips like that a dasher is better off receiving their tips.

Those of us that have known for years about Doordash stealing tips all knew that the day would come when it would have to stop. Personally, I've always thought to myself that Tony Xu would milk it as long as he could. Now that the day when all this crookedness ends is near, what kind of pay model are we now going to have on Doordash?

If Doordash went back to the $5 per delivery plus customer tips everybody would be happy. Those of us that enjoyed that pay structure in the past know that it works well. Some newer dashers who never delivered during that time may be a bit skeptical, but once they see that they will make more than what they earn with this pay model scheme they will also be happy.

Of course we don't know what Doordash is going to do. They did say that dashers would now see their earnings increase by the amount that the customer tips. In other words, we will receive our tips. The question here is what will the flat delivery fee be? It can be anything Doordash chooses. Again, most of us are hoping for $5. If Doordash decides on an amount that is too low, I have a good feeling that many dashers would say adios!