The New Doordash Pay Model

Doordash has recently shared the details with us about the new pay model that is scheduled to roll out soon. I must say that it is very interesting. Before I get in to it a little further, I must point out that Doordash says that under this new model that dashers will earn more on average, and to us dashers that is of course a great thing. Also, Doordash promises that every dollar that a customer tips is extra money that will go into a dasher's pocket. All of this sounds nice and dandy, but how is this all going to play out?

One great thing that I can say for sure about the new pay model is that it will not have an impact on dashers being able to see the details of an order. There was some talk out there that when the pay model got changed that Doordash would stop showing dashers the details of an incoming order that we are so used of being able to see.

Luckily all of that was gibberish and we will still be able to see the name of the merchant, the merchant and customer location, the total mileage and the estimated delivery time. All of this information will help all dashers continue to make wise choices about which assignments to accept or not. A dasher will also continue to be able to see the breakdown of their earnings upon completion of their delivery. Nothing is really changing as far as the information that we receive is concerned, and we should all be grateful for that.

What is the new Doordash pay model?

The new Doordash pay model is going to be calculated by base pay, promotions and tips. With this new pay model, dashers are going to receive the full tip amount that customers leave for them. No longer will Doordash subsidize the customer's tips in to the driver's guaranteed earnings.

Base Pay

The base pay for a call will differentiate based on the estimated duration, distance and overall desirability of the order. Calls that are expected to have a longer wait time, that have a longer driving distance or are very undesirable calls for whatever reason will have a higher base pay than other calls. The base pay for a call will range anywhere from $2 to $10.

Promotions

Dashers will also have the opportunity to earn more by taking advantage of peak pay and challenge bonuses. Peak pay offers dashers an extra certain amount of money per call that is completed. Peak pay is usually offered during certain hours. The challenge bonus rewards dashers when they complete a certain amount of dashes during a certain amount of time. Details for all of this is always shared by Doordash on the app.

Tips

Every dollar that a customer tips will now be extra money that a dasher will earn. The amount that Doordash pays in base pay or promotions will never be based on the tip amount. When a customer leaves a tip during checkout, that tip will be included and shown as part of the guaranteed pay. Customers will also have the option of leaving their dasher a tip after the delivery.

My opinion on the new Doordash pay model

I am really excited about the new Doordash pay model that is rolling out very soon. I am very curious to see how things play out. Overall everything sounds great to me, and dashers should earn much more money now that they will actually be receiving their tips, but I am still a bit skeptical about things. I hope that I am wrong, but I am so used of Doordash twisting words that it is almost impossible for me to not have some doubts.

As many of you know, I have always said that Doordash is the best when it comes to using trickery with words. Remember, when the crooked pay model came out a few years ago, everything sounded great. They had this thing called pay boost that made everybody think that they were gong to make more money than they previously had, but the truth was that everybody was earning less. Then they told drivers that they received 100 percent of their customer tips. On the other side of the token they told customers that drivers received 100 percent of their tips. All of this was trickery with words. Basically they were telling a lie but if they were called out on it they had a defense.

Let's get in to this new pay model now. The first thing that we are going to look at is the base pay. When Doordash announced that they would be changing their pay model, many old-school dashers had the hopes that Doordash would go back to the $5 base pay for each call. This is the way it was before Doordash implemented their crooked pay model scheme. As we now know, Doordash is not going back to this $5 base pay. It does not surprise me that they didn't go back to $5 base pay. As I mentioned in a previous post, they would not have ever changed it if it was working for them.

It is very interesting that each call will have a different base pay. Under the crooked pay model scheme, our base pay was always $1. With the new Doordash pay model, our base pay will range from $2 to $10. This sounds like a great thing! The determination of the base pay for each call will be based on factors such as distance, estimated wait time and other factors.

I don't have too much confidence when it comes to Doordash estimations and algorithms. When Doordash came out with their pay model scheme, they used to preach about how the guaranteed pay that a dasher was offered was based on distance, estimated wait time, if we had to place the order and about 50 other factors that were considered in their algorithm.

To this day I have my doubts that this algorithm even existed. I mean, there were just too many one mile calls that would pay me something like $8 that I didn't have to personally place the order. Compare those calls with all of the $5.50 calls that I would receive where I would have to place the order myself, wait 20 minutes and drive 8 miles. Can you see why I have my doubts when it comes to Doordash estimations and their algorithm?

With that said, I love that we are able to see the guaranteed pay as we always have before accepting or denying a call. That guaranteed pay includes the base pay, the tip that the customer included during checkout and any promotions if available. I think that is enough information for a dasher to decide if they are going to accept a call or not. If I am not happy with the Doordash estimations for a certain call, I can just deny that call if I am not happy with the pay it is offering so all of this should not be a big deal.

If all goes well here, I think that the $2 to $10 base pay will be great and fair for dashers. How many times have you heard dashers complain about getting paid $6 for driving 15 miles to make a delivery. From my understanding here and what it sounds like, a call like this would pay a lot more now due to a very long distance. Of course I don't know the exact formula that will be used except what has been passed down to us, but if a dasher was paid a $10 base pay for this call it would be fair.

I don't know how much of an impact promotions will have on a dasher's overall pay. Currently, a dasher can see upcoming promotions on their app. Peak pay promotions are offered to dashers for certain time slots. For example, there may be a $3 promotion on Monday morning from 8am to 11am. This means that dashers will receive that extra $3 for each call on top of their regular pay. Doordash is making it sound like they will be offering more promotions when the new pay model comes out, but we shall see.

Under promotions, Doordash says that they will also be offering challenge bonuses. I have never had a challenge bonus with Doordash, but I have heard from other dashers that have. I must say that those that received these Doordash challenge bonuses did not get them because of seniority or anything like that. Many dashers with thousands of deliveries under their belt have never received challenge bonuses while newbie dashers have. If you are like me and never received a Doordash challenge bonus, don't dwell on it.

 

Even though I have never done a Doordash challenge bonus before, I am very familiar with how they work. Actually, many Uber Eats drivers will be familiar with how it works due to Uber Eats having what they call "Quest." With these "Quest," I used to be able to earn an extra $100 for completing 40 deliveries during the week. All quest were different each week, but generally they were the same. Some were of course better than others.

I think that if Doordash offers challenge bonuses to their drivers every week it would be a great thing. It will inspire drivers to have a certain goal for the week to earn extra pay. Again, details about all of this is still sketchy and new, but if these challenge bonuses become a normal thing it would be terrific. How much Doordash promotions, peak pay and challenge bonuses have on a dasher's overall pay remains to be seen, but if offered enough these promotions will have a very positive impact.

I am now going to talk about tips. Yes, the day is finally coming when dashers will once again receive the tip money that Doordash customers have intended for them to receive. Everybody knows how I feel about this. I have only been preaching it here on this blog for the past couple of years. I have been trying to share with others how Doordash was stealing driver's tips almost since the beginning of the Doordash pay model schemes birth.

Now that drivers will receive the tips from customers, the thinking here is that dashers should earn more than they did under the crooked pay model scheme. Will a dasher earn more under the new pay model? I cannot say for certainty, but I can guarantee that a driver will not earn less than they did under the pay model scheme.

Some may wonder how I cannot say for certainty that a dasher will earn more with the new pay model. Wasn't I for getting rid of the pay model scheme and getting a new pay model where dashers would actually receive their tips?  Of course I was, and I still am, but let me explain myself a bit more here.

If Doordash had went back to the $5 base pay plus the customer tip, then I would guarantee you that you would make much more money than what dashers have been making under this pay model scheme. With the new model that they are going to be rolling out with, I cannot say that for sure. I sure hope that dashers will earn more. Doordash seems to be confident about it and let's hope they are right.

I believe that what this all comes down to is Doordash's accuracy with their base pay. If Doordash is dead-on with their base pay then there should be no reason why dashers shouldn't earn way more than what they are accustomed to under the pay model scheme. If Doordash is fair with their base pay, there will be many happy dashers.

With dashers receiving their tips, the overall pay should dramatically increase. Many Doordash customers out there have always tipped $5 to $10 per order. Some customers tip much more than that. With dashers actually receiving their tip money on top of base pay we should see some good earnings.

Why didn't Doordash just go back to the $5 plus tip pay model?

As I have said before, apparently Doordash was not happy with the $5 base pay plus tip pay model. I remember back then, Doordash used to state that they were trying to figure out a way to stop losing money on small orders. By paying drivers $5 base pay plus customer tip, they seen a big problem with the guy who only ordered two tacos from Jack-In-The-Box.

They did away with the $5 base pay plus tip model and the Doordash pay scheme was born. They no longer had to worry as much about those small orders because they were now stealing driver's tips. I'm not going to get too much in to that right now, but what it comes down to is that the $5 base pay plus tips model was not working for Doordash then and it would most likely not work now. 

 

 

Will dashers earn more with this new pay model?

As I have stated earlier, what it all comes down to is how accurate Doordash is with their base pay. If difficult and more time consuming calls will pay a fair base pay, there is no doubt that dashers will earn more money. A fair base pay for each call and actually receiving customer tips is a formula that should increase a dasher's earnings dramatically. When promotions are going on these earnings should increase even more!

Does this new pay model benefit customers?

I believe that Doordash customers will be more happy knowing that their driver is actually receiving the tip money that they leave for them. I also believe that customers can sort of buy their way in to quick and reliable service if they can afford it. Yes, I do believe that the new pay model will benefit Doordash customers, especially those with a little extra money.

Under the new pay model, a dasher will see the guaranteed pay for the order as they always have. There is a little difference now though. When a customer tips during checkout, that tip money will be included and shown as part of the guaranteed pay that a driver will receive. If a Doordash customer leaves a good tip during checkout, the guaranteed pay that a driver is shown is going to be high.

For example, if a Doordash customer orders food from Burger King and leaves a $10 tip, which is a crazy amount I know, the dasher would see at worst a $2 base pay and a $10 tip for a guaranteed pay of $12 for this order. By tipping good, this customer is pretty much guaranteeing that his order will be picked up quickly and that he will receive prompt service.

Under the same scenario, if that Burger King customer did not tip very well, or anything at all, it is more likely that dashers would pass up and deny the call and wait for something better. Sire, that customer's order will eventually be filled, but it will not be as prompt as what the good tipper gets. Personally, I think this is great. I think that good tippers should always be rewarded with the best service.

Is it good that customers can tip after delivery?

I am a bit confused about this. My first instinct is to say that it is great that Doordash customers can tip after a delivery is completed as it gives them options, but I think that may customers that rely on tipping after delivery will not receive the best service out there. When dashers receive their order, they will not see a very large amount of guaranteed pay because they did not tip during check out. This may cause many dashers to pass up on their order. The order will take longer to get delivered and the overall experience will not be as good as a customer that pre-tipped during checkout.

Don't get me wrong here, I completely understand those that don't want to tip during checkout. I have always been a person that thinks that a tip should be given after service is provided. The better the service is, the more I will tip. Unfortunately, with the way things are now, I don't think that it is too wise. I think with the way Doordash is going to work now, pre-tipping is the best way to go. By doing so, prompt service is guaranteed.