How did Doordash Drivers Handle Dashing Through the Pandemic?

It was just a few months into 2020 and everybody had heard of this crazy new disease in the world. It was called Corona disease; A.K.A. Covid 19. I had actually heard of this disease months before because my daughters would keep up with the news a lot and tell me about Covid. I would brush it off and tell them not to worry about it. I'd tell them that it would just pass, and we wouldn't hear about it anymore.

I was thinking this thing would be like the Bird Flu, SARS, Mad Cow Disease and all the rest of the crap we have heard about going on in the world through the years. It seemed like the news would be hyping something up to scare people, and then it would just disappear from the news and be forgotten.

As we all know, this Corona Disease went a bit further than other diseases. When you basically shut down the world, you must be a real force to reckon with right? I remember the first case that was confirmed in my area. It was January 26th, 2020, and the local news had reported the first case of Covid in L.A. County. It was the second confirmed case in the state of California.

How did this Dasher initially respond to Covid?

I wasn't frightened of the disease. At the beginning, I still believe that it would just go away. I didn't know how, but I was confident it would. I was still dashing. I was not terrified, but I was never an idiot about it either.

I took precautions, and I was one of the first people in my area to start wearing a mask. I kid you not when I say that everybody looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo when I first started wearing a mask. Remember, this is the beginning of this all. The media was not telling people to wear a mask. I was just doing it to be safe. I felt a bit embarrassed sometimes, but then I would remember why I was wearing a mask and wouldn't care about what anybody thought.

A few weeks later, half of the people in my area were wearing a mask. Then it became the norm to wear a mask as the government was mandating it. It's amazing how much things changed during those couple of weeks. I remember looking at the Coronavirus statistics everyday. I remember there being 5 cases in my town. Then 50, 100, 200, etc. This disease was spreading like crazy.

People were passing away. There were the conspiracy theories. All the Donald Trump controversy and somehow Bill Gates got into this. To make matters worse, a BLM movement happened while this pandemic was at its peak, and people were out on the streets gathering, protesting and spreading the disease more and more all while the "Practice safe distance" phrase is being preached and publicized.

The world was very confused. I eventually decided that I would play it safe and take some time away from dashing. There was no need for me to dash when I really didn't need to. Why take a risk? I have a family to think about, and the best place for me was home. I run my main business from my home anyways and was not dependent on Doordash income, and I was grateful for that. I did occasionally dash, but for the most part I took most of the year off.

During the beginning of the pandemic, I would see fellow dashers out there trying to be safe, but I was worried at the same time. I would see dashers have gloves on. They would go in the restaurant by firstly opening the dirty front door. They would touch their phone, the counter in the restaurant, etc. Then they would touch the bags of food, hold the drinks and get in their car. They would drive away touching the steering wheel with their gloves still on!

They were cross contaminating everything! I don't blame them as they didn't know any better. It's difficult to remember to always take off and put on new gloves constantly when you are not uses of doing it. They were giving effort, but in reality the cross contamination was only making things worse.

Doordash customers didn't want to see Doordash drivers anymore

Before the pandemic hit the world, food delivery drivers would normally hand the food to the customer 99 percent of the time. Then everything changed. This no contact thing became the norm. Nobody wanted you to hand them their food anymore. Can you blame them? 

Everybody was scared and had no idea what the hell was going on with this Coronavirus. Eventually, the script was turned though and it suddenly became 99 percent of Doordash customers wanting their food dropped off at their front door.

Why did Doordash customers want their food dropped off at their front door?

They were scared that they would contract the Corona Virus. Covid really confused the heck out of the world, and as I write this everything is not even over. Sure, the vaccines are out and a good percentage of people have gotten them, but the CDC, WHO and the medical profession still have a lot to learn.

I was surprised a bit by how Doordash and other food delivery companies became even more busier during the pandemic. I mean let's face it, people still have to eat. That's why Doordash and the other app based food delivery companies prospered during that time. People were scared to leave their home. They didn't want to catch Covid.

I would wonder though if the people ordering food ever though about the driver and if he or she could be carrying the Coronavirus. I mean, when the number of people with Covid skyrocketed, many places were reporting that about one in three people had, or already had Covid. Surely the food delivery drivers were no different than anybody else.

Even if the restaurant had the food sealed, that driver still had the food in their vehicle where they are breathing air and possibly sneezing or coughing. If they had Covid wouldn't it spread all over the bags of food, etc.? Wouldn't it be safer to just get into your car, drive to the restaurant and get your own food?

Sure, the customers were scared to see the driver when he dropped off the food. They did not want to risk catching Covid from the driver, but did they not think about everything I just mentioned? Maybe they wiped the heck out of the food bags when they got their food. I don't know.

How did Doordash drivers handle Dashing through the pandemic?

Dashers had to get used of some new things. We were not allowed to go into restaurants anymore. We had to get used of always using the drive-thru or having the restaurant bring the food out to our car.

Doordash drivers also had to get used of not seeing any customers. As already mentioned, almost all orders were leave it at the door orders. For those that like human contact, this was a miserable time.

Restrooms became a problem. Dashers had to really think about where they could use the restroom if they really needed to. Most restaurants were not letting anybody use their restrooms. It didn't matter if you were a Dasher. There was no special treatment.

Doordash drivers had to get used of wearing a mask. It some became a normal thing, and you would grab your mask when you leave your house just as you would your wallet, car keys and phone. If you didn't have your mask it felt like you were missing something.

Not having to see Doordash customers was something I would never complain about. I could just drop off the food at the door and be gone. Things were much quicker, and I really am not in to chit-chatting with customers anyways. When I did dash during the pandemic, I loved this no-contact thing.

Will Doordash customers eventually want Dashers handing them their food again?

Yes, they will, but I think the pandemic has trained a good amount of people to prefer having their food just dropped off at their front door. A lot of people just want their food. They don't want to see any driver pandemic or not. They have learned that it's okay to just want their food dropped off at their front door.

Of course you are going to have Doordash customers that want their food handed to them. A lot of these customers never liked the idea of their food just dropped off at their front door in the first place, but for safety reasons they went along with it.

Some of these die-hard hand it to me customers couldn't take it during the heart of the pandemic and still came out to have their food handed to them. I'm sure all dashers could relate to this. Walking up to a house and having someone come out while you are walking to their door.

I remember having a few customers walking toward my car, and I would quickly get out my car and put the food on the top of my car. I would get back in my car and instruct them to grab the food from there. This was when the world was like an apocalyptic nightmare. I wasn't taking any chances.

Things do seem to be getting a bit more normal now, and I would say that hand it to me orders and leave food at the door are about 50 / 50 right now. I expect the hand it to me orders to increase more over time, but I think the pandemic has unleashed the leave food at door crowd too and they will remain so.