I've been driving off and on for Doordash for over five years, and during this time, there's no doubt that I've experienced or seen the good, the bad and the ugly of Doordash. If you're wondering what the positives and negatives are for a Doordash driver, you've come to the right place. Why? Well, after 10,000 dashes I have experienced almost everything. Simply put, I've been around long enough to give an honest opinion as to how merchants, customers and even Doordash treats the Dasher.
As with most things in life, this is all a matter of opinion, and I will speak judging from my five years of experience delivering for Doordash. Everyone's experience and opinions will be different. For example, an individual that had their Dasher account deactivated after a couple months of dashing because they cussed out a customer will usually have a negative opinion about Doordash.
Then there are those individuals that have had nothing but great experiences with Doordash. In their mind, there is nothing at all wrong with Doordash. Everything is just perfect. I would suspect that individuals like this see everything fine and dandy in almost everything in life. It's just the type of person they are, and they are probably the most happy people on Earth. Truly a blessing from God. Unfortunately, in reality, everything with Doordash has not been as dandy as they think.
I am going to list some of the good, the bad and the ugly that I have experienced with Doordash over the past five years. Yes, after 10,000 deliveries you get a pretty good perspective of things.
Good things about driving for Doordash
Doordash has never bugged or pestered me
Yep, this is the first positive thing that came in my mind. Sure, you might be thinking how in the heck I give Doordash credit for this. But to me, leaving me alone and not bugging me qualifies as treating me good. If you're a person that does not like to be bugged when you're trying to make money, dashing is the perfect type of work for you. When out dashing, Doordash will never call up a dasher and pester them about anything.
This should be of no surprise to anybody though as Dashers are independent contractors and are not under the control of Doordash. That's right, there are no direct orders coming from Doordash. We''ll leave all those direct orders for individuals that are employees of a company.
The only time Doordash might (usually not) contact a driver is if a customer complained about something. That would usually happen right after a delivery. Even with that, the Doordash agent may just be calling you to get a brief explanation from you. They will not be taking sides with anyone, and they don't make you feel like they are either. They are basically just giving you a chance to give your side of the story. No pressure and no hassles. They are doing you a favor by contacting you to give your statement. This is rare and has only happened to me maybe two times, but it does and can happen.
Doordash pays me well for the work and tasks involved
I make great money as a Dasher. For sitting on my butt in my car, picking up food and delivering that food, I would say that I get paid pretty damn well. It's very easy work, and if somebody disagreed with that I don't know what to tell them. Life must be pretty difficult for them.
I've personally done heavy labor work before.
I've worked in factories and warehouses picking up heavy boxes all day,
loading trailers, etc. Everyday, I went home with my body beat up. My
nostrils were full of dust when I left work, and I couldn't wait to get
home to take a shower, eat and pass out. The bad part is that it was for
minimum wage. That was a few decades ago, but it was a good experience
for me so that I would know and never forget how hard some people work for
a living.
We don't have to go there though. Let's just look at
some of the restaurant workers that Dashers pick up from. These workers
have to deal with rude customers all day, annoying co-workers that they
don't like and a boss that is on them all day. They are moving around
swiftly all day and have lots of responsibilities. For all that, many of them are probably making half of what most Dashers earn.
Dashers make great money for what they do. They rarely have to deal with people. There is no pressure on them. Geez, these days Dashers don't even have to see most customers that they drop off to. A good portion of customers still prefer for their food to be dropped off at the door. The pandemic got these customers used to doing that and it seems as if most customers are sticking to it.
Doordash support agents are friendly and helpful as they can be
I have yet to talk to an agent that was
rude. To tell you the truth, most of them sound very similar and have a
pleasant, friendly and helpful tone. If you have trouble understanding
people with accents, you may get frustrated, but if you're like me
you'll never have a problem understanding them. A Doordash support agent
has never given me a reason to get angry at them. They are always
friendly.
I know some may be thinking about how Doordash support agents don't know much about anything and how unhelpful they are, and I can understand why some Dashers would think that, but let's speak the truth. These Doordash support agents are only working with what they got. Yes, it's true that sometimes they can seem clueless as they have no idea what you are talking about. You may even wonder how in the heck they got a job as a Dasher support agent.
Just like Dashers, there are Doordash support agents that are better at their job than others. If not happy with an agent, I always advise to just hang up or end the chat and just contact them again, and you'll get somebody else. Believe it or not, I have actually had agents hang up on me or unexpectedly just end the chat on me because they could not give me a clear answer to my question. I guess some were rude to me! Yes, they may get frustrated and feel the pressure. These are usually the agents that are just Googling for answers to your questions. Of course, if they can't find the answer then the Dasher doesn't get any of the help that's needed.
Doordash allows me to work whenever I want
This all falls in line with the independent contractor thing. Doordash cannot tell independent contractors when or if they have to work. This is another indirect way that Doordash has treated me good. Being able to make money around my schedule is a benefit that most jobs don't come with. I can take a week vacation whenever I want. I can even take a month long vacation if I want. There has been times when I have taken many months off from dashing and then just started back up again like I never stopped.
I've heard Dashers complain before about not being able to log on in their region. They say that they cannot get a schedule. We'll, not to be rude, but if somebody is having a problem working it is their fault. They are not doing what they have to do.
If a Dasher works in a region that has lots of drivers, they will have to get a schedule right when the schedules are released. That means at 12 midnight on the dot. The exemption would be for those that have early access or top rated dashers. I used to dash in an area that had too many Dashers, and I would be refreshing my app constantly as midnight was approaching so that I could get a schedule. It was so bad that all schedules were gone in about 20 seconds; so you had to be really fast. Trust me when I say I wasn't the only one refreshing the schedules on the Doordash app as midnight was approaching.
There are some areas where Dashers do not have to worry about getting schedules. They can usually log on by just clicking on the Dash button. I had an area like this that I used to work at a couple of years ago. I never had to worry about getting a schedule.
There is never a reason to complain about not being able to work. An individual should know their region and do what they have to do to make sure they can always work. If somebody really doesn't want to worry about schedules, they should aim for Top Rated Dasher status so that they can dash anytime and anywhere they want.
Doordash does not force Dashers to accept delivery assignments
Freedom is good, and this is another way that Doordash has treated me good. All Doordash drivers are allowed to accept or deny any delivery offer thrown their way. Doordash will never make a Dasher take a call. If an individual likes the freedom to work and make money their way, Doordash will always be a good partner.
Sure, if you deny a call, your acceptance rate will be impacted, but unless your aim is to be a Top Rated Dasher, it shouldn't matter much. As a Top Rated Dasher myself, it's good knowing that I can still deny 5 percent of Doordash offers and still keep my status.
Bad things about driving for Doordash
Dealing with Doordash glitches
There are times when the Dasher app glitches. It is an internal problem, and there is nothing that we can do about it. I mean, there have been times when after picking up an order the app glitched, and I could not see the order anymore. I had no idea where to deliver to.
Another glitch that happens sometimes is when the Dasher app starts pausing on its own for no apparent reason. There you are sitting there wondering why you are not getting any calls. You look at your phone, and you see that you have been paused. You unpause it, only to see that five minutes later you are paused again. This can go on for hours or even days.
The last glitch I will mention is when you get a Doordash order, but there is no sound. Sure, if you are looking at your phone screen, you will see the order come in. But, there are times when you miss a call because you didn't hear the normal notification sound.
Going to a pick up and the restaurant is closed
There is nothing as annoying as driving to a merchant and seeing that they are closed. If you have driven a pretty good distance you won't be too happy as Doordash will only pay you half of what the order was. This could be as little as a few bucks. It is valuable time wasted.
I would say that 99 percent of the time when this happens it will be in the middle of the night, or at least during the very late hours. If dashing in the day time or the evening it is very rare for this to happen. Well, things could be worse though. Postmates (remember them,) did not give their drivers anything if a merchant was closed.
Merchant is taking too long
There are times when you got to pick up an order, and the merchant is taking forever. You'll sit there as patiently as possible, but there may come a point when you have had it. At this point, it's up to you, the Dasher, in deciding if you should continue to wait or cancel the order and move on.
I would like to add, in my area, there are a couple of restaurants where you have to use the drive-thru after 10pm. There are times when these lines will take a whole hour. Live and let learn.
Not being able to get a schedule
In some regions, it can be a real battle to get a Dashing schedule. Some Dashers will not get what they want, while other Dashers will not get anything at all. A simple solution to this is to become a Top Rated Dasher so you can dash whenever you want. With that said, some dashers are against becoming a Top Rated Dasher due to the ratings that must be maintained. To each their own, but the scheduling problem does have a solution.
The dangers of the road while dashing
When you are a Dasher, you are on the road much more often that an average person. This means that you have a higher likelihood of being involved in an accident. As a Dasher, you are not just driving to work and back home. No! You are a road warrior!
I can't even recall the amount of times I've had close calls. I am always aware of my surroundings and am careful at all times, but even with that I know that something can happen at any time.
We are on the road with all the drunk drivers, people barely learning to drive and the idiots who think that they are NASCAR drivers. You know, the same idiots who go in a parking lot and burn out their tires for fun. The morons of the world.
Ugly things that can happen when driving for Doordash
High priced gasoline cost eats away at Dasher's profit
When gas prices get high, down goes the profits for a Doordash driver. It can really be bothersome when gas prices are at $5 per gallon or higher. This is especially true when a Dasher is doing calls that pay $5 or less. For many it starts to seem like dashing is not even worth it. I mean, we are all in this to make money, not to lose money or break even and waste our time.
To help oneself, common sense should tell us that we must drive a small car that is good on gas. I've seen a lot of Dashers out there with big SUVs. I'm not criticizing as it's probably the only vehicle that they have, but it's really difficult to make money with a vehicle like that. The high gas prices will eat up your earnings.
The best thing to do is to eliminate gasoline from your expenses. This is even better than that small 4 cylinder car that you drive. With an electric car, you will only be paying a few dollars per day to drive hundreds and hundreds of miles. Using an electric car is the most profitable way to dash, and it is the way of the future as little by little gasoline engine vehicles will fade out.
Dealing with bad Doordash customers
Listen, we would not have food to deliver to if it wasn't for the Doordash customers, and we have to appreciate them, but many of them can be idiots. I once was picking up an order from a pizza merchant when I got a text from the customer saying "What the FXXX is taking so long." That was a nice cancellation from my end. Months later, I ended up getting this person's call again, and I saw who it was. The ghetto-fabulous look of this guy matched the text. Simply unclassy and trashy.
There will also be times when you have a Doordash customer that will order with one address but will change it after you pick up the food. They will do this sometimes purposely because the merchant would not deliver to their original address. Usually because it's too far. In a situation like this, it is up to the Dasher to decide if they still want to make the delivery or not. If it's too far, I'll usually pass on it and hopefully enjoy their food.
The customer that gives a bad customer rating
There will be times when a Dasher will receive an undeserving bad rating from a customer. The Dasher will deliver the food like normal, but the customer will give a bad rating because the merchant mistakenly forget to not put onions on the cheeseburger or some other thing that was out of the Dasher's control.
Many times, the merchant will forget part of the order, and the customer will contact the Dasher thinking that the Dasher can just go back and retrieve the rest of the order. They will be angry sometimes when you tell them that you can't do that. But, how in the heck was the Dasher to know what was in the sealed bags. It's best to just tell the customer to contact Doordash and report missing items.
Bad ratings will happen, but we should all be glad that most people are smart enough to know that certain things are not a Dasher's fault. These bad customer's will not usually have any major impact on a good Dasher's ratings. The good will always triumph and outweigh the bad.
Dealing with Doordash customer's dogs
There is this thing out there that some dog owners don't understand. They think that since their dog is friendly that everybody will like their dog. Well, that is simply not the case. When I make a delivery, I don't want anyone's dog jumping or licking me.
Of course, the aggressive dogs are the worst for a Dasher, and most customers are smart enough to put them away. But, you'd be surprised at how many customers have their vicious dogs barking and growling at me from the fence when I get there. To make matters worse, some of these calls say "Deliver at the door." Yeah right! Even if I didn't see the dogs, I am never going into a fenced yard. You can come out and get your food, or I'll leave it at the fence for you.
Having your Dasher account deactivated
This is a nightmare to many dashers. Especially those that count on Doordash as a full-time living. Doordash can deactivate a Dasher for various reasons, so it is always best to know and play by the rules. Especially these days as a Dasher account is not as easy to get as it once was.
Every incident is unique. I have heard countless stories from Dashers that were deactivated for various reasons. Many times, the Dasher will swear that they did nothing wrong. Whether true or not, this is why it's always wise to have a backup plan.
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