Is Doordash still stealing tips from Doordash drivers in 2023?

Doordash, the popular food delivery app that has taken the world by storm during the past 10 years, especially the past five years, has really made a name for themselves. A few years ago, they began to dominate the food delivery industry by overtaking their competitors. Doordash has the most market share in the country and did so by overtaking GrubHub for that honor.

With all of their success, how has Doordash treated their delivery drivers? Also known as dashers. Have they treated and paid them fairly. Well, if you have been working in the gig economy long enough, you know that Doordash has somewhat of a sketchy reputation.

Years ago, they were straight out caught with their hand in the cookie jar stealing dasher's tips. But, are they still stealing tips from their drivers in 2023? Before we investigate and get in to that, we have to give a brief history lesson.

 

 

The history of Doordash and its delivery drivers pay

Doordash has had a very bad reputation for the way the company has handled its drivers pay. I am going to give a rundown that goes back to 2015, when I first began dashing.

Doordash pay in 2015 - 2017

During this time, Doordash offered their delivery drivers $5 plus the customer tip. The dasher was paid $5 for every single order they did, and when the customer tipped, they would receive 100% of the customer tip on top of their $5. The way dashers got paid was very easy to understand.

It was also very easy for dashers to know who the no tippers were as any $5 order was a no tipper. If a dasher received a $8 order, they knew that the customer tipped $3. If they received a $10 order, they knew the Doordash customer tipped $5. It was very simple to understand. You knew how much the customer tipped when you received the offer.

I want to point out that there were some areas of the country where Doordash would pay $4 per order instead of $5. There was also some areas that paid $6. The vast majority of the country received $5 though.

Although this  pay structure was working fine for dashers, Doordash ended up realizing that they had a problem with it. This was especially true for the no tip orders. Doordash was losing a lot of money with these orders! They had to figure out a way where they did not lose so much money on the no tip or low tip orders.

For those that wanted to cherry-pick a bit, it was quite easy. You could easily sit back and only accept the $7 and up orders if you wanted. You could even make your requirements more if you wanted to. Most people would tip a buck or two, so there were a lot of orders that paid $7 or $8.

Doordash pay in 2017 - 2019

During the middle of 2017, Doordash came out with a new pay structure for their dashers. They promised all dashers that they would be more happy with this new pay structure as they would earn more money than before. Doordash explained how it worked and many dashers were excited.

It sounded good! Doordash said that they would introduce a base pay for each order and that dashers would still receive 100% of customer tips. This had a lot of dashers thinking that they would earn much much more than before.

Doordash introduced what they called "Guaranteed Pay." They also introduced something called "Pay Boost." These two things were supposedly very beneficial to a dasher's pay.

This is what the new pay structure looked like. Doordash stated that there would always be at least a $1 base pay for each order. It also stated that the driver will receive 100% of the customer tip. When that $1 and the customer tip was less than what you were guaranteed for the delivery "Guaranteed Pay" (what you would see when you received an offer,) Doordash would add a "Pay Boost" to make sure the dasher received the "Guaranteed Pay." When the sum of the $1 Doordash has to pay you, and the customer tip was greater than what was guaranteed, you will pocket the difference.

This sounded great. If a Doordash delivery offer had a $7 guaranteed pay, it would not matter if the customer did not tip. Doordash would pay the $1 base pay (what they had to pay,) and they would make up the rest of the guaranteed pay since the dasher did not tip. Supposedly, they were being generous and putting in that extra $6 pay boost for you.

The problem here that was later exposed was that when customers tipped, dashers would not get it as it was applied to the guaranteed pay. So, if we go back to the $7 guaranteed pay order we just talked about, and the customer tipped $5 instead of nothing. The dasher would still only receive $7. Why? Because the dasher was guaranteed $7, so that's what they will get. In this case, Doordash would only have to put in $2.

Whether the customer tipped $5 or nothing at all, the dasher would still receive $7 for the order. This upset a lot of customers that believed that their generosity tip would go to the dasher on top of their regular pay. It came to a point where some customers wondered why they should tip anything at all if it was not going to the dasher. Both customers and dashers began to feel ripped off, and they were.

 

 

 

During this time, here at Doordashdriver.blogspot.com, we were exposing the tip stealing going on by Doordash, and our readers began to take notice. Of course, it was not enough for Doordash to pay any attention as this is a small blog. If you want to read a few articles from those days and better understand how Doordash was stealing tips here is a link to a very old article back in those days. If you want to read more about it, here is another old article.

It wasn't until major outlets like NBC News and the New York Times wrote about the tactics Doordash was using to steal dasher tips that caught Doordashs attention. At first, Doordash tried to defend their deceptive tactics, but they eventually caved in. It took a lot for them to admit that they were stealing tips even though it was obvious. Here is a link of when Doordash gave in to the pressure that was on them for stealing tips.

Doordash Pay from 2019 - Present

Doordash would change their pay structure in the middle of 2019 to what we know it as today. They offered a base pay, plus any promotions, plus 100% of customer tips. Here is an article of when the change was announced.

From all of the pay structures, this one has seemed to be fair to most people, and it has lasted a very long time without any new changes. Dashers are happy to receive their base pay (which can be anywhere from $2 to $10) and the full 100% customer tip. Doordash customers are also happy to know that dashers are receiving their full tip amount.

Could Doordash still be stealing tips from dashers in 2023?

As mentioned earlier, Doordash is a company with a very sketchy past. They are very hard to trust as they have always put together complicated lingo that confuses people. Could Doordash have used confusing lingo to fool us with the current pay structure?

Let's see. Doordash says that the base pay that they offer a dasher for each order is based on the estimated time of the order, the distance of the order and the desirability of the order. That base pay will be anywhere from $2 to $10. Supposedly, their algorithm figures this out. That base pay plus the customer tip will make up the final figure of how much a dasher gets paid for the order. If there is a promotion, that will be added in too, but dashers are generally working without a promotion going on.

So, if the algorithm figures that a deliver should have a $2 base pay and the Doordash customer tips $4, the call will pay a dasher $6. The way it's explained, the dasher receives 100% of the customer's tip which is $4.

Doordash has explained how they figure out the base pay for an order, but could they be figuring out the base pay based on whatever the customer tipped? They clearly state that they do not. When explaining the pay structure, they make it very clear in writing.

But, with them saying that the base pay for an order is figured out from estimated time, distance and desirability of an order, it sure makes us think as it is very vague. There is no proof that this is what is really being used.

Doordash can have their algorithm set to figure out the base pay based on whatever a customer tips. When a customer tips more, Doordash will pay less. They can easily do this and nobody would ever know a thing.

With that said, under the current pay structure, no Doordash customer could ever say that Doordash stole their tip. If a customer asked a dasher if they received the $5 tip they left, the dasher would see that they received the $5 tip. No complaints about tip stealing could be made.

But, could it be that just maybe Doordashs algorithm makes the base pay as minimal as possible since the customer tipped good? If the customer didn't tip, maybe the Doordash pay would be more. This would be the same as stealing tips. They would just be doing it in a sly way where nobody could prove it.

This is what Doordash should do to prove they are not stealing tips

It is very simple. All Doordash has to do is base their base pay on distance. Forget all the other stuff. For example, they could give $1or $2 base pay for each mile. That way dashers will know that they are getting a fair base pay that is based on a transparent system.

Let's use the $1 base pay for each mile as an example. Say the order is for 3.3 miles. Doordash could round it to 3 miles and pay $3 base pay for the order. If the customer tipped $5, the total payout for the order would be $8.

It would be a very simple transparent pay structure. Nobody would ever be able to claim that Doordash is stealing tips either from the front or back end. This would prove that they were not stealing tips.

So is Doordash stealing tips in 2023

Personally, I do believe that Doordash is basing its base pay on what the customer tips. I don't care what they say. A lot of orders that I receive do not make sense. I've had very close orders that were not complicated nor undesirable pay me a $5 base pay while I've also had very far orders that were more complex pay $2 base pay.

I do give Doordash credit though for their great minds. They have always come up with a way to get what they want. In other words, they are very good thieves. Will anybody one day expose them of this new tip stealing scam? I'm pretty sure somebody will. When that happens, I guess dashers will receive more money from new lawsuits filed against Doordash.

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