DoorDash: What Only True Fans Know About The Food Delivery Service

DoorDash dates back to 2013, beginning as a small delivery business in Palo Alto, California. In fact, its original name was Palo Alto Delivery, and its four founders created it to assist the lack of delivery drivers for restaurants in the area. Within a half an hour of going live with Palo Alto Delivery, the first order came in (per DoorDash).

In its early years, the founders had to quickly begin hiring other drivers to help them keep up with all the orders they received. This evolved the business model into what it is today: an app-based company that virtually anyone can sign up for to earn extra cash as an independent contractor delivery driver. DoorDash has certainly expanded since then, now offering its services in small and large cities across the country. According to Business of Apps, DoorDash is the top food delivery service in the country, seeing a significant increase in revenue and subscribers since 2019.

But there's more to this food delivery service than you know. Keep reading to learn how the pandemic affected DoorDash, why customers love its refund policy, and why restaurants and drivers aren't always its biggest fans.

When you're hired to make deliveries for a restaurant, you have to go through a typical employee hiring process that may include an interview, hiring paperwork, orientation, etc. You should also expect your driving record and vehicle to get scrutinized, as restaurants want to make sure they hire safe drivers with reliable vehicles to represent their companies.

You might be surprised to learn that DoorDash requirements for drivers aren't very strict. As a DoorDash driver, you're an independent contractor representing yourself, technically. Therefore, DoorDash just wants to make sure that you are who you say you are and don't have any criminal activity on your record. DoorDash requires a background check using a third-party service called Checkr to get an overview of a potential driver's criminal and driving history (via DoorDash).

Other requirements are relatively basic. You must be 18, have your own insurance policy, have a valid license and Social Security number, and have a reliable mode of transportation (per DoorDash). However, several Dashers admit on Indeed that getting accepted is super easy. One person says that if an area is in desperate need of drivers, you can get started right away, adding "I applied one day and was delivering the next day." Other Dashers mention that if you clear the background check, you're basically good to go.

Talk to any Dasher, and you might notice a common theme: how they talk about their pay from the delivery app varies significantly. One driver might tell you that their pay isn't worth their time, while another could gush about their high earnings from just a couple of hours of work on a busy weekend.

DoorDash's payment model is a big reason for those differences. Drivers earn a base pay for a delivery that takes into account the distance for the driver, the estimated delivery time, and its desirability. They also get 100% of the tips earned for their deliveries and have a chance to qualify for extra money from challenges and peak-time deliveries (per DoorDash).

However, delivery areas and the times a Dasher works can really play into their overall pay. For instance, busy cities will probably give Dashers more opportunities to have a packed delivery night than small towns. And, delivering during dinner rushes will usually net higher hourly rate equivalents than delivering in the early afternoon.

Take a look at reported Indeed salaries to see how much driver pay can fluctuate. The average reported salary is about $13-$14 per hour. However, several reports mention that gas takes a huge chunk of Dashers' pay and that much of their earnings relies scoring the best, high-paying shifts.

It's not uncommon for workers to dislike some aspects of their jobs. Apparently, independent contractors like DoorDash drivers aren't exempt from having complaints. While you might think that choosing your own schedule and having the freedoms that independent contracting provides is great, some Dashers have plenty to dislike about their experiences delivering with the app.

Indeed reviews reveal some of the most common complaints from DoorDash delivery drivers, with one of the top reasons for negative experiences being a lack of Dasher support. One driver writes, "Worst ever. Horrible Dasher support." Another says that there is "no customer service with clearly speaking English speakers. No support." Other issues mention the "glitchy app" and low base pay.

Reddit also sheds some light on Dashers' true feelings. One Redditor mentioned DoorDash docking their delivery time after delivering the order, chalking it up to "system mistakes" that result in violations against their account. Another Dasher complained that trying to find orders they want to complete is challenging, sometimes rejecting "70 or more offers to get a good one."

You might think that restaurants would have to give the thumb's up to DoorDash before the company can post a restaurant's menu on the app and begin deliveries from that restaurant. However, DoorDash has tangled itself in quite the controversy for adding menus and delivering from restaurants without asking restaurants' permission.

A pizza place owner in Cincinnatti told WXYZ Detroit that the restaurant's reputation has suffered since DoorDash began taking orders without its permission. It all started with customers calling the restaurant to complain about missing or incorrect items. Soon, owner Kevin Leidecker found out that his menu had been added to the app, so customers understandably began to order. However, Leidecker said that the menu wasn't up-to-date or detailed enough to ensure correct orders.

One restaurant staffer took to Reddit to complain about the same situation. "Today, we've been receiving calls from DoorDash, asking if their orders are ready for pickup. The thing is, we NEVER put our restaurant on this website. We will be complaining to customer service, but this is ridiculous that something like this happens without any authorization or permission."

Due to backlash, some areas are pushing for third-party apps like DoorDash to ask for consent before publishing restaurant menus. For example, California pushed through the Fair Food Delivery Act in 2021 to require agreements between restaurants and delivery companies (per Food & Wine).

If you're craving a box of Thin Mints, Adventurfuls, or Tagalongs, and DoorDash is in your area, you might be in luck. As of 2022, the food delivery service offers speedy delivery of several varieties of Girl Scout cookies right to your door. CNET reports that the partnership is valid throughout the time that Girl Scouts typically sell their cookies, which is usually from January through April, for as long as the popular boxes are available.

DoorDash's vice president Shanna Prevé said in a statement (via CNET), "Through this collaboration, we aim to provide access and opportunity for Girl Scouts, while providing their neighborhoods with safe, efficient and enjoyable ways to support their local troops." Unfortunately, the cookies will only be available in select areas through DoorDash, depending on whether there are sellers in your area, but you can check the DoorDash app to see if you can satisfy your sweet tooth.

In April 2021, DoorDash announced that merchants could choose from three different partnership plans with various commission rates and benefits. To become a partner with DoorDash, restaurants and other merchants pay a commission to DoorDash, but they get the added benefit of convenient delivery for customers. Commission rates generally range from 15% to 25% for deliveries, with the higher tier giving merchants access to DashPass customers and larger delivery areas.

But, the Wall Street Journal reported that McDonald's restaurants might notice commission prices increasing if they take too long to pack orders starting in 2023. The higher commission happens when orders take more than four minutes to pack, increasing to 17.6% for non-DashPass subscribers, up from its usual base 11.6% fee.

A McDonald's spokesperson told Food & Wine that the company strives to put its customers' needs first and that commission rates are just one piece of the puzzle to consider when making agreements with delivery providers like DoorDash.

It's not likely that all customers will love everything about a company. And, with a service like DoorDash that relies on the use of independent contractors that aren't necessarily trained for their delivery job, there are bound to be some complaints.

Such is the case with DoorDash, which doesn't fare well on some review sites, like SiteJabber and Reviews.io, with its respective one-star and one-and-a-half-star ratings. The most common complaints stem from slow waiting times, a lack of customer support, and delivering to the wrong addresses. Yikes!

One reviewer on SiteJabber said, "Wish I read the reviews before ever using Doordash. As someone that uses delivery services often, Doordash is the worst. Do yourself a favor, and don't bother!" A Reviews.io reviewer adds, "Horrible experiences! My order was missing items twice. The second time I called to complain and they said since iv already paid. We'd to take it up with the restaurant. Very unhappy and would Strongly recommend not using them."

To be fair, similar app-based companies, like UberEats and GrubHub, have similar review profiles on these sites.

DoorDash allows customers to rate their delivery experience on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. This score is based strictly on the delivery, not the quality of the food. According to DoorDash, a driver's rating is calculated by averaging their 100 most recent scores. As a Dasher completes more deliveries and accumulates newer scores, their older scores get erased. For example, if a driver received a majority of 3-star ratings when they first started, but are now getting 5-star ratings, the lower scores will get dropped and the driver's rating will continue to rise. This "rolling basis," as DoorDash calls it, ensures a Dasher's rating accurately reflects their current performance. 

The magic number in the world of DoorDash ratings is 4.2. That is the minimum customer rating a Dasher must maintain at all times, or risk becoming deactivated from the platform. Of course, there are many circumstances in which a customer may be dissatisfied with delivery — and, in turn, give a poor score — through no fault of Dasher themselves. To make the scoring system more fair, DoorDash removes any score below 5 stars in certain situations. These include restaurant wait times of over 10 minutes, orders with missing or incorrect items (when the bag is sealed), delays of more than 15 minutes caused by multiple previous Dashers unassigning, extreme weather conditions, and uniquely challenging delivery situations related to protests.

By now, we're all very familiar with contactless delivery, in which a delivery driver leaves a customer's food outside their home, alerts them of its arrival through an app, and never comes in close proximity with another person. But this method was a fairly new concept only a few years ago. So much so that it wasn't even available when ordering through DoorDash before 2020. According to Reuters, the third-party delivery service did not offer no-contact delivery as one of its official delivery options prior to the COVID-19 pandemic — though customers could have left their Dasher instructions to leave their food outside.

That all changed quickly as the pandemic spread across the United States. In March of 2020, DoorDash's founder and CEO, Tony Xu, announced the company was making contactless delivery its default option for customers. It was one of several moves the organization made at the time to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The update meant that when customers were checking out via DoorDash's website or app, the "Leave it at my door" option was automatically checked off on the drop-down menu. If diners didn't want their food left outside, they had to manually change their delivery method to the "Hand it to me" option. Even then, however, Dashers themselves could request a contactless delivery by reaching out to customers through the app. According to DoorDash's customer support page, the move to make contactless delivery the default option is temporary.