Complete Review: Delivering for Doordash

What is Doordash?

Doordash is a technology company providing a simple, on-demand food delivery service that was established by four Stanford students in 2013. According to their website, the company strives to empower local businesses as well as, “connect people with possibility — easier evenings, happier days, bigger savings accounts, wider nets and stronger communities.” While providing quick and easy financial opportunities for employees, Doordash makes money by charging restaurants a percentage fee of every order placed. Doordash couriers are known as “Dashers.” When delivering for Doordash, there isn’t a set weekly schedule, a certain amount of hours required to work and no dress code.

How do you make deliveries for Doordash?

To make a delivery, Dashers must be logged on to the Doordash delivery app. Once logged in and near a hotspot [an area that is very busy with orders], an order will pop up on a Dasher’s mobile phone and there is an option to accept or decline the order. Pro tip: You will want to accept most orders in order to keep your ratings high. 

Once you accept the order, the app will provide directions to the restaurant, as well as the name of the customer and the items they ordered. It’s quite simple. All you have to do is:

1. Drive to the restaurant ordered from
2. Show the merchant your order
3. Collect the ordered food
4. Deliver the food to the customer from the address and directions provided on the Doordash app

After you have made the delivery, you will be able to rate the delivery regarding if it went well or did not and specify details of the delivery. For example, you may be waiting at a restaurant for over 15 minutes for an order. This becomes frustrating because you are given specific times through the Doordash delivery app when the food is supposed to be picked up and delivered by, so if you do not pick up and/or deliver the food when desired, it negatively affects your ratings even if you are not at fault.

 It does take a few deliveries to get used to the process and learn tips and tricks for earning more, what time frames are the busiest and which surrounding cities are the most popular. However, once you get the hang of how Doordash’s delivery system works, you’ll find that it couldn’t be easier!

How much do delivery drivers for Doordash get paid?

Dashers receive payments differently, based on three criteria:. 

1. Doordash base pay

The first form of payment is through a base pay from Doordash.  This pay ranges from $2-$10 and is dependent on the time, distance, and desirability of the order. The level of complexity of your order is what determines how high or low your base pay is.

2. Doordash promotions

The second type of pay is any promotions that Doordash is offering. These promotions include peak pay [opportunities to earn more during especially busy time frames], challenges [incentivize Dashers to earn faster in a set time period] and drive [dashers can earn extra money for large catering orders].  These promotions provide Dashers the opportunity to earn even more.

3. Doordash delivery tips

The third type of payment is the tips given by the customers if they choose to do so. Dashers receive 100% of the tip that customers give after they place their order on top of the base pay and promotions. Additionally, your tips don’t affect your base pay or any promotions earned. 

According to Doordash, dashers can earn around $15-$25 an hour but when first learning the ropes of how to dash, your starting hourly rate may be slightly lower than $15-$25 an hour. However, your earnings are entirely dependent on the amount of effort you put into working. The more orders you accept, the more money you are likely to make – whereas the more you decline, the less money you will earn.

Dashers get paid once a week with two different options. The first option is to have the money instantly transferred to your bank account, known as fast pay, but a small fee of $1.99 will be taken out of the dasher’s earnings. The second option is to use direct deposit, where free weekly transfers are sent to your bank account every Monday. Direct deposit seems to be the better method because you get 100% of the money you make without any percentage of it taken out unlike the instant transfer option. Although you only get the money once a week with the direct deposit method, the wait is worth receiving 100% of the money you have made for that week. 

Delivering for Doordash

Advantages of delivering for Doordash

As with any job, working for Doordash comes with its ups and downs. 

Flexible Schedule:

• You can work around your own schedule with extreme flexibility. If you have some extra spare time and want to earn some money, you can log on to the app and start dashing! 
• If you need to stop for a break to get gas or water, you are able to pause your current dash for up to 35 minutes. 

Unlimited Hours:

• You can dash for as long as you want. This means fairly unlimited earning potential.
• It is best to schedule when you would like to dash so you are ensured to work during the time period you desire. 

Limited requirements:

• Starting up with Doordash is extremely easy—you only need a smartphone and a vehicle. Additionally, you can use any car to deliver.
• They only ask for the bare minimum when it comes to signing up: a valid domestic driver’s license, insurance, and a clean driving record.
• Don’t have a car? Be sure to check for information about your local area, because you may be able to use motorcycles, scooters, bikes, or even walk.

Perks for being a Dasher:

• Doordash offers some pretty worthwhile perks for Dashers, the first being through their referral program. Dashers can refer other drivers and earn up to 15 referral bonuses per year.
• The Top Dasher program incentivizes drivers to complete certain qualifications like customer rating of at least 4.7, acceptance rate of at least 70%, 100 completed deliveries during the last month, etc. Top Dashers earn priority when things are slower and are allowed to avoid scheduling and “Dash Now” at any time.
• Doordash additionally offers certain discounts and deals to its Dashers, from fuel rewards programs to financial help tools.

Disadvantages of delivering for Doordash

With advantages almost always come disadvantages and there are a few when it comes to working as a dasher. 

Work isn’t always promised:

• Work (and pay) is not always a guarantee as there may be too many dashers scheduled to work at one time—which is another reason why it is best to schedule when you want to work ahead of time. 
• Working can be inconsistent with orders so you may be driving around for 30 minutes or so waiting for an order to pop up. 
• To avoid waiting around, check out the time frames when Doordash says the areas around you will be busy and look out for any extra promotions or bonuses. 

Low pay: 

• Some orders are occasionally low pay or include no tip for far deliveries—which can be frustrating. 
• It’s not best to decline a lot of orders. However, you are able to decline if you would like to and provide the reason for why you are declining the order. For example, the reason could be that the order is too small.

Reviews from Dashers

To further expand on the pros and cons of working as a dasher, some reviews from Glassdoor give more specific details. One review states, “Great job for students”, which, as a college student, I completely agree with. Balancing college life is not always easy so being able to quickly and easily make money on the side is very helpful.

 Another review says, “Flexible hours and good customer support,” which I find to be  very true along with many other reviews I have found. You can work whenever you would like to and if something goes wrong while working, their customer support is easy to access and very responsive. 

This last review, in short, fully captures many Dashers’ feelings towards working for Doordash as it states, “Love/hate.” The flexible hours and ability to schedule on your own time is unanimously loved by Dashers, however, it’s frustrating to receive inconsistent pay and tips. 

So as you can tell, working for Doordash has mixed reviews, as most jobs do. Working as a food delivery courier may not be for everyone, but its ease and simplicity are certainly appealing when looking for a side job to earn extra cash. 

To summarize, is it worth getting a job delivering for Doordash?

If you’re looking for a simple and easy job to earn money on the side, Doordash could be for you! You can schedule to work when you want to and the hours to work are extremely flexible. If you don’t mind putting a few extra miles on your car, working as a dasher is a great and convenient way to make some extra spending money in your spare time, explore different cities, and stay busy!