I’ve never ordered from one of these services, as I either bring my own lunch or would go pick it up myself. I’m curious what a reasonable tip would be. Say I ordered a $16 meal from a place within 3/4 mile (in-city, so stoplights, traffic, etc). I’m envisioning a $5 to $7 tip, but is that too low? Too high?
I’m curious how much @Max_S tips in sit-down restaurants - 5%, 10%, Bible verse, ?
That seems incredibly high to me. That’s like 35-45%.
@JohnT, what would you say?
Not to speak for him, but he said earlier that he tips up to an equivalent $30/hr rate (or tries to). If the payup.wtf article above is correct, and the average order takes 30 min and the base pay is essentially zero after expenses, then he “should” be tipping about $15 per order.
Ouch.
Not even close?
The average base pay is $5 delivery. One can do 3 deliveries an hour in San Antonio, easy. If I want the driver to make $30/hour, then $5 should do it, $10 will definitely put her there.
The unbelievable inefficiency is what astonishes me. If I had to guess out of the blue, I’d think a driver could get 10 deliveries per hour in a reasonably busy area. That would be 2-3 orders at the same time and maybe 15 minutes for each one. It would require the service provider to do a good job in combining deliveries that are nearby in time and space, and restaurants would also need to be on the ball. If this were true, $3 would be a perfectly decent tip even if that’s all the driver made, but apparently they really only do 2 deliveries per hour.
You say that, but that’s not what DMC’s link says above. Here it is again:
Note that they are deducting the car maintenance and payroll tax expenses. You didn’t say whether you account for that, but normally when I think of a salary I don’t include those. They come to a final rate of $0.48/hr for the base pay–essentially nothing.
And maybe in San Antonio you can get 3/hr, but their data says it’s more like 2/hr on average.
Also, this is DoorDash. Maybe their competitors are better (or worse).
I would guess that in my particular work neighborhood, 2 per hour would be about right. Thanks!
I’m sure it very much depends on the area. Of course, that’s somewhat unfortunate because it makes it hard to determine the appropriate tip.
There’s an In-n-Out ~3 miles away that easily does 100 orders/hr from 6 to midnight. And the residential areas here are pretty dense (condos and apartments). If 10% of the orders were delivery, a single driver could do 10/hr just serving that one place, picking up a few orders at a time and delivering them on a circuit. I’ve no idea if it actually works out that way in practice, though. If the algorithm sucks and the driver ends up waiting around just to pick up one order at a time, it would be way worse.
I tip on my DD/UberEats/GH food delivery, although I base it off the actual cost of the food and potentially factors like the weather. I’m not going to tip an extra 15-20% on the “service fees” and “delivery charges” that the company adds. On at least some of them, the “suggested 20% tip” includes all that stuff and that’s bullshit.
I have a few friends who either have or still deliver and they all say that less people tip than do so even a couple bucks puts you in the upper tier of deliveries for the day. And that, despite the “Well, then you just don’t deserve to get Door Dash if you won’t tip” arguments, they would still rather get the orders for the base non-tip fee than sit around doing nothing and getting paid nothing. After all, if the 50% who don’t tip just stopped using the service, they would only need 50% as many drivers and the rest better find new gigs.
Edit: I realize that these accounts differ from the above linked article and, well, it’s a big world so it makes sense that not everyone fits neatly with the presented “averages” especially based on location.
It’s not like it’s hard to find a job right now. Probably one that pays much better, too.
Maybe the overglut of people picking up these gig jobs is the problem, and it rewards people like Max_S, as it is bidding down the service. There will always be someone more desperate than the last, meaning that there will be someone who will do it for $2 an hour.
If there were half as many Door Dash drivers, then maybe no one would deliver to cheapskates who don’t tip, and they would all make more.
Can’t speak for these drivers as a whole but the ones I know already have day jobs. This is just a way to make some extra money on evenings/weekends on their own schedule (versus a traditional part-time job). When they feel like driving, they log in and drive. When they don’t, they don’t.
So, then they don’t need to find new gigs as you just said?
Anyway, I guess the ones that you know have nothing to do with the ones that deliver during the day to places like where the OP works, as the ones you know only work during the times when he would not be at work.
I think that we are talking about people who are using this as their primary income, not just some extra money when they feel like it.
Guess it depends on how much they rely on the extra income. Plenty of people here (and in the world) use these services to deliver for dinner and weekends even if the OP doesn’t. Also don’t think you can separate the classes since the customer has no idea if their driver is trying to pay rent or trying to save up for a new XBox. Just because someone delivers lunch doesn’t mean they don’t have alternate/primary income elsewhere.
Just trying to get it straight. First you said they would need new gigs, then you said they wouldn’t, so not sure what, if any, point you were trying to make.
I don’t think you have to, and that wasn’t what I was doing. I have no idea what relevance that has to the discussion. Do you care to explain why you think it is?
Do you ask for a personal financial disclosure form before you decide whether to or how much to tip in a restaurant?
All I was pointing out was that the group of drivers that you said that you know are not the same group of drivers that would be delivering to people like Max_S, so your personal anecdote is a bit less useful than the usual uselessness of most anecdotes.
I fail to see your point. Your waiter at Applebee’s may also have a 6 figure day job, and is just waiting tables on the weekends for a bit of extra money. Does that possibility mean that you don’t need to tip them as well, or does this “logic” only apply to deliver drivers?
sounds like if your friends who are willing to take orders for a fraction of minimum wage stopped doing deliveries, then the people who actually are trying to make a living off of it could, and cheapskates who refuse to tip would be the only ones who lose.
No, you said that. I said they would need to get new gigs, you said “just get a real job” and I pointed out that they are working THESE gig jobs for a reason, primarily flexibility. This doesn’t mean that they don’t find the money useful (or more) but that a job elsewhere likely wouldn’t meet the requirements they are looking for. I’ll also point out that “they would need new gigs if 50% of customers stopped using the service” was more universal than just the people I know since I doubt I know 50% of the food delivery gig drivers.
Basically, you turned “they have other day jobs” into “They must not need to work these jobs anyway so who cares” without actually knowing anything else about it.
I never advocated not tipping. I said that I tip. You’re on your own tangent on this one. I said that if everyone who didn’t tip stopped using the service as people keep saying they should, it would be an overall negative for the drivers since they would spend more time sitting around getting paid nothing. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tip, it means “Don’t use the service if you’re not going to tip” is a poor argument to make people tip because it actually hurts the drivers more.
That’s new, I’ll definitely look into it.
Say I order out once or twice a week, the $100/yr subscription becomes roughly 75¢ per order. So if I’m ordering $24 of food from Cracker Barrel via Uber Eats, just as an example,
- food: $24
- “delivery” charge: $0.75
- service charge: $3.60
- taxes: $1.98
- total, pre-tip: 30.33
I already had lunch today but I did open up Uber Eats to confirm these numbers, minus the 75¢ delivery charge which requires actually subscribing.
Which leaves the tip. My approach to valuation of the delivery service hasn’t changed much. The trip is a little shorter at about 2 miles rather than 3; however, the meals from Cracker Barrel come in significantly larger boxes than the little bag they use for subs at the sandwich shop, the food is hot rather than cold subs, and our Cracker Barrel is notorious for long lines during the rush (I’d est. 4-5 minutes waiting at the counter). I’d value the service of delivering this order for me at $7 to $9. I’m already paying $4.35 in fees so I’d tip $4, which is coincidentally about what I’d tip a waiter/waitress for average service on the same meals dining in.
- tip: $4
- total, post-tip: $34.33
I’m interested if @JohnT thinks this is fair, as a former (current?) Uber Eats driver. And what the pay might look like from the other end. And whether cash versus the app tip is recommended, since apparently that platform lets you see the tip before taking the order.
~Max
edited to add totals.
15% for average service
~Max