Dear DoorDash HQ,

 

In this email I will be speaking on behalf of myself as well as other Twin Falls Dashers I've been speaking with. Most dashers won't contact HQ with the concerns I am bringing to your attention now, for fear of deactivation of their accounts. Many have already signed up with GrubHub and others and are working 2+ apps flip flopping back and forth just to try and make ends meet. A few have spoken of leaving DD altogether because of the poor base pay and low tips. They all feel, as do I, that we get penalized more often than we get rewarded through the DD system so I won't be mentioning any names here other than my own. If you want to deactivate me that's fine, but I feel that would be a foolish move on DD's part since I am a very experienced delivery driver. Only experienced drivers can consistently give 5 star service while newbies are still learning... I would prefer to stay with only DD, but I too have signed on with Grubhub just in case.

 

What DoorDash does is great, in THEORY, but not in actual practice, at least not in the Twin Falls area. I realize every city and market is different and adjustments need to be made from time to time. I hope to help you make changes here that benefit not only the drivers but customers as well.

 

By the time DD gets done feeing a customer to death, there is no money left over for the DELIVERY DRIVER, A VERY IMPORTANT ELEMENT of the whole delivery process! And the last thing a customer wants to do is add a tip (and certainly not a good tip) on top of all the other fees they just paid. DD needs to fee the customer less and offer a "higher base pay" to the delivery drivers and not count on the customer to make up the difference with a tip because that is just not realistic for this area. According to my own deliveries, I've noticed that maybe 10% of the people that live here tip more than $3  and that's just not enough.

 

Acceptance Rate and Completion Rate

Get rid of these, or at least don't penalize us for falling below a certain % level and threatening us with deactivation. Right now, with me personally, My AR is: 27% and my CR is: 91%.

 

My AR is low because 73% of the offers I receive through the app are garbage! What I mean when I say "garbage" is that there is either no tip or a $1-$3 tip on the offer. These offers are not even worth starting my car for. A majority of these offers expect us to go 10+ miles for a $1-$3 tip... NO FLIP'N WAY!!! So I decline it over and over again. I won't take a delivery right next door for this amount. Our TIME is another issue we all have. I'll get to that in a minute.

 

My CR is lower because 9% of the offers I've accepted through the app were unassigned due to manipulation by doordash (trying to "trick" us into taking a delivery or the wait time was just too long - 10-30 min)! What I mean when I say "trick" us is when doordash sees that we declined an offer that they really want delivered they will include it in a "stacked" order and offer it to us again using the combined total $$ amount as the "bait" making the order appear more appealing and better than it actually is. We usually wind up getting screwed on one or both of the deliveries in the long run (no tip or low tip with a long distance). This is why I no longer accept any "stacked" orders. I just don't TRUST DD anymore when they offer these stacked orders. I don't like being deceived or downright lied to. I'm not a gambler either so I like to know ALL of the delivery details up front out in the open before I even accept the order. If it's not shown I will decline the order. Not buried or hidden seeing them only after delivery is completed. I noticed you changed the statement "amount could be higher" to "guaranteed" now, but that still doesn't do much in the way of our low base pay. We just know for sure now that we're not getting paid enough.

 

Wait Time

DD pays absolutely nothing for our time, so I don't wait, I will unassign an order that is going to take 10+ min. We really aren't even paid enough to pick up and drop off under the current pay scale. I make out better by just keeping the gas I have and unassigning the order. I won't work or wait for free! My (our) "time" is worth something...!!!

 

There are 7 merchants in Twin Falls right now that are highly UNDERSTAFFED with EXTREMELY LONG WAIT TIMES (20-30 min). Some have closed their lobbies altogether now and only drive-thru pick up is available:

 

SONIC, LITTLE CAESAR'S, MCDONALD'S (several locations), BUFFALO WILD WINGS, TACO BELL (always drive-thru only), PAPA KELSEY'S, ALBERTSON'S DELI (system issues, always claim they never received the order in their system).

 

On Time Or Early Rating - Traffic

Traffic here is really bad and if we're lucky, we can do 20mph in our 35mph zones but Thur - Sun usually not. The averages you use for delivery times are way off and causes late deliveries. Because of this, my "On Time or Early Rating" is at 92% when it should be at 100%. I was in the military so punctuality and hot food is my main focus and is just as important to me as it is the customer!

 

APP CRASHES

I have to tell you, the DD Driver App is crap. It crashes constantly (daily) causing late deliveries, cold food and sometimes it ends my day because it just never recovered!!! I'm not sure if the system was overloaded or what. I've made several calls to DD HQ about this already. No other apps I have on my phone crash, only the DD App.

 

Shop & Deliver

I used to shop through instacart so I am pretty experienced at shopping, I know what's involved and I know what's realistic. There are ALWAYS delays of some sort when it comes to shopping. Lots of empty shelves now so you have to ask a stocker to go find something for you, conversations back and forth with the customer trying to come up with a substitute item, etc. All of this takes TIME. DD doesn't like to pay anyone (fairly) for their time so I decline all Shop & Deliver offers. 57 items for $8 delivered 10 miles is ridiculous (a similar offer I received and declined just the other day)!!!

 

Alcohol Deliveries

I also did this through instacart and have watched the horror stories on youtube of other DD drivers. You show up for a delivery and the customer conveniently doesn't have their ID or you get there and find out the person is under 21 or there is a raging party underway and everyone is drunk and stupid. All of these stories that I refer to required the driver to return the alcohol to the merchant and getting a refund. It also included A LOT of wasted time that the delivery driver was not compensated for so basically, they worked for free. I decline ALL alcohol offers.

 

Other experienced drivers tell me, and show me on their phones, that their stats run pretty similar to mine. We try to educate the newbies on what to accept and what not to accept in order to make the best use of their vehicles and their time.

 

Since I started dashing again, specifically in the Twin Falls area, I have been keeping track of everything. I keep extensive notes, images and videos.

 

IT IS MY RECOMMENDATION THAT A "FAIR" PAY SCALE IN TWIN FALLS SHOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

 

FLAT RATE, in town, BASE PAY delivery fee (.1 - 5mi): minimum $5.00

RURAL: $1.00 per mile

WAIT TIME (Over 10 min): Add $5.00

 

I don't care about a TIP as much as I care about being compensated FAIRLY for a delivery. DOORDASH should be the ones responsible for that, not the customer. This way, every offer will be accepted and delivered regardless of whether or not there is a tip included.

 

I hope the information I provided you here today can create a fair atmosphere for both delivery drivers and customers.

 

Thank you,

 

Dasher

Perry Sprague

Twin Falls, ID