DoorDash is warning customers that if they don’t add a tip for their delivery driver, they may be waiting longer for their orders.
The food delivery service rolled out a new pop-up disclaimer in its ordering app, pictured below, that is prompted by customers editing the suggested tip amount to $0.
The warning reads, “Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered — are you sure you want to continue?”
DoorDash delivery drivers — whom the company calls "Dashers" — get 100% of the added tip on top of base pay. And since they can choose which orders they accept to pick up and deliver, they are more likely to choose ones with higher tips.
Food delivery services like DoorDash saw a significant boom in business during the pandemic era. Today, more than 112 million Americans use a food delivery service, and it is projected to be a $32 billion industry in 2024. That’s according to recent statistics from Fundera by NerdWallet.
DoorDash, which turned 10 this year, is considered the dominant food delivery service with its subsidiary, Caviar, over competitors like GrubHub and Uber Eats, which bought Postmates in 2020, based on a market analysis by Bloomberg Second Measure.
DoorDash said it’s committed to providing Dashers more flexibility and choice over their pay, further enticing people to use it as supplemental income.
Earlier this year, DoorDash added the option for its delivery drivers to earn money based on the time spent on an order, giving a guaranteed minimum hourly rate plus tips, or to keep their original model of earning per order accepted. Dashers can choose which earning mode they want to use at any time, it said.
DoorDash also added a post-checkout tipping option, with which customers can add to their tip in the app up to 30 days after the order is delivered.
It’s unclear how the post-tipping option would be affected by the new disclaimer, since if a customer decides to tip after delivery, it might appear that they’re not leaving a tip at all for the dasher.
Delivery drivers can also accept multiple offers at once in the same area, DoorDash said on its website, which may lead to longer wait times regardless of tip amount.
The company told NBC New York it is testing the tip-free disclaimer in some regions and it plans to analyze the results and feedback before deciding to implement it nationwide.
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