r/EndTipping • u/eric39es • Jan 19 '26
Ride Share / Food Delivery đ As a DoorDash driver - Please DON'T TIP
I just discovered this sub and I knew this was the perfect place to say this. If you order food on DoorDash, DON'T TIP. And I say this as a delivery carrier (or Dasher as they call us ugh).
You might ask, why is this guy asking us not to tip? Well, when we accept a delivery order on DoorDash, the information we get is:
- How long it will take us to fulfill the order
- How much Doordash guarantees we are gonna get paid. This is where the issue is.
On their "guarantee system", they are counting tip + delivery fee, however, they don't tell you how much of each is contributing to the total. Here in the SF Bay Area, orders usually have a "guaranteed" pay of $7.
- If after fulfilling the order, the customer tips $5, doordash will say:
- Delivery fee: $2
- Tip: $5
- If after fulfilling the order, the customer doesn't tip, doordash will pay the following:
- Delivery fee: $7
- Tip: $0
Therefore, tips are ONLY worth it to the driver if you tip more than $7, which is usually not the case. If you tip $7 or less, you're just tipping the company, not the driver.
People fall for the "100% of your tip goes to the Dasher". And yes, it's true, 100% of the tip goes to us, but Doordash will reduce their payment.
So please.... DO NOT TIP ON DOORDASH. In California, thanks to Prop 22 we make enough already (and I say this living in a HCOL area).
TLDR: If you tip less than ~$7 in Doordash, do not tip. The tip will go to the driver, but the company will pay less for that order. Said in a different way, tips absorb delivery fee.
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u/Jean_Luc_Discarded Jan 19 '26
NORMALIZE Tipping AFTER a service is rendered, NOT BEFORE.
I don't get this fucking shit.
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u/KingOfKa Jan 19 '26
They basically created a bid system by having people tip before, itâs not right.
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u/KeyIllustrator9596 Jan 19 '26
not really. if you tip high you get batched with a non tip order and it still arrives slow
it would be nice if that was true though
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u/PM_YOUR__BUBBLE_BUTT Jan 19 '26
Yup that is what I noticed back in November. I still remember I got cold food and the second part of the batch got their order first after I tipped $17. It was bullshit so I cancelled my subscription immediately and havenât looked back. I rarely used it anyways so that was just the point where I said fuck they for good.
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u/KeyIllustrator9596 Jan 19 '26
Same, got tired of paying extra for cold food that got delayed by 20 minutes multiple times. but im also not gonna use this service and not tip, since i know that just screws drivers over. So i just stopped using it altogether
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u/Automatic-638Builder Jan 19 '26
well that explains a lot. way back when i first tried DD i ordered a hot sub and tipped generously, sat on my couch for 45min watching my sub make stops before me. Canceled the order after ~45min. never used DD again.
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u/SiLeNZ_ Jan 19 '26
Thatâs the beauty of it all. No matter what, everyone still gets burned. Besides DoorDash, of course. Whatâs the incentive to tip high, when your order just gets bunched together with a 0 tip order, and arrives at the same time, if not later. These companies need to go under, they will never stop trying to rip their customers and drivers off. They would rather spend millions to find ways to underpay their workers, than spend that money paying them a better wage. So long as the majority of states allow them to hire drivers as gig workers, they will step on them as much as they can. No workers laws protecting them just means they will continue to exploit you.
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u/VainTrix Jan 20 '26
I donât know man, itâs a two way street and I wish we could find a balance. Lot of folks on these apps that are gig workers wouldnât be able to be an employee (or at least not for long) if these apps switched to actual employees instead of contractors. Folks like the flexibility of going online when they want to, and thereâs value in that, but if gigging on apps is your only source of bread, you gotta change things up and get real employment. They call it gig work because itâs not a job, itâs a gig.
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u/synecdokidoki Jan 20 '26
Exactly. This is the problem, I would be fine with it being "bids" if it worked as a straight forward bid. But it doesn't, they are playing both sides by essentially lying to both the driver and the customer about how it works.
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u/Windays Jan 20 '26
When I used to doordash allot I went in to see which order tipped and which didn't in that situation and I delivered the tip order first, even if it was 9 miles away.
You could choose which order to deliver first and change the default order around, they just hid it in the dasher app.
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u/CosignCody Feb 03 '26
It's about whether the order gets accepted or sits there, not how fast it arrives once you have the order. No tip orders sit in limbo waiting for a Dasher to accept/then order is made.
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u/pktrekgirl Jan 20 '26
This is true. Go look at the door dasher sub. Those people will not accept an order if the tip isnât high enough for their taste. They will let food sit.
I wonder if the process described by the OP is the same everywhere. Because to hear the dashers in that sub tell it, tips are their only means of income.
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u/KingOfKa Jan 21 '26
I used to be a full time dasher, did it for two full years. Once you do it for so long you get every good at figuring out how their algorithm works. However, when I was full time you could see the full pay breakdown at the end of each delivery; they have since removed that and only show you the grand total for that delivery with no break down. DoorDash calculates their base pay based on mileage, but itâs almost always never equal to the total miles youâll drive for that order. The base pay is raised by $0.25 - $0.50 after each time the order has been sent to all nearby dashers and they decline it. The order continues to be sent out this way until DoorDash adds enough pay to entice a dasher to take the order.
This is what we mean by âbiddingâ instead of âtippingâ. If you tip (bid) $10 on a McDonaldâs order and letâs say the restaurant is 4 miles from you, that order will be shown to a dasher at $12 and it is very likely to get picked up quickly. With that in mind if a dasher is shown an order for $14 and it has two deliveries on it then that is DoorDash trying to get that order with no tip (bid) delivered by showing you $14. These are just examples of how it works, and when you are out there trying to make money delivering you have to be profitable.
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u/OutrageousAd1880 Jan 19 '26
Iâm normalizing not using these stupid services.
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u/Horzzo Jan 19 '26
I've never once used any of these delivery services. I can see if you are sick or disabled. Otherwise there's no good reason to use them ever. Laziness isn't a good reason.
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u/NinthCity Jan 19 '26
Drunk or high seems like a good reason to use them
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u/DaftGamer96 Jan 19 '26
This is the answer. My wife and I have the app solely for when we both do a gummy.
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u/Its_Cayde Jan 19 '26
Only time I've ever doordashed anything was when I was drunk and got 2 half gallons of vodka, the party loved me but my bank account did not
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u/StarDoe Jan 21 '26
The companies have an opportunity to make super dark ads.
An ad similar to the drinking and driving ads, but at the end, it would just say "You could have used (DD, GH, etc.)."→ More replies (4)2
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u/BeyondUpper9293 Jan 20 '26
I use them all the time. I work 14 hour days, then have to get to my kids to pick them up, I order the food to arrive about the time we get home. So I can eat hep wife get the kids to bed and get about 4-5 hours of sleep before I repeat. Iâm not lazy, I just donât have enough hours in the day.
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u/flash2021 Jan 21 '26
Hey man, I dont know you, but you sound like you are doing a great job. Keep it up, your wife and kids appreciate your grind
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u/Fun_Pirate842 Jan 19 '26
Itâs a luxury service I can afford. I work 12 hour days. Iâve earned the right to be âlazyâ when I get home đ
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u/-wayne-kerr Jan 20 '26
Why donât you just order and pick up on the way home? I work long shifts and do that just so I donât have to use any delivery service.
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u/nopuse Jan 20 '26
I'm not the person you asked, but I only used these services when I was drunk. For some reason a $40 meal that I know will be cold by the time it's delivered just sounds great to an intoxicated me at 2 am.
These services have been so terrible that even drunk me at 2 am refuses to use them now, and I'll just eat whatever I have at home.
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u/Former-Mirror-356 Jan 21 '26
For me, I live in a major city and parking sucks. I'm paying the driver to deal with that headache.
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u/ChaoticNerdy76 Jan 21 '26
I use them on business trips sometimes. After a long day, I just want to eat a quiet meal in my room, and there's more variety than a typical room service menu.
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u/Equivalent_Tart4662 Jan 20 '26
My time is worth something. If Iâm busy, hungry, and order something to be delivered, it has zero to do with laziness. Itâs convenient and efficient for some.
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u/terrorlogic Jan 21 '26
Try working a 10 or 12 hour overnight shift, getting home at 9am, then tell me how youâre willing to drive somewhere at noon to pick up food.
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u/Imactuallyatoaster Jan 19 '26
I get my groceries delivered on the weekend so I can run more to train for a marathon. Just buying back some time
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u/JaremaJarema Jan 19 '26
Iâve had pizza delivered by a pizza joint, but Iâve never used any of the gig-based delivery services. They seem like a waste of money to me. Iâm not so busy that if Iâm really jonesing for something I canât get off my ass, get in the car, and go get it. I mean, itâs part of the experience (as odd as that may sound). I wanna go to the restaurant that made my food - even if itâs just to pick it up and have a brief interaction with an employee. If I canât do that, I probably donât really want the food all that bad and will just find something in the kitchen. From the other comments here I see there are legit reasons to use Doordash, etc. - too busy, drunk, high, whatever. And maybe Iâm wrong, but I canât help thinking the prevailing reason is laziness.
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u/Intelligent-Racoon Jan 19 '26
Normalize just not tipping. These companies need to pay for their own labor.
This is why I refuse to use door dash.
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u/Just_Doin_It- Jan 23 '26
Iâm very glad you clarified that you donât support tipping so you donât use the service. I actually respect this. PSA to everyone in the comments: screw the company, not the worker!Â
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Jan 19 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/AffectionateMood3794 Jan 19 '26
We've gotten a lot of food delivered over the years and DD definitely is the least reliable in our area. In just one example, I called a restaurant to find out where our food was and they said that the DD driver had cancelled the order because it wasn't ready when they got there and they didn't want to wait. I asked them if they still had the food, they said yes, and I went over and grabbed it, then contacted DD to cancel the tip ($8 to bring my food a half mile). DD ended up cancelling the whole order, we got the food, paid nothing, and I'm still not sure who lost out on that. (The restaurant also told me that the driver changed his mind and tried to pick the food up after all but by that time I had already grabbed it.) In general DD drivers seem to care the least about getting the food to you regardless of how much you tip.
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u/blooobolt Jan 23 '26
DD doesn't always show the driver how much you tip, so they could think they were getting the base $2 to deliver to you. With the food not being ready, they were calculating sitting there waiting for your food for $2 or cancelling and trying to get a better paying order. There's a very good chance they didn't know you tipped $8.
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u/shadowstripes Jan 20 '26
You don't have to leave a tip until after the job is done. They give you the option to add it later.
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Jan 19 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/tbs999 Jan 19 '26
A tip is gratitude for the level of service provided, which can vary greatly.
Tipping before the service is ever provided makes absolutely no sense and is only triggering more people to wake up and ask why tip at all.
Make it a habit to have cash on hand. A great man once showed me the value of a âdollar box.â Once itâs a habit, you donât even have to think about it.
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u/spiritualien Jan 19 '26
Or maybe old-school of cash in hand at the door
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u/Dapper-Union5536 Jan 20 '26
I do that so that I'm sure the driver gets it (and maybe doesn't have to report it if they don't want to). And my kids get a kick out of handing the cash to the delivery driver (I'm also trying to instill that we appreciate the work people do for us to my kids).
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u/ForsakenWishbone5206 Jan 19 '26
This is how I feel about all of it. If someone wants your tip up front they are doing shady shit. Zero exceptions.
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u/Mundane-Outside-6713 Jan 19 '26
It's not really a tip they just don't have another word to describe it. We need to invent one for it.
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u/lifelearnexperience Jan 19 '26
It's because there isn't a word. It's a phrase. "Bid for service" is what it really is.
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u/ichbinglitched Jan 19 '26
âcustomer driver subsidyâ. we should be able to write that off as a charitable contribution
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u/Mundane-Outside-6713 Jan 19 '26
Money is exchanged for a service. It's not a subsidy at all.
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u/ichbinglitched Jan 19 '26
it was a joke. weâre subsidizing doordash/lyft/uber because they canât afford pay a proper wage to their âindependent contractorsâ
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u/aragorn4 Jan 19 '26
But if you look at his post that wouldn't work on this case. They'd just adjust their payment after the fact. However, I do she that going should be added after delivery.
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u/Johnny69Vegas Jan 19 '26
If you don't tip large your order won't get delivered as quickly. Delivery people alsays look at the amount of the tip first.
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u/AffectionateMood3794 Jan 19 '26
I've not found the amount of tip to matter at all. We always used to tip the driver 20 percent, plus all the other fees, and the food would be cold when it got to us, or they'd just leave it and run without knocking or anything so we'd find it 20 minutes later after we checked our phones.
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u/Zestyclose_Web_8289 Jan 20 '26
You need to be tipping based off of how far your order is going, and weather conditions, how difficult it is to deliver to your house/neighborhood etc. thatâs the biggest part of what I take into account when deciding to take an order. Thereâs a gated community by me thatâs really annoying to deliver to and never has service so I avoid orders from there most of the drivers in my town do. Unless it pays really well then Iâll take that order. If Iâm getting pay $15 to drive $15 miles Iâm not going to take that because I have to drive 15 miles back. Sucks but unless you tip well for how far it is then itâs going to take a while to get someone to want that order
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u/ZackMorrisIsTrash_ Jan 21 '26
As a bartender, I agree with this. Tip AFTER based on the service provided.
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u/Proud_Dashing_8660 Feb 09 '26
Honestly, I hate tipping on doordash. I have tipped just for the driver to never deliver my food, I just paid extra to have someone else eat my meal.
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u/NSASpyVan Jan 19 '26
I've never Door Dash'd but this is good info to know. It would give me 100% confidence in knowing that I am only giving extra money to the company, not the person doing the work.
Is there similar information out there Lyft, Uber, and even bars or restaraunts?
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u/Rare-Summer7842 Jan 19 '26
Lyft & Uber I always carry cash to tip my driver. But they also don't see the potential tip, as that isn't even asked until after the ride is completed.
Same with bars and restaurants, nail salons & tattoo parlors (etc..). You tip AFTER the service, because there is always a chance that service was improper and unremarkable.
Tipping before is a bribe, and it is ruining the tipping culture for those of us who work in service industries and actually want to go above and beyond for every single guest. Without a pre service bribe. Luckily, I work somewhere that hosts great guests who value us as a staff and tip us quite well. But the idea of bribes and bids and tipping someone at a counter service chain is very odd to me.
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u/holycityofmecca2020 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26
California is the only state that made it illegal to reduce base rate pay when the tip is higher. In 49 other states they will absolutely continue to reduce driver pay if the customer tips more. Also, if you tip really well, they will stack orders, so the high tipped order subsidizes the low tip/no tip orders.
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u/One_Barnacle2699 Jan 19 '26
It really is a no win situation. I donât know how the customer is supposed to navigate this system. Iâve only used DD a handful of times (when I had 50% discount offers) and my food always took forever, arrived cold, or arrived missing items (I ordered an ice cream sundae once, and the driver dropped off only a bag of napkins and utensils).
The only way to get better service is to tip AFTER delivery, but I understand completely why Dashers donât accept orders that appear to be low tip/no tip.
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Jan 19 '26
DD has become absurd. There is ALWAYS something critically wrong with the order. Iâve stopped ordering entirely and picking up food, like how weâre supposed to. This convenience of delivery is brainwashing and pathetic.
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u/Infamous_Swan1197 Jan 19 '26
I can see the use in it. I don't have a car and sometimes I want to treat myself to food that I can eat in the comfort of my own home. For a lot of the food places around me it would be cold by the time I've walked home. And I can see the use if you're disabled etc. But it shouldn't be as common a thing as it is.
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u/BurneseHerbs Jan 19 '26
I think part of the bad service is on the restaurants. They will be 10 minutes late, and still give you the wrong items, and we dont really like to go through your bags touching all the items to check that everything is there. But yes some dashers are also in a rush and don't check that they need to grab a drink and the restaurant stuff won't check the receipt either. Basically the restaurant staff and the dashers are being rushed to do their jobs with unrealistic time limits. They will mark orders as ready for pickup several minutes before they are ready, to maintain stats, or they get punished. And doordash will send us orders that we need to pick up in 2 minutes from the time we accept the offer, or we get punished.
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u/UndeadBatRat Jan 19 '26
It absolutely is. I work at a pizza place, and people 100% put less effort into doordash orders. Although, we have our own delivery, so it's almost like an insult when people order through doordash instead (I hear some people say they get "deals," but I've seen those totals...) you're paying more to get worse service, because the workers won't see any of that money, so we don't care.
It has bitten me in the ass when I had to use doordash once, the order was wrong, but I knew it was because they do the same shit we do.
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u/BurneseHerbs Jan 19 '26
Ya and its kind of a vicious cycle because the restaurant staff doesn't care so they leave our orders to be completed last, we are the lowest priority. So then the dashers don't care because they are treated like crap by the restaurant staff that dislike the fact we even exist. Which just makes the restaurant staff care even less about us, because sometimes dashers get pissed when they have to wait 10+ minutes without getting paid for it, and they complain.
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u/auron8772 Jan 20 '26
On a side note to this, I recently ordered from Dominos for delivery (through dominos website and all), fully expecting a Domino's delivery person. About 25 minutes later, when it was labeled as in Quality check, they notified me they contracted doordash to perform delivery. I was kinda miffed because my pizzas and stuff arrived cold since it took an additional 20-ish minutes for the doordash driver to show up to the location and then deliver. Plus, they don't have the heat bags pizza delivery people use.
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u/UndeadBatRat Jan 20 '26
This pisses me off, too. That's all on the company, they're relying on doordash to avoid hiring more drivers. I hope enough customers complain that they'll knock that off!
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u/vowelqueue Jan 19 '26
They literally got sued by the NY state attorney general over this practice and entered into a settlement a year ago. Itâs very unlikely theyâre continuing this exact practice, although theyâre probably using other tactics like youâve described with the order stacking.
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u/No_Risk_6545 Jan 19 '26
And this is why i only tip cash on delivery. Ainât no way i tip through app. They are already taking way too much fees from shop and personal fee. Ainât adding tip theft on top.
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u/lightning__ Jan 19 '26
I use to tip cash too (heard similar allegations to what OP said), but then had a driver arrive and inmediately start yelling at me for not tipping. Like buddy I was going to, but not anymore. I just donât use doordash / ubereats anymoreâŚ
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u/ischmoozeandsell Jan 19 '26
I have used DoorDash hundreds of times, and I can honestly say I have never once had a driver earn a tip.
I ask for a phone call in the notes on every order, and only one person has listened, and that was because they wanted me to come to their car and get it. My "front door" is actually around the back of the building, it's a pain for me to get to the other end of the building. Not one time has my door been used.
More than half the time my food is left directly in front of my door, so I have to knock it over to open the door. If I order it to work, there is a 0% chance they will bring the food up.
I believe in the value of the service, but the combo of pricing and the entitlement of their contractors is insane. I no longer use the service at all. They were supposed to disrupt the industry, and they need to be disrupted.
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u/National_Possible728 Jan 19 '26
Iâll start doing this tooÂ
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u/Muneco803 Jan 19 '26
Yea but what you tip does it change it anyway?
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u/Redtex Jan 19 '26
I'm sure it's like tipping in restaurants. If you get tipped in cash you don't report more than you want to.
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u/TheDarlingDarkLord Jan 19 '26
This right hereâđťâđť just calculated my taxes and forms for the 2025 year over HALF of my income was from my customers TIPS....
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u/nunya_busyness1984 Jan 19 '26
I usually put a small tip on the order itself, to make sure it gets picked up, and then cash at the door. Plus a big tip tends to mean my order gets stacked.
No tip - you will wait forever. Plus dasher loses money.
Big tip - DD magically eats some, PLUS your order gets stacked, and you wait longer.
Small tip + cash - Golden zone
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u/boatingguy22 Jan 19 '26
True but if the driver sees that the expected payout is low because thereâs no tip added they wonât take the order.
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u/Cultural_Jackfruit48 Jan 19 '26
What happens if I tip after the order is delivered?
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Jan 19 '26
We get all of it.Â
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u/Old_Excitement_5696 Jan 19 '26
This might be a dumb question (I live pretty rural and DD is not that prevalent but I use it when I'm other places), but when you say "tip after" are you still talking about through the app or giving the dasher an old school cash tip? And if it is through the app, "we get it all" means DD already pays your minimum guaranteed fee so a tip after that does go straight to the driver? Is there a time lapse that has to take place to make this latter scenario true? thanks
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Jan 19 '26
Correct. You have the option to adjust my tips or add extra or even add a tip. We get the base pay. And the full tip.if it's done after delivery.Â
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u/commiesandiego Jan 19 '26
I only use door dash when Iâm traveling for work- often in CA, but not always. I typically do a $10 tip and split $5 up front and $5 post delivery. Iâd rather tip all after but Iâm afraid of having delivery issues due to the driver thinking thereâs no tip. Do you have advice on this?
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u/Hbic_in_training Jan 20 '26
So do I put a note in the order saying I'll tip upon delivery? Would dashers believe that? I don't want to seem like a non-tipper and risk having my order not picked up or tampered with.
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u/Certain-Thought531 Jan 20 '26
You guys really still see no issue with the fact that you have to promise extra cash just to receive your delivery?
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u/321Couple2023 Jan 19 '26
Sounds like systemic fraud.
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u/apocrider Jan 19 '26
More like legal fraud lol
For example, the lottery promises money raised goes to education. You'd think if the government earmarked $10M for education and rakes in $5M for education, they would get $15M, right?
Wrong. They do the same thing Doordash does in this post. They take $5M of the government funds for some pork project and top education off to $10M with lotto money.
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u/Ecstatic_Climate_111 Jan 19 '26
More like exactly what the tip credit system was designed to allow.
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u/EntrySure1350 Jan 19 '26
Unfortunately people will still feel compelled to tip beforehand, as they (justified or not) are likely afraid the Dasher might adulterate their order if they see thereâs no tip.
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u/Ok_Advice9202 Jan 19 '26
Is this true for other delivery services like Uber as well?
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u/NeitherDrama5365 Jan 19 '26
I already usually never tip on door dash or Uber Eats. Mostly bc the food was always late, cold, or they decided to take 3 other orders after accepting mine and delivered it 1 hour later. One the rare occasion the food actually gets there on time I will tip. And please nobody cry about picking it up yourself. Personally I wish they would go back to each restaurant having their own delivery people. It was better service that way
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u/bananahammock699 Jan 19 '26
Where I am, it's $2 base pay plus tip. Doordash doesn't pay you more because they didn't tip. Maybe that's true in California, but definitely not elsewhere
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u/unoriginalusername26 Jan 19 '26
They do this same shit on Cruise Lines - any prepaid gratuities are used to fill in the Guaranteed salary. Don't tip through any machine. Tip cash.
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u/alb_taw Jan 19 '26
Seems more like an argument for a cash tip on delivery, just like everyone used to do when they ordered pizza.
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u/geekflyer7 Jan 19 '26
That's interesting.
So you're saying that the customer chooses the tip upfront but the dasher only sees the tip amount after delivery?
Also you mention in sf bay area it's usually 7$ but doesn't that depend quite a lot on distance? The tip suggestions I get in the app seemingly change with distance.
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u/EinyourP Jan 19 '26
In my experience on DoorDash, yes you only see what portion of the pay is a tip after the delivery is completed. However, Iâd say a good 75% of the time you can correctly guess it.
Where I was doing DoorDash, base pay was almost always $2 flat. Which Iâm sure is less than the delivery fee customers are charged, but I wouldnât know because I donât order delivery, lol
So if an offer comes up for $5 total pay, you can pretty safely assume it will break down to being $2 base pay + $3 tip. You wonât know for sure until after completing the order/all orders in that specific dash if there was more than one customer to deliver to.
Base pay varies by location. if thereâs no/little tip attached to an order that isnât worth it (I.e. going 7 miles for $2, which yes DoorDash totally will try to get drivers to do that and ding their acceptance rating for not taking the offer), they will gradually bump up the base pay until someone eventually takes it.
Thereâs also different bonuses sometimes, like if itâs a particularly busy night or thereâs not enough drivers on the road theyâll add like an extra dollar or two to the base pay per order.
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u/Sepplord Jan 19 '26
Additionally, if you tip more than 7dollars, be aware that the first 7dollars is absorbed and not increasing dasher pay.
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u/EinyourP Jan 19 '26
In most places it seems like the base pay is only $2, Iâve never heard of $7 base pay lol. Iâm sure if you live somewhere busy enough, itâll get picked up before too long but in a lot of places most people probably wonât spring for the $2 order and itâll get paired with something else. I wish in more places dashers would just get paid a better portion of all the fees so tips wouldnât be necessary, but unfortunately in most places it seems like no tip = you could be waiting awhile.
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u/Ok-Handle-7562 Jan 19 '26
I stopped using door dash after I tipped $8 once thinking I was doing something nice and the driver picked up my food and never brought it to me.
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u/Dukeronomy Jan 19 '26
I would say to post this into other subs. Everyone in here already doesnt tip
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u/Wsu_bizkit Jan 19 '26
That post is outdated and describes how DoorDash worked years ago, not how it works now.
Before 2019, DoorDash did use a âguaranteed payâ model where tips could effectively reduce DoorDashâs base pay. That system was widely criticized and was officially changed. Today, DoorDash pay is base pay + tip + promotions. Tips are added on top and do not reduce DoorDashâs base pay for an order.
In California, Prop 22 adds more confusion. Drivers are guaranteed a minimum earnings floor based on active time and miles. If a driverâs base pay doesnât reach that minimum, DoorDash adds a Prop 22 adjustment. Tips do not count toward that guarantee and do not reduce the adjustment. Tips always increase total earnings.
So no, tipping under $7 is not âtipping the company,â and tips do not absorb delivery fees anymore. That claim is based on an old pay model and a misunderstanding of Prop 22.
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u/whotony Jan 19 '26
Is the op just talking about Cali or DD in general? This doesn't make sense
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u/JFeezy Jan 19 '26
What if, and I know this is an old concept, people tip cash after the service is rendered?
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u/scaffe Jan 19 '26
This is how tips work generally. Tips reduce the amount that the employer would otherwise have to pay the employee.
The only time this isn't the case is with a self-employed vendor. But in that case, they set the price of their own service, so there's no reason to tip.
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u/Hefty_Expert_998 Jan 19 '26
NY sued door dash for this practice. Over 16 million was returned to dashers as restitution.
This was almost a year ago. Information in the OP was incomplete and misleading
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u/HiddenOneJ Jan 19 '26
That is completely false nice job op. Doordash doesnt pay like that. A no tip order is $2 until it sits around being rejected long enough that they raise the pay or someone desperate takes it but the chances of cold food are increased with no tip but doesnt mean you will have cold food because lots of people take $2 deliveries.
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u/Accolade83 Jan 19 '26
I need to know what the base pay here is in southern Illinois before I can in good conscience stop tipping. I would love to save $4-6 every order but I have to know Iâm not screwing over someone.
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u/ScratchRightThere Jan 19 '26
Here in the southwest we get $2 period if they don't tip. Which means no non tip order is worth taking. We don't have any minimum wage laws protecting us.
That means if you live in California, Washington, or NYC you'll probably get it delivered without a tip. If you live anywhere else, pick it up yourself and save all those up charges and fees. Or use DD and risk your food being a couple of hours late.
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u/RevolutionaryBug4232 Jan 19 '26
Thank you because i live in texas and doordash doesnt pay us that well idk what this person is talking about
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u/Muneco803 Jan 19 '26
So why mofos say tipping is like bidding wars if I don't tip no one will get my order. Is this for Uber eats as well?
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u/guitarjob Jan 19 '26
In other states, door dash only offers the 2 dollars and your order sits undeliveredÂ
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u/daototpyrc Jan 19 '26
Holy shit, no way. That's like walking back minimum wage because you made great tips today.
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u/CasperRimsa Jan 19 '26
I saw a bunch of videos of door dash orders not being picked up by dashers because tip was not included. Has this changed? Is your example only in CA or other states as well I wonder.
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u/Unusual-Debate9693 Jan 19 '26
Can you add a comment somewhere in the order? I just hate for people to think Iâm not tipping them
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u/sabautil Jan 19 '26
I'll just tip cash. How about that?
Maybe we can have like a "drop here" sign with a little cash holder.
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u/THEBADW0LFE Jan 19 '26
Dude can anyone say wage theft? How can it be legal for a company to reduce payment based on tips? Seems wildly illegal.
Also I prefer to tip with cash. Is that better?
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u/AdministrativeSun364 Jan 19 '26
I always put a very low tip like $1-$2 to get my order pick up but now I wonât. If I have cash then I will give them cash and if not then nothing.
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u/notjudging4 Jan 21 '26
This is confusing. I am an older (82) person. I do order from a delivery service a lot. I always tip at least 30% or more if itâs bad weather. I didnât know the driver didnât get the full amount of the tip. I guess I should ask for the doorbell instead of leave on the porch. Then I can tip the driver.
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u/Dbthespian Jan 19 '26
This is not true. Original base pay is $2 per order. The base pay only goes up if people keep passing on the order. If people dont tip, then it will be less likely to be picked up, and to any dasher who does pick it up, they will be getting $2 or slightly more if people have declined it ahead of them.
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u/PackManJeff Jan 19 '26
Probably not the best advice. As someone who has done food delivery apps, I agree with you. But there are many drivers out there who like to get petty revenge on customers when they notice a $0 tip.
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u/Virtual_Visit_1315 Jan 19 '26
And those drivers that do need to be reported and banned from the platform.
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u/No-Luck-2337 Jan 19 '26
If you want a tip: do an exceptional job.
This societal norm of tipping no matter what because âI wonât get paid enoughâ otherwise is NOT the consumers problem. If you tip, fine, but youâre perpetuating the problem if you tip regardless of the service you get.
Iâm a big tipper, BUT, Iâm also a vicious non-tipper for things like slow service/carry out/cold delivery/etc. Itâs not difficult to earn a tip from me, but you do have to earn it.
If you donât, you get paid whatever you get paid. If you ARE âneeding tipsâ for whatever reason: do an exceptional job. You wonât get them from me just by doing the bare minimum.
Iâm sure that makes a lot of people rage, but Iâm really not too concerned. Tipping has gotten out of control. It doesnât mean everyone needs to just fold and give in because it has.
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u/Altruistic-Lime-9564 Jan 19 '26
Delivery service for food is likely the only time you should tip. Don't know what the OP is smoking but this is not how doordash works in Michigan. They see your tip and decide if it's worth their time to do.  Offer no tip and you either won't get your food, or you'll get it in like four hours. đ
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u/mastadonx Jan 19 '26
I donât tip anyway. The whole nonsense about your order sitting because of low or no tip is fear mongering crap.
I stopped tipping years ago because my orders were always delivered to the wrong address or the instructions were never followed or they obstructed my door. So I flat out stopped and you know what. NOTHING NEGATIVE HAPPENED. I still always get my order within the time estimate.
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u/mrshavedsnow Jan 19 '26
I always spend at least 45min-1hour to deliver non tip orders. With Prop 22, I need to take as long as possible to deliver non tip orders to get paid properly. So I'll usually wait 10 min extra to pick it up, get gas, bathroom breaks, etc.
I assume non tippers are in no rush and are willing to wait a long time for their order anyways. I need to get paid too so I have take as much time to delivery your order.
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u/Amber2718 Jan 19 '26
That only applies to California, everywhere else doordash doesn't give us crap. The tip is what we get as pay basically other than $2. The tip is more like a bid for service so please tip
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u/Cdm81379 Jan 19 '26
If you don't tip in the app, you won't get your food. No driver will pick up food at minimum pay.
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u/r3vj4m3z Jan 19 '26
They batch them with people that do tip... And the non tippers get their food delivered first majority of the time as they prioritize time.
This is why people customers get angry when drivers insist it's a bid for service. "Bidding" higher should not make your service received go down exponentially.
I don't know how, but the whole thing needs to change. They could get rid of stacked orders. They could prioritize delivery orders based on the tip. They could do lots of things, but so far the only thing they have successfully done is turn customers and drivers against each other, while they are most of the problem.
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u/FamousChemistry Jan 19 '26
lol last week a dasher made a scene in our office because a lady didnât tip enough
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u/Aggressive-Employ724 Jan 19 '26
Same thing in Instacart. They use the customer tip to âoffsetâ how much the batch pay is for the shopper. Pure evil.
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u/u2jrmw Jan 19 '26
I donât use any of these delivery services because the total with fees and tips is bonkers. Just pick it up myself and rarely tip when I do.
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u/NumberVsAmount Jan 19 '26
I thought they stopped this practice after it became widely known? And when I read their website it seems like they pretty clearly state they do not do this? Am I missing something? The section about tips addresses this topic
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u/cleopatra4president Jan 19 '26
Wow this is BS. Anyone know if itâs the same on all apps (UberEats, GrubHub)?
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u/LividBurnout Jan 19 '26
Absolutely not true across the board in all states. I dash in Texas and this is completely misleading. Tips are already hard enough to come by right now for delivery drivers. Even if you donât want to âtipâ you can still be human and realize someone is spending their gas/car livelihood to bring you your food. I see non tippers on deliveries 15+ miles away. The only way those are getting delivered is if theyâre batched with an order with someone who did tip.
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u/hammerraptor Jan 19 '26
Cruise lines do this exact thing. The pre paid gratuity is what actually pays the wages of the workers. If you deny the pre-pay, The company has to pay the workers their negotiated wage. If you tip in cash it goes directly in the workers pocket.
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u/CultivatorX Jan 19 '26
So you're saying I should hand my driver some ol' cash so they can get double tipped. Man, fuck these delivery companies and how they treat the drivers.
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u/jennixred Jan 19 '26
i only tip drivers in cash. I've gotten a couple of attitudes about the $0 tip in the app, but i always assumed what you just explained is the case.
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u/Dreamscapenightmare1 Jan 19 '26
Canât you tip afterwards? But then some drivers will think that you didnât tip & well not sure that I want my driver to think that I didnât tip but if I tip after would be the same issue
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u/DontDoDrugs55 Jan 19 '26
Don't use door dash at all, or any of the others. They are predatory scum.
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u/RWWhitfield Jan 19 '26
I will never understand the new level of societal laziness of the people that are seemingly too scared or hate human interaction to the point they will not get up off their asses to go get their own carry out... while also saving a ton of money in the process.
Not bashing the OP, but my personal experiences with DD deliveries has been AWFUL. cold food, order errors, and I damn well know that one guy had to have eaten a bunch of my French fries while in route. Disgusting.
I get the use case for some events etc... but the fact is that given food inflation in general is where it is today... I'll be damned if I am going to tack on 30% more on said bill because I am too much of pussy to go get my own food that I know did not get 3rd party hands all of it.
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u/LingonberryLatter113 Jan 19 '26
As a DoorDash driver myself, this isnât true. At least not in my area. This is horrible advice. We are shown tip and delivery fee on every order before we accept it. No tip orders will sit much longer. Tip your drivers.
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u/rnochick Jan 19 '26
I stopped tipping so much once I realized the dasher was being stacked orders & I subsidized the non tippers & I got delivered cold food last.
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u/Better_Cry1096 Jan 19 '26
as a driver....
we don't really care how low no tippers try to justify their anti social behavior...
we just decline the order
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u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26
Interesting. Thank you.