If you don’t tip, and if you tip well, don’t expect Jay to take your food delivery order.
Gen Zer in Philadelphia told Business Insider that he works about 10 hours a week as a “weekend side job,” primarily delivering food by bike for DoorDash and Uber Eats. Jay’s last name is known to his BI, but has been omitted for privacy reasons, and he shares his birth experience with nearly 150,000 people. TikTok followers.
Jay said that when he logs on to a delivery app, he chooses whether to accept or ignore various orders that come in. It said its decision was based on how much it would pay per delivery and how long it would take. DoorDash and Uber Eats offers include base payments. This depends in part on delivery distance, but includes occasional incentive fees to attract drivers, and upfront tips included by customers.
According to delivery records previously provided to BI, Jay’s average base payment was between $2 and $2.50, but some base payments were as high as $4.50. He said if a delivery offer is made as low as $2 or $2.50, that means the customer is not providing a prepaid tip.
meanwhile door dash and Uber Eats Customers can also tip after their order is delivered, but they’re not interested in waiting to see if they’ve wasted their time, Jay said. For this reason, he typically only accepts orders with the highest payout (which often means the highest advance tip) and turns down about 75% of the orders he receives.
“I’m not doing it to gamble. I’m doing it to make money,” he said. “So I’m not really interested in the game of, ‘Oh, maybe he’ll do this person’s delivery for $2.50 guaranteed. Maybe even more.'”
Jay isn’t the only food delivery driver to take this approach. In November, DoorDash customers who try to order without a tip will now see a warning that says, “Orders without a tip may take longer to be delivered. Are you sure you want to continue?” became.
Jay said the majority of orders include a tip. Typically, he ranges from $3 to $7, according to documents seen by BI. Drivers for both DoorDash and Uber Eats keep 100% their tip.
“I think people should tip for the premium service that’s being provided,” he says.
Jay isn’t the only gig worker looking for big tips.Many delivery drivers say they benefited from generous tips early in the pandemic, but some customers After cutting back.
Uber spokesperson Alix Enfant told BI last year that tipping has increased since 2020.
“On the vehicle side, the frequency of tipping and the average tip during a trip has roughly doubled in the past two years,” Amphant said. “Tipping rates have always been high for food deliveries, but the average tip for deliveries has increased by about 20%.”
A DoorDash spokesperson told BI last year that the majority of DoorDash customers leave tips, and drivers earn an average of $25 an hour while delivering. A spokesperson said drivers are allowed to pass on orders, but the company’s data shows drivers who accept more orders earn more than those who wait for the driver who gives them the most tips. This is said to be a trend.
A new survey of more than 500,000 U.S. gig drivers by Gridwise, a data analytics company and app that helps drivers track their income, shows that by 2023, 75% of gig drivers in the U.S. will , found that almost 90% of food deliveries received tips. 28% of Uber and Lyft ride trips.
Jay rides his bike during his delivery shift.
J Doordash
Searching for big clues is like a “treasure hunt”
Jay doesn’t just stick his fingers in your mouth and expect you to order with a hefty tip.He said he intentionally wanders around more affluent areas like Philadelphia. Rittenhouse SquareBecause customers there tend to tip better, he said.
“We’ll sit in Rittenhouse Square in the park and take orders from a high-end Italian restaurant,” he said. “It’s a two-block delivery for him, but he ends up paying $20 because this person doesn’t want to walk two blocks in the cold in the winter.”
He added: “We know which areas of the city have better chips and which areas don’t. It’s usually related to income in that area.”
Jay started delivering food for DoorDash in January 2019 to earn extra income, and said he worked about 40 hours a week that summer while he was away from school. When the pandemic forced Jay to move her home to the Philadelphia suburbs, she started delivering groceries and food from her car. He noticed a significant increase in tips, and his first few months were a “gravy train,” he said.
“For a $250 to $300 grocery order, people were tipping $100. I was so scared to walk into the grocery store that I was so grateful that someone else was willing to do it for me.” “Because I was doing it,” he said.
Jay said DoorDash and Uber Eats tips are around pre-pandemic levels, if not slightly higher. But while $100 grocery tips may be a thing of the past, Jay said there was once a year when his pay was higher. It was winter.
With more drivers on the road during the summer, he said he typically earned $20 to $25 an hour delivering food.
However, during the winter months when there are fewer drivers to compete with, some customers tip more to thank drivers for driving them in bad weather, but documents show Jay rides his bike around the city and earns an hourly wage. He said he earned as much as $45. Viewed by BI.
However, winning orders with high tips isn’t always what it seems. Some drivers have complained about “chip baiting,” where customers offer high tips to attract drivers and then take them back, but Jay said such a thing is , it has happened to him three times.
Jay said he plans to continue gig work on the weekends and look for the best tips.
“I do this food delivery job, and I think of it as a game,” he said. “It’s like a treasure hunt, and I find joy in it.”
Are you a gig worker willing to share your story about pay, schedules and tips? If so, contact this reporter at jzinkula@insider.com.
Editor’s note, April 26, 2023: This article has been updated to reflect the real names of sources mentioned in the article.
As the in-house writer for GallantCEO.com I prefer to remain anonymous as I do not seek anything from my writing only the self gratification of writing for a good cause such as this.
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