Next time you order a burger and fries from your couch, be careful. If you don’t add a tip for your delivery person, you may have to wait longer for your food.
That’s the message DoorDash is sending in testing a new screen on its app that warns customers in the United States and Canada about the consequences of not adding at least a few dollars as a tip when checking out .
The screen, which pops up on the app during the ordering process, gives customers the option to type in a tip amount and proceed, or click the “Continue without tip” button – and deal with the consequences. Is.
“Orders without a tip may take longer to be delivered,” the screen says. “Are you sure you want to continue?”
Pressure on customers to add tips, which DoorDash addressed in a statement On Wednesday, it was the company’s latest effort to make changes to its app amid concerns about gig workers’ rights and fair pay for delivery people. In June, DoorDash announced it would give delivery drivers the option to pay minimum hourly wage instead of earning money for each delivery, which will vary by region.
DoorDash began its tip pilot in some cities in the United States and Canada earlier this year and could expand it nationwide, the company said.
“Although most customers leave a tip, offers that do not include a tip may be considered less desirable,” DoorDash spokeswoman Jane Rosenberg said in an email Thursday. Dashers, the nickname for independent gig workers who pick up and deliver food and other items for DoorDash, keep the tips they make, he said.
The company will analyze the results of the pilot before possibly issuing the reminder across the country. DoorDash said it is now rolling out to randomly selected users in several cities across the United States and Canada.
Tipping has traditionally been associated with rewards that are proportional to the quality of service performed, but the pressure to tip by default increased in the early stages of the pandemic, when many people stayed away from restaurants or grocery stores and Rely on delivery people to bring them. Eat
DoorDash’s tipping announcement has attracted news coverage over the past few days. Los Angeles ABC News affiliate invites consumers To give your opinion onlineAnd some readers expressed displeasure at having to add a tip before receiving the service they were tipping for.
Caroline Jones, 36, who has been a Dasher in Dallas for about 10 years, said she feared some customers thought the delivery fee went to Dashers like her, and she hoped the new tip screen would make it clear that’s the case. Not there.
Last week, he waited 20 minutes for a Panera order to be ready, and then spent another 10 minutes getting it delivered to a customer’s home. He made $4 from DoorDash and $3 from tips, he said. In September, she spent 22 minutes picking up and delivering a Chipotle order and said she got $2.25 from DoorDash and no tip.
“I just hope people understand we’re providing a service,” she said. “We’re actually getting your food, bringing it to you safely, and most of the time it’s hot when it gets to you.”
DoorDash said consumers will still have the option not to tip. But it also said it had detected a “meaningful reduction” in no-tip orders since the pilot began.
