How long will Doordash Search for a Dasher?

So, it’s your first time making an order on Doordash, and you’ve followed the process shown, but still find it hard to get an order made, and perhaps you are stuck in the app searching for a driver.

This can be frustrating, as Doordash doesn’t even have a delivery time guarantee or any sort of discount for the inconvenience. So how do you fix this? and how long will Doordash keep searching for a driver before it gets one?

How long will Doordash Search for a Dasher?

There have always been complaints about Doordash taking time to search for dashers, after making orders. In fact, we get this, once in every 10 Doordash complaints

Now, there are a couple of reasons this can happen – which we talked about previously.

But for today’s topic, how long does this keep happening?

To begin with, Doordash doesn’t have any approved time range it takes to find a driver. However, finding a driver is usually a breeze and doesn’t take much time unless something is wrong.

From our experience, it takes a few minutes –usually don’t go more than 5– for Doordash to search and assign a driver. It could also be instantly depending on the situation.

Now, what if Doordash takes a while to find a driver or doesn’t even find one at all?

Well, it’s pretty much a normal thing, as there are a number of factors that influence this.

Editors note: If you have a situation where Doordash takes a long to search for a driver and can’t find one, you don’t need to panic. You can stop the search after a period of 30 minutes, after which you could choose to get a refund.

Let’s talk about this properly in the next section.

Why Doordash may take so long to find a dasher

First, it’s important to note that there are a couple of stages that go on before an order gets accepted.

It should be one, right? Yes, but not entirely.

These stages we’re talking about are what happens in the mind of drivers (oops).

So here’s the thing…

When you make an order on Doordash, the platform begins searching for a driver relatively closer to you or the restaurant and instantly makes requests to them.

But it does this consecutively.

This means instead of sending requests to as many drivers as it can get and hoping one would eventually accept the order (and at a faster rate, of course), it sends to drivers one at a time.

The problem with this in most cases, is that not all orders flow with Drivers, especially the experienced ones. They’re always picky.

If your order doesn’t meet their criteria, they decline. And they may do this after taking a few minutes to run a check on the order, which of course, increases the delivery time.

Editors note: There are also some other factors, such as time of the day, your location, driver density, etc, that contribute to why Doordash may take long to find a driver for your order. We talked about this properly, in the article linked above.

Now, what are the criteria drivers judge from before deciding whether they’d take an order or not?

The whole thing can be grouped into…

The profitability of the order

Drivers are independent contractors, hence given the freedom to make critical decisions that can influence their overall earnings.

They should, of course, since they pay for gas, insurance, taxes, and have their car maintained while the pay from Doordash isn’t impressive.

For customers, one reason your order won’t get accepted or take time to do is when you don’t tip or you didn’t tip right. Yes, we know Doordash says tipping is totally optional, but in reality, that’s not exactly the case.

The truth about tipping in the food delivery industry is that they’re the bedrock of drivers’ earnings, unlike other industries

For instance, here’s a Redditor’s comment about this…

He delivered an order, with a total of $24 for an order that cost him 25 minutes. Got only $2 as base pay (the pay from Doordash) and $22 as a tip.

In fact, not just this Redditor, Doordash barely pay drivers more than $2 – I’m a driver myself, and I can testify. Now imagine being paid $2 for a delivery that cost you 30 minutes+ to deliver.

This doesn’t mean you can’t get your order accepted without tips as Doordash says. You can, but it’s most likely going to take Doordash longer to find a driver that would agree to your pay.

One other factor not so much in your control, that could lead to Doordash taking time to accept your order is the restaurant.

For instance, orders coming from Restaurants like MC Donalds, Chick-fil-A, and Taco Bell, are sometimes avoided by Drivers, usually experienced, for some reasons like…

1. Having a long wait time
2. Always crowded with people

Here are some real comments about this…

This shouldn’t be something to worry about if you stay in a good location, at least with a couple of drivers – there are still drivers that would accept all restaurants than not.

Final Thoughts

Typically, the wait time before Doordash finds a driver is usually not more than 5 minutes, unless in severe cases, which could happen as a result of poor or no tip, restaurant, location, and a couple of other factors.