Is Doordash stealing Tips? Something you don’t know

Maybe you’re a dasher or just someone who’s looking to make an order for the first time on the platform and is wondering how tips are processed, this article will show you just how, and of course, whether Doordash steals drivers’ Tips or not.

Is Doordash stealing tips?

Basically, no. Doordash doesn’t steal or take a cut of the tip a driver could earn.

As a Doordash driver, 100% of the tip you earn per delivery is paid to you after a successful order, whether cash or non-cash tips.

If you have had delivery without tips or maybe a low pay, it’s worth taking note that tipping on Doordash is totally optional. So you’ll definitely find customers that don’t tip (Not advisable, though).

Why?

Well, even if Doordash could be in the position to steal tips without getting caught, they sure won’t try doing something like it, after the $2.5 million lawsuit they had to pay in 2019 for a deceptive tipping model.

This happened as a result of Doordash being accused of using the tips drivers earn per delivery to cover their base pay or in some cases, reduce it.

But then, they didn’t have a policy on that (the difference).

However, after the lawsuit in 2019, Doordash had to change its policy, and document it, with the emphasis that they would pay drivers 100% of the tips they received, on top of their base pay, regardless of how much tips they get.

This means if a customer tips $10 for delivery, the driver will receive the full $10 added to their normal base pay.

3/ Every dollar customers tip will be an extra dollar in their Dasher’s pocket. Customers can tip before or after the delivery, and the amount DoorDash pays will never vary based on the tip amount.

— Tony Xu (@t_xu) August 22, 2019

So yeah, they won’t want to try doing something like that. $2 million ain’t a joke.

But why does it seem like Doordash steals tips?

There are basically two shady-related tactics when it comes to Tipping on Doordash:

1. Doordash Doesn’t tell you how much you’re tipped until after a delivery is successfully made – this can put you into a situation where you can’t tell whether you even got a tip or not, especially if you’re just starting out.
2. The fact they’d hide or reduce the total earnings from an order when a customer tips up to a certain amount that can really attractive.

The first is one no-new thing in the food delivery industry, as it’s a common practice in most companies like Ubereats, Deliveroo, Doordash, etc.

However, the second is a little more shady. So, let’s try to explain

In situations where a customer makes a tip that could be worthwhile (For instance, a $15 tip for a 7 miles order costing $25), Doordash would reduce the tip on the display to something else (In this case, it could go from $25 to $15).

Note that they don’t take the tips, but just hide them, until after the delivery.

We’ve seen this happen severally, and Doordash acknowledges the fact that they do it.

According to the company, this is done to avoid dashers from cherry-picking orders.

Hence, it’s done to avoid dashers leaving out poor pay orders for higher-paying ones.

However, in the real essence, this makes tipping higher on Doordash not worth it for customers, as most people tip higher to get their orders delivered faster.

With this in place, for an order with a quite high tip, since drivers can’t tell how much they’re paid, it could make them less eager to take the order. Eventually, this would lead to a delayed delivery.

This wouldn’t have been so if there was a way a driver could have seen the high tip earlier enough.

If this is the case, customers may just have to opt into tipping drivers after delivery to only thank them for their services, and not to increase the delivery time (which was kinda a big factor before)

How to identify Hidden tips on Doordash

The feeling of getting an extra $2, $5, and even $10+ on an order you thought wasn’t worth that much can be really great, especially when you didn’t expect it.

Now you may want to wonder if there’s any trick out there to get these kinds of orders…

But the gospel truth is that there is none.

There are however suggestions and finding that could help you land more “hidden tips” orders. And here’s ours…

1. Deliveries with weirdly longer distances have a better chance of having hidden tips when compared to short-mile-range deliveries
2. Deliveries with more items are more likely to get higher tips, hence also stand a chance of getting their tips reduced in a case where the Tip is really high.
3. Orders from Mc Donalds and Taco Bell are less likely to have a hidden tip
4. Orders from high-end restaurants also tend to have higher tips.

Between, here’s a video we recommend:

Final thoughts

Doordash would normally not steal a driver’s Tip. The only close scenario here is the fact that they hide tips when it gets really high.

But should you be worried about it?

Personally, as a driver, I ignore everything else and go for deliveries that would basically cover my time, my expenses and give me a due profit.

And that’s definitely advisable to avoid getting any heartbreak!