What Happens If You Cancel a DoorDash Shift?

Emergencies, breakdowns, or maybe you’re recently getting better offers at other delivery platforms (if you multitask), there are a number of reasons you’d want to cancel a scheduled shift on DoorDash.

But the question is, are there any penalties that come with it and if there are, what are they? This post explains what happens when you cancel a shift on DoorDash.

How Scheduling Works On DoorDash

The idea of having to schedule shifts has been a cause for confusion and questions about the platform’s acclaimed flexibility. Fair enough, this is actually a good argument.

However, it’s important we make things clear…

Firstly, as a Dasher, you aren’t strictly bound by a schedule like in traditional 9-5 jobs. The schedules you make are actually just to book a time slot in your location, due to the competition.

For instance, if you have an Emergency, you could easily ignore your schedule without having beef with DoorDash. In this case, DoorDash would cancel the schedule after a while, usually 30 minutes.

However, it’s still best to cancel schedules normally, rather than ignoring them.

It’s also important to note that in some markets where demand for drivers is high, you would always have the ability to DashNow, a feature that lets drivers start dashing immediately without a schedule, to yourself.

This relieves you from having to schedule manually. But then, it’s obviously not stable and only available when there’s a high demand for drivers.

Editors Tips: One known way to always have the Dash Now feature to yourself is to strife to get on DoorDash’s Top Dashers Program. While with strong requirements, there are some advantages that could be effective in your stay on DoorDash, depending on your market.

It’s for the same flexibility purpose, DoorDash allows drivers to easily create, edit, and even cancel their scheduling, unlike in the real world.

Let’s talk about canceling schedules in the next section.

What Happens If You Cancel a DoorDash Shift?

Canceling a shift is a free action on DoorDash.

When you cancel a shift, the app respects your decision, and would immediately cancel it, creating a time slot for other Dashers who can easily take the slot.

Now does this come with any penalty?

Typically, no. DoorDash understands that life happens, and the need to cancel a scheduled shift can come at any time. Generally, there’s no penalty or something that stops you from scheduling in the future after canceling a shift.

A note from DoorDash about this…

We understand that things may come up and you may need to delete or edit the start and/or end times for your scheduled Dash. You can do this within the app!

DoorDash

And there’s no reason for there to be any penalty since the moment you cancel a shift, a slot would be available for another driver elsewhere.

Related: Top 5 Scheduling Hacks You Need to Know

In other words, canceling a scheduled shift is at no disadvantage to DoorDash, and as a result, they shouldn’t penalize you for that.

Now, what you want to avoid is repeatedly canceling your scheduled shifts in a streak. This could show that you’re being unserious or trying to game the platform which is against Doordash’s policy.

It’s also important to note that canceling a shift is totally different from canceling an order you’ve accepted. While the former doesn’t come with any explicit penalty as we said, the latter could come with penalties when gone extreme.

Why? Well you cancel an order you accepted, it decreases your completion rate, one of the few metrics DoorDash tracks for drivers.

And according to DoorDash, if your completion rate goes below 80%, you risk getting deactivated from the platform.

How to Properly Cancel Schedule Shifts on DoorDash

Now, what’s the process of canceling a schedule on Doordash? and most importantly, the right way?

Well…

1. Open the DoorDash app
2. Head on over to the ‘Schedule’ section. Here, you’ll see a list of your upcoming shifts.
3. Find the shift you need to cancel.
4. Click on the shift and it should open up the details of the shift.
5. You’ll see a ‘Delete Dash’ or ‘Cancel Dash’ option. Now, tap on it.

Final Thoughts

Canceling your shifts is a simple process on DoorDash and doesn’t come with any risk. If you need to cancel a shift, take the plunge. There’s nothing to worry about, moreover, you’re freeing up a time slot for another driver. So there’s no loss to DoorDash.