April 6, 2022 • 47 mins
Many Dashers are convinced that Doordash gives their Top Dashers better delivery offers. However, Doordash themselves don't even promise that.
I decided to test the theory. I started out in February not having Top Dasher status. I accepted 100 straight deliveries in February so that I could not onlly make Top Dasher for March, but also have a record of every delivery.
Then in March, I took another 100 straight delvieries. I kept track of everything: Offer details, how long deliveries took, how far I drove, all of it. Then I could compare.
I talk about my experience taking 200 straight deliveries on Doordash and the comparison of deliveries as a non-Top Dasher and as a Top Dasher.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Does Doordash reward top dasherswith better deliveries will
Doordash give you betterdelivery offers because you have
a high acceptance rate?
That's what I wanted to findout.
I'll tell you the story of whatI did to see if things got
better if I made top Dasher andit involves accepting 200
(00:21):
straight deliveries in Februaryand March of this year.
And if you know me, that is amiserable thing to do, but we'll
get into that in just a moment.
First of all, I want to thankyou for joining me on the
deliver on your businesspodcast.
If you have been listeningbefore you notice a couple of
things, no music starting out.
(00:41):
And if you notice me kind ofstopping and starting I'm also
trying to do this non-scriptedwithout a whole bunch of retakes
or anything like that, which issomething very new for me, but I
wanted to kind of make it moreof a, I guess, of a conversation
or something.
If you're not a previouslistener, you may be new to the
deliver on your businesspodcast.
And let me just tell you realquick, what I'm all about here.
(01:02):
The thing is this podcast isintended for independent
contractors in the on demanddelivery space and the gig
economy.
And we're talking, especiallyfor platforms like Doordash
Instacart, Uber Eats, GrubhubShipt Curri Roadie, just any of
these places where you dodeliveries as an independent
(01:22):
contractor and, and the thingabout it is, and, and the thing
that I think I try and do alittle bit differently is it all
comes down to what you agree toby calling yourself an
independent contractor oragreeing to the terms of service
that says, I agree that I'm anindependent contractor what's
you're doing is you're saying Iagree that I am providing these
services as a business and notas an employee.
(01:49):
And that's what deliver on yourbusiness is all about.
That's what Entrecourier.com isall about is it is all about.
The business side of being anindependent contractor, because
here's the thing I think that wecan do our best when we actually
embrace that role.
And we claim those rights, youknow what?
We take them at their word andwe've got to hold them to their
(02:10):
word when they're going to saythat we're running as a
business.
And so.
That's what this is all abouttrying to do that.
And this is one of the reasonsthat doing 200 straight
deliveries for me was just puretorture because I've never done
anything like that.
I have never been the type tojust take everything that they
give.
And it all has to do with thiswhole idea of being, you know,
(02:30):
running a business.
The thing is, is like if you runa.
Somebody can't just walk in.
They could, but you'd never stayin business.
If somebody just walks in andsays, here, I'll give you a
nickel for this widget thatyou're selling for$10.
Right.
You know, I can't, I can't walkinto a restaurant and say, Hey,
I'll give you two bucks for thisprime rib, you know?
(02:51):
Most of them are not probablyall of them are not going to do
that.
And a lot of them are probablygoing to throw me out of my ear.
You know, the idea being that ifyou're running a business, you
have a right to make yourdecisions.
And in fact, these companiesactually explicitly say, you've
got the right to do this.
Let me read this from theDoordash independent contractor
agreement.
Contractor understands that theyare free to select the times
(03:14):
they wish to be available in theplatform to receive delivery
opportunities.
But here's the important parthere.
They are free to negotiate theircompensation by among other
things accepting or rejecting.
The opportunity is transmittedthrough the Doordash platform by
consumers.
And can make such decisions tomaximize their opportunity to
(03:34):
profit.
So Doordash even says, I mean,they say it themselves, you
know, and, and here's this, thisis the philosophy that I take
as, as a business owner, thusbeing an independent contractor
is that I set my price byaccepting and rejecting delivery
offers.
And if a delivery offer, doesn'tmeet my price.
I say, And that's all there isto it.
(03:56):
And so I have a very lowacceptance rate most of the
time, but, you know, here's,here's where we get to the story
because I decided I wanted to dothis experiment.
I've thought of doing thisbefore.
But honestly I felt like Icouldn't afford to in the past,
you know, I'm, I'm out here tomake a living and I've been
doing delivery for, you know,four years.
(04:16):
And most of that has beenfull-time and.
You know, the thing is, isthere's a certain amount of
money that I need to make, and Iwant to make it within a certain
amount of time.
You know, I don't want to bethat guy that is working 80
hours a week.
I've got a family, I've gotother things that are very
important to me.
And so I'm not going to knockmyself out to deliver food, just
(04:38):
to bring in enough money.
So I've got to run my businessin a way that is profitable.
And so I use what I call a 50cent rule.
I got to believe that a deliveryis going to pay 50 cents a
minute or better.
If I'm going to take that offerand.
And that's basically a$30 anhour rate.
And it's like, if you're taking,if, if the deliveries I'm on are
(05:00):
running at a$30 an hour runrate, then you know, there's,
there's going to be somedowntime.
There's going to be a little bitof time between the offers or
something.
But in the end, I'm going to bemaking as much as I feel like I
need to make for the amount oftime that I'm going to put into
it.
And some people will say, oh,$30an hour.
That's way too high to expect.
You know what you can claim, youcan ask for whatever you want.
(05:22):
But the thing is, is if you'regoing to make me a business
owner, you gave me the right toset my price, you know?
So taking every delivery.
Just goes against every fiber ofmy being and it was not easy,
but here's the reason I decidedto try this.
I kept hearing everybody saying,oh, I get so much better
deliveries because I'm a topDasher.
(05:44):
You know, if you go into theFacebook groups, if you go onto
Reddit and you've got all these.
Kind of bragging that, oh, Inever get those low pay delivery
offers.
I get a lot better offers whenI'm top Dasher than if I'm not,
which most of them are lyingbecause they've never been
Non-top Dasher.
You know, they've always beenthat employee want to be, and
I'm not saying every top Dasheris that.
(06:06):
I've I've had, you know, I'veheard, I've had discussions with
some where they say, well, Icherry pick all through the
month.
And then the last three days, Ijust buckle down and accept
everything for about three daysor something so that I can get
my acceptance rate up to 70% andmake that top dash so that I can
get the better offers.
And I'm, you know, that alwaysbaffled me because Doordash
(06:27):
never promised that you getbetter deliver.
They did not promise that we'llget into that.
They said some things that makeit sound like it, but they never
promised that they're going togive you better deliveries.
And so.
It's like, why do people believethat?
And I'll tell you the truth.
I've had a couple of times thatI have made top Dasher in the
past.
And usually those are timeswhere I'm doing, you know, very
(06:48):
high concentration of bikedeliveries and in the right
areas of town, DoorDash isfantastic with the way that they
dispatch the delivery offers tome because they're always
sending just very short, veryquick deliveries that I can do
with.
And so my acceptance rate tendsto go a lot higher than, but the
thing is, is when I've made topdash or I've always believed
that the offers actually gotworse and not better, but
(07:14):
there's an important word.
I said, I've always believed.
And, and the thing is, is allthose top dashers that tell you
that they get better offers.
They believe it.
And there's a word here it'scalled confirmation or a term
called confirmation bias.
You're going to notice thethings that you want to notice,
(07:34):
and if you want to be Top Dasheror, or whatever, you're going to
believe that you're gettingbetter offers.
I don't believe that top dashersany better than you're going to
believe that the offers areactually worse.
And so I, you know, I just, Ikeep hearing that, but it's
like, nobody has the data youdon't, nobody has that actual
(07:54):
information.
Everybody that I've ever heardsay it one way or the other,
nobody has ever been able tosay, and this is how I can tell
that it was better.
It's just, it's just a feeling.
And I'm sorry, but feelingsdon't help a whole lot.
They don't really answer thatquestion.
And so that's why I decided,okay, I'm going to go out and
I'm going to, I'm going to gettop Dasher.
(08:17):
And the only way that I couldreally think of to really
compare all of the deliveryoffers is to actually accept the
delivery and complete thedeliveries.
And, you know, I think I saidthis already, but in the past, I
don't think I could haveafforded to do this because The
pay is an awful lot less whenyou do it that way I can tell
(08:37):
you, and even I can especiallytell you that now that I've done
this and you know, the problemis that it was.
I didn't want to spend so manyhours being out there and not
bring home as much as I shouldmake.
And, you know, fortunately nowthat the website has grown at
entecourier.com and I get somerevenue from advertising and
(08:58):
things like that.
And so it kind of took some ofthe pressure off and it allowed
me to say, okay, you know what?
I can afford to have a couple ofcrappy months on delivery you
know?
And so I could go out there andnot worry about what I'm making
and maybe have a little more ofan objective view of what is it
like?
So I did in, I started inFebruary and I started when my
(09:22):
acceptance rate was like at 28%and I took a hundred straight
delivery offers in February.
And that of course would get meup to where then beginning of
March, I'd be topped Asher, andthen.
In March, I took a hundreddeliveries and that way I could
compare the numbers and Itracked everything I tracked how
(09:45):
much time every single delivery.
I tracked how far I was going.
I kept a record of all of thedifferent things that a
Doordash, you know, said that itwas going to be that it's going
to be 3.1 miles.
It's going to pay$2 25 cents or,you know, whatever it is, all of
that I've got down onspreadsheet.
I went so far as to even doscreen recordings on my phone to
(10:08):
record the progress on all ofthat.
And I don't know that I'll everdo anything with most of those,
but, you know, I'll tell you tobe honest, part of the reason
that I did that was that I thinkit was paranoia on my part, that
I was worried that if I'm takingevery offer and I'm taking all
these deliveries now wheresomebody doesn't tip that those
are the people that are morelikely to say, you know, you
(10:31):
know, claim, you didn't do thedelivery or anything like that.
So I ran a screen recorder thewhole time, because if somebody
did make a claim that I wantedto be able to back it up and
say, yes, I actually did.
You know, and it shows where I'mat on the GPS and it, it
actually records theinteractions, all that stuff.
So it was like one more way ofproving that, yes, I did
(10:51):
complete that delivery in caseanybody accuses me.
And I had one person that Ithought they were going to I'll
tell you about that in a littlebit, but it, you know, it was
just a, it was an interestingthing.
so, anyway, I wanted to kind ofshare just some of my thoughts
and some of my experiences andtell you a little bit about what
it was like.
And, you know, the first thingto talk about is just some of
(11:13):
the challenges of doing this,especially as somebody who is
used to.
Rejecting the crap, you know,that, that, that I'm not going
to take this delivery and I'lltell you something four years of
doing delivery and I've neverfelt burnt out on delivery, but
(11:34):
I came real close to feelingthat way with this.
And the reason that I never feltthat way before was I think a
lot of it was because, you know,one I'm I'm in control.
And two it's like if a deliverygoes bad, it's my fault.
You know?
That that's the attitude thatI've taken.
(11:54):
That if something doesn't goright, if it doesn't pay well
enough, it's my fault.
And when I take that attitude,one, I'm not feeling bitter all
the time.
You know, I go onto Facebook andinto Reddit and I just see this
toxic bitterness all over theplace that, that people just.
You know, despise all of thesecompanies.
Now there's a lot of stuff thatDoordash and Uber Eats and
(12:17):
Grubhub, and all these companiesdo that are worthy of being
despised.
But you know, just like thistotal bitterness and it's like,
everything that goes wrong withtheir day is Doordash has fault
or Instacart's fault or whoever.
It is hard to spend much time inthere.
Just, just that totalbitterness, because I don't
(12:38):
understand it.
Honestly.
I kind of got a little betterfeeling of how people feel after
doing all this, because here'sthe thing.
If a delivery doesn't pay well,That's my fault for making the
wrong decision, you know, for,for not thinking about this or
not thinking about that.
But, you know, I made thedecision when somebody throws a
(13:00):
win-win DoorDash throws a youknow, a$10 offer at me.
And I say, yes, I have alreadydecided that whatever I'm making
on that delivery is good enoughthat I am satisfied with what
I'm going to get.
And honestly, I don't carewhether or not I got tipped.
You know, I don't care whetherthe customer didn't tip.
(13:20):
I don't care whether it was$10.
It was all from Doordash and, orI don't care if it was just$2
from Doordash and the customertip to$8.
Honestly, I already made thatdecision that this is good
enough for me.
And, and I stick with that.
And so.
I didn't feel like all thatstress or all of that anger over
(13:42):
the way that customers weretipping.
Cause it was just essentially ifDoordash isn't paying well
enough and the customer's notpaying well enough, then I'm not
going to take that delivery.
But if I accept that deliveryand it was a crappy offer,
that's my fault.
That's not their fault.
I'm the one that was stupidenough to take the offer.
And so I've been able to kind ofgo through all these years of
(14:04):
doing delivery without reallyfeeling too stressed out or
bummed out by the circumstancesof the day.
And then I go and I do all thiswhere I'm accepting every offer
and all of a sudden it's like,you know, 14.9 miles, are you
kidding?
You know, and, and it's like, oryou know, that the very last
(14:25):
delivery I got, it was just likeDoordash was trying to challenge
me.
I don't know if they knew whereI was at and I was on, you know,
number 100.
I D I don't think I matter atall to them at all.
So honestly, I don't know that.
It was like that, but it surefelt kind of weird because it
was like this offer comes up topick up from a donut place, 11.4
(14:49):
miles for$4 dollars.
And you knew it that distancefor$4.
And that was an awful low amountfor the DoorDash to pay for that
distance.
I thought supposedly they werepaying more for a longer
distance deliveries.
Right.
And Doordash lies about a lot ofstuff, but, you know, you'd knew
that the customer wasn't tippinganything and, and it was just
like, you gotta be kidding meand.
(15:14):
I don't know, I it's, it's a loteasier when all of a sudden you
just kind of put yourself inthat position where you got to
take everything.
It's a lot easier to start toget bitter about what the
customer does or, or to getbetter about the orders
themselves.
And, and it was like, because Iwas now all of a sudden giving
Doordash control, it reallyaffected my mood and.
(15:35):
You know, so I did that firstmonth and actually it was like
in a couple of weeks that I didthe first hundred deliveries in
February.
Got that knocked out.
And then in March, I couldn'tkeep going at that same pace.
It took me the whole month toget that a hundred deliveries
in.
I just, you know, I took, I tooksome time off with my wife.
We went out of town for a weekand there were several days
(15:57):
where it was just like, Nope,I'm not going out there.
It really changed my wholeperception of what delivery was
like.
And I think that was the biggestchallenge, you know?
And honestly, here's the otherthing I think that I thought
that, you know, maybe the.
The three and$4 deliveriesdidn't bother me as much as the
extra long distances.
(16:18):
I was driving all over theDenver Metro area.
I mean, everywhere.
And it was just like Doordashwas like, Hey, we're going to
stick you way out in Aurora,which nothing against Aurora,
but it's just so far away fromwhere I'm at.
And it was just, I I was notprepared for how much extra
driving I would do.
(16:39):
And normally I deliver it'sabout three tenths to four
tenths of a mile per dollar thatI earn is about what I average
and all of a sudden it's morethan a mile for every dollar
that I've earned.
And.
And especially when gas pricesare all of a sudden shooting up
and I'm like, I'm an idiot fordoing this right now.
(16:59):
Maybe I should stop.
But I said, okay, I'm just goingto keep going.
And so it was, it was, it wasdifferent.
It was Yeah, I will never dothat again.
I don't think you know, andhere's the thing and, and this
is why I wonder if I was justkind of a fool to do this one
because gas prices going up.
But two, because I know that 200deliveries isn't enough to get
(17:21):
any kind of definitiveinformation, you know, for one
thing, it's 200 deliveries herein Denver and there's always.
Different things that can kindof enter into whatever happens
and stuff like that.
So, so it's like, you know, am Ireally going to find out very
much, but I decided I'm going tolearn more than if I didn't do
(17:42):
anything at all.
And I had, I think, threedeliveries that really come to
mind.
The first delivery was.
Actually, there were four thingsthat came to mind that just
really kind of stood out.
The first one was I didn't makea hundred percent and I was shot
down on that almost right away.
It was just like three or fourdeliveries in.
(18:04):
And all of a sudden, you know,my, my text goes off, Hey, go
pick up here.
But it never popped up on theapp and it's like, Crap.
You know what it's like therewith Doordash.
If you deliver Doordash at muchat all, you've had this happen.
I'm almost sure that you havewhere all of a sudden you get
paused for.
Not responding to a deliveryoffer, even though the offer
(18:26):
never popped up on your phone.
You know, and I, I saw that textpop up and I'm like, oh no, you
know, and I actually forcedstopped the app and then started
it back up to see if I couldcatch it before you know, that
it would pop up maybe, and it'sjust not nothing happen.
So, so I ended up missingdelivery, but the funny thing
is.
Sometimes that seems to workagainst your acceptance rate.
And sometimes it doesn't becauseI had a few times that that
(18:48):
happened.
I did have a couple of timesthat it was like cause I'm doing
all this stuff to recordeverything.
You know, I take a screenshot assoon as the offer pops up.
And then I marked, you knowwhat, my, you know, what time it
is, all that stuff on a littlespreadsheet.
And I had a couple of timeswhere I actually forgot to
accept.
So I ended up with a 97%acceptance rate, but every time
(19:09):
that I actually.
Had it pop up on my screen andeverything like that.
I did accept.
And so, and I completed all ofthose except for this one
delivery.
And I don't know, you know,what, maybe I over responded, I
got this double order.
It was a double stack you know,two different orders.
There were actually twodifferent restaurants.
(19:30):
I stopped pick up from the firstrestaurant and then go to the
second one.
And that second one, I knew Icould see that it was a.
It was a$3 delivery.
And so then I walk in and, andright as I walk in, I get this
text here and let me find thathere.
I want to read this and shetexts.
(19:51):
Hello, please text me.
When you arrive, you will haveto call the concierge to let you
up to the ninth floor, and thenthey will key you up to the 42nd
floor.
And please ask the restaurantfor cups and napkins and eating
utensils.
Thank you.
I was like, I want you to jumpthrough all these hoops and oh,
by the way, I didn't leave you atip.
I'm already kind of like, oh,I'm so close.
(20:14):
And then I, you know, I get tothe restaurant and I walk in
there and.
Oh, this is going to takeanother 10 minutes.
And so kind of between thenonsense with this one right
here, and the fact that I've gotthe food in my hand from the
first restaurant and it's gonnarun late and, and in fact
Doordash is not real good atupdating the deliver by times.
(20:34):
I, I tracked even that.
And they're really bad at that.
And I'm like, I'm not risking acontract violation over this.
It was just all this stuff thatis just part of the nonsense.
That is Doordash.
You know, so finally I just, youknow what, I can't do this.
I, I unassigned myself from thatdelivery.
So that was one I didn'tcomplete, but I didn't, at least
(20:55):
I didn't include that deliveryinto the stats, but it was just,
you know, kind of one of thosethings I.
And as much as I tried, Icouldn't get the perfect
delivery numbers all the wayacross the board.
And you know, I even trackedwhether or not I was on time or
not.
And I will tell you that myon-time percentage that is on my
app is way off and it neverchanges.
(21:18):
I mean, it, it was like, I didbump up.
For some reason, you know, ithad been sitting at 70% and a
bumped up to 72, over 200deliveries where I had better
than a 90% on time.
And some of the stuff thatDoordash does with the timer, I
had one time that I got theorder and I, and I've got it all
recorded because of the screenrecorder and the screenshots and
(21:41):
the deliver by time wassomething like, you know, 10:20.
And they get to the restaurant,pick up the food.
And as I go to the store or as Ihead out to the customer, All of
a sudden now the deliver by thetime is 10:12.
They backed it up by eightminutes and the customer was
five minutes away.
So I was late on that delivery,even though I got done earlier
(22:02):
than they said on that.
So Doordash has just does a lotof weird things.
And I think that was maybe oneof the fun things about doing
this thing was you couldactually see, especially what
I'm tracking, every littlething, you could actually see
some of the weird stuff they do.
And so.
And I think I already mentionedlike that last trip, the 11.4
mile one that you know, 11.4miles for$4, it took like 45
(22:27):
minutes.
I track a stat that I callprofit per hour.
And what I've done is I figuredout that my car actually costs
about 35 cents a mile tooperate.
And it, it had been runningabout 30 and then with the gas
increase in everything, it's upto about 35 and I mean, I've
gone through, and I've kind offigured out all the maintenance
costs, you know, how much doesit cost to replace the tires and
(22:50):
how often do I have to do that?
And all of the other maintenancethat you've got to do and all
the, you know, all the differentcosts and how much value is my
car losing when I drive and oh,by the way, Oil changes in gas
and everything like that.
And it adds up now to 35 cents amile.
If you've kind of been veryin-depth looking into that.
(23:11):
And so you know, the thing is ifyou've heard me before I call
that a credit card on wheels,you know, there's a lot of costs
beyond just the gas as well.
I haven't gotten crazy about thegas prices because yeah, gas is
up a lot and it sucks.
It's still a small part of whatit costs to run your car.
(23:33):
And most people don't thinkabout that stuff, you know,
you'll have to replace the tiressooner because of all the
driving you're going to have toreplace the timing belt sooner
because of all the driving,every mile you drive gets you
closer to all of those things.
And every mile you drive drops alittle bit of value off your
car.
If you've got a.
(23:53):
If you got a brand new car thatmile is actually costing you
more than what gas costs.
You, it seriously, you go andrun a Kelly blue book and on
your car and, and then run itagain, but add 20,000 miles to
it and see the difference inwhat the value of your car is.
That the only thing that isdifferent is the miles.
(24:15):
And how big of a difference itmakes.
And, and a lot of newer carsyou're looking at 15 or 20 cents
a mile that it costs you just inlost value on your car.
And so, you know, all thatstuff, I mean, add all that up.
35 cents a mile.
I subtract that from whatever Idrove and or from whatever I was
(24:35):
paid and then divide that by theamount of time that it took well
on that last delivery, 11.4miles at 35 cents.
I think I figured it out.
And you do the math on this.
I might be wrong here, but Ithink it was like three and a
half cents that I made on thatdelivery for 45 minutes, three
and a half cents.
And it's just insane.
(24:55):
I had one delivery that Ihonestly expected.
There's going to be a contractviolation.
I honestly expected this.
The lady gave me the, you know,the address was there and all
that stuff.
And I took it and I took it tothat.
And then after I dropped it off,And I was on my way to I, I was
(25:15):
already on another delivery.
In fact, I was at the restaurantwhen all of a sudden she's
texting me left and right.
Like a mad woman.
And, and it's like, where'd youwhere'd you leave it off?
Where'd you leave it off.
And I told her exactly where itwas.
I said, this is where, you know,this is where it was.
No, no, no, no.
You went to the wrong building.
You went to the wrong building.
You've got to come back and youtook it to the wrong place and.
(25:37):
I had the screenshots and I hadall this stuff and I said,
here's what it says.
I said, you need to be checkingin with Doordash on this.
You know, if, if if they've gotthe wrong information you need
to get them to change that.
And.
And right after that, I thinkthat's when kind of that
connection ended because I wasgoing to call her and say, I can
(25:59):
come back and pick it up becausethe next delivery was going to
go that way.
And the car wouldn't go throughor anything like that, but I was
absolutely expecting that I was.
Contract violation for that, or,you know, claiming she didn't
get her food or anything likethat, nothing popped up.
So I don't know if that was onethat Doordash just monitor the
messaging that went on there or,or exactly what happened.
Cause she sent it by text andnot through the in-app messaging
(26:23):
and you know, but you know, thatwas the one that was one of the
reasons I do a screen recordingbecause everything that happens.
Shows up on the phone and I'vegot a record of it.
And like I said, I was paranoidof that kind of thing happening.
And I was to be fair, probably alittle surprised that it only
happened or possibly could havehappened one time.
So, you know, I probably, maybesome of my conceptions have been
(26:45):
changed about what happens whenyou do that.
So the question did DoorDashgive better orders?
Folks.
I see.
Absolutely no evidencewhatsoever that the quality of
delivery offers was better inany way, shape or form.
(27:08):
There might've been one smalladvantage, but you know, here
I'll talk about what happenedwith that.
So like I said, I tracked everydelivery.
I figured out the averages.
I figured out all this stuff.
I I've got counts of how many,no tip orders and how many
higher tip orders and just allsorts of different statistics.
And I'm still kind of geekingout on all the numbers and
(27:29):
everything, but here's, here'swhat it came down to.
And this is just the deliverytime.
This was just the delivery timewhen I was on the delivery.
So this is just tracking thedelivery itself and wasn't
taking into account like all thedeadheading back and all the
lost time that comes from someof those long distance
deliveries that drop you off faraway from being able to get any
(27:50):
deliveries anywhere.
You know, if you add those in,it gets a lot more.
But in the first hundreddeliveries when I was not a top
Dasher, my hourly rate was$19and 21 cents.
After I made top Dasher, it was$18 and 76 cents.
My profit per hour, the firsthundred deliveries was$14 and 49
(28:14):
cents.
Minimum wage here in Denver isover$15 by the way.
So I was actually making lessthan that as a top dash.
My profit per hours was$13 and63 cents.
The average amount of time for adelivery was 20.1 minutes as a
(28:35):
non-top Dasher in February asthe top dash or the average was
22 minutes.
So it took a little bit longer.
The average distance of thedelivery was 4.5 miles per
delivery.
And the average distance as atop dash or port per delivery
was five miles and the base paywas$3 and 3 cents compared to
(29:02):
this was one where the base paywas a little bit higher, but I
think it had more to do with thelonger distances.
And it also had to do, I think alittle bit with.
There weren't as many peak paythings.
I could go down a rabbit holeabout that peak pay, but the
bottom line is when Doordashgives you peak pay, they don't
give you as much base pay.
(29:23):
I think, I think even in these200 deliveries, I've got enough
evidence to be able to provethat, but anyway$3 and 34 cents
was the base pay.
The average.
Before I became top dash of thatfirst hundred deliveries was$3
and 41 cents.
The average tip as a top Dasher$3 and 41 cents.
(29:46):
There were 12 deliveries thathad no tip at all as a top
Dasher and as a non-top Dasher.
So that was about even the totalnumber of deliveries where the
tip was less than$3.
There were 38 in the firsthundred deliveries, there were
40 as a top Dasher, the numberof tips trips, where there was
(30:09):
more than a$5 tip.
There were 15 as a non-topDasher and 18 as a top Dasher.
So three more deliveries as atop Dasher paid more than$5 in
tips.
And so here's the.
You know and one thing I shouldtell you, I mentioned peak bay
because in February there were alot more T you know there, there
(30:31):
were$61 in peak pay in Februarycompared to$11 in peak bay in
March.
And if I were to include thepeak pay into these numbers, It
would actually be profit perhour, 1647 as a non-top Dasher
compared to$13 and 96 cents as atop Dasher.
So it actually kind of skews thenumbers even more towards.
(30:55):
Being able to conclude that thedeliveries were worse.
And, but it really wasn't a faircomparison because of the way
peak pay works.
You know, that it's like, youknow, if you didn't get it as
much, you shouldn't be able tocome.
So I, I calculated all of thesethings based on Based on, you
know, I didn't add the peak payinto those deliveries.
(31:15):
So that's, that's kinda what itcame down to.
I mean, here's, here's thething.
I think it's like the delivery.
We're not.
No, there are a couple of those,you know,$5 or more tips were
some extra long distance.
I mean, like, you know, closerto 15 miles, you know, so it's
like, yeah, maybe they paid alittle bit more on that
(31:35):
delivery, but I was a long driveto do that.
So it, you kind of lost thatadvantage of that extra pay.
And the bottom line is I don'tthink that the deliveries were
any better.
As a top Dasher and they weren'tany worse really, as a top
Dasher, if they were anythinglike that, it might've been a
(31:56):
little bit worse.
I think there's reason to thinkthat there might, you know, pay
less actually, but you know, thething is, is it's like, and the
amazing thing is, is I broke itup into quarters.
You know, I broke it up at onepoint into like, you know,
blocks of 50 deliveries and thenumbers were all so similar to
each other.
(32:16):
It was kind of fascinating howclose they were to each other.
And I expected a lot morevariety, you know, it's a small
sample size and, you know,here's, here's, I guess kind of
my takeaways, my thoughts afterdoing this, you know, first of
all, This is not scientific byany means.
You know, this is not ascientific there there's, there
were not very many, therethere's nothing really in the
(32:37):
way it controls.
There's no way to really weedout the variations and things
can vary a lot.
But it was again amazing.
I think kind of how mucheverything always kind of
gravitated back to the same typeof numbers, you know, no matter
how you broke it up.
You know, the thing is, is, andbecause these numbers happen to
me, I can't make the conclusionthat that's the way it is going
(32:58):
to be for you.
You know, I just can't, it's a.
It's too small of a sample sizefor one thing, 200 deliveries.
Just isn't enough to draw aconclusion that says that, Hey,
yeah, you really do get paidless as top Dasher.
Or you, you get worse deliveriesas top Dasher than you do as the
other.
Honestly I think when it's allsaid and done it, it just, it
(33:21):
doesn't seem like there is adifference one way or the other.
And.
No, that was my first thoughtwith that.
You could almost make the casethat they were worse and you
wonder why, why would topdashers have worst deliveries
and.
And I think it all kind of comesdown to this premise that it's
(33:42):
like, if Doordash is going tomanipulate the deliveries that
you got based on your acceptancerate, what makes you think
they're not going to think of itthis way.
Here's the deal, you know that$4, 11 mile delivery that I got.
Right.
You know, Doordash sent that outto somebody I'm sure at one
point for probably$3 and it gotrejected and it probably got
(34:04):
kicked around by a couple ofdashers and.
And at some point Doordash hasgot to say, well, crap, what are
we going to do here?
We can, we can maybe add somemoney to it.
We could make that a$7 deliveryso that it gets, we've got to do
something so that this ordergets completed.
Right.
And, and especially by thattime, I'm sure, you know, the
(34:26):
restaurants already made thefood.
If they cancel too many offers,the restaurant gets pissed and
all that stuff.
And you know what the customergets pissed and I'm.
I'm not too worried about them.
If they're not, if they're notgoing to tip, but here's the
deal somehow they've got to getthat delivery fulfilled, right?
Well, hell here comes Ron.
(34:47):
He's been accepting every singledelivery.
We're just going to send it tohim right away because we know
it's going to get accepted.
I mean, if you believe thatDoordash actually gives you
better deliveries because yourtop deck.
What about the way that DoorDashoperates makes you think that
they also don't feel like theycan feed you crap more often
(35:11):
because they know you're goingto take it.
And honestly, I think that's alot more likely to happen then,
you know, then, then the ideathat I'm giving you better
deliveries.
But anyway, all of that to sayis, honestly, I don't think that
there was a difference one wayor the other You know, the
profit per hour was a fair bitlower as a top Dasher.
(35:31):
But it's a small enough range ofnumbers that I think that, that
could, you know, just beexplained that I think Doordash
just continues to sendeverything to you the way, you
know, whatever way it does it.
You said it's not scientific.
I wrote down a few conclusions.
I wanted to make sure I coverall of these, but I think, and
here's the thing.
(35:52):
And I said this earlier, though.
And I've gotten into a fewdiscussions with people about
this.
You know, I just, I keep, youknow, keep hearing people say,
I'm going to get better.
Deliveries and Doordash hasnever promised that you're going
to get better deliveries.
They haven't.
They've, they've never promisedthat top dash or gets better
(36:13):
deliveries.
Here's what they promised.
And I'm going to read this rightfrom their site here.
Give me a second while I pullthe.
And I wrote an article aboutthis as well, but here we go.
Top dashers will now getpriority access to high value
orders.
Those that are$30 or more intotal cart value on top of being
(36:35):
able to dash any time withouthaving to scan.
and basically what that means,you know?
So you got, you got.
You get priority on top or highvalue dollars.
And what that means is that, Iwas looking for the exact
wording where they said it thisway, but I know they, they
explained it this way.
And, and it was, it is basicallythat it's like if you and
(36:58):
another Dasher are kind ofequally situated that you know,
all things.
And your top Dasher and theother person is not, they break
the tie in your favor on a highvalue, not a high tip, not a
high pay, a high value.
In other words, if the customerhas paid$30 or more, then you
(37:21):
will win the tie over a non-topDasher.
Guess what if that tie is withanother top deck?
You don't get any prioritythere.
And how often do you get a tie?
You know, honestly, how often doyou get a tie?
And so it's just all of thesethings like that, but they
worded in such a way that in thedashers mind, it sounds like I'm
(37:49):
going to get better orders.
No.
No.
They never said that.
They've never said that.
All they said is if there's atie, but here's the thing
they've already promised youthat when they first introduced
top dash or they said, you justwin the tie over a non-top dash
(38:10):
or on any delivery.
So even on crappy deliveries,you win the tie.
So it's like, it's just.
This is the evil genius.
That is Doordash.
You know, this is the evilgenius of Doordash in that they
(38:30):
know how to say something injust such a way that they really
don't offer you anything.
They really don't promise youanything, but they've got
dashers all over the place,believing that they're getting
something special that they'renot getting.
I can't prove that some, nobodyelse was getting it because the
numbers that I got were only thenumbers on my deliveries.
(38:51):
So I can't say for sure that,you know, top dash or a over in
Eau Claire, is it O'ClaireWisconsin?
I don't even know if there'sDoordash and I'm sure there is.
It's probably a big enough.
I don't even know how I came upwith that town, but you know,
or, or Lincoln, Nebraska, orsomething like that, you know,
(39:11):
that they don't get betteroffers.
All I can do is I say I ran thenumbers on what I did and I
definitely didn't get betteroffers.
And so, you know, but that'sjust it and it, but again, it
goes back to that confirmationbias.
Why did dashers want to believeso badly that they are getting
(39:32):
better deliveries?
And I think it's a couple ofthings.
There is something inside ofmost of us, all of us where we
want to believe that we're doingit just a little bit better than
everybody else, you know?
And I do that with my 50 centrule,$30 an hour or 50 cents a
(39:54):
minute rule in that.
You know what I mean?
If something that I feel like Ido something that I don't know,
very many people that are doing,you know, that I look at the
time and how much I'm going tomake for that time, rather than,
you know, some very simplisticideas that some people have out
(40:14):
there.
And.
I probably have a little bit ofa sense of superiority or that,
because I feel like I'm doing itbetter.
Right.
And I feel good about the factthat I do really well when I'm
doing deliveries, when I'mmaking decisions myself and, and
we all want to feel that.
And what this belief, that topDasher getting better orders is,
(40:38):
is it plays into that.
That wanting to feel like youfound a hack, wanting to feel
like you found a way to beat thesystem.
And so, and it's an easy way.
All you gotta do is just accepta lot more.
You know, you don't have toreally do anything special.
(41:00):
You don't really have to thinkthat hard.
All you gotta do is just takethe offers that they give you.
And oh yeah.
Well, Doordash is going toreward me.
You know, we want that pat onthe back, we want to think that
they're going to do that.
And.
And I think Doordash knowsexactly what's happening here.
And they know that as soon as,that's, that's why they worded
(41:20):
this perk the way they did wasbecause they want people to
believe that they're gettingsomething and Doordash doesn't
have to really give anything.
And it's sad, I think to acertain extent and, you know,
here's, I guess kind of my finalthoughts and doing all this.
Now, the purpose for doing thisfor me was not to try and say
(41:43):
whether or not top dash oritself is worth it.
For me, There's absolutely,absolutely, absolutely nothing
that top Dasher has to offerthat I need, and that will make
my business work better.
Sorry.
I was trying to find somenumbers here, you know, there's,
there's absolutely nothing abouttop dash or.
(42:06):
That makes me want to be a topDasher with that.
You know, I think, I think itwas very clear to me that no,
the orders are not better.
It didn't surprise me at all.
But yeah, it's just, it was veryclear that no, my deliveries
were not any better because ofbeing topped Asher, and none of
the other perks really make adifference to me.
(42:26):
And, and, and the problem is, isthat the.
When my profit per hour is downin the thirteens because of
taken everything now, to befair.
If I had taken 70%, I even, youknow, waited out the worst 30%
of deliveries.
And at that point, I think itwould have brought me to about
(42:48):
$18 an hour as profit per hour,which is okay.
It's not nearly enough in, in mymind.
It certainly doesn't meet myprice.
And so I'm not, you know, it, itdoesn't pay enough for the
benefits.
Yeah.
Or the benefits aren't reallyworth the drop in pay that
happens when I accept a highpercentage of deliveries,
(43:12):
whether it's 13 and a halfdollars an hour, as, you know,
accepting everything, or whetherit's maybe around closer to$18,
if I just take, you know, 70% orwhatever it would be, it just
isn't worth it to me.
But I also know that there areplaces where it's almost
(43:34):
impossible to get on theschedule.
It's almost impossible to grab ablock or two to dash now,
because there are so manydashers on there.
And so there's one perk bearthat being able to dash at any
time, anywhere, no matter whatthe status is, that.
(43:54):
If it means being able to go outand deliver, I could see it
being worthwhile, but I alsohave to say that if I look at it
that way, if there were otheralternatives out there that cost
of that high percentage ofacceptance is so high, that at
that point Grubhub or Uber Eatswould just make that much more
(44:17):
sense that much more often thanit was.
You know, Doordash, I would justbe less likely to do Doordash
more than anything else.
That's kind of where I look atit.
And you know, honestly, if youfeel more comfortable taking a
high percentage, that's yourcall, you know, that is
absolutely totally up to you.
(44:40):
But I think there's a real goodpossibility that you're honestly
not getting better deliveriesjust based on what my experience
has been.
I can't say that for sure,because I don't have your
numbers, you know?
I would need to find some way toget a huge amount of data from
dashers all over the country.
And maybe I could, if I tried tobug it, but then, you know, you
got to find out whether or notthat collection method was
(45:02):
reliable, all that stuff.
I don't want to do a scientificstudy.
And honestly, this thing wastaxing enough, the way it was is
top dash or worth it.
That's only a question that youcan answer.
Did I get better orders?
Because I was top Dasher.
I did not.
And.
All right.
I didn't get better orders as atop Dasher.
(45:24):
I still can't say how Doordashran their algorithm.
I have no idea.
Whether or not it would havebeen even worse if I were not
top Dasher, I had no ideawhether or not it would've
actually been better if not forbeing top Dasher.
I just, because I don't havethat algorithm.
I don't have.
The details about how Doordashdoes things.
All I can tell you is thenumbers tell me it was not any
(45:47):
better.
And, and in the end it justbrings us all back to this whole
thing.
You gotta be your own boss.
And, and that's why I say, youknow what, top dash or might be
a good business decision foryou.
You're running your ownbusiness.
You've got to make that decisionyourself.
(46:10):
But you gotta be able to say,I'm gonna make my own decisions.
I'm going to set my own pricesand I'm going to run things the
way that makes sense to me.
And so I hope that maybe myexperience helped you understand
that maybe some of what itsounds like they're promising.
Isn't really one.
They weren't really promisingit, but to it, it definitely
(46:31):
wasn't happening at least forme.
And.
And instead, just make your owndecisions about when and where,
and, and ultimately that's whereyou're responsible.
And, and in the end you can'trely on Doordash.
Maybe that's the biggesttakeaway.
You can't rely on Doordash togive you something you're
(46:54):
running a business.
It's not up to your customers.
It's not up to Doordash to makeyou successful.
It is up to you to besuccessful.
That's all I got today.
Folks.
I want to thank you for comingback.
And hopefully here season three,we will get a little bit more
(47:15):
going on here than than we didin season two.
I've got a couple of interviewscoming up, but I'm really
looking forward to, and, andfolks for right now.
Go out there and take controland be the boss.
Does Doordash reward top dasherswith better deliveries will
Doordash give you betterdelivery offers because you have
a high acceptance rate?
That's what I wanted to findout.
I'll tell you the story of whatI did to see if things got
better if I made top Dasher andit involves accepting 200
(00:21):
straight deliveries in Februaryand March of this year.
And if you know me, that is amiserable thing to do, but we'll
get into that in just a moment.
First of all, I want to thankyou for joining me on the
deliver on your businesspodcast.
If you have been listeningbefore you notice a couple of
things, no music starting out.
(00:41):
And if you notice me kind ofstopping and starting I'm also
trying to do this non-scriptedwithout a whole bunch of retakes
or anything like that, which issomething very new for me, but I
wanted to kind of make it moreof a, I guess, of a conversation
or something.
If you're not a previouslistener, you may be new to the
deliver on your businesspodcast.
And let me just tell you realquick, what I'm all about here.
(01:02):
The thing is this podcast isintended for independent
contractors in the on demanddelivery space and the gig
economy.
And we're talking, especiallyfor platforms like Doordash
Instacart, Uber Eats, GrubhubShipt Curri Roadie, just any of
these places where you dodeliveries as an independent
(01:22):
contractor and, and the thingabout it is, and, and the thing
that I think I try and do alittle bit differently is it all
comes down to what you agree toby calling yourself an
independent contractor oragreeing to the terms of service
that says, I agree that I'm anindependent contractor what's
you're doing is you're saying Iagree that I am providing these
services as a business and notas an employee.
(01:49):
And that's what deliver on yourbusiness is all about.
That's what Entrecourier.com isall about is it is all about.
The business side of being anindependent contractor, because
here's the thing I think that wecan do our best when we actually
embrace that role.
And we claim those rights, youknow what?
We take them at their word andwe've got to hold them to their
(02:10):
word when they're going to saythat we're running as a
business.
And so.
That's what this is all abouttrying to do that.
And this is one of the reasonsthat doing 200 straight
deliveries for me was just puretorture because I've never done
anything like that.
I have never been the type tojust take everything that they
give.
And it all has to do with thiswhole idea of being, you know,
(02:30):
running a business.
The thing is, is like if you runa.
Somebody can't just walk in.
They could, but you'd never stayin business.
If somebody just walks in andsays, here, I'll give you a
nickel for this widget thatyou're selling for$10.
Right.
You know, I can't, I can't walkinto a restaurant and say, Hey,
I'll give you two bucks for thisprime rib, you know?
(02:51):
Most of them are not probablyall of them are not going to do
that.
And a lot of them are probablygoing to throw me out of my ear.
You know, the idea being that ifyou're running a business, you
have a right to make yourdecisions.
And in fact, these companiesactually explicitly say, you've
got the right to do this.
Let me read this from theDoordash independent contractor
agreement.
Contractor understands that theyare free to select the times
(03:14):
they wish to be available in theplatform to receive delivery
opportunities.
But here's the important parthere.
They are free to negotiate theircompensation by among other
things accepting or rejecting.
The opportunity is transmittedthrough the Doordash platform by
consumers.
And can make such decisions tomaximize their opportunity to
(03:34):
profit.
So Doordash even says, I mean,they say it themselves, you
know, and, and here's this, thisis the philosophy that I take
as, as a business owner, thusbeing an independent contractor
is that I set my price byaccepting and rejecting delivery
offers.
And if a delivery offer, doesn'tmeet my price.
I say, And that's all there isto it.
(03:56):
And so I have a very lowacceptance rate most of the
time, but, you know, here's,here's where we get to the story
because I decided I wanted to dothis experiment.
I've thought of doing thisbefore.
But honestly I felt like Icouldn't afford to in the past,
you know, I'm, I'm out here tomake a living and I've been
doing delivery for, you know,four years.
(04:16):
And most of that has beenfull-time and.
You know, the thing is, isthere's a certain amount of
money that I need to make, and Iwant to make it within a certain
amount of time.
You know, I don't want to bethat guy that is working 80
hours a week.
I've got a family, I've gotother things that are very
important to me.
And so I'm not going to knockmyself out to deliver food, just
(04:38):
to bring in enough money.
So I've got to run my businessin a way that is profitable.
And so I use what I call a 50cent rule.
I got to believe that a deliveryis going to pay 50 cents a
minute or better.
If I'm going to take that offerand.
And that's basically a$30 anhour rate.
And it's like, if you're taking,if, if the deliveries I'm on are
(05:00):
running at a$30 an hour runrate, then you know, there's,
there's going to be somedowntime.
There's going to be a little bitof time between the offers or
something.
But in the end, I'm going to bemaking as much as I feel like I
need to make for the amount oftime that I'm going to put into
it.
And some people will say, oh,$30an hour.
That's way too high to expect.
You know what you can claim, youcan ask for whatever you want.
(05:22):
But the thing is, is if you'regoing to make me a business
owner, you gave me the right toset my price, you know?
So taking every delivery.
Just goes against every fiber ofmy being and it was not easy,
but here's the reason I decidedto try this.
I kept hearing everybody saying,oh, I get so much better
deliveries because I'm a topDasher.
(05:44):
You know, if you go into theFacebook groups, if you go onto
Reddit and you've got all these.
Kind of bragging that, oh, Inever get those low pay delivery
offers.
I get a lot better offers whenI'm top Dasher than if I'm not,
which most of them are lyingbecause they've never been
Non-top Dasher.
You know, they've always beenthat employee want to be, and
I'm not saying every top Dasheris that.
(06:06):
I've I've had, you know, I'veheard, I've had discussions with
some where they say, well, Icherry pick all through the
month.
And then the last three days, Ijust buckle down and accept
everything for about three daysor something so that I can get
my acceptance rate up to 70% andmake that top dash so that I can
get the better offers.
And I'm, you know, that alwaysbaffled me because Doordash
(06:27):
never promised that you getbetter deliver.
They did not promise that we'llget into that.
They said some things that makeit sound like it, but they never
promised that they're going togive you better deliveries.
And so.
It's like, why do people believethat?
And I'll tell you the truth.
I've had a couple of times thatI have made top Dasher in the
past.
And usually those are timeswhere I'm doing, you know, very
(06:48):
high concentration of bikedeliveries and in the right
areas of town, DoorDash isfantastic with the way that they
dispatch the delivery offers tome because they're always
sending just very short, veryquick deliveries that I can do
with.
And so my acceptance rate tendsto go a lot higher than, but the
thing is, is when I've made topdash or I've always believed
that the offers actually gotworse and not better, but
(07:14):
there's an important word.
I said, I've always believed.
And, and the thing is, is allthose top dashers that tell you
that they get better offers.
They believe it.
And there's a word here it'scalled confirmation or a term
called confirmation bias.
You're going to notice thethings that you want to notice,
(07:34):
and if you want to be Top Dasheror, or whatever, you're going to
believe that you're gettingbetter offers.
I don't believe that top dashersany better than you're going to
believe that the offers areactually worse.
And so I, you know, I just, Ikeep hearing that, but it's
like, nobody has the data youdon't, nobody has that actual
(07:54):
information.
Everybody that I've ever heardsay it one way or the other,
nobody has ever been able tosay, and this is how I can tell
that it was better.
It's just, it's just a feeling.
And I'm sorry, but feelingsdon't help a whole lot.
They don't really answer thatquestion.
And so that's why I decided,okay, I'm going to go out and
I'm going to, I'm going to gettop Dasher.
(08:17):
And the only way that I couldreally think of to really
compare all of the deliveryoffers is to actually accept the
delivery and complete thedeliveries.
And, you know, I think I saidthis already, but in the past, I
don't think I could haveafforded to do this because The
pay is an awful lot less whenyou do it that way I can tell
(08:37):
you, and even I can especiallytell you that now that I've done
this and you know, the problemis that it was.
I didn't want to spend so manyhours being out there and not
bring home as much as I shouldmake.
And, you know, fortunately nowthat the website has grown at
entecourier.com and I get somerevenue from advertising and
(08:58):
things like that.
And so it kind of took some ofthe pressure off and it allowed
me to say, okay, you know what?
I can afford to have a couple ofcrappy months on delivery you
know?
And so I could go out there andnot worry about what I'm making
and maybe have a little more ofan objective view of what is it
like?
So I did in, I started inFebruary and I started when my
(09:22):
acceptance rate was like at 28%and I took a hundred straight
delivery offers in February.
And that of course would get meup to where then beginning of
March, I'd be topped Asher, andthen.
In March, I took a hundreddeliveries and that way I could
compare the numbers and Itracked everything I tracked how
(09:45):
much time every single delivery.
I tracked how far I was going.
I kept a record of all of thedifferent things that a
Doordash, you know, said that itwas going to be that it's going
to be 3.1 miles.
It's going to pay$2 25 cents or,you know, whatever it is, all of
that I've got down onspreadsheet.
I went so far as to even doscreen recordings on my phone to
(10:08):
record the progress on all ofthat.
And I don't know that I'll everdo anything with most of those,
but, you know, I'll tell you tobe honest, part of the reason
that I did that was that I thinkit was paranoia on my part, that
I was worried that if I'm takingevery offer and I'm taking all
these deliveries now wheresomebody doesn't tip that those
are the people that are morelikely to say, you know, you
(10:31):
know, claim, you didn't do thedelivery or anything like that.
So I ran a screen recorder thewhole time, because if somebody
did make a claim that I wantedto be able to back it up and
say, yes, I actually did.
You know, and it shows where I'mat on the GPS and it, it
actually records theinteractions, all that stuff.
So it was like one more way ofproving that, yes, I did
(10:51):
complete that delivery in caseanybody accuses me.
And I had one person that Ithought they were going to I'll
tell you about that in a littlebit, but it, you know, it was
just a, it was an interestingthing.
so, anyway, I wanted to kind ofshare just some of my thoughts
and some of my experiences andtell you a little bit about what
it was like.
And, you know, the first thingto talk about is just some of
(11:13):
the challenges of doing this,especially as somebody who is
used to.
Rejecting the crap, you know,that, that, that I'm not going
to take this delivery and I'lltell you something four years of
doing delivery and I've neverfelt burnt out on delivery, but
(11:34):
I came real close to feelingthat way with this.
And the reason that I never feltthat way before was I think a
lot of it was because, you know,one I'm I'm in control.
And two it's like if a deliverygoes bad, it's my fault.
You know?
That that's the attitude thatI've taken.
(11:54):
That if something doesn't goright, if it doesn't pay well
enough, it's my fault.
And when I take that attitude,one, I'm not feeling bitter all
the time.
You know, I go onto Facebook andinto Reddit and I just see this
toxic bitterness all over theplace that, that people just.
You know, despise all of thesecompanies.
Now there's a lot of stuff thatDoordash and Uber Eats and
(12:17):
Grubhub, and all these companiesdo that are worthy of being
despised.
But you know, just like thistotal bitterness and it's like,
everything that goes wrong withtheir day is Doordash has fault
or Instacart's fault or whoever.
It is hard to spend much time inthere.
Just, just that totalbitterness, because I don't
(12:38):
understand it.
Honestly.
I kind of got a little betterfeeling of how people feel after
doing all this, because here'sthe thing.
If a delivery doesn't pay well,That's my fault for making the
wrong decision, you know, for,for not thinking about this or
not thinking about that.
But, you know, I made thedecision when somebody throws a
(13:00):
win-win DoorDash throws a youknow, a$10 offer at me.
And I say, yes, I have alreadydecided that whatever I'm making
on that delivery is good enoughthat I am satisfied with what
I'm going to get.
And honestly, I don't carewhether or not I got tipped.
You know, I don't care whetherthe customer didn't tip.
(13:20):
I don't care whether it was$10.
It was all from Doordash and, orI don't care if it was just$2
from Doordash and the customertip to$8.
Honestly, I already made thatdecision that this is good
enough for me.
And, and I stick with that.
And so.
I didn't feel like all thatstress or all of that anger over
(13:42):
the way that customers weretipping.
Cause it was just essentially ifDoordash isn't paying well
enough and the customer's notpaying well enough, then I'm not
going to take that delivery.
But if I accept that deliveryand it was a crappy offer,
that's my fault.
That's not their fault.
I'm the one that was stupidenough to take the offer.
And so I've been able to kind ofgo through all these years of
(14:04):
doing delivery without reallyfeeling too stressed out or
bummed out by the circumstancesof the day.
And then I go and I do all thiswhere I'm accepting every offer
and all of a sudden it's like,you know, 14.9 miles, are you
kidding?
You know, and, and it's like, oryou know, that the very last
(14:25):
delivery I got, it was just likeDoordash was trying to challenge
me.
I don't know if they knew whereI was at and I was on, you know,
number 100.
I D I don't think I matter atall to them at all.
So honestly, I don't know that.
It was like that, but it surefelt kind of weird because it
was like this offer comes up topick up from a donut place, 11.4
(14:49):
miles for$4 dollars.
And you knew it that distancefor$4.
And that was an awful low amountfor the DoorDash to pay for that
distance.
I thought supposedly they werepaying more for a longer
distance deliveries.
Right.
And Doordash lies about a lot ofstuff, but, you know, you'd knew
that the customer wasn't tippinganything and, and it was just
like, you gotta be kidding meand.
(15:14):
I don't know, I it's, it's a loteasier when all of a sudden you
just kind of put yourself inthat position where you got to
take everything.
It's a lot easier to start toget bitter about what the
customer does or, or to getbetter about the orders
themselves.
And, and it was like, because Iwas now all of a sudden giving
Doordash control, it reallyaffected my mood and.
(15:35):
You know, so I did that firstmonth and actually it was like
in a couple of weeks that I didthe first hundred deliveries in
February.
Got that knocked out.
And then in March, I couldn'tkeep going at that same pace.
It took me the whole month toget that a hundred deliveries
in.
I just, you know, I took, I tooksome time off with my wife.
We went out of town for a weekand there were several days
(15:57):
where it was just like, Nope,I'm not going out there.
It really changed my wholeperception of what delivery was
like.
And I think that was the biggestchallenge, you know?
And honestly, here's the otherthing I think that I thought
that, you know, maybe the.
The three and$4 deliveriesdidn't bother me as much as the
extra long distances.
(16:18):
I was driving all over theDenver Metro area.
I mean, everywhere.
And it was just like Doordashwas like, Hey, we're going to
stick you way out in Aurora,which nothing against Aurora,
but it's just so far away fromwhere I'm at.
And it was just, I I was notprepared for how much extra
driving I would do.
(16:39):
And normally I deliver it'sabout three tenths to four
tenths of a mile per dollar thatI earn is about what I average
and all of a sudden it's morethan a mile for every dollar
that I've earned.
And.
And especially when gas pricesare all of a sudden shooting up
and I'm like, I'm an idiot fordoing this right now.
(16:59):
Maybe I should stop.
But I said, okay, I'm just goingto keep going.
And so it was, it was, it wasdifferent.
It was Yeah, I will never dothat again.
I don't think you know, andhere's the thing and, and this
is why I wonder if I was justkind of a fool to do this one
because gas prices going up.
But two, because I know that 200deliveries isn't enough to get
(17:21):
any kind of definitiveinformation, you know, for one
thing, it's 200 deliveries herein Denver and there's always.
Different things that can kindof enter into whatever happens
and stuff like that.
So, so it's like, you know, am Ireally going to find out very
much, but I decided I'm going tolearn more than if I didn't do
(17:42):
anything at all.
And I had, I think, threedeliveries that really come to
mind.
The first delivery was.
Actually, there were four thingsthat came to mind that just
really kind of stood out.
The first one was I didn't makea hundred percent and I was shot
down on that almost right away.
It was just like three or fourdeliveries in.
(18:04):
And all of a sudden, you know,my, my text goes off, Hey, go
pick up here.
But it never popped up on theapp and it's like, Crap.
You know what it's like therewith Doordash.
If you deliver Doordash at muchat all, you've had this happen.
I'm almost sure that you havewhere all of a sudden you get
paused for.
Not responding to a deliveryoffer, even though the offer
(18:26):
never popped up on your phone.
You know, and I, I saw that textpop up and I'm like, oh no, you
know, and I actually forcedstopped the app and then started
it back up to see if I couldcatch it before you know, that
it would pop up maybe, and it'sjust not nothing happen.
So, so I ended up missingdelivery, but the funny thing
is.
Sometimes that seems to workagainst your acceptance rate.
And sometimes it doesn't becauseI had a few times that that
(18:48):
happened.
I did have a couple of timesthat it was like cause I'm doing
all this stuff to recordeverything.
You know, I take a screenshot assoon as the offer pops up.
And then I marked, you knowwhat, my, you know, what time it
is, all that stuff on a littlespreadsheet.
And I had a couple of timeswhere I actually forgot to
accept.
So I ended up with a 97%acceptance rate, but every time
(19:09):
that I actually.
Had it pop up on my screen andeverything like that.
I did accept.
And so, and I completed all ofthose except for this one
delivery.
And I don't know, you know,what, maybe I over responded, I
got this double order.
It was a double stack you know,two different orders.
There were actually twodifferent restaurants.
(19:30):
I stopped pick up from the firstrestaurant and then go to the
second one.
And that second one, I knew Icould see that it was a.
It was a$3 delivery.
And so then I walk in and, andright as I walk in, I get this
text here and let me find thathere.
I want to read this and shetexts.
(19:51):
Hello, please text me.
When you arrive, you will haveto call the concierge to let you
up to the ninth floor, and thenthey will key you up to the 42nd
floor.
And please ask the restaurantfor cups and napkins and eating
utensils.
Thank you.
I was like, I want you to jumpthrough all these hoops and oh,
by the way, I didn't leave you atip.
I'm already kind of like, oh,I'm so close.
(20:14):
And then I, you know, I get tothe restaurant and I walk in
there and.
Oh, this is going to takeanother 10 minutes.
And so kind of between thenonsense with this one right
here, and the fact that I've gotthe food in my hand from the
first restaurant and it's gonnarun late and, and in fact
Doordash is not real good atupdating the deliver by times.
(20:34):
I, I tracked even that.
And they're really bad at that.
And I'm like, I'm not risking acontract violation over this.
It was just all this stuff thatis just part of the nonsense.
That is Doordash.
You know, so finally I just, youknow what, I can't do this.
I, I unassigned myself from thatdelivery.
So that was one I didn'tcomplete, but I didn't, at least
(20:55):
I didn't include that deliveryinto the stats, but it was just,
you know, kind of one of thosethings I.
And as much as I tried, Icouldn't get the perfect
delivery numbers all the wayacross the board.
And you know, I even trackedwhether or not I was on time or
not.
And I will tell you that myon-time percentage that is on my
app is way off and it neverchanges.
(21:18):
I mean, it, it was like, I didbump up.
For some reason, you know, ithad been sitting at 70% and a
bumped up to 72, over 200deliveries where I had better
than a 90% on time.
And some of the stuff thatDoordash does with the timer, I
had one time that I got theorder and I, and I've got it all
recorded because of the screenrecorder and the screenshots and
(21:41):
the deliver by time wassomething like, you know, 10:20.
And they get to the restaurant,pick up the food.
And as I go to the store or as Ihead out to the customer, All of
a sudden now the deliver by thetime is 10:12.
They backed it up by eightminutes and the customer was
five minutes away.
So I was late on that delivery,even though I got done earlier
(22:02):
than they said on that.
So Doordash has just does a lotof weird things.
And I think that was maybe oneof the fun things about doing
this thing was you couldactually see, especially what
I'm tracking, every littlething, you could actually see
some of the weird stuff they do.
And so.
And I think I already mentionedlike that last trip, the 11.4
mile one that you know, 11.4miles for$4, it took like 45
(22:27):
minutes.
I track a stat that I callprofit per hour.
And what I've done is I figuredout that my car actually costs
about 35 cents a mile tooperate.
And it, it had been runningabout 30 and then with the gas
increase in everything, it's upto about 35 and I mean, I've
gone through, and I've kind offigured out all the maintenance
costs, you know, how much doesit cost to replace the tires and
(22:50):
how often do I have to do that?
And all of the other maintenancethat you've got to do and all
the, you know, all the differentcosts and how much value is my
car losing when I drive and oh,by the way, Oil changes in gas
and everything like that.
And it adds up now to 35 cents amile.
If you've kind of been veryin-depth looking into that.
(23:11):
And so you know, the thing is ifyou've heard me before I call
that a credit card on wheels,you know, there's a lot of costs
beyond just the gas as well.
I haven't gotten crazy about thegas prices because yeah, gas is
up a lot and it sucks.
It's still a small part of whatit costs to run your car.
(23:33):
And most people don't thinkabout that stuff, you know,
you'll have to replace the tiressooner because of all the
driving you're going to have toreplace the timing belt sooner
because of all the driving,every mile you drive gets you
closer to all of those things.
And every mile you drive drops alittle bit of value off your
car.
If you've got a.
(23:53):
If you got a brand new car thatmile is actually costing you
more than what gas costs.
You, it seriously, you go andrun a Kelly blue book and on
your car and, and then run itagain, but add 20,000 miles to
it and see the difference inwhat the value of your car is.
That the only thing that isdifferent is the miles.
(24:15):
And how big of a difference itmakes.
And, and a lot of newer carsyou're looking at 15 or 20 cents
a mile that it costs you just inlost value on your car.
And so, you know, all thatstuff, I mean, add all that up.
35 cents a mile.
I subtract that from whatever Idrove and or from whatever I was
(24:35):
paid and then divide that by theamount of time that it took well
on that last delivery, 11.4miles at 35 cents.
I think I figured it out.
And you do the math on this.
I might be wrong here, but Ithink it was like three and a
half cents that I made on thatdelivery for 45 minutes, three
and a half cents.
And it's just insane.
(24:55):
I had one delivery that Ihonestly expected.
There's going to be a contractviolation.
I honestly expected this.
The lady gave me the, you know,the address was there and all
that stuff.
And I took it and I took it tothat.
And then after I dropped it off,And I was on my way to I, I was
(25:15):
already on another delivery.
In fact, I was at the restaurantwhen all of a sudden she's
texting me left and right.
Like a mad woman.
And, and it's like, where'd youwhere'd you leave it off?
Where'd you leave it off.
And I told her exactly where itwas.
I said, this is where, you know,this is where it was.
No, no, no, no.
You went to the wrong building.
You went to the wrong building.
You've got to come back and youtook it to the wrong place and.
(25:37):
I had the screenshots and I hadall this stuff and I said,
here's what it says.
I said, you need to be checkingin with Doordash on this.
You know, if, if if they've gotthe wrong information you need
to get them to change that.
And.
And right after that, I thinkthat's when kind of that
connection ended because I wasgoing to call her and say, I can
(25:59):
come back and pick it up becausethe next delivery was going to
go that way.
And the car wouldn't go throughor anything like that, but I was
absolutely expecting that I was.
Contract violation for that, or,you know, claiming she didn't
get her food or anything likethat, nothing popped up.
So I don't know if that was onethat Doordash just monitor the
messaging that went on there or,or exactly what happened.
Cause she sent it by text andnot through the in-app messaging
(26:23):
and you know, but you know, thatwas the one that was one of the
reasons I do a screen recordingbecause everything that happens.
Shows up on the phone and I'vegot a record of it.
And like I said, I was paranoidof that kind of thing happening.
And I was to be fair, probably alittle surprised that it only
happened or possibly could havehappened one time.
So, you know, I probably, maybesome of my conceptions have been
(26:45):
changed about what happens whenyou do that.
So the question did DoorDashgive better orders?
Folks.
I see.
Absolutely no evidencewhatsoever that the quality of
delivery offers was better inany way, shape or form.
(27:08):
There might've been one smalladvantage, but you know, here
I'll talk about what happenedwith that.
So like I said, I tracked everydelivery.
I figured out the averages.
I figured out all this stuff.
I I've got counts of how many,no tip orders and how many
higher tip orders and just allsorts of different statistics.
And I'm still kind of geekingout on all the numbers and
(27:29):
everything, but here's, here'swhat it came down to.
And this is just the deliverytime.
This was just the delivery timewhen I was on the delivery.
So this is just tracking thedelivery itself and wasn't
taking into account like all thedeadheading back and all the
lost time that comes from someof those long distance
deliveries that drop you off faraway from being able to get any
(27:50):
deliveries anywhere.
You know, if you add those in,it gets a lot more.
But in the first hundreddeliveries when I was not a top
Dasher, my hourly rate was$19and 21 cents.
After I made top Dasher, it was$18 and 76 cents.
My profit per hour, the firsthundred deliveries was$14 and 49
(28:14):
cents.
Minimum wage here in Denver isover$15 by the way.
So I was actually making lessthan that as a top dash.
My profit per hours was$13 and63 cents.
The average amount of time for adelivery was 20.1 minutes as a
(28:35):
non-top Dasher in February asthe top dash or the average was
22 minutes.
So it took a little bit longer.
The average distance of thedelivery was 4.5 miles per
delivery.
And the average distance as atop dash or port per delivery
was five miles and the base paywas$3 and 3 cents compared to
(29:02):
this was one where the base paywas a little bit higher, but I
think it had more to do with thelonger distances.
And it also had to do, I think alittle bit with.
There weren't as many peak paythings.
I could go down a rabbit holeabout that peak pay, but the
bottom line is when Doordashgives you peak pay, they don't
give you as much base pay.
(29:23):
I think, I think even in these200 deliveries, I've got enough
evidence to be able to provethat, but anyway$3 and 34 cents
was the base pay.
The average.
Before I became top dash of thatfirst hundred deliveries was$3
and 41 cents.
The average tip as a top Dasher$3 and 41 cents.
(29:46):
There were 12 deliveries thathad no tip at all as a top
Dasher and as a non-top Dasher.
So that was about even the totalnumber of deliveries where the
tip was less than$3.
There were 38 in the firsthundred deliveries, there were
40 as a top Dasher, the numberof tips trips, where there was
(30:09):
more than a$5 tip.
There were 15 as a non-topDasher and 18 as a top Dasher.
So three more deliveries as atop Dasher paid more than$5 in
tips.
And so here's the.
You know and one thing I shouldtell you, I mentioned peak bay
because in February there were alot more T you know there, there
(30:31):
were$61 in peak pay in Februarycompared to$11 in peak bay in
March.
And if I were to include thepeak pay into these numbers, It
would actually be profit perhour, 1647 as a non-top Dasher
compared to$13 and 96 cents as atop Dasher.
So it actually kind of skews thenumbers even more towards.
(30:55):
Being able to conclude that thedeliveries were worse.
And, but it really wasn't a faircomparison because of the way
peak pay works.
You know, that it's like, youknow, if you didn't get it as
much, you shouldn't be able tocome.
So I, I calculated all of thesethings based on Based on, you
know, I didn't add the peak payinto those deliveries.
(31:15):
So that's, that's kinda what itcame down to.
I mean, here's, here's thething.
I think it's like the delivery.
We're not.
No, there are a couple of those,you know,$5 or more tips were
some extra long distance.
I mean, like, you know, closerto 15 miles, you know, so it's
like, yeah, maybe they paid alittle bit more on that
(31:35):
delivery, but I was a long driveto do that.
So it, you kind of lost thatadvantage of that extra pay.
And the bottom line is I don'tthink that the deliveries were
any better.
As a top Dasher and they weren'tany worse really, as a top
Dasher, if they were anythinglike that, it might've been a
(31:56):
little bit worse.
I think there's reason to thinkthat there might, you know, pay
less actually, but you know, thething is, is it's like, and the
amazing thing is, is I broke itup into quarters.
You know, I broke it up at onepoint into like, you know,
blocks of 50 deliveries and thenumbers were all so similar to
each other.
(32:16):
It was kind of fascinating howclose they were to each other.
And I expected a lot morevariety, you know, it's a small
sample size and, you know,here's, here's, I guess kind of
my takeaways, my thoughts afterdoing this, you know, first of
all, This is not scientific byany means.
You know, this is not ascientific there there's, there
were not very many, therethere's nothing really in the
(32:37):
way it controls.
There's no way to really weedout the variations and things
can vary a lot.
But it was again amazing.
I think kind of how mucheverything always kind of
gravitated back to the same typeof numbers, you know, no matter
how you broke it up.
You know, the thing is, is, andbecause these numbers happen to
me, I can't make the conclusionthat that's the way it is going
(32:58):
to be for you.
You know, I just can't, it's a.
It's too small of a sample sizefor one thing, 200 deliveries.
Just isn't enough to draw aconclusion that says that, Hey,
yeah, you really do get paidless as top Dasher.
Or you, you get worse deliveriesas top Dasher than you do as the
other.
Honestly I think when it's allsaid and done it, it just, it
(33:21):
doesn't seem like there is adifference one way or the other.
And.
No, that was my first thoughtwith that.
You could almost make the casethat they were worse and you
wonder why, why would topdashers have worst deliveries
and.
And I think it all kind of comesdown to this premise that it's
(33:42):
like, if Doordash is going tomanipulate the deliveries that
you got based on your acceptancerate, what makes you think
they're not going to think of itthis way.
Here's the deal, you know that$4, 11 mile delivery that I got.
Right.
You know, Doordash sent that outto somebody I'm sure at one
point for probably$3 and it gotrejected and it probably got
(34:04):
kicked around by a couple ofdashers and.
And at some point Doordash hasgot to say, well, crap, what are
we going to do here?
We can, we can maybe add somemoney to it.
We could make that a$7 deliveryso that it gets, we've got to do
something so that this ordergets completed.
Right.
And, and especially by thattime, I'm sure, you know, the
(34:26):
restaurants already made thefood.
If they cancel too many offers,the restaurant gets pissed and
all that stuff.
And you know what the customergets pissed and I'm.
I'm not too worried about them.
If they're not, if they're notgoing to tip, but here's the
deal somehow they've got to getthat delivery fulfilled, right?
Well, hell here comes Ron.
(34:47):
He's been accepting every singledelivery.
We're just going to send it tohim right away because we know
it's going to get accepted.
I mean, if you believe thatDoordash actually gives you
better deliveries because yourtop deck.
What about the way that DoorDashoperates makes you think that
they also don't feel like theycan feed you crap more often
(35:11):
because they know you're goingto take it.
And honestly, I think that's alot more likely to happen then,
you know, then, then the ideathat I'm giving you better
deliveries.
But anyway, all of that to sayis, honestly, I don't think that
there was a difference one wayor the other You know, the
profit per hour was a fair bitlower as a top Dasher.
(35:31):
But it's a small enough range ofnumbers that I think that, that
could, you know, just beexplained that I think Doordash
just continues to sendeverything to you the way, you
know, whatever way it does it.
You said it's not scientific.
I wrote down a few conclusions.
I wanted to make sure I coverall of these, but I think, and
here's the thing.
(35:52):
And I said this earlier, though.
And I've gotten into a fewdiscussions with people about
this.
You know, I just, I keep, youknow, keep hearing people say,
I'm going to get better.
Deliveries and Doordash hasnever promised that you're going
to get better deliveries.
They haven't.
They've, they've never promisedthat top dash or gets better
(36:13):
deliveries.
Here's what they promised.
And I'm going to read this rightfrom their site here.
Give me a second while I pullthe.
And I wrote an article aboutthis as well, but here we go.
Top dashers will now getpriority access to high value
orders.
Those that are$30 or more intotal cart value on top of being
(36:35):
able to dash any time withouthaving to scan.
and basically what that means,you know?
So you got, you got.
You get priority on top or highvalue dollars.
And what that means is that, Iwas looking for the exact
wording where they said it thisway, but I know they, they
explained it this way.
And, and it was, it is basicallythat it's like if you and
(36:58):
another Dasher are kind ofequally situated that you know,
all things.
And your top Dasher and theother person is not, they break
the tie in your favor on a highvalue, not a high tip, not a
high pay, a high value.
In other words, if the customerhas paid$30 or more, then you
(37:21):
will win the tie over a non-topDasher.
Guess what if that tie is withanother top deck?
You don't get any prioritythere.
And how often do you get a tie?
You know, honestly, how often doyou get a tie?
And so it's just all of thesethings like that, but they
worded in such a way that in thedashers mind, it sounds like I'm
(37:49):
going to get better orders.
No.
No.
They never said that.
They've never said that.
All they said is if there's atie, but here's the thing
they've already promised youthat when they first introduced
top dash or they said, you justwin the tie over a non-top dash
(38:10):
or on any delivery.
So even on crappy deliveries,you win the tie.
So it's like, it's just.
This is the evil genius.
That is Doordash.
You know, this is the evilgenius of Doordash in that they
(38:30):
know how to say something injust such a way that they really
don't offer you anything.
They really don't promise youanything, but they've got
dashers all over the place,believing that they're getting
something special that they'renot getting.
I can't prove that some, nobodyelse was getting it because the
numbers that I got were only thenumbers on my deliveries.
(38:51):
So I can't say for sure that,you know, top dash or a over in
Eau Claire, is it O'ClaireWisconsin?
I don't even know if there'sDoordash and I'm sure there is.
It's probably a big enough.
I don't even know how I came upwith that town, but you know,
or, or Lincoln, Nebraska, orsomething like that, you know,
(39:11):
that they don't get betteroffers.
All I can do is I say I ran thenumbers on what I did and I
definitely didn't get betteroffers.
And so, you know, but that'sjust it and it, but again, it
goes back to that confirmationbias.
Why did dashers want to believeso badly that they are getting
(39:32):
better deliveries?
And I think it's a couple ofthings.
There is something inside ofmost of us, all of us where we
want to believe that we're doingit just a little bit better than
everybody else, you know?
And I do that with my 50 centrule,$30 an hour or 50 cents a
(39:54):
minute rule in that.
You know what I mean?
If something that I feel like Ido something that I don't know,
very many people that are doing,you know, that I look at the
time and how much I'm going tomake for that time, rather than,
you know, some very simplisticideas that some people have out
(40:14):
there.
And.
I probably have a little bit ofa sense of superiority or that,
because I feel like I'm doing itbetter.
Right.
And I feel good about the factthat I do really well when I'm
doing deliveries, when I'mmaking decisions myself and, and
we all want to feel that.
And what this belief, that topDasher getting better orders is,
(40:38):
is it plays into that.
That wanting to feel like youfound a hack, wanting to feel
like you found a way to beat thesystem.
And so, and it's an easy way.
All you gotta do is just accepta lot more.
You know, you don't have toreally do anything special.
(41:00):
You don't really have to thinkthat hard.
All you gotta do is just takethe offers that they give you.
And oh yeah.
Well, Doordash is going toreward me.
You know, we want that pat onthe back, we want to think that
they're going to do that.
And.
And I think Doordash knowsexactly what's happening here.
And they know that as soon as,that's, that's why they worded
(41:20):
this perk the way they did wasbecause they want people to
believe that they're gettingsomething and Doordash doesn't
have to really give anything.
And it's sad, I think to acertain extent and, you know,
here's, I guess kind of my finalthoughts and doing all this.
Now, the purpose for doing thisfor me was not to try and say
(41:43):
whether or not top dash oritself is worth it.
For me, There's absolutely,absolutely, absolutely nothing
that top Dasher has to offerthat I need, and that will make
my business work better.
Sorry.
I was trying to find somenumbers here, you know, there's,
there's absolutely nothing abouttop dash or.
(42:06):
That makes me want to be a topDasher with that.
You know, I think, I think itwas very clear to me that no,
the orders are not better.
It didn't surprise me at all.
But yeah, it's just, it was veryclear that no, my deliveries
were not any better because ofbeing topped Asher, and none of
the other perks really make adifference to me.
(42:26):
And, and, and the problem is, isthat the.
When my profit per hour is downin the thirteens because of
taken everything now, to befair.
If I had taken 70%, I even, youknow, waited out the worst 30%
of deliveries.
And at that point, I think itwould have brought me to about
(42:48):
$18 an hour as profit per hour,which is okay.
It's not nearly enough in, in mymind.
It certainly doesn't meet myprice.
And so I'm not, you know, it, itdoesn't pay enough for the
benefits.
Yeah.
Or the benefits aren't reallyworth the drop in pay that
happens when I accept a highpercentage of deliveries,
(43:12):
whether it's 13 and a halfdollars an hour, as, you know,
accepting everything, or whetherit's maybe around closer to$18,
if I just take, you know, 70% orwhatever it would be, it just
isn't worth it to me.
But I also know that there areplaces where it's almost
(43:34):
impossible to get on theschedule.
It's almost impossible to grab ablock or two to dash now,
because there are so manydashers on there.
And so there's one perk bearthat being able to dash at any
time, anywhere, no matter whatthe status is, that.
(43:54):
If it means being able to go outand deliver, I could see it
being worthwhile, but I alsohave to say that if I look at it
that way, if there were otheralternatives out there that cost
of that high percentage ofacceptance is so high, that at
that point Grubhub or Uber Eatswould just make that much more
(44:17):
sense that much more often thanit was.
You know, Doordash, I would justbe less likely to do Doordash
more than anything else.
That's kind of where I look atit.
And you know, honestly, if youfeel more comfortable taking a
high percentage, that's yourcall, you know, that is
absolutely totally up to you.
(44:40):
But I think there's a real goodpossibility that you're honestly
not getting better deliveriesjust based on what my experience
has been.
I can't say that for sure,because I don't have your
numbers, you know?
I would need to find some way toget a huge amount of data from
dashers all over the country.
And maybe I could, if I tried tobug it, but then, you know, you
got to find out whether or notthat collection method was
(45:02):
reliable, all that stuff.
I don't want to do a scientificstudy.
And honestly, this thing wastaxing enough, the way it was is
top dash or worth it.
That's only a question that youcan answer.
Did I get better orders?
Because I was top Dasher.
I did not.
And.
All right.
I didn't get better orders as atop Dasher.
(45:24):
I still can't say how Doordashran their algorithm.
I have no idea.
Whether or not it would havebeen even worse if I were not
top Dasher, I had no ideawhether or not it would've
actually been better if not forbeing top Dasher.
I just, because I don't havethat algorithm.
I don't have.
The details about how Doordashdoes things.
All I can tell you is thenumbers tell me it was not any
(45:47):
better.
And, and in the end it justbrings us all back to this whole
thing.
You gotta be your own boss.
And, and that's why I say, youknow what, top dash or might be
a good business decision foryou.
You're running your ownbusiness.
You've got to make that decisionyourself.
(46:10):
But you gotta be able to say,I'm gonna make my own decisions.
I'm going to set my own pricesand I'm going to run things the
way that makes sense to me.
And so I hope that maybe myexperience helped you understand
that maybe some of what itsounds like they're promising.
Isn't really one.
They weren't really promisingit, but to it, it definitely
(46:31):
wasn't happening at least forme.
And.
And instead, just make your owndecisions about when and where,
and, and ultimately that's whereyou're responsible.
And, and in the end you can'trely on Doordash.
Maybe that's the biggesttakeaway.
You can't rely on Doordash togive you something you're
(46:54):
running a business.
It's not up to your customers.
It's not up to Doordash to makeyou successful.
It is up to you to besuccessful.
That's all I got today.
Folks.
I want to thank you for comingback.
And hopefully here season three,we will get a little bit more
(47:15):
going on here than than we didin season two.
I've got a couple of interviewscoming up, but I'm really
looking forward to, and, andfolks for right now.
Go out there and take controland be the boss.
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