Nobody Wins With DoorDash
Examining the terrible economics of food delivery
A few months ago, I rode along with my girlfriend as she made a few DoorDash deliveries. She had always wanted to try being a Dasher and we thought it might be a cool way to spend a few hours exploring San Francisco on a weekend afternoon.
Over a three hour span, we made five deliveries, including one that took 30 minutes to drive to. All in all, I think we made around $28. One thing that surprised me was that almost none of it came from tips.
Then again, maybe it’s not that surprising. From the customers’ perspective, they are already paying more for their order than they would have if they had actually gone to the restaurant (because restaurants tend to increase their prices to counter food delivery app fees). On top of the higher price, DoorDash adds a slew of fees. For example, I wanted to see how much it would cost me to have a burger delivered and got the charges in the picture to the left.
The total for the order would have been $26.19 for a $9 burger! And the fees are confusing as well — many customers see a Delivery Fee and probably assume that it includes some tip…
