Random question: Doordash, Ubereats, Grubhub, etc....

[Martinjmpr]

This really isn't here nor there but I'm curious about something and I thought I'd throw it out here to the group since there are a wide variety of people on the board.

I've seen a few Facebook discussions about the various food delivery services like Uber Eats, grubhub, etc. I've never used them (nor ever wanted to) but as I understand it, this is a "gig based" thing like Uber or Lyft where people sign up and then if someone puts in an order, the order goes out to whoever happens to be logged on as "working" and who then agree to accept the delivery, deliver to the customer, etc.

So, being as how the drivers are independent contractors, they're not OBLIGATED to pick up anybody's order. They can pick up or refuse if they like.

Apparently, some (or maybe all?) of these apps also allow the purchaser to put a tip for the driver into their original order.

Now, I've never done this but I assume that an order goes something like this: Customer gets hungry and wants some Taco Bell but doesn't want to go get it. So he puts in an order for one of the apps. Let's say the total cost of the food itself is $10.00 (do they have a minimum? I would think so but I don't know.) IOW, if they drove to Taco Bell themselves, they'd pay $10.00 for the food ordered.

Since they're ordering from the app, there is also a delivery charge. I have no idea what that delivery charge is. Maybe another $10.00? So the person ordering sends a payment of $20.00 to the app. The App then sends the order to the nearest Taco Bell (or do you specify which one?) and pays them the $10.00 for the food. The driver gets maybe $4.00 and the rest goes to the app as the cost of running their business.

In addition to the delivery fee, the customer can also choose to tip the driver ahead of time, so, let's say, the driver can add a $3.00 tip for the driver so the driver now gets $7.00 instead of the contracted $4.00 that he gets from the app. And the driver can SEE this tip when the order comes in.

So, now, as I understand it, the tip is out there for "whoever" picks up the order. Which incentivizes drivers to pick up the order. IOW, I'm driving around, doing GrubHub, let's say, and an order comes in for a $10.00 Taco Bell order with a nice $20 tip. Everyone who is in the area that night gets it so I would imagine that a driver would be quick to "accept" that order so they could get that nice tip.

Have I got that right?

Because, if what I'm reading on Facebook and Next Door is right, the opposite also applies: Often times, Someone puts in an order and leaves NO tip on the order. Either because "I'm paying enough for this already" or "I'll wait to tip until AFTER service is rendered, not before." Either way the order is sitting out there in internet-land, waiting for a driver to "accept" the order which he then is contractually obligated to pick up and deliver to the customer.

And what I'm hearing is that drivers are going "Meh, not worth it to me to pick up and deliver an order for a measly $4" and they don't accept the order. The food sits there, presumably getting cold. I would guess if it sits there long enough, eventually it's going to get thrown away, especially if it is closing time for the restaurant.

Now, HERE is where my question comes in: What happens when the customer starts complaining to UberEats or GrubHub or whoever, and says "where's my food I paid for?"

Do the apps have some kind of "incentive" system where the longer an order has been pending without being accepted, the higher the payment to the driver so as to incentivize someone to go pick it up?

Or does it sit there with nobody picking it up? And then if the customer gets angry because he never got the food he paid for and demands a refund, I'm guessing that the app has to absorb that, correct? After all, it wouldn't be right to expect the restaurant to refund the money - they made the meal and put it where it was supposed to be. They did everything they were contractually obligated to do, right?

And since drivers have no specific obligation to accept any order, until and unless they do, they aren't responsible either.

Also what happens if it takes an hour and a half for someone to finally get around to picking up the food and it's cold and nasty by the time it gets to the customer? Can the customer get a refund from the delivery service? Or is there some kind of disclaimer with their service that they're not responsible for late deliveries?

And no, I'm not thinking about signing up to be an UberEats driver - with the cost of gas it would be a waste in my pickup. I'm just curious about how these sorts of things work, is all.

[Grant H.]

I don't have any personal experience on the driver side, but I did use the hell out of food panda and uber eats in Taiwan during the 2 week quarantine last fall... Handy, but I will never work any part of this "gig economy" bs.

For lyft and uber ride sharing, as I understand it, the details of the order are not shared with the driver until they accept it. They are only allowed to accept it if they are within a certain radius of the pickup point.

I expect that is true on the food side as well, otherwise you would have people never accepting "low value" orders.

[newracer]

The restaurant doesn't get the order until it is accepted. With some restaurants the driver actually places the order. When a tip is given through the app the driver doesn't get all of it.

[Martinjmpr]

The restaurant doesn't get the order until it is accepted. With some restaurants the driver actually places the order. When a tip is given through the app the driver doesn't get all of it.

Ah, OK that makes a lot more sense. Otherwise I can envision orders just sitting there for hours waiting for someone to pick it up.

Interesting that the driver doesn't keep all of the tip. Is a portion withheld for tax purposes? Wait, these are independent contractors so there should be no withholding, just a 1099 at the end of the year, right?

[newracer]

I forget the formula but each delivery has a minimum the driver will get. They use the tip to get to that minimum. If the total doesn't go over the minimum the driver doesn't see the additional money.

[TEAMRICO]

I don’t even like having pizza delivered to my house. I go get the take out myself.

[ray1970]

I don?t even like having pizza delivered to my house. I go get the take out myself.

Same here. If there?s an issue with my delivery driver then I know who to blame.

[def90]

The restaurant also gets docked a percentage of the order cost as in you buy $8.50 worth of Taco Bell, Taco Bell actually only gets paid $7.00. On their end I guess $7 is better than $0 if the customer just stays home and doesn't order anything. Which also means that in the future all food prices will be raised across the board to cover the loss to delivery services and we end up paying for someone else's delivery.

[CS1983]

When we have used them, we put a 20% tip, but then I always tip extra cash when they come to make up their trouble. Don?t use them often, usually when being lazy, sick, on a bunch of WFH meetings.

But we always tip delivery drivers well anyway. I remember my dad struggling with it as a second job for Dominoes, and I?ve had some friends with horror stories. People treat the drivers horribly and tip like cheapskates.

I figure if I?m being lazy, it needs to cost me. An extra $5-10 isn?t much to me, but it?s a big deal to some of those drivers.

[RblDiver]

Speaking from the Doordash customer side, I don't think I've ever had an order not be accepted. If there's an issue, you can either do some automated complaint via the app and get automatic resolution, or you can talk to a live person. Generally the easiest is just to get credit, though I think if you talk to a person, you can get the money back on your card (maybe you can through the app version too, not sure).

I've never had a claimed delivery that didn't happen, but I have had wrong deliveries. Usually just some piece missing (like a drink or the like). Once I got someone else's order in addition to mine, though I made sure when I contacted DD I pointed out it was the restaurant's fault (printed my name on all the items, even the wrong ones). Once, I got the entirely wrong order, so they refunded me my whole order (and of course I got to keep what they delivered, not that it was very great but hey, free food I guess). It was through that that I found out that the App can group orders together from the same restaurant, which is why sometimes you'll see the driver seemingly going off in the other direction.

Also, I'm pretty sure the DD extra tip goes 100% to the driver. They have a suggested amount based on how hard it is for the driver (like distance and number of items I think), not a percentage, for my typical order they suggest $5 which I'm fine with.

Anyhow, TL;DR, it works well enough most of the time.