The latest development in the ever-changing landscape of food delivery apps is a new DoorDash notification that alerts customers that their order may arrive later if they don’t tip. The new alert was created in response to the trend of customers not tipping delivery drivers. It pops up right before the final order confirmation and says, “Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered – are you sure you want to continue?”
DoorDash clarifies in a statement, “While the vast majority of customers do leave a tip, offers that don’t include a tip can be seen as less desirable — this impacts our entire community, leading to longer wait times for customers, orders sitting longer at merchants, and less value for Dashers.”
There is a question, however, of whether the move is truly based on low tipping or due to low wages for delivery workers. A new minimum wage was established in New York earlier this year, which was subsequently challenged by UberEATS, Grubhub, and DoorDash — to no avail.
Speaking to Good Morning America, a DoorDash driver named David Slyder had this to say, “I think DoorDash should pay their drivers more and meet their customers, their clientele, in the middle. We use our own vehicles. We put our own gas.”
According to the financial services platform, Square, tips increased 25% at restaurants and 17% at quick service establishments during COVID-19. Unlike then, many of the same incentives to tip no longer exist today. From inflation to wages, there are many factors to consider.
“COVID caused people to be willing to tip more — but that increase in tipping kind of communicated to businesses, ‘Hey, consumers are willing to tip more. Let’s start asking for it,’” Mike Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior at Cornell University, stated.
Service fees can sometimes disincentivize tipping, too, as they are often mistaken for automatic gratuity. Contrary to popular belief, on DoorDash, service fees and tips are separate and whether or not someone tips does not affect the fees. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not the new notification inspires customers to tip more.
