Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Brandise Archambeau, a local DoorDash driver, said customers need to understand that drivers, known as Dashers by the company, are as reliant on their tips as restaurant waitresses are on theirs. DoorDash refuses to let Dashers know up front what the tip for delivery will be. In more than a few instances, this can cause a customer to not get their delivery.

HOUGHTON — DoorDash delivery drivers are seeing their candles burned at both ends, especially with gas prices sitting north of $4 a gallon and a base payment of just $2.25 — per order, regardless of distance to travel to deliver the order. There is more of a risk of losing money than of making a profit.

In rural areas, such as the Copper Country, distance traveled from a participating restaurant to the customer may require more money spent on gasoline than the trip is worth. That all depends on the amount the customer is willing to tip the DoorDash phone app, said driver Brandise Archambeau. The risk incurred comes from DoorDash itself, she said, not the customer or the amount tipped. The amount of the tip paid is not told to the Dasher — what the company calls its independent contract drivers — until after the delivery.

“A lot of people think Dashers get back paid by the hour or by the mile,” Archambeau said. “We don’t.”

Archambeau said that in fact, those who deliver for the gig app, DoorDash, are guaranteed nothing more than $2.25 per order. That is regardless of the distance a Dasher has to travel to deliver a food order from a restaurant to the customer — unless the customer includes a tip in the payment.

Archambeau said a lot of people say they prefer to tip in cash, based on the service of the Dasher.

“We don’t have to accept any order,” she said. “So, $2.25 to drive five miles; we’re not going to do that.”

Archambeau said Dashers are expected to travel as far as 20 or more miles per round trip to deliver a food order, with no guarantee of any more compensation than the $2.25.

There may be a compensatory tip paid to the app by the customer, said Archambeau, but any tip, or its amount, is not revealed to the Dasher until after the delivery is made. So, if a customer in Painesdale wants a delivery from a restaurant in Houghton, the distance is 26 miles round trip. Archambeau said Dashers are not going to take the risk of driving that distance, with gas recently as high as $4.29 per gallon, for what DoorDash pays the drivers, without first knowing the amount of the tip, or if there even is one.

So, why do people drive for DoorDash, then?

Archambeau said the app is constantly seeing new sign-ups, thinking they can make a decent rate, but new sign-ups are dwindling, too. Archambeau said right now there is a $300 sign-on bonus.

DoorDash is an on-demand food delivery service that partners with local restaurants to deliver food to homes and businesses. However, due to the way that DoorDash orders are delivered, the app makes it easier for restaurants to get into the delivery business.

A July 31, 2021, npr.org report stated that according to information provided to NPR by DoorDash, Dasher base pay is calculated based on the estimated time, distance and desirability of an order, Right now, Dashers can expect to earn a base pay between $2 to $10+, according to DoorDash’s website. Drivers say the lower end of that range had previously been $3. In the report, one Dasher was quoted echoing the same sentiments as Archambeau:

“As if a $3 base pay from DoorDash was not insulting enough, they’ve lowered it to $2, $2.25, $2.50, $2.75,” one DoorDasher, Denise Small, is quoted saying in a TikTok video that has amassed over 530,000 views. “I’ve declined so many orders because they’ve been $2.”

The NPR report went on to state that workers have also demanded to know how much in tips they’d make before accepting or declining an order. Dashers keep 100% of their tips, but the DoorDash app only shows a guaranteed minimum amount and does not allow drivers to see how much a customer has tipped until after the driver accepts the order.

For example, Archambeau said, she accepted an order to be delivered to Dollar Bay, a distance of about nine miles round trip. She was paid her base price of $2.25, plus a tip of — two cents. For the nine-mile trip, she received $2.27.

Archambeau said in addition to not showing Dashers up front what a delivery will cost or profit them, DoorDash also hides tips. The most Dashers will typically see is $6.25.

“So, even if it’s $6.75,” she said, “they’ll hide that extra 50 cents.”

In that event, she said, most Dasher will take a $6.25 order, almost anywhere, because the tip could be $20; there is no way of knowing until the delivery has been completed.

Businessinsider.com on Jan. 20, 2021, stated that restaurants have to pay DoorDash to use their drivers and receive orders through the app. Depending on the specific relationship that a restaurant establishes with DoorDash, the restaurant may pay DoorDash a monthly fee, a flat fee per order, or a commission based on how much money they make.

For customers, the Insider says, DoorDash has obvious value: it enables fast ordering and delivery for restaurants across the local area. Using the DoorDash website or mobile app, the customer can search for local restaurants, browse the menu freely, and track the order as the driver picks it up and brings it to the customer. Maybe, said Archambeau, but that is not guaranteed, either.

“If it’s real close,” she said, “someone is going to take it with a $2 tip. But if you order $10 worth of stuff from McDonald’s and live five miles away — I understand that a tip of $4 is more than 15% of the cost of the order — but you have to factor in where we’re going.”

Dashers, she said, use their own vehicles, pay their own gas money — “We don’t get paid for any of that,” she said.

Archambeau said locally there are 10 participating businesses, while in other areas there are more than 50.

Archambeau said she just wants customers to know how DoorDash pays its drivers, so they can understand that if they do not tip in the app — they want to tip cash when the driver arrives — the driver does not know that.

“So, we can’t see there’s a cash tip when it’s offered,” she said. “We just see $2.25 and how many miles it is.”