5 ms·

Worried Delivery Drivers Are Eating Orders? You Have Good Reason

30 points by gilad 7y ago

unimployed 7y ago
Nothing would be surprising about this. Pretty standard practice since food delivery was established. Though if an algorithm is washing out any benefit of tips, I would not be surprised if said drivers might be helping themselves more to compensate for the resulting march of lower wages. I suggest giving tips in cash.
JeremyBanks 7y ago
Back when I used it, it was more surprising to get an Uber Eats order that included everything I ordered than for items to be missing.
kerng 7y ago
Why not grab a bite when being paid next to nothing? Not too surprising, and rather practical thinking - since this way one can safe on expenses for food. Containers should be sealed - I always found it interesting that that isn't the case anywhere.
- londons_explore 7y ago
  Hot food in a sealed container is a recipe for soggy steamy food... You'd need to design sealed packaging with vents before it could really work out.
  - siphon22 7y ago
    You just need a normal container with vents which are fairly common and some tape that tears when the container is opened.
Rainymood 7y ago
>The drivers for third-party delivery services have deeper gripes, according to the research. Their top complaint, shared by 60% of that community, is getting a lousy tip or no gratuity at all. So maybe ... they should be getting paid a fair wage then? If literally our only human interaction is you handing over a box, what am I tipping for?
- unimployed 7y ago
  Typically food delivery service you tip because the delivery person did their best in the conditions to be quick, not leave the restaurant for extra unpaid waiting, not leave the restaurant emptyhanded, handle the poorly packed food, maintain it's temperature, find you through various layers of location that may not be specifically noted (community, building, wing, level, find the stairs/elevator, door), contact you because you were too lazy to give all the necessary info, and the legwork/schlepping things you want to you at whatever ridiculous time of day or night you were too lazy to go get it yourself. You know, normal bs stuff you didn't want to deal with, and probably worth more than the $3 or whatever they were paid for the trip that is supposed to cover their expenses as well and some dead time between trips. Pretty sure waitressing pays better after all is accounted for. Additionally, getting tips on the app (instead of cash) provides almost no benefit to drivers usually because of the way the apps/algorithms hand out work. If you start making more in tips, you probably won't break over your typical takehome for the day/week as it is averaged/washed out in your total earnings (tips included) that are spread out so no one earns more money (even if they deserve it for a job well done/hustle). Finally, what you pay in surge pricing does not usually go to the driver. That surcharge goes to the app, and sometimes the app has to pay the driver a surge rate, but usually not (this is called arbitrage). Again the same averaging applies and surge pays usually don't increase your overall takehome pay.
  - blub 7y ago
    """did their best in the conditions to be quick, not leave the restaurant for extra unpaid waiting, not leave the restaurant emptyhanded, handle the poorly packed food, maintain it's temperature, find you through various layers of location that may not be specifically noted (community, building, wing, level, find the stairs/elevator, door), contact you because you were too lazy to give all the necessary info, and the legwork/schlepping things you want to you at whatever ridiculous time of day or night you were too lazy to go get it yourself.""" That's the job definition and it's a crappy job. These companies are paying their employees poorly and try to guilt customers into picking up their slack.
    - 7y ago
pragmaticlurker 7y ago
pay them a decent salary and things like this will never happen
who-knows95 7y ago
Living in the UK i always wonder if i should tip the takeout driver.
- swarnie_ 7y ago
  No, why should you?
  - unimployed 7y ago
    Do you research first. This is 2019. Not that hard to investigate what the reality is with the internet. If the service is a platform designed to screw over workers (mostly the case), either choose not to use that platform or tip.
- unimployed 7y ago
  Do you research first. This is 2019. Not that hard to investigate what the reality is with the internet. If the service is a platform designed to screw over workers (mostly the case), either choose not to use that platform or tip.
  - who-knows95 7y ago
    Bit of a douche you are, i didn't mean app's, i meant from like dominoes, curry houses, or other such places, not deliveroo.
- newsgremlin 7y ago
  I don't tip, I think they should be paid a fair wage to begin with. That said, if it's not directly from the eatery, I now try to skip UberEats/Deliveroo. Saves me money and I don't contribute to the gig-economy that is keeping down wages. Tipping is subjective, and when people start to get an expectation of a tip (automatically added on service charges included) then it's no longer gratuity. We're doing the companies job for them.
  - unimployed 7y ago
Konnstann 7y ago
I don't get delivery anymore unless it's first-party, which is becoming more and more rare as time goes on. I don't need to worry about tipping cash vs credit card/app, people eating my food, delivery time, etc. If the restaurant has an employee delivering food, it's a much better experience overall. I've never had any issues with getting pizza delivered, but every single time I use a third party service the food is late, cold, and has 12 different service fees attached (as well as tip).
- unimployed 7y ago
  At least one person in this thread is smart.
zeveb 7y ago
> Worried delivery drivers are eating orders? Well, I wasn't …
unnouinceput 7y ago
Quote: "They also readily cited service snafus. Thirty-four percent of respondents said they’d experienced a driver refusing to leave his or her car to hand over the meal. Twenty-nine percent said a driver refused to walk all the way to their door for the delivery. Nearly 1 in 5 (17%) reported that a driver had dropped the food at the door and left, without any interaction. " And that's why I never pay in advance. Pay when delivered, to the delivering person, receive the receipt and done. And on expensive orders I test what I get before I pay. Usually this annoys the deliverer but I follow with : "Either you get this back and I will complain about you to your boss or stick around for 5 minutes and you get a tip". I don't mind tipping delivery persons, and on food I do like 5%, which is very much in my country and I can see their eyes lit. Sometime I get the same driver on my door several times in a row, apparently tipping is rare hence they make sure they get my order.
- vikingcaffiene 7y ago
  > either you get this back and I will complain about you to your boss or stick around for 5 minutes and get a tip This is terrible and you should be ashamed of yourself. People who work for tips are at the low end of the power dynamic here and you are exploiting it in a very gross way. If you really do this, you’ve probably eaten some spit too. Don’t mess with the people who handle your food.
  - unnouinceput 7y ago
    You're confusing my country with yours. On my country people are paid for their work, they don't live from tips, hence why is rare here.
thatfrenchguy 7y ago
Or maybe just stop getting deliveries, the food is always worse, you siphon money from the restaurant into the hands of big companies.
wyld_one 7y ago
Eating aka touching my food? off limits! period. Health & safety. late I can stand - I have a microwave. I Order items that can be. Do I need it? Most definitely - Especially when I hurt. Gripes? impatient knocking. give me a min or two to get to the door. It helps if I can hear them coming up my walk / GPS track helps but it is sometimes not available or 5min old. see previous reason. Deliver to the door. required. period. I have left feedback to the third party delivery sites to add SMS messaging to the driver apps so they can beep me when they arrive (and keep privacy). I do quite hate having to tip before performance. I have only had one non-delivery, and one missing items. On the missing item delivery, saw the driver goto a separate location entirely (GPS) before they dropped off my order. - out of about 60 orders.

30 points by gilad 7y ago

Nothing would be surprising about this. Pretty standard practice since food delivery was established. Though if an algorithm is washing out any benefit of tips, I would not be surprised if said drivers might be helping themselves more to compensate for the resulting march of lower wages. I suggest giving tips in cash.

JeremyBanks 7y ago

Back when I used it, it was more surprising to get an Uber Eats order that included everything I ordered than for items to be missing.

kerng 7y ago

Why not grab a bite when being paid next to nothing? Not too surprising, and rather practical thinking - since this way one can safe on expenses for food. Containers should be sealed - I always found it interesting that that isn't the case anywhere.

londons_explore 7y ago
Hot food in a sealed container is a recipe for soggy steamy food... You'd need to design sealed packaging with vents before it could really work out.
- siphon22 7y ago
  You just need a normal container with vents which are fairly common and some tape that tears when the container is opened.

Rainymood 7y ago

>The drivers for third-party delivery services have deeper gripes, according to the research. Their top complaint, shared by 60% of that community, is getting a lousy tip or no gratuity at all. So maybe ... they should be getting paid a fair wage then? If literally our only human interaction is you handing over a box, what am I tipping for?

unimployed 7y ago
Typically food delivery service you tip because the delivery person did their best in the conditions to be quick, not leave the restaurant for extra unpaid waiting, not leave the restaurant emptyhanded, handle the poorly packed food, maintain it's temperature, find you through various layers of location that may not be specifically noted (community, building, wing, level, find the stairs/elevator, door), contact you because you were too lazy to give all the necessary info, and the legwork/schlepping things you want to you at whatever ridiculous time of day or night you were too lazy to go get it yourself. You know, normal bs stuff you didn't want to deal with, and probably worth more than the $3 or whatever they were paid for the trip that is supposed to cover their expenses as well and some dead time between trips. Pretty sure waitressing pays better after all is accounted for. Additionally, getting tips on the app (instead of cash) provides almost no benefit to drivers usually because of the way the apps/algorithms hand out work. If you start making more in tips, you probably won't break over your typical takehome for the day/week as it is averaged/washed out in your total earnings (tips included) that are spread out so no one earns more money (even if they deserve it for a job well done/hustle). Finally, what you pay in surge pricing does not usually go to the driver. That surcharge goes to the app, and sometimes the app has to pay the driver a surge rate, but usually not (this is called arbitrage). Again the same averaging applies and surge pays usually don't increase your overall takehome pay.
- blub 7y ago
  """did their best in the conditions to be quick, not leave the restaurant for extra unpaid waiting, not leave the restaurant emptyhanded, handle the poorly packed food, maintain it's temperature, find you through various layers of location that may not be specifically noted (community, building, wing, level, find the stairs/elevator, door), contact you because you were too lazy to give all the necessary info, and the legwork/schlepping things you want to you at whatever ridiculous time of day or night you were too lazy to go get it yourself.""" That's the job definition and it's a crappy job. These companies are paying their employees poorly and try to guilt customers into picking up their slack.
  - 7y ago

pragmaticlurker 7y ago

pay them a decent salary and things like this will never happen

who-knows95 7y ago

Living in the UK i always wonder if i should tip the takeout driver.

swarnie_ 7y ago
No, why should you?
- unimployed 7y ago
  Do you research first. This is 2019. Not that hard to investigate what the reality is with the internet. If the service is a platform designed to screw over workers (mostly the case), either choose not to use that platform or tip.
unimployed 7y ago
Do you research first. This is 2019. Not that hard to investigate what the reality is with the internet. If the service is a platform designed to screw over workers (mostly the case), either choose not to use that platform or tip.
- who-knows95 7y ago
  Bit of a douche you are, i didn't mean app's, i meant from like dominoes, curry houses, or other such places, not deliveroo.
newsgremlin 7y ago
I don't tip, I think they should be paid a fair wage to begin with. That said, if it's not directly from the eatery, I now try to skip UberEats/Deliveroo. Saves me money and I don't contribute to the gig-economy that is keeping down wages. Tipping is subjective, and when people start to get an expectation of a tip (automatically added on service charges included) then it's no longer gratuity. We're doing the companies job for them.
- unimployed 7y ago

Konnstann 7y ago

I don't get delivery anymore unless it's first-party, which is becoming more and more rare as time goes on. I don't need to worry about tipping cash vs credit card/app, people eating my food, delivery time, etc. If the restaurant has an employee delivering food, it's a much better experience overall. I've never had any issues with getting pizza delivered, but every single time I use a third party service the food is late, cold, and has 12 different service fees attached (as well as tip).

unimployed 7y ago
At least one person in this thread is smart.

zeveb 7y ago

> Worried delivery drivers are eating orders? Well, I wasn't …

unnouinceput 7y ago

Quote: "They also readily cited service snafus. Thirty-four percent of respondents said they’d experienced a driver refusing to leave his or her car to hand over the meal. Twenty-nine percent said a driver refused to walk all the way to their door for the delivery. Nearly 1 in 5 (17%) reported that a driver had dropped the food at the door and left, without any interaction. " And that's why I never pay in advance. Pay when delivered, to the delivering person, receive the receipt and done. And on expensive orders I test what I get before I pay. Usually this annoys the deliverer but I follow with : "Either you get this back and I will complain about you to your boss or stick around for 5 minutes and you get a tip". I don't mind tipping delivery persons, and on food I do like 5%, which is very much in my country and I can see their eyes lit. Sometime I get the same driver on my door several times in a row, apparently tipping is rare hence they make sure they get my order.

vikingcaffiene 7y ago
> either you get this back and I will complain about you to your boss or stick around for 5 minutes and get a tip This is terrible and you should be ashamed of yourself. People who work for tips are at the low end of the power dynamic here and you are exploiting it in a very gross way. If you really do this, you’ve probably eaten some spit too. Don’t mess with the people who handle your food.
- unnouinceput 7y ago
  You're confusing my country with yours. On my country people are paid for their work, they don't live from tips, hence why is rare here.

thatfrenchguy 7y ago

Or maybe just stop getting deliveries, the food is always worse, you siphon money from the restaurant into the hands of big companies.

wyld_one 7y ago

Eating aka touching my food? off limits! period. Health & safety. late I can stand - I have a microwave. I Order items that can be. Do I need it? Most definitely - Especially when I hurt. Gripes? impatient knocking. give me a min or two to get to the door. It helps if I can hear them coming up my walk / GPS track helps but it is sometimes not available or 5min old. see previous reason. Deliver to the door. required. period. I have left feedback to the third party delivery sites to add SMS messaging to the driver apps so they can beep me when they arrive (and keep privacy). I do quite hate having to tip before performance. I have only had one non-delivery, and one missing items. On the missing item delivery, saw the driver goto a separate location entirely (GPS) before they dropped off my order. - out of about 60 orders.