LONGVIEW — When Gennifer Hayes launched her Change.org petition last week aimed at DoorDash, she never expected it to earn tens of thousands of signatures.
Hayes has been a DoorDash delivery driver in Longview on and off over the last three years. In the last few months, she and drivers in various Facebook groups were increasingly frustrated with the cost of gas and the challenges in turning a profit as a Dasher.
“I will log in, go through orders and decline them all until I log out because it’s not even worth it. I’ve experienced this personally but this is widespread among Dashers,” Hayes said.
One morning in early March, Hayes took an idea from a driver Facebook group to start her petition asking the company and Chief Executive Officer Tony Xu to raise the base pay for workers.
“As a longtime Dasher, I’ve never received more than $2.50 base pay for an order,” Hayes wrote in the petition. “This combined with $2-8 in tips for what’s usually 30 minutes in work barely even covers my gas costs.”
After being passed around local Facebook pages the first week, the petition slowly made it to 1,000 signatures. Hayes didn’t check back on it until March 18, at which point it had taken off. As of Monday afternoon the petition passed 36,000 signatures.
In response to a request for comment Monday, a DoorDash spokeswoman said, “We welcome conversations that promote the interests of Dashers, and are always eager to hear from them directly on the issues they care about most.”
Delivery complaints
Hayes started driving for DoorDash and taking other gig jobs when she moved from Woodland to Longview after high school. During those first few years, Hayes said she could make around $400 a week while working part time. She stopped working for DoorDash until the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dashers, as the delivery drivers often call themselves, earn a base pay for each order they pick up. Base pay is between $2 and $10 per order, depending on how large the orders are and how far they need to be taken. The base pay is the only earning drivers see when they open the map to look at orders. The total earnings, including tip and the full cost of the meal, isn’t shown until after the delivery.
DoorDash says the system spreads out the more expensive orders among drivers and sets a clear minimum for how much each delivery is worth. Hayes said in practice, most orders don’t provide much more than the minimum base pay. Figuring out which deliveries will result in large tips becomes a guessing game, and the rising cost of gas means some trips won’t be worth the effort.
“It makes you rethink all of the $2.50 orders you declined in the first place. How many hidden tips were inside of those as well?” Hayes said.
DoorDash and other gig-based delivery businesses have begun making changes to adapt to the rising cost of gas. On March 15, DoorDash announced a pair of gas reward programs for its drivers. The company offers up to 10% cash-back for gas purchases made using the DasherDirect prepaid debit card, as well as a weekly bonus offered for Dashers who drive more than 100 miles a week.
Uber and Lyft have launched fuel surcharges, which will go directly from riders to their drivers. DoorDash’s gas program is not expected to raise the price for deliveries.
