What your DoorDash driver really thinks about you will surprise you

It’s 11:39 p.m., and Mike is sitting in a Pittsburgh McDonald’s drive-through waiting for the cars in front of him to get their orders. “Is my night going to be a nightmare of drive-throughs?” he asks the camera mounted on his car dashboard.

Pedro is waiting for an order outside of Fuzzy’s Taco Shop in St. Louis, just after 11 a.m. when a notification pops up. “This is funny, let’s talk about some clowns,” he says, holding up his phone to the camera to show a DoorDash request to pick up an order for $2 in earnings. “You want me to bring you your lunch, and you don’t leave a tip? You are a clown.” He declines the gig.

Bri is in her car in the late afternoon trying to get through 15 deliveries for an additional $75 bonus on top of her earnings. She has two days to complete the challenge and started her second day having done four deliveries. “Let me know if you guys got this, or maybe you had something similar in the past,” she says to the camera on the dash.

Welcome to the life of a “GigTuber,” the hyper-specific niche of content creators who are taking thousands along during their time in the gig economy—on YouTube as well as podcasts. Some are solely rideshare drivers, some focus on the delivery sector, and others do a mix of services.

Within this labyrinth of content, DoorDash-related videos are at this moment perhaps the most compelling. The company has been on a roll with new initiatives—and therefore inspires both the most agita among its “Dashers” and clever stratagems to maximize revenue. They gripe, share tips and hacks, talk regulation, and break down earnings and new features. Some will do weekly livestreams, while others stick to short, clickbait-titled videos. Some are monetizing their channels or sharing affiliate links, and others are selling courses or guides for gig work.

GigTube and the broader gig economy media ecosystem has grown to have a large amount of influence and legitimacy. They have thoughts on bonuses and new features and will share exactly what certain terms and services mean. They suggest products, and commenters will say they’ve bought them (for example, a specific flashlight for night shifts). One thing is clear: There’s money to be made educating those interested in a growing field that, despite attracting millions of workers, is in some ways still relying on a cutthroat, every-person-for-themselves formula.

Although this surfeit of material is intended for their fellow gig workers, it’s a revealing peek behind the curtain for consumers on these platforms. Our interactions with DoorDash workers are mediated through the app. With contactless delivery, there is often no shared moment with the delivery person, so one can lose sight of what it’s like to do that job—and how they may really feel about you. GigTube offers those insights, and it’s why I spent a couple weeks voraciously consuming media created by Dashers to better understand these creators.

The tipping point

There is no shortage of advice for drivers that begin to reveal the demands being placed on those who do the job: Never accept anything below $1 per mile you travel [Trevor’s Deliveries]. Have multiple apps going at once [Ride Along With Bri]. Set a goal and stick to logging off and going home once you reach it [Mr. Bet On You, aka Pedro]. Don’t take orders to places where you won’t be able to pick up subsequent orders [The Nola Grind].

Watch enough of these tips being administered, and you’ll see how customer habits can impact these trips.

Clearly, there’s a right and wrong way to be a customer. Don’t make your DoorDash driver wait outside for several minutes to meet you if you selected an in-person pick up. Meet your driver outside if you’re ordering from a labyrinthian apartment complex. Have backup options if you’re having someone shop in-store for you—or at least be available to respond to substitution requests. Don’t expect to get your order if you give the wrong address. Time is money, and the more gig worker time you waste, the more money they’re losing.

Speaking of tips, if there’s only one morsel of information that drivers want a consumer to internalize, it’s please just leave a tip. Consumers have become so accustomed to ordering things online and having those items appear almost instantaneously that we’ve come to rely on that ease—and perhaps forget that there should be a price for that convenience. Remember as well that Uber, which helped usher in the world of app-based, push-button service, trained a generation that tipping wasn’t required.

The subsequent proliferation of gig workers for delivering our flowers, groceries, medicine, and anything else, coincides with American consumers feeling burned out on tipping culture. Roughly two in three U.S. adults have negative feelings about tipping, according to a June Bankrate survey. It’s a stark contrast from when consumers were feeling extra generous with tips early on in the pandemic to support front-line workers.

Drivers understand the fatigue but they also make it clear: Worthwhile tips are what get you your order at a decent pace. “We see a lot of crappy offers, and literally we cannot pick up your food. We choose not to,” Pedro says in one video calling out poor tippers.

Tipping culture gets into the crux of these gig companies’ models, which are opaque by design. Customers see something like a double-digit upcharge when ordering DoorDash compared to if they picked up the food themselves, and they understandably assume a larger chunk goes to these Dashers. (This doesn’t prevent the oft-heard rants about paying $37 for a burrito or whatever.) The vast majority of gig workers are independent contractors, so they cover their own gas, vehicles, and fees, and make only a small percentage of what the restaurant or gig company itself is earning on orders. That base pay is typically low, with workers sometimes earning just $2 in base pay per delivery.

Dashers’ opinion on regulatory efforts to guarantee them a minimum wage may surprise you

This reliance on tips is where regulation comes in. We’ve seen policy efforts pop up across a number of cities and states over recent years that would require higher pay for workers, but they’re almost always followed by lengthy and expensive legal challenges. For the most part, these large tech companies, including DoorDash, are fighting such things as mandatory minimum wage and worker classification, which they say will be disastrous to their businesses and push costs onto consumers. The argument is that customers will have to either stop ordering completely or tip less. The most recent effort we’ve seen is in New York City, where officials announced a minimum wage for app-based food delivery workers.

Workers’ rights groups and lawmakers insist that regulation is the solution. Companies, clearly, are taking the opposite stance. It’s a mixed bag when it comes to whether or not the majority of workers want each regulation to be approved. “There’s many gig workers who check out my channel and others who do not want this minimum wage, and I do understand why,” Hannibal is Hungry says in a video talking about New York City’s law. “The potential to make $25, $30 an hour will probably not be there anymore if this law passes.”

The majority of gig workers in these spots won’t make more money from legislation, Pedro argues in a video posted to The Rideshare Guy’s channel. (The Rideshare Guy, which started out as a blog by Harry Campbell nearly a decade ago, has since evolved into a network of podcasts, videos, resources, and blog posts aimed at serving gig workers. It’s so powerful that tech companies will submit their CEOs to be interviewed in an effort to connect with workers; and news outlets, including Fast Company, will regularly ask Campbell or his contributors for expert commentary.) Instead, it needs to be thought of as a side hustle where people learn how to cherry pick the orders that will earn them the most. “We’re basically catering to the minority of workers who are making $7 an hour, and it’s going to affect the majority of the gig economy in NYC and in other places, in my opinion,” he says.

You are not the enemy, the algorithm is

Much of the frustration you’ll see on GigTube centers on the company’s algorithm, rather than on specific customer faux pas. The app, for example, could suggest someone take an order that’s 20 miles for $5. More than one-quarter of gig workers earned less than the state minimum wage they’d receive if they were W-2 workers, according to a national survey last year by the Economic Policy Institute—before tip culture was even more dire.

“The likelihood of receiving an additional tip on a very low-paying offer—a $2, $3, $4 offer—is very, very slim,” Bri says in one video on “Why Delivery Drivers Don’t Last.”

Gig workers definitely crave more transparency into why they’re offered the assignments they are. They are also still dealing with such challenges as sudden deactivations and have little insight into why they’re making specific rates. Tipping your drivers well is the best way to combat that.

After watching a ridiculous amount of GigTube content that completely overrode my YouTube algorithm, I kept coming back to one idea. In a job that’s extremely isolated—gig workers technically don’t have any coworkers or direct bosses—these creators are able to establish some fellowship and a place for conversation about these companies. Gig workers are essentially at a loss when it comes to company support during hard times or their desire to earn more. These influencers are able to provide that relief where they can share things like how to earn more or deal with taxes.

It’s almost as if the comment section is the company watercooler or a bar by the office with a happy hour. In one video from Pedro, he asked his more than 68,000 subscribers why they watch his videos. One user responded: “Pretty sure it is a sense of community and being a part of something bigger than yourself. Humans like human interaction, even introverts. Always love the sharing of information and motivation. Love the group of folks that come to watch, had a blast in the chat.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/90964686/gigtube-doordash-dasher-youtube-podcast-rideshare-tipping?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss