If you’re ever hungry, do you order a meal for food delivery through the DoorDash delivery service?
Tips are usually expected for a DoorDash driver once you get your food. Yet, do DoorDash drivers see tips once they complete their order?
If you’ve ever wondered what happens on the side of the delivery driver, then this guide is for you!
Here, we delve into whether the DoorDash driver sees whether you tipped before or after delivery, how much you tipped, and even what to do if they request a cash tip.
Read on to find out all about the tipping expectations of the standard DoorDash delivery worker.
Table Of Contents
- Do DoorDash Drivers See Tip Before Delivery?
- Do DoorDash Drivers See Tip After Delivery?
- Do DoorDash Drivers Know if You Don’t Tip?
- Do DoorDash Drivers Know How Much You Tip?
- Do DoorDash Drivers Expect a Tip?
- Is it Rude to Not Tip a DoorDash Driver?
- Do DoorDash Drivers Get Paid if You Don’t Tip?
- Help: My DoorDash Driver is Asking for a Cash Tip
- What Information Can DoorDash Drivers See?
- Wrapping Up
Do DoorDash Drivers See Tip Before Delivery?
Do you normally choose to tip the driver before they complete the food delivery?
If you decide to tip beforehand, the DoorDash driver will be able to see your gratuity.
This food delivery app allows you to tip either before the food gets delivered when you place the order or after the driver completes the delivery.
If you choose to tip beforehand, the delivery person will see the entire amount of money they will be able to earn for your particular food delivery.
This includes your tip and the DoorDash payment.
Do DoorDash Drivers See Tip After Delivery?
After every food delivery trip, the delivery person will see exactly what amount you tipped.
However, the driver needs to finish the delivery before cashing out on DoorDash.
Tipping for your food delivery ahead of time may actually benefit you.
You might find that the driver delivers your food faster if they see a tip ahead of time.
When it comes to tipping delivery drivers, it’s often a good idea to consider how far away the restaurant is from your address.
If you live farther away, your tip should be larger.
If the restaurant is only two or three miles away, you won’t need to increase your tip by much.
Do DoorDash Drivers Know if You Don’t Tip?
DoorDash drivers will only see the total amount they made established on base pay and gratuity upon completing the food delivery.
As such, they will see if you didn’t tip once they have left your residence and delivered your food.
However, if you try to become a regular who orders food through DoorDash and refuse to leave a Dasher tip, you will find that, eventually, no DoorDash delivery driver will accept your order.
Adding a tip beforehand is a good idea because it could incentivize a driver to bring your food to your home much faster.
Do DoorDash Drivers Know How Much You Tip?
There are multiple ways to tip your DoorDash driver.
First, you can tip them in cash, which may be a better system.
This way, you know that DoorDash drivers receive your entire gratuity, and the company doesn’t take any tip away from the DoorDash worker.
If you become a regular who tips in cash, you won’t ever find a Dasher rejecting your order.
You can also leave a gratuity through the DoorDash delivery app either upon checkout or when the delivery is finished.
If you leave a tip upon checkout, the driver can see exactly how much you tipped.
The larger a tip you leave, the more likely a DoorDash worker will pick up your order for delivery.
Do DoorDash Drivers Expect a Tip?
DoorDash drivers definitely expect gratuity upon completing your food delivery.
Often, waiters, waitresses, and delivery drivers rely on tips to make a decent living, as their general salary is very low.
Yet, if your experience with the delivery service was very negative and it may have taken several hours before your food showed up, you can decline to add a tip.
Nonetheless, if you continually do not tip, you’ll see DoorDash drivers decline your orders.
As such, be sure to leave a tip as DoorDash drivers do expect a gratuity for their work.
Is it Rude to Not Tip a DoorDash Driver?
The answer to this question lies with the service you received.
If your food delivery was quick and everything you ordered was left untouched, then you should probably leave a tip.
If the driver was polite and did his job as expected, then it would be wrong not to leave a gratuity.
However, if the driver took two to three hours to deliver your food and it was cold by the time it arrived at your home, then it is reasonable to leave a small tip or no tip.
If the order was missing some food or your burger had a bite taken out of it, then the driver doesn’t deserve a good tip.
As such, whether it is rude not to tip a driver depends on the quality of the food delivery service.
Related: How much to tip on DoorDash?
Do DoorDash Drivers Get Paid if You Don’t Tip?
If you don’t tip, then DoorDash drivers will earn less money without your gratuity.
The drivers get to see total earnings before they accept an order, which means if you don’t tip ahead of time, then your delivery may take much longer to complete as few drivers would be willing to accept an order with low pay and no tip.
Tipping is how delivery drivers make the majority of their pay, so while they might make some low pay without a tip, it won’t be enough to support themselves.
The guaranteed minimum amount of money from DoorDash for every delivery may be as little as $4 or $5, depending on one’s location.
Making only a dollar or two in tips for a delivery that takes an hour to complete may not be worth it for most food delivery drivers.
Help: My DoorDash Driver is Asking for a Cash Tip
Sometimes, your DoorDash driver may ask you for a cash tip instead of having you tip through the food delivery app.
In the past, DoorDash has come under fire for skimming the tips left by customers for the delivery people.
As such, you might find more delivery drivers asking for cash tips once they complete their food delivery.
What to Do if This Happens to You
If you have already left a tip on the DoorDash platform once you checked out and before the delivery came to your house, then you don’t need to tip again.
If the delivery person asks you for a cash tip, explain to the driver that you’ve left gratuity through the app.
You can also leave ratings for each DoorDash Dasher if you are not satisfied with the service or how the dasher treated you.
What Information Can DoorDash Drivers See?
Generally, DoorDash drivers will see some basic information about you when they choose to accept your order.
They will see your name as well as the address where you’ll be getting your food (likely your residence).
However, DoorDash drivers will not see what food you ordered or your order history.
They’ll be able to pick up your food, but it should all be in bags and boxes, so they won’t know what meal you chose.
Can DoorDash Drivers See Your Full Name?
DoorDash drivers will be able to see your first name and the first initial of your last name.
Therefore, you don’t have to worry about the drivers knowing your whole name.
The driver also won’t see your age, gender, or how much you’ve spent on the DoorDash platform and which restaurants you’ve ordered from.
Essentially, DoorDash will value your privacy and keep your personal information safe from food delivery drivers.
Can DoorDash Drivers See Your Phone Number?
The only way that DoorDash drivers can see your phone number is if you add it in the instructions when explaining where to deliver your food.
Otherwise, your phone number will be protected, and you will be able to communicate with the driver through the delivery app.
You can message your driver through the app, and the platform will protect your phone number by keeping it hidden during your conversation.
Can DoorDash Drivers See What You Rate Them?
Once your order has been delivered, you’ll be given the option to leave a rating and a review of the driver.
DoorDash drivers cannot see their separate customer reviews and ratings.
Therefore, they won’t necessarily see your particular rating.
These drivers can check only their overall rating.
Yet, if Dashers check their overall rating regularly, they may be able to figure out who left a positive review and who left a negative one.
Wrapping Up
Now that you’ve read through the information we’ve provided, you should have a good idea whether DoorDash drivers see tips and when to tip these workers.
You can tip them ahead of the delivery during checkout, upon delivery, or even via cash tips.
Gratuity is a major way how Dashers make their overall salary, so you should leave a good tip as long the service was top-notch.
However, if it took much too long to get your order delivered and the food arrived cold, you don’t have to leave a big tip. In general, it will depend on the quality of the food delivery service.
You’ll definitely appreciate having a delicious meal brought straight to your door any night of the week.
The DD president flat out states that they hide part of some tips from the offer screen if the tip amount is high. Supposedly, this is to help customers by preventing dashers from cherry picking high payouts and leaving other order to sit, but this is the exact opposite of the “transparency” he states is important. Every dasher cherry picks to some extent; DD minimum pay is usually between $2 and $3, and I just don’t see many drivers accepting orders with long drives and low payouts. This hurts the customer, since they often tip larger amounts to entice drivers to complete their order quickly, but we only see part of that tip and essentially make our decision based on a completely different payout total. Customers have a right to know what they are paying for, and independent contractors should also have a right to know exactly how much they will be paid before accepting a job. The video linked below is from an interview between a rideshare YouTuber and the DD president back in June of 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3OWnOVhYd4
I still see most of the tips up front on the app. Most of us would stop doing DD otherwise.
Actually, if your dasher is very tech savvy, he can see your last name. He will have to use a web debugging proxy, and intercept and filter HTTPS web traffic coming from the Doordash server. He can use the iOS app, Http Catcher, install a root certificate to his iPhone, then decrypt and inspect the JSON coded data packets that get sent to his phone when a new delivery opportunity gets sent to his phone. This code contains much of the information that is hidden that the article says the dasher is unable to see. Some of this information is shown the the dasher later, some of this information is never meant to be seen by the dasher. Customers should not worry though, very few dashers have the patience, know-how, let alone the time to do this (it’s too cumbersome for this code to be inspected on most orders, anyway…unless he writes his own code to parse this code)
I found a lot of incorrect information in this article. Base pay is usually more like 2.50 and order. Most of the time, you can see the tip when accepting the order, but there is also times when you complete the order the tip is actually more than when you accepted, so no they dont always show all tips up front. I have seen first and last names so many times, and when I do only have the first name and last initial, I still end up knowing the last name because the merchant often times has the first initial but last name. Cash tippers will NOT always get their order fast and hot/cold like you say because for the majority of js, if all we see when accepting the order is a low base pay, we instantly decline the order because taking 10-30 minutes, sometimes even longer to complete the order is not worth the 2.50 that I am guaranteed to get. Thats like working for $5 an hour. Not many people give cash tips anyway, so never try to count on that. Most people dont even go back and add tips after the fact, most likely because its not easy to do. I did one time just to see for myself and I actually had to call doordash to add a bigger tip and nobody wants to go through that hassle, so also dont try to count on receiving tips after its already delivered. FYI, your dasher hasn’t already hopped in their car and drove away when they see how much the tip is at the end. I usually don’t even make it back to my car when I hit that final button to see what they really tipped, so chances are, they are still out front of your house when they realize that they just waited 10 mins at the merchant for your food and then drove 8 miles in rush hour traffic or a snow storm to leave your food at the door because you only left $1 tip. I would never be rude to my customer’s, but I do 100% get it when I watch the videos of other dashers flipping out over doing so much for so little. Some days are extremely good and some days are extremely frustrating. Also, just because you cash tip, doesn’t mean that you will always get the driver who knows your a cash tipper, so chances are more likely that the order will be declined several times before d d finally ups the base pay enough for one to accept it, and by then your food has been ready at the merchant for 20 mins so it wont be fresh when you finally do get it. The better offer we see up front, the better chance of getting fresh food in a timely manner. And its not always the drivers fault if the food is not right, or if it is not fresh, or even on time. I accepted and order last night and then realized it should have been picked up almost 2 hours before it even came to me, and then I had to cancel it because the merchant still didnt have it ready after I waited there 15 mins. Most places seal the bags so we cant even see if the order is correct or not, so if its wrong, its most likely the merchant who messed it up. Another thing, we CAN see what you ordered when we are waiting on your order at the merchant. It gives a whole list at most places. Thats not even all of the misinformation I read in this article. Maybe the author of it should go dash and get facts before just writing a bunch of garbage.
I am a Dasher and I don’t want to carry cash. Just use the app to tip.
BTW if you have part of your order missing it is not always the Dasher’s fault. Some places seal the bags and we’re not allowed to open them. I never do. It’s up to the restaurant to verify your order is correct in such cases, and up to the customer to contact the restaurant.
And please, PLEASE clear ice off your walkways and porches!
Please with the ice thing. I’m not risking walking in icy sidewalks or steps anymore. They can come to me to get it
I am a driver, and have a few thoughts.
First if all, base pay provided by doordash is much lower where I work. Doordash offers a base pay of $2.25 (+ a small milage bonus if it’s over a certain amount of miles away. They also will slowly up the base pay of it gets declined over and over by dashers)
Drivers also do not always see the entire tip before completing a delivery. (Some states have legislation requiring doordash shows the entire order total but majority of places do not. California and NY City are the only places I know of.) So if you tip $10 hoping to get your order sooner, doordash might hide part of the tip.
For example, sometimes I’ll get an order that shows $6.25 for the total pay (almost all orders also have a note saying there might be a hidden tip) and it’ll turn out to be a $10 order. The bad part is how this effects the customers, if you live far away from a restaurant and you leave a tip as an incentive for drivers to take the order, it might not make a difference if doordash hides it.
Doordash will also pair orders that tip well with orders that don’t tip in “stacked” orders. Which is also unfortunate for the customer that tipped well who, most of the time, end up waiting for the no tip order to be delivered first