Are you interested in getting extra rewards for your side hustle delivering food through the DoorDash application?
If so, the DoorDash Top Dasher program offers rewards for workers who meet certain requirements.
One bonus you may see include being prioritized for deliveries when the business for food delivery apps is having a slow day.
As a Top Dasher, you will also enjoy the benefit of scheduling through the “Dash Now” feature.
Table Of Contents
What Is the DoorDash Top Dasher Program?
The DoorDash Top Dasher program involves recognizing and rewarding the best food delivery workers.
Those who meet their customers’ expectations are likely to be recognized through this program.
There are specific requirements you will need to meet to participate in the Top Dasher program.
The main benefit of being a Top Dasher includes gaining priority schedule access.
This is the feature that allows you to “Dash Now” anytime that you have available in your schedule.
This program does require a minimum DoorDash acceptance rate.
Essentially, if you consistently decline to accept a food delivery, this will negatively impact the customer.
By declining orders, that means that customers have to wait longer and the merchant whose meal will sit around until a delivery driver chooses to accept the food delivery.
Did You Know?
Be mindful of acceptance rate as a driver.
Not accepting or cancelling too many orders not only negatively impacts your DoorDash driver rating, but also puts you at risk of being deactivated as a courier.
If you meet all requirements and qualifications, you can become a Top Dasher on the first day of every month.
You can check your Top Dasher status in your account settings on your Dasher app.
How Does the Top Dasher Program Work?
The Top Dasher program works on a month-to-month basis.
If you meet the requirements, you will be considered a Top Dasher on the first day of the month.
In the account portion of your Dasher app, you will see the Dasher Rewards page.
You will have access to these rewards for the rest of the month.
If you do not receive the Top Dasher status on the first day of the next month, the bonuses will no longer apply to you and you will lose access to these benefits.
Dashers are added to the program automatically when they meet the criteria at any point during the previous month.
Essentially, you will be able to qualify for the Top Dasher program every month as long as you meet the criteria.
Now let’s take a look at whether the benefits of this program are worth your time.
Benefits of Being Part of the Program
There are two main benefits of the Top Dasher program.
The first is the feature of dashing anywhere at any time.
The “Dash Now” feature is available to all Top Dashers.
The second benefit is the ability to have more deliveries.
When the need for deliveries is slower, you will get more priority for new orders as a Top Dasher than another driver who did not qualify.
Consider a situation where there are multiple nearby dashers available for the same delivery.
If you have Top Dasher status, you’ll be the one to get access to that delivery instead of Doordash delivery drivers who do not have the same ranking.
In 2021, DoorDash also provided a new Top Dasher perk.
Now, if you qualify for the program, you will gain access to high-value orders.
You will have a 50 percent rise in high-value orders, which are $35 or more in cost.
All of these benefits will result in extra income for dedicated and experienced dashers.
Cities Where the Top Dasher Program Is Available
The DoorDash app and its food delivery service, along with the Top Dasher program, are available in more than 850 cities across North America.
Some of the cities that have access to the DoorDash app and participating restaurants include these select cities:
- Anchorage
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Birmingham
- Charlotte
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Detroit
- Houston
- Indianapolis
- Jacksonville
- Las Vegas
- Miami
- Minneapolis
- New Orleans
- New York City
- Orlando
- Philadelphia
- Richmond
- Seattle
- Tampa
- Toronto
- Washington, D.C.
- Winnipeg
There are plenty of cities and restaurants participating in the DoorDash food delivery system.
These same places also offer the DoorDash Top Dasher program.
What Are the Top Dasher Requirements?
To be a Top Dasher you will need your dasher stats to reach certain levels.
The Top Dasher requirements that you’ll need to meet to be part of the program and gain access to its benefits include:
- Having a customer rating of 4.7 or more
- Having an acceptance rate of 70 percent or larger
- Reaching a DoorDash completion rate of at least 100 deliveries over the last month
- Completing at least 200 deliveries across the entire use of the DoorDash app
- Achieving a completion rate of 95 percent or higher
One of the most difficult Top Dasher requirements may be achieving an acceptance rate of at least 70 percent.
For instance, you may see multiple requests for food delivery with relatively low pay.
Usually, you’ll want to decline such a request, but keeping an acceptance rate of 70 percent may make you change your mind.
Getting low-paying gigs to reach the required acceptance rate may make the program not worth it for some delivery drivers.
Therefore, the acceptance rate may be one of the more complex requirements to reach Top Dasher status.
Tips for Being a Top Dasher
If you want to be a Top Dasher, you’ll need to have a high completion rate and a 70 percent acceptance rate.
One tip for becoming a Top Dasher includes trying to decline a couple of the low-paying requests at the beginning of the month, which should leave you with access to the high-paying orders.
The DoorDash cost for orders varies, so cherry-picking the best can word to your advantage.
You’ll also need to meet all the requirements by the last day of the month, so you will have four weeks to keep trying to reach the ranking.
You will not lose your ranking if you don’t meet the criteria in the middle of the month since the Top Dasher program is based on the requirements from the previous month.
However, your future ranking in the following month will be affected.
It’s a good idea to start accepting some of the low-paying offers toward the end of the month to reach a 70 percent acceptance rate and gain Top Dasher status.
Is Top Dasher Worth It?
This is a complicated question.
Some delivery drivers using the DoorDash app have found the Top Dasher program not worth their time, while others like its benefits.
As mentioned previously, maintaining a higher acceptance rating is difficult for food delivery drivers since it requires accepting a few too many low-paying orders, according to the Ridesharing Driver publication.
Generally, delivery drivers can decline as many orders as they want on the DoorDash app, but this program does not allow for that.
Order requests will display the payout the driver will receive with low-paying offers as low as $3 in total.
It makes more sense for drivers to decline these requests and wait for more reasonably priced ones.
Some drivers have also mentioned that the Dash Anytime feature of the Top Dasher program is not that beneficial.
However, there are some significant benefits that Top Dashers have gained, which if you used effectively can result in an increase in your total earnings.
They can get the best hours to deliver food in competitive markets so that can earn peak pay.
In addition, you will also benefit from being able to switch zones during your delivery hours.
You won’t have to deliver in only one specific zone.
These benefits do make the DoorDash Top Dasher program worth it for many delivery drivers.
Related: Is DoorDash worth it for drivers?
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Acceptance Rate matter to DoorDash drivers?
The acceptance rate matters to drivers who want to join the DoorDash Top Dasher program.
These food delivery drivers need to reach an acceptance rate of at least 70 percent to qualify for the program.
Otherwise, if you do not want to be a Top Dasher, you will not need to worry about the number of orders you accept.
Will I become a DoorDash Top Dasher right away after meeting the requirements?
If you met all of the requirements for being a Top Dasher, you will be able to join the program and receive the rewards on the first day of the following month.
You will not be able to gain the new reward immediately after meeting all the criteria.
I am accepting all orders I receive, so why isn’t my Acceptance Rate going up?
This sounds like there may be a glitch on the DoorDash app.
There have been data glitches with the acceptance rate in the past.
You will need to work with the DoorDash support team to ensure that this feature works for you.
The good news is that the acceptance rate only matters for the Top Dasher program.
It will not harm your overall standing with the company.
Wrapping Up
Now you should know exactly how the Top Dasher program works on a month-to-month basis.
It is up to you to decide whether the benefits of this program are worth pursuing.
You can always try out the program for one month and see whether the rewards improve your overall work experience with the DoorDash app.
So go out there and try to boost your completion and acceptance rates!
Please reword your did you know section. Not accepting orders will not get you deactivated. Accepting and un assigning them will lower your completion rate which will get you deactivated. Acceptance rate and completion rate are 2 separate ratings.
The Top Dasher program is a joke. We were told when we started that we would not be punished for not accepting orders and the Top Dasher program is just a way to force drivers to take deliveries that pay out 2.25. They have already lowered our base pay meaning that in order for you to make 7$ for a delivery a customer now has to tip 4.75$. We used to have a base pay of 3$ which would allow us to have 7$ for a 4$ tip. No driver should ever start their car for less than 7$ per delivery.
In my experience i can make between $250 and $400 a week dashing in jasper tx. Contrary to popular belief a $2.25 order can be worth accepting because you can see delivery distance before you accept i just try to keep my per mile average above $0.50 so if i dash a total of 100 miles i’ll have made $50 minimum
That stinks. I dont take less than $2 per mile in a college town without good reason. I am in a major college town with a strip of high-end restaurants in the next zone over. I made 740 my second week dashing and this week I expect a grande with some tweaks to my dashing times
That’s how I do it as well, I’ll make on average $300 a week for working 2 1/2 hours every morning. As long as I am right near the low orders I’ll accept them. If they are too far than I decline them so that someone who is near there can take it.
That is nothing! Any company you work for and even the federal government pay you a higher mileage rate than that for use of your vehicle plus they pay you a salary in addition to that. You really should raise the bar on the value of the orders you accept. If you are getting a 2.50 rate on any delivery that means the customer is too cheap to tip you. As a fellow dasher I can tell you that there is now way on this earth I’m taking a delivery for someone who is not tipping. I really don’t care how late their food is or how cold it is by the time they finally get it. Service cost money. If a customer is not willing to pay for a service then in my opinion I don’t owe them a thing.
I was trying to make top dasher my first month and now I see that it requires 200 lifetime deliveries, so I will not be getting top dasher on my second month even though my stats are very good. Not feeling that BS
Also every month there after you have to complete 100 deliveries or more a month to qualify for top Dasher, on top of the other requirements. You can do it😄
Does anyone know if that 100 deliveries count from the 1st day of each month through the last day of each month such as 1/1/2022 through 1/31/2022 even if part of the month falls within a different dash “week”? Will every delivery done from 1/1 through 1/31 count towards those 100?
I’m pretty sure I read recently in DD train app that it was first of the month through the last day of the month to calculate number of deliveries for that month. But your acceptance rate has to be above 70% and your rating has to be above 4.7 on the last day and last minute of the month.
I doordash full time. I strive for excellence with each delivery. Having a high acceptance rate affords me the ability to decline very small orders. If the orders are very small and consistently small, I unassign myself from the platform for the time frame and start up later. I love being a top dasher.
I make 1200 a week being picky with what I accept. Elite status was a hassle.
Gas is currently $4.65 to $5.29 a gallon in Philadelphia where I’m a dasher. I am currently chasing gas money working for doordash, I take the worst areas in the city because North Philly is the only location that has a good order flow yet I’m rarely tipped and it sucks. My on time or early ratings are in the mid 90’s consistently, I’m in communication the second I arrive at the merchant, always put the orders in the red bag and am very friendly wherever and to whomever the order is for and I’m not making much more than gas money and I’m driving a Honda Civic with a 1.7L VTech motor, doordash doesn’t care about keeping it’s hard worker, good drivers happy, it’s all about them making big bucks! I waited 23 minutes on hold for a representative to discuss my potential deactivation yesterday. 3 days ago a customer said I never completed his order which was complete bull. I remembered every detail of his delivery including his name, the dark back parking lot of his apartment complex where I handed him the food, the neighbor who helped me find the right door to meet him, even the blue dumpster with the giant AL in white paint that I parked next to. I’m on VIP status on calls to doordash and I waited on hold for 23 minutes for a representative to tell me I needed to respond in the app and provide all the details even after I used the app to take me to this guy’s apartment at midnight, in the rain, in the dark and you can see this yet I’m threatened with deactivation because some customer lied? That’s how this works? If I hadn’t checked my stats I would have never even known because doordash didn’t contact me to get my side they automatically marked me as a thief and never said a word… Makes me rethink my position…
With gas the way it is and DD having one very weak incentive of 10% cashback on gas purchased at a specific station you can be sure I do not accept ANY order if it is below $5. Even at 5 bucks I make sure the distance isn’t too far. One thing I notice DD does is raise the base-pay on declined orders. Customers who don’t tip often get their orders declined by multiple different drivers which seems to be what makes this DD algorithm go into effect. I for one am absolutely disgusted when I see a customer left no tip when placing an order with a long distance, at rush hour traffic and in 100 plus degree heat.
If a customer chooses to not leave a tip and there order just sits there forever, too bad.
My highest was 8 zero tippers in one day. That passes me off, especially when they are ordering a lot of food from pricier restaurants
Currently working full time, 7 days a week delivering food, and after reading these comments, I’ve realized most of us conduct ourselves in similar fashions. I’m very communicative with the customers, and almost always have it to them before or on time. I pride myself on ensuring those who order through the app get the hottest possible food in the most timely manner, and it is very much disappointing seeing when people don’t tip. Gas is crazy right now, and your order goes into my hotbag and sealed the second I get in my car, so even if it’s a dollar or two, the tip makes a huge difference. DoorDash compensating these orders to ensure they’re picked up is nice, but it’d be beneficial for both driver and customer if the base price was raised, or tips were highly encouraged. Having flexibility in my work is a big plus for me, and for the most part I enjoy the job, but having to reject multiple orders in order to ensure I’m making a profit is frustrating.
I live in a very small town in Oregon. I can’t afford to be too picky because if I do that, I won’t make anything. The problem here is that they’ve hired all these young kids who have no sense of work ethic. I am always professional in all I do and this month, August, I am a top very ill dasher, but still Dashin’!
Today the only real benefit of being a top dasher is the flexibility of being able to work when you want.
I have been a top dasher since I first started, and the biggest change I have seen is an increase in junk orders or sub $5 orders verses prime orders of over $10.00.
Door Dash for its part will claim any profit it can, so it loves to cater to the bottom feeders as long as they can make a buck off them.
Of course that dollar comes at the expense of their legion of Dashers who they manipulate by the metrics of the Ratings Criteria. Door Dash is willing to drive its army of Dashers into the ground in order to make their ever increasing profits. The larger orders Top Dashers are enticed with to get higher ratings seems to be nothing more than a mirage.
Door Dash instead floods the market with 1099 Drivers and thereby lowers its costs for paying these Drivers a liveable wage while raising its profitability substantially by bidding out the jobs at lower and lower scales.
Eventually these practices will destroy the workforce they so desperately need to make the company money.
Just a casual observation from one who has been Dashing.
I have been dashing for about a month so far and I love it. I am only at 122 deliveries so far so I have not made top dasher yet, but I am trying. ( I have the ratings) Looking thru informational websites and reading comments from other dashers has really helped me learn the little tips and tricks that get those ratings and numbers up. Thank you all for taking time to comment, and giving both the pros and cons
Been dashing since January first.
Washington State, but I dash in Oregon and Washington.
Full time.
1 day off a week if I’m lucky.
Total deliveries done : 286
Total income : $2,426.11
Base pay : $1,120.50
($9 per hour total base pay)
Tips : $1,305.61
($10.40 per hour total tip pay)
Total time dashed : 125 hours
Active time : 77 hours
$ per hour total : $19.40
$ per hour active : $31.50
WA State minimum : $15.50