Food delivery is a service business, and in the US, it’s often customary to tip service workers, especially when there’s food involved. Food delivery drivers will tell you tips are a big part of their income. Are you wondering, How much do DoorDash drivers make before tips?
With inflation up as much as it has been, customers are paying more for food and are thus more apt to skimp when tipping their DoorDash driver. You have to earn those tips.
You can rely on Gridwise to give you real-world numbers. More than 500,000 gig drivers have downloaded the Gridwise app to track their earnings. Gridwise has aggregated these earnings from various gig platforms—including income from bonuses, incentives, and tips—to provide an accurate picture of DoorDash pay. You can view all the numbers in this recent Gridwise blog post, 2023 Doordash Earnings Report.
Here's what we cover:
For another perspective on DoorDash aenings, you can also read another Gridwise blog post, DoorDash Driver Pay: What Do Dashers Earn in 2023?
Breakdown of DoorDash driver pay before tips
How much do DoorDash drivers earn? It all starts with base pay. That’s what you see on your app when you get the order. The time, the distance you need to travel, and the desirability of the order all go into computing base pay.
Top Dashers look for at least a dollar a mile in base pay. Some DoorDash drivers will only accept orders that are closer to two dollars. But other factors can increase this dollar amount.
How to enhance DoorDash pay
DoorDash pays beyond the base compensation through a couple of other ways.
Peak Pay.
Peak Pay is the equivalent of surge pay for rideshare drivers. When things get busy, the app will institute Peak Pay for DoorDash drivers. This is an add-on to the payment you see on the app when the order appears. Peak Pay differs depending on what region you drive in. Go to the Promotions tab on your app to see what your region pays. You can find out more about Peak Pay on the DoorDash website.
Challenges.
Challenges are a way DoorDash tries to keep its drivers loyal to the app. You will see a Challenge on your app, offering a bonus for a set number of deliveries completed in a certain amount of time. For instance, complete 15 deliveries in one night and receive a $20 incentive payment. You might also receive Challenge offers through SMS or email. To find out more about DoorDash Challenges, see the DoorDash website.
Average daily DoorDash driver earnings before tips
Source: Gridwise Analytics. Graph also appears in the 2023 Doordash Earnings Report.
Between Q1 2022 and Q3 2023, DoorDash driver gross daily earnings before tips ranged from about $30.50 to more than $32.00.
Tips are an important component of a food delivery driver earnings, but Gridwise realizes that the best drivers want to see the entire income picture, so we’ve collected and analyzed that data. See it all in this Gridwise blog post, 2023 Doordash Earnings Report.
The most common food delivery complaints from end consumers
A quick Google search can give you the most common complaints from end consumers about their food delivery experience. If you’re committing any of the following errors, as listed in this BusinessofApps.com article, it will affect your tips.
- Late deliveries (50%). Communication between the DoorDash driver and the end customer is critical. If the restaurant doesn’t have the order ready, or you encounter any other delay, text the customer and let them know.
- Wrong order (37%). Did you check the order to make sure it’s correct? You don’t have to open every dish or unwrap every sandwich, but at least ensure the number of items is right and the labels correspond with the order.
- Cold food or food that isn’t fresh (36%). This is usually the restaurant’s fault, but you can prevent cold food by making the delivery promptly and having enough thermal bags to hold everything.
- Driver needing directions (33%). Your GPS is usually correct, but some neighborhoods fall into a black hole with sketchy internet service. If you get a chance, check Google GPS against Waze.
- Food not arriving (26%). Restaurants drop the ball, or drivers who are multi-apping get distracted by a better opportunity to make money.
- Bad attitude of the driver (14%). Food delivery is a customer service job. This means a good mood all the time. Your parents paid a lot of money to straighten your teeth, so you should always show them off by smiling. Make sure you have a spring in your step. Porch cameras are ubiquitous these days, so even if you don’t have to contact the customer, act like you’re on top of the world. It’s contagious.
Another complaint that pops up regularly is drivers eating customer food. According to RestaurantBusinessOnline.com, 54% of customers have suspected a delivery driver of sampling their food. This is not an outlier report. Earlier this year, RetailBrew.com reported that 79% of food delivery drivers admitted to filching a few fries or other food from an order. Other accounts have that number a bit lower, but any percentage above zero is unacceptable. Don’t be surprised if restaurants start coming out with tamper-proof containers for food delivery.
Gridwise also provides you precise numbers on DoorDash earnings. We break it down to show you not only how tips matter, but how much drivers average per hour, per delivery, and per day.
- How much do DoorDash drivers earn per hour?
- How much do DoorDash drivers earn per delivery?
- How much do DoorDash drivers earn per day?
See all the information in this Gridwise blog post, 2023 Doordash Earnings Report.
How to earn better tips while driving for DoorDash
With tips comprising as much as 50% of DoorDash pay, doing whatever you can to increase them is imperative. With that in mind, what can you do to earn more?
Learn the restaurants in your area that are good for Dashers
We know that one of the chief complaints of customers is late orders or cold food. Some restaurants are poorly managed. Orders are never ready for the Dasher, and you’re left to cool your heels and surf TikTok. Other restaurants don’t package their food well. It’s either cold or smashed (that’s another customer complaint). When you see an order from a restaurant where you have had this experience, pass on it. Look for orders from restaurants that appreciate you and make the Dasher life easy.
Dress for success
You don’t have to wear a button-down and tie, but look nice. Too many food delivery drivers wear sleeveless T-shirts, cutoff sweats, and grungy sandals. Look like someone you would want handling your food.
Dress for specific events
Another version of this considers football, baseball, and basketball seasons. Wear the home team jersey. You can take a page from Robert Woldhuis. USA Today reported that he made $100,000 in one year delivering groceries for Shipt. Part of his schtick was wearing colorful wigs and outlandish costumes. Hey, it worked for Robert!
You’re judged by your attitude
Yes, maybe you had to shell out $300 for new front tires, or you just paid top dollar for gas. Maybe your significant other just moved out and took everything but one place setting so you can eat a meal. No one wants to know your problems, and they sure don’t want to see them reflected on your face. What they want to know is why that DoorDash driver is in such a good mood. It might motivate them to toss you a tip.
Surprise your customers
Take another lesson from top-earning grocery delivery people and give your clients something they didn’t expect. A pack of seeds for the lady of the house or small boxes of crayons for the kids goes a long way (you can get 250 packs of four crayons, each wrapped in cellophane, very inexpensively on Amazon). Make sure they’re visible by stapling them to the outside of the bag containing the food. You want to blow away customers with your service.
Deliver in the rain
No one wants to go out in the rain or snow, including customers and other DoorDash drivers. But you do, and you’re smiling the whole time. People will appreciate you—and usually tip you accordingly.
Watch YouTube videos, read the blogs
Other DoorDash drivers are hustling as hard as you, and sometimes they come up with good tip-earning ideas. Be the first to discover them. If you haven’t read the Gridwise blog post How to Make $1000 a Week with DoorDash, read it now.
Have a couple of electronic cash-handling accounts for tips off the app
Sometimes you get a group of people ordering off one person’s credit card, but another agrees to handle the tip. You want to make it easy for them. Print some cards with your PayPal handle, or Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle. You should have multiple ways that people can give you money.
What can be measured can be improved
Sign up for the Gridwise app, link to DoorDash, and monitor your earnings. Track your tip activity and see what works. Then do more of it. And while you’re at it, use the Gridwise app to track your mileage and expenses, and save at tax time. You can also check out When to Drive and Where to Drive, valuable features on the Gridwise app.
Ready to take your gig work to the next level?
Download Gridwise, the app that helps you track your expenses and maximize your earnings
Take advantage of your free access to the Gridwise blog, a source for the most current information on gig driving, including DoorDash. Click over now to see a full review of DoorDash earnings in the 2023 Doordash Earnings Report, and also read this Gridwise blogpost, DoorDash Driver Pay: What Do Dashers Earn in 2023?
Get more earnings insights for DoorDash
Check out these Gridwise articles to learn more about DoorDash earnings:
