DoorDash’s about-face on tipping shows customers have more clout than workers

Re:DoorDash’s about-face on tipping shows customers have mor... by notus on Thursday July 25, 2019 @02:59PM (#20528329)

Does anyone actually know if this benefits workers? Given how little most people seem to tip it seems that doordash delivery drivers were likely making more on average with the model they just moved away from. It is more of a redistribution of tips across workers. I also didn't hear much complaint about this from employees but from customers instead and I regularly visit the gig economy subreddits for workers to see what their complaints are.

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Re:DoorDash’s about-face on tipping shows customers have mor... by robbiemitchell on Thursday July 25, 2019 @03:17PM (#20528492)

Have they announced what the new model will be?

IIRC, it's true that when restaurants shift to a tipless system that (a) charges the true price up front and (b) distributes the revenue more evenly to both front of house and back of house, servers end up making less.

It seemed to be the most straightforward thing to do is to charge the customer the "guaranteed minimum" that they're promising to pay the delivery person, then add tip on top. The higher sticker price would probably drop demand, but the people who do deliver would earn more on average. It's also possible, though, that people will simply stop tipping, leading to a small drop in average revenue per delivery.

I wish we got rid of tipping for these situations altogether, but I realize it's useful as a price discrimination mechanism.

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Re:DoorDash’s about-face on tipping shows customers have mor... by phkahler on Thursday July 25, 2019 @03:26PM (#20528606)

Delivery should be paid for by the company at a known price. Tips should go to the delivery person. Their model was basically giving the tips to the company, which is not what a customer wants. If I knew my tip was just going to the company I wouldn't give one.

Unfortunately stuff like this happens at many local restaurants. The jobs are allowed to pay below minimum wage and let the tips pay the employee. Some places abuse that even further.

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Re:DoorDash’s about-face on tipping shows customers have mor... by pkaye on Thursday July 25, 2019 @03:14PM (#20528468)

Yes if you read /r/doordash there seems to some workers lamenting that they will expect the pay to go down because of this. If you live in a area where tips are not much it might be worse of.

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Re:DoorDash’s about-face on tipping shows customers have mor... by mikkergp on Thursday July 25, 2019 @03:03PM (#20528374)

I'm wondering this as well, I think this is a case of Hanlon's razor, and I hope that in the name of perceived fairness the workers don't end up getting screwed.

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