DoorDash Launches Alert To Encourage Pre-Tipping If You Want Your Food Faster

If you try to place an order with delivery service DoorDash and indicate $0 tip, a new feature on the platform in some markets will give you an alert that says “orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered, are you sure you want to continue?” Dashers (people who deliver for DoorDash) can pick which orders to take and so they may be less likely to take one without a tip.

For anyone who has watched documentaries about how gig workers have been regularly exploited, this might seem like a great idea. Why not let Dashers know that they will make enough for a gig to be worth it?

Others may see this as an odd new trend to offer a tip before receiving a service so that it becomes customary as opposed to a reward given for excellent service. The difference seems to depend on what you feel like you’re paying for. If you see the tip as just part of the service you’re getting, then offering a higher tip as a “bonus” of sorts to jump yourself to the front of the queue might seem logical. If you really want that food faster, a couple of dollars probably seems like a reasonable premium to pay.

Alternatively, having your order ignored or de-prioritized because you were not willing to pay a premium above the service you feel you’re already paying for might feel wrong. Which makes this less a question about tipping, and more a question about whether the whole system is quietly breaking.