I have been an independent delivery driver (commonly known as a “gig worker”) for about five years now. I have done jobs on pretty much every third-party delivery platform you can think of. I do this work as an independent contractor, so of course my earnings vary from one offer to the next, but whether I can earn enough money to actually take home some pay after deducting fuel and other costs comes down to the tips I receive. I’ve seen tips ranging from $20 to no tip at all.
This is not written to guilt readers into tipping their delivery drivers more (though that would be great!). Instead, I want to expose something that the well-intentioned delivery customer likely does not realize: That generous tip you added before you clicked “order”? Well, it might not be incentivizing better or faster service as you’d hoped. The reality is, your tips are frequently used by DoorDash and other delivery platforms to subsidize the service for low-tipped offers and boost their profits at everyone’s expense.
