It’s not just Santa’s reindeer who dash through the snow anymore. These days, it’s more likely DoorDash drivers.
Snow coming down is one of the best times to Dash, platinum level driver Christopher Chimick told Cowboy State Daily.
“When there’s bad weather, the DoorDashing is usually very good, because people just don’t want to go out, especially when it’s snowing,” he said. “You’ve just got to be very careful.”
Chimick drives a Chevy Equinox with all-wheel drive and all-season tires, which he said gets around good enough most of the time.
“If it’s a really severe snowstorm, just to be on the safe side, I will just stay home,” he said. “But if it’s not too bad, I’ll go out and Dash. Bad weather usually does make for a very good DoorDash.”
Kat Shea, on the other hand, another of Cheyenne’s uncounted DoorDashers, isn’t at platinum level yet and doesn’t get that luxury.
She does get to schedule her own times, but it’s a bit of a guessing game. Weekends are high ordering periods, for example, but that’s also when there are the most drivers competing for those orders, so it’s less than ideal for non-platinum drivers.
Those timeframes that hit a sweet spot where there are plenty of orders and not too many drivers are also the first time slots to go. To get one, she needs to lock in a schedule as soon after midnight as possible.
Once she’s signed up for a time frame, though, she has to show up, whatever the weather is — good, bad, or downright ugly.
Ugly Isn’t Just For Sweaters
Downright ugly are some of the attitudes Chimick and Shea sometimes see, both online and in real life.
It’s not hard to find posts on social media platforms dissing DoorDashers. Like this post, in the Facebook Group “Cheyenne Rants, Raves and Community Reviews, etc.,” written by someone identified as Braden Kwedor:
“Rant to the older chronically DoorDashing people in this city who don’t want to get a big boy job and instead are taking opportunities away from college students who may not have a stable schedule and high school students,” he said in the post, which has since been removed. “You have no right to complain about not being tipped to your standards or at all.”
“If you want stable income with minimal effort, go to work at a gas station,” he continued in the post. “You do not get to take the easy way out and get to sit in your own car or hangout at home and be on your own time each and every day then complain you aren’t being tipped. Go get my food, communicate in a proper and respectful way, and I might just give you your $3.”
The post gets a lot of things wrong about DoorDashing in general, including the idea that Dashers get to just sit at home.
While Chimick has more flexibility as a platinum driver, Shea generally needs to be sitting in a designated “hot spot” to receive any orders.
That means while she’s enroute with an order, she generally can’t get any new ones. Unless the order just happens to be very nearby, it won’t populate on her screen. So she has to return to a hot spot, and generally, those are always changing.
“Dell Range is usually pretty busy, so usually the hot spot won’t change very far,” she said. “So, I’ll go park at like IHOP to wait for an order to come in.”
Not that she generally gets orders from IHOP itself. But it’s centrally located between common hot spots like Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, Panda Express, and Panera Bread.
It’s Pocket Change For Most
Both Chimick and Shea started DoorDashing as a way to have a little extra jingle in their pockets when they walk.
While Chimick is one of those retirees Kwedor seems to be complaining about, the reality of Chimick’s story is a little more complex.
“I have a service-related disability,” he said. “And several years ago, I took the partial Social Security.”
He hoped to quickly find a part-time job, but after a year’s time, he couldn’t find anything, despite a concerted effort. That’s actually not uncommon for the over 50 crowd, who often find themselves “overqualified” for everything.
“Eventually a friend of mine said, ‘Why don’t you try DoorDashing?’” Chimick recalled. “So, I signed up, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
The job is working out well for him so far, particularly since he was able to get platinum status.
“I can make my own hours, so there’s no boss breathing down my neck,” he said. “So, I can Dash when I want to and how much I want to.”
He avoids Dashing at night, because he doesn’t see as well at night, and he’s not a morning person, so he generally doesn’t get started until 11 or so.
But he does rely on tips to make the DoorDashing job work, and he feels that not enough people realize that most of the delivery fee listed on receipts by the app doesn’t actually go to the Dasher.
“I am only getting paid $2 from DoorDash,” Chimick said. “If it comes up $2, I know there’s no tip on it. But I’ll still take it to keep my Platinum status up, and in hopes that the customer will give me a cash tip.”
If that doesn’t happen, Chimick has started to nicely and politely explain to customers that without a tip, they’re essentially expecting the Dasher to make the trip for free.
“I try to keep it nice, but I want them to know we really do depend on tips,” he said.
Too Many Dashers
Shea, meanwhile, initially started DoorDashing in hopes of making it a full-time job. But because there are already so many drivers, she’s found it’s only suitable for a side hustle.
She uses the money to save up for medical expenses for her pets, Apollo the dog who has hip troubles, and Tony the orange tabby cat, who is diabetic and needs daily insulin shots.
She, too, relies on tips to make DoorDashing worthwhile, perhaps even more so. As a non-platinum driver, she doesn’t get to just pick and choose the busiest times like Chimick can. She has to sign up for a likely time slot and hope for the best.
Platinum is something she’s striving for.
“You have to have an acceptance rate of 70% or higher and a completion rate of 95% or higher,” she said.
In addition to that, ratings have to be an average 4.7 on a 5-star scale. The sticking point for her has been getting to the minimum 100 deliveries a month, with so many other drivers competing for orders.
That means Shea can’t really turn down dashes that don’t tip, even though she knows in those cases she’s the one covering the gas and the wear and tear on her car.
Most Dashers on average report getting about five per hour. With zero tips, that makes the average rate of pay just $10 for that hour.
“I try to be understanding,” Shea said. “If it’s a small order, I understand, I generally get it. Like hey, they’re probably ordering food for their kids and just couldn’t afford a big tip.”
Scrooges Are Frustrating
But it does get frustrating when she’s taking a large, complicated order from a fancy, expensive restaurant to a customer who lives a bit far out of the way, and they either don’t tip at all or give a very small amount.
“I just try to schedule for really long shifts, so I can make a good sum of money,” she said. “If it’s like a six-hour shift, I’ll do like 15 deliveries or so, depending on how busy it is.”
Then she hopes for someone nice, who will make up for all the non-tippers.
“Sometimes it can be high-pressured,” she said. “Especially when you’re dealing with customers who are messaging you and wondering where their food is.”
That happens the most, Shea added, when the restaurant itself is backed up, and it is something she herself has no control over.
“People tend to take it out on their Dashers,” she said. “And that’s one reason I agreed to do this article. I wanted people to understand that it’s not always the Dashers’ fault. We can’t control how fast they bring the food to us.”
But most of the time, Shea added, people are “super nice and understanding.”
“Like the other day when it was snowing, there was a really nice lady who told me she was sorry I had to come out in this cruddy weather and that she really appreciated me,” she said, “And then she gave me an extra tip for delivering in the snow.”
Those are the times that help make Dashing, even through the snow, all worth it in the end.
Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
