Yes, you should be using insulated thermal bags.

These are basic tools of the trade. So few drivers use them that some customers will bonus-tip a delivery driver as an acknowledgement that they went above and beyond by merely using them.

And these bags don’t cost much. It’s such an easy way to improve the customer experience.

While we need to make better money, the customer needs a better experience.

We can make these two different things work together, where both sides get what they want. That’s why I am calling it “The Fair Deal Delivery.”

I explain in the consumer section of this site how incentive tipping is often needed to entice a driver to promptly accept and deliver their order.

I also explain how the tip-jacking practices of DoorDash greatly reduces the influence some customers seek to exert through generous up-front tipping.

My proposition to consumers is to circumvent tip-jacking by announcing through text message to the driver, after a driver has accepted the order, that this order involves a Fair Deal Delivery.

One example of the messaging customers can use is this:

###

This is a FAIR DEAL DELIVERY.

Transport my food in thermal bags. Cold food in one bag. Hot food in another bag.

If at all possible, avoid stacking another order on to mine.

After the delivery, and after you have left, IF I AM COMPLETELY SATISFIED with everything, I will send you a post-delivery bonus tip through the app as a reward for good service.

###

Another version:

This is a FAIR DEAL DELIVERY. (If u don’t know, google it.)

After you have left my home, IF I AM COMPLETELY SATISFIED with everything, I will send you a post-delivery bonus tip through the app as a reward for good service.

###

And it is not just about circumventing tip-jacking. On the consumer’s side, it is simply a better tipping strategy to use the power of their tip to influence better service.

This is what smart, savvy users of the service are going to do.

A customer using the fair deal delivery method has some understanding of the difficulties of gig work, including how we regularly contend with “the fairness gap,” because they read all about it in the consumer section of this site.

Consumers who use the fair deal delivery method are more likely to have empathy for you, which is a good thing.

DEFINITION OF TIP JACKING:

When an app company, like DoorDash, randomly hijacks the power of customer tips for their own aims and purposes, which is to systemically manipulate their drivers into taking low paying orders they would not ordinarily accept because DoorDash has led them to think a low-paying order could have a hidden tip on it.

Tip jacking is an outrageous practice.

Imagine you are the consumer…

You got a promotion at work and you are splurging with a special meal at home on a Friday night. No dishes to wash. No food to prepare. You are ordering from one of your favorite restaurants, and it is going to be oh-so-good.

To encourage the best service, and since you don’t know any better, you add a $40 tip to your order.

But the driver doesn’t see that generous tip when he accepts the order. All he knows is it’s paying $9.75 for 5½ miles.

And it turns out, since it is Friday night, the driver gets an opportunity to increase their pay on this run by accepting another order. They got an extra one paying $8.25.

But the second order isn’t ready when the driver arrives to pick it up. The second pick-up adds 12 minutes to your delivery time. So your food isn’t as warm when it is finally delivered.

And the driver didn’t ring the bell in the instructions, like you asked. You didn’t even get a “thank you” message from the driver or any communication from the driver.

And actually, the driver was stunned when he noticed the actual pay for your delivery after he took the final step of completing the order in the app.

Your $40 tip did nothing to influence your level of service because the driver did not know you were providing a lavish tip.

Without telling you, the app company hi-jacked the latent power and influence of your generous tip for their on-going driver manipulation campaign.

Yes, the driver did get your $40, but the app company swiped the influence you meant to exert away from you.

As a result, the driver picked-up a second order — because they didn’t know you were tipping well. And the little nuances of good service you expected just didn’t happen, again — because the driver had no idea you were a generous tipper until they were finished and done with your delivery.

It isn’t fair to the consumer to have their tip power undermined by the app company.

So the fair deal delivery method is intended to thwart “tip-jacking,” inspire better service from the driver, and reward the driver for getting the job done in accordance with what the customer expects and deserves.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

I know a lot of drivers are going to scoff at all this and say:

• “I’m not using thermal bags.” Or…

• “I’m not using a thermal bag unless they give me one.”

Not only are thermal bags inexpensive, they can be written off on your next federal tax return. It is simply ridiculous to be in this line of work and not care about the customer experience. Yet this attitude is so widespread. It’s just pathetic.

I put a lot of thought into trying to make improvements that benefit drivers. I see the fair deal delivery method working.

Strategically, it is in the interests of every driver to spread awareness of the fair deal delivery method. As greater numbers of consumers get exposed to the concept and come to understand how things really work after placing their orders, we potentially have a shot at making our gig work ecosystem a bit more healthy and driver-friendly when it comes to what we get paid.

I don’t think it is a good idea though to advertise or promote the fair deal delivery method to the customers we are serving. In fact, I think that would create a deactivation risk.

The spreading of the concept needs to be done in other ways.

“Fair Deal Delivery” is a codeword. If the customer is using it, they know what it’s about. And now if you see it after accepting an order, then you know what the customer wants, which is the best service you can provide.

You are their representative at the restaurant.

Is the milkshake cup only partially full? Say to the staff members: “Hold on… we gotta fix this, because the customer is going to think I took some swigs out of their milkshake.”

If you don’t have clarity on the order, then get clarity. Are there hot and cold items mixed inside the same bag? Ask them. And if so, ask them to repackage the order — because your bonus tip is on the line.

Double check that the order is complete as best you can, because even experienced restaurant workers make mistakes.

Giving the customer better service, going the extra mile is what Fair Deal Deliveries are about. You do your part of the deal, and decent people who are using this method will do their part. Everybody wins.

In the scenario above I mentioned a $40 customer tip. I haven’t seen one of them in a long time now, since the large order program no longer exists and I’ll never have a high acceptance rate since I live near a high crime city and refuse almost every order involving that city.

But… I still see tip jacking.

I had an order paying $6 for under a mile. What a deal! But Taco Bell was slow. After 8 minutes of waiting I began to think about unassigning the order.

At the 10 minute mark, I was really about to do it. Then the order got handed to me. It ended up paying $7.50.

I almost dropped that order because I didn’t know what the actual pay was. And if I had dropped it, that generous customer who only lived nine-tenths of a mile away would have had his order delayed for an unknown amount of time.

Even at the low-end, tip jacking is detrimental to the customer.

It is wrong for a food delivery app company to prioritize driver manipulation at the expense of the customer experience. The fair deal delivery method is an intelligent workaround.

Get yourself some insulated thermal bags and be ready. I recommend Grubhub bags. Excellent value. Very nice quality. But use DoorDash pizza bags.

https://grubhubdrivershop.com/collections/shop-all

Want to see faster change?

Spread awareness of the Fair Deal Delivery method to the press in your area. I have a press release template you can make use of. This is a story idea that you email to your local newspaper or other local media.

Every reader has permission to use this template.

Newspapers and other news-oriented mediums are always on the hunt for stories their audiences will be interested in.

You can use this release as a guide for how to make your own press release. Copy and use whatever make sense for you.

Be careful about deciding to reveal your identity, including your last name… because you may be at increased risk of being deactivated if your identity is revealed.

This is a use-at-your-own-risk template:

_________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Should you tip a DoorDash driver in cash, and other questions answered about food delivery.

[Your City and State], [Full Date] – [Your Name] of [your town] has been "DoorDashing" for [amount of time you have been involved with 3rd party delivery apps]. During this time, [your last name] has seen a decline in his earnings. The reason? [Your last name] says it's because the delivery apps have reduced his pay. Some deliveries pay as little as $2 now.

Why should you care?

[Your quote goes here. Example:]

"Only suckers deliver food orders for $2," says [Your last name].

"Most of us aren't in this to provide charity to consumers and the app companies they order through. If you place a no-tip order and no suckers happen to be working, your order is probably going to sit and get cold while your stomach grumbles as the order waits for a driver to eventually accept it."

[Your last name] explains, "We know consumers are fatigued when it come to tipping everybody, but the way this is set-up, an order usually needs 'an incentive tip' to entice a driver to accept the order. It's just the way it is."

[Your last name] also says tipping in cash is not a good idea.

"We only have seconds to decide whether to accept an order or not. If the order is paying too little for the distance involved, it just doesn't make financial sense for any of us to accept it, and we have no idea if a cash tip is involved, so low-paying orders are usually an automatic decline for me."

[Your last name] suggests that consumers who use food delivery apps such as DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats acquaint themselves with the "Fair Deal Delivery" method, found at: FairDealDelivery.com

The website offers an in-depth consumer tutorial about how third party food delivery apps really work, and how to effectively use the power of tipping to drive better service.

"There are some missing pieces to the puzzle because food delivery apps do a poor job at informing customers about how best to use their apps," says Ed Ryder, the author behind FairDealDelivery.com.

“For example, one of the app companies has a practice of not revealing some of the tips until after the delivery is completed. As a consequence of this, the consumer gets cheated out of the influence they meant to exert with their tipping power,” says Ryder.

Why would an app company engage in "tip jacking," as Ryder calls it?

"Sometimes they do it with stacked orders, where a low-paying order is piggybacked on to a higher paying order so that the undesirable order will get delivered."

"But I think the main strategy behind tip-jacking is to manipulate drivers into taking low-paying orders because they believe a hidden tip could be involved."

Ryder's extensive website provides detail on how food delivery apps really work, and how consumers can circumvent tip-jacking so that better and more timely service can be inspired.

For more information: FairDealDelivery.com

# # #

Contact:

[Your Name]
Independent food courier

Email: [Your Email Address]

Phone: [Your Phone Number]

_________________________

Note: You can remove your last name to reduce your risk of retaliation from app companies.

Alternative beginning:

[Your County and State], [Full Date] – Some food delivery gig drivers complain they are earning less than in previous years due to an over-supply of drivers and lower driver pay. One local "dasher" agreed to talk to us about it.

[Your First Name] of [your county], who does not want his last name revealed out of concern for workplace retaliation, has been "DoorDashing" for [amount of time you have been involved with 3rd party delivery apps]. During this time, [your first name] says he has seen a noticeable decline in pay with some "delivery opportunities" offering him as little as $2 to use his own car and his own gas to deliver somebody's food.

[Your first name] says brand new beginners might accept a $2 order, but smarter drivers probably never accept low paying orders like that.

"Most of us aren't in this to provide charity to consumers and the app companies they order through. If you place a no-tip order and no suckers happen to be working, your order is probably going to sit and get cold while your stomach grumbles as the order waits for a driver to eventually accept it."

Talking Points

When dealing with a journalist, here are things you can talk about:

• When you first began doing gig work.

• Which apps you use.

• Your approximate combined number of deliveries involving all the apps.

• How much time you spend doing gig work each week.

• When and how much money you made on your best day in the business and a typical day for you now.

• Why you still do gig work.

• Which app, in your opinion, is the best and why.

• What you wish consumers knew about the type of gig work you do.

• How many miles you typically drive in a week.

• How often you change your oil.

• How often you get screws or nails in your tires.

• How many road rage incidents have happened to you while doing gig work.

That should be enough to spark questions from them and keep the conversation moving along.

Another thing…

I have additional ideas in my ebook: “The Professional Gig Driver’s Guide To Appropriate Tip Soliciting.”

It is available for free when you purchase the pdf file to my “big mileage form.”

I have a contrarian viewpoint when it comes to documenting mileage for the business use of your car, which is I don’t trust mileage tracking apps and I believe the old fashioned pen & paper method is superior. Here is the form…