7 Money Losing Mistakes New DoorDash Dashers Make (2025)

Things are different in California. After prop 22 we are guaranteed minimum wage plus tips. So taking some low ball offers do end up paying at the end of the week

Dude. It’s one big hamster wheel. DD floods you with trash offers, which drives down AR. You can only climb out of the hole by eventually accepting some of those offers. So now you climb up very slowly to an AR that’s compatible with platinum status, and you may see some quality offers, but not for long, DD floods again and unless you’re fond of driving 12 miles for $5, down you go. No better on EBT, because for the better part of an hour they’ve got you for crap offers, with the second decline ending your “enhanced “ hourly rate. It’s all based on intermittent reward, designed to keep all the hamsters hooked. So you try a volume strategy and push your trips up to maybe 3 per hour, making maybe $20. At great risk and danger to themselves, the hamsters that rush around and adopt this approach only make the wheel spin faster. It’s an algorithm that zeroes in on every market to make one thing happen- sooner or later everyone is forced into taking a high percentage of trash offers or just sit it out. DD gets to spread attractive offers out among very few people, who it knows won’t be at the top long, thus giving them the ability to bait and switch an entire region of drivers on a rotating basis. Evil genius. You’re not going to game it.

My biggest problem is a lot of times I will be driving when I get offers like maybe on the freeway and because ofthe timer.I can't even read it half the time and end up getting anxious so I just start excepting anything over 5$, maybe it's because where I drive Chattanooga Tennessee area

About time they realized customer service is way more important than just getting orders completed

Doordash doesn't care about losing profits or they wouldt shut you down at 69 AR, its always busy in the San Francisco Bay so shtng on drivers looses profits.

I wish I could cherry pick! My market is so small and oversaturated that I got 1 offer for $5.50 from 11am to 4pm yesterday. I have 3000 deliveries, 4.85 rating.

Number 1 Money loosing mistake is Doordash shutting down while crying about AR (accounts receivable) stop the bllsht lies and let customers pay.

Earn by Time is not offered in Denver or here in Boulder. At least not for me. It was elsewhere I've delivered though, especially in Cortland, NY & Charlotte, NC.

Will doordash allow me to use a tablet??? I am thinking about getting into the business and I already have a tablet that I am well accustomed to and a regular cell phone. Do I have to purchase an I-phone or can I use my tablet for doordash work???

I start DD the beginning of Oct. and I have had some learning curves. I thought for my area hourly seem to be best. was able to get those times 6 days in advance sched. all the hourly to time spent was good to great. But around mid to late Nov. I noticed that I was earning around 500 to 600 a week. working 4 days a week and about 6 to 7 hours dashing. BUT I was doing like about the same amount of miles. 600 bucks= 600 miles est. So started doing for google and YT videos. My area I live in just was driving nightmare. I dash in a smaller town. my zone cover 2 towns right beside them. unlike where you are there is 6 or more zones in one town. I found that I would take an order for hourly and 80% of time it takes me out of zone. so then I have to drive back into zone. SO what I thought was great pay you know 18 bucks for 8 miles I didn't take in the effect the 8 miles to get back even in zone. So I have stopped doing hourly and do per order and my AR has gone down and have lost my diamond. In my area its best to find I cant get the same pay but its less on the car. With 50 to 60% less miles. The only downfall is with the AR tanked I can't really sched hours now I have to get on when I think it's busy and hope I can get work. So what use to be a 2k a month but drove nearly 2500 in miles. now is 1k and around 700 miles. less wear and tear on car but a hit in money. We don't have any Mart, and link stores here. any advice would be helpful.

In my market, the only way i can do 100$ + is ENT plus platinum status. Cherry picking here, i havent seen more than 12$ and its rare,and i am Platinum!! 😢

Put the guilt trip on Drivers more so Doordash seems less responsible for their Own profits, turning off dash time is self inflicted losses. HOW about doordash take more responsibility and stop operating a bllsht system.

Doordash causes their own Potential profit losses by crying about AR ratings and closing the opportunity for Doordash to get its own payment, limit dashing is limiting profits for you and me. You cant blaim me when you dont accept free gas.

Doordash is like Putin who says he just wants peace and Ukraine shouldnt have any dashtime.

Mike my GF is having trouble figuring out how to determine where a delivery is going before she hits accept. Even though I ride with her she is reluctant to go into a bad area. We drive away from it & then we are running into horrible traffic with Xmas festivities. We are still in our 1st 50 deliveries, if that matters? We don't do shopping orders.

DoorDash the other day sent me 7.00 for 7 miles which is kinda normal in my market place in Michigan. It was also 2 orders I cancled the one of the orders and was still paid 7.00… So I called support and argued with them why I was paid the same and why the other order was for free.. The order according to them was 1.25 from the order I cancelled. So the other must have had a hidden tip. I then asked support if base pay was 2.00 and how can you ask me to deliver for 1.25 for the other 5 miles. She had no answer and I was hung up on by support. I did record the whole conversation also. This company is truly robbing Peter to pay Paul to get orders completed and should be illegal. I also asked her if she thought their customers would like to know their money is being used to make orders and not going to the driver. All they say is I understand your frustration and that the system makes these orders not DoorDash lol. I wonder who programmed the system? Shady company for sure.

IS THERE A NUMBER I CAN CALL TO TALK TO SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON AT DOOR DASH SUPPORT?? I'm LIVID right now. Non of my ratings go up.... But if I decline a order it drops INSTANTLY... I call support and they are as useless as a dirty diaper... I need a number or email to reach out to someone who can give me a correct answer...

I Dash in and around Columbus, Ohio and EPO is best during the day and late at night, EPT is best during the rush hours.

Earn per offer if there is no traffic and you are in a city or suburb that has a high population density.

Earn per time is better during high traffic times and when all the areas around you are busy.

My pay out is usually 1.50 per order

Do a video about how long you should wait for a restaurant to complete an order after your pick up time

Great analysis, thank you! I need some advice: I have a SafePal wallet with USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How can I transfer them to Binance?

I always tip ALWAYS, but the biggest mistake that door dashers make is taking it out on thier customers, when you fill out your order it states dasher tip, if your not being paid thats between you and your employer, we don't know, don't take it out on the customer if you get between 5 and 10 dollar tip thats not bad, but telling your customers that they have no business ordering, if they can't tip $20 then dont order, cool we won't, and then when you don't have a job with door dash anymore, because nobody is ordering you can look for a job somewhere else, its the same with restaurants if people don't come in then you don't have a job at all, maybe they Should pay a living wage and eliminate the tipping

Anytime I go grocery shopping or get a dash I run my errands then to so I get money while I’m always out

My acceptance rate went down to 0%

I drive over to Total Wine at around 5pm, when people want to drink, but don’t want to drive anywhere other than home. I sit in the parking lot. I get offers for $20.00 and the distance is usually pretty solid. I can knock out 2 of those to start my night and then im ready for dinner rush. This strategy has totally changed the game for me.

Have any of you ever had a "glitch" where your entire day disapears of all the work you've done that day, or an entire week? I just looked at my app, and there's nothing for Dec 2-8, and I worked the past 3 days. There's litterally NOTHING there now.

Best time for earn by time is monday to thursday between 11am to 3pm in areas that have alot of office buildings close to restaurants. Things are slower or u could be sent far ..or theres traffic hence that time just adds up.. then at nights or weekends ..earn by offer is better because ..less traffic and things just seem faster

Personally would say otherwise for less busy areas particularly in California be picky with what you accept in different aspects like not accepting any order under 5$ but anything above that is fair game except if the dollars to miles is less than a dollar per mile mainly cause you also get paid based on active time here compared to other areas which I'd like more input to compared to other places where low acceptance rates doesn't have much value but here it does have value

I don't completely agree with the "Checking apps when you're not doing this" point, especially if you're someone who struggles to take necessary time off and take a break from everything. While gig work can be a rewarding and enriching experience (I've certainly had my moments of experiencing this), it can also wear you out when you're constantly fixating on stats and chasing the money and trends. You need to give yourself time off to recoup and gather your thoughts, and I'd hate to see people obsessing over the apps during their time off if it comes at the cost of time with family/friends/hobbies/etc. Now obviously it's a good idea to keep up to date with how things are going in your market or neighboring markets, especially for the pursuit of financial stability and gain, but don't let it cost you everything else that you feel life is worth living for too. Stay safe out there everyone and remember to give yourself some time off and take breaks!

EBT only pays $10.50 per hour so I never do it. I’m in North Canton, Ohio.

Thanks for another great video, Mike! I’m a new Dasher in Medford, Oregon, and Dash Now is rarely available. It’s tough to hit my $200 daily goal without working 10–12 hours a day. Would raising my AR help me get priority access to Dash Now so I can start earlier, like 6 a.m., and have more consistent scheduling? I am asking because someone I know in my area has consistently made $200 or mor a day but he has the ability to Dash Now anytime because his AR is always above 70%. I am just not sure it is worth taking so many low paying offers to keep my AR high enough to Dash whenever I want. I am just doing this full-time while I look for another job. Thanks!

WRONG...
Since I have kept my acceptance above 70% I have received so much better offers.

A cab ride used to cost so much per mile so that the cab driver could afford to fix the car. They undercut the cab driver and got the sale. Where did the expensive fixing the car land? Was it on you the owner of the car who also pays UberAre you advancing or are you just watching cash flow?

Uber has disrupted the industry and replaced the cost of the ride for a lower cost and passed the expense of maintaining the car onto the driver they have their hand out to the driver the customer and the restaurant unless you hold out for two dollars a mile to cover the cost of repairing your car you will literally be paying money to deliver food and make Uber money did I say Uber I meant the mafia

If you don’t hold out for two dollars a mile, you’re gonna get one dollar a mile cash flow only straight to the mechanic and at some point your car will not survive. The math works out to where the car dies after about 80,000 miles of this unless it’s two dollars a mile you won’t have enough for a new car or a repairbecause Uber has passed the maintenance part of owning a cab company onto the driver and lowered the price so the driver doesn’t even get the price that was being charged by the cab company that included repair of the cab

I've been doing Uber since 2016 and Mike is dead on with the math literally dead on I'd rather it be two dollars a mile though if you don't do two dollars a mile you're gonna end up with a dollar mile cash flow that goes straight to the mechanic

At the end of the day at 100 miles a day you need to be making $200 a day to fix the car with $100 and pay your insurance and to pocket the other hundred dollars otherwise you’re just paying for a mechanic you’re literally paying to do deliveries for your customers unless they are tipping you two dollars a mileunless you end up earning two dollars a mile including getting back to where you can get another trip you are literally paying to do it

Use the algorithm to your advantage let Uber know where you're going to be for as long as possible even if it means doing a three dollar trip and taking a little longer on it

Use the algorithm to your advantage pick up a low paying ride and make it take seven minutes longer on the front end and seven minutes longer on the back and giving Uber 15 minutes to know where you’re going to be at the end of that trip do that with every trip and accept all trips for a few trips And what do you think about it? Uber will know exactly where you are and when you can anchor that you’ll start making money no matter what trips you accept because they make money when you make money the longer you can let Uber know where you’re going to be the more money you’ll make Sometimes on a double order. I’ll cancel one piece of it and pick up the second piece and then I’ll pick up an additional piece that comes in and cancel the second piece and now I’ve got two new double orders and I can shuffle them out sometimes until like a $50.10 mile trip out of town if I can pick one that’s heading out of town first it’s a double order as soon as I can identify that it’s a double order

Everyone needs to hold out for the two dollars a mile so that we all realize that we have the final choice in every deal and if we won’t make the deal then they will have to listen and either raise the prices or change something but

I don't move the car unless it's two dollars a mile I'll make an exception if it's a trip under three dollars a mile and it's in my little zone

Hopefully what y’all are learning for Mike is that he is looking at the data and that you have to. It’s a recurring theme even though he’s telling you the individual things you need to do it’s driven because it has to be. They’re looking at the data. Are you how much did you spend in time gas and repairs to make how much today you didn’t calculate that at the end of the day you don’t even have a trip log this is not the dress rehearsal. Let’s step up the game.

Your city is designed already the way that you need to operate it and it’s the way that Chinese food restaurants used to operate it and there’s just a little radius where you’re willing to deliver and you need to be paid almost quadruple to leave it

If you don’t listen to his dollar 75 a mile then you won’t take advantage of the math that he has done and then you won’t have money for anything except car repairs. You really need to hold the line out at two dollars a mile in my opinion, including the trip back to his zone where you can get another ride.

For me it really depends on the location and what is around, if I know it's a lot of fast food I choose per hour cause the wait time I'll only be able to get one order in a hour. But the suburbs are more local stores and are much faster I'll do per order since I can turn around 2-4 orders in a hour.

So I'm not a super new driver but I have to say in my Market North Dayton Sunday is the only day I do earn by time. Not sure why but every restaurant service times are ungodly slow on Sundays.

It varies because it depends on the socio economic demographics make all the difference Buckhead vs south Ga is a big difference

I don't see how you can have a high acceptance rate over 70% unless you only dash at really high peak times. But even that you get like 7 out of out 10 trash orders.