Dasher Diary: Why Your Delivery Driver Isn’t Responsible for Your Lack of Planning

Dasher Diary: When you are working in Amarillo, there are sayings that you hear all of the time. You may roll your eyes when you hear them, but they are usually true.

The one I seem to really like is "lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."  Oh, how true that is. It became a big part of a recent delivery I had.

Setting Boundaries: Why "No" is a Business Decision

I was scheduled to pick up lunch for a customer from Chick-fil-A, and as I was heading to pick up his food, I received a message from him. He wanted to let me know that he was going to be a little late, and he wanted me to wait for him.

Time is Money: The High Cost of Waiting for Customers

When you are out delivering, time is money. If I have to wait on him, I am missing out on other orders and money. Also, DoorDash doesn't like it if a delivery takes me longer than expected. I get dinged on my delivery time. I had a feeling this delivery was not worth all of that.

Read More: Dasher Diary: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Scorned Dasher

I kindly told him that if the wait were too long, I would have to leave it inside the school, where I was delivering, with an employee. Which really is no big deal. Most deliveries at schools have me deliver to the office or a shelf for drop-offs like this.

The "PIN" Red Flag: Identifying No-Tip Orders Early

The instruction was to hand it to him because I needed to get a PIN from him, which was a red flag that this delivery was not going to have a tip with it anyway. I really wasn't going to wait long for him.

I let him know all of this. I also let him know that I was still waiting for his food, so hopefully that was giving him the time he needed to get to his drop-off location. Once I got the food, I let him know and headed to where I needed to be.

Read More: Is Amarillo Boring? Debunking the Panhandle Myth

I called him when I got there, and luckily, he was in the parking lot. Luckily, he wasn't expecting me to wait, which was fortunate, as my suspicion about the lack of a tip turned out to be correct. How is it you want me to wait on you to get there, and you can't tip?

Convenience vs. Necessity: The Ethics of Tipping

I get that this is a student, but this is also a job for me. If you can't tip even a little bit, then you shouldn't be ordering from an app that is more of a convenience than a necessity.