How to see Doordash tips Before Accepting

Perhaps, you’re a new driver and have heard countless drivers echo things like they won’t accept an order if customers don’t tip (not advisable).

But on the other hand, you can’t even seem to find the section where you can check the amount of Tip in a delivery, or even know whether a delivery comes with a Tip or not, funnily enough.

So, what’s the secret behind this? How do experience drivers see Doordash tips before accepting?

Well, let’s take a quick look at this in this article

Can you normally see tips before delivery on Doordash?

Typically, before a delivery, Doordash won’t show the amount of Tip in it or even whether there’s a Tip or not. You can only see these details when a delivery is completed.

However, as we’d show later in this article, there are some practices or techniques to get a clue.

When an order is placed, Doordash shows your guaranteed minimum amount – the amount you’ll be earning for the delivery. This covers both the base pay (which can vary based on factors like time, distance, and desirability of the order), and Tip (if there’s any).

So, if you’re expecting a separate Tip after the delivery, you won’t get any, unless a customer decides to Tip after a delivery is completed.

Typically, it’s all in the base pay.

According to the company, this is done to avoid drivers cherry-picking orders with better pay (or Tips) and leaving others stranded.

But this is a normal thing among drivers and you can’t blame them, since Doordash’s base pay is not something to write home about. Delivery Tips are what make food delivery worthwhile.

However, this is not just a Doordash thing, as it’s common among other food delivery companies like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, etc.

Editors note: We like to call it a guaranteed minimum amount because it’s the minimum amount you’ll earn per delivery. Thanks to Hidden tips and after-delivery tips, you could get some extra dollars even after a delivery. However, this is usually rare.

How to see Doordash tips before accepting

As we said earlier, it’s normally impossible to see a delivery tip before accepting.

So how do drivers still go around calculating the number of tips they get even before they accept the order?

Well, the truth is that you can’t actually tell the exact tip you get from a delivery, but it’s easy to make a solid guess.

So how do you do this?

As we said earlier, you can only see the guaranteed minimum amount, which covers the base pay (if any) before making a delivery.

Hence, as a rule of thumb, you could make a rough estimate of the Tip you make from the delivery by any excessive pay.

For instance, it’s very normal to get $1/mile as base pay on Doordash.

If you can calculate the miles you cover in a delivery, by $1/mile, the extra money is likely the tip you get.

Let’s take for example, an order with a guaranteed minimum amount of $5, and a $ 2-mile distance. The extra $3 is likely to be the tip you’ll get off the delivery.

While this has worked for us, it’s worth mentioning that it could also be altered, as Door dash’s base pay isn’t definitive, since it varies based on a number of factors which include:

1. The distance needed to be covered
2. Time taken for the order to be delivered
3. The restaurant
4. Whether or not the delivery is made in a peak period,
5. A couple of other factors which Doordash revealed to the public.

This means you can’t really tell the base to pay for a delivery.

For instance, here are comments from Redditors on their base pay per mile:

So what’s the way forward? Keep reading…

Editors Tip: Deliveries for small orders with a guaranteed minimum of $3 are less likely to have any Tip, depending on the distance of the delivery. If there’s any, it’s likely going to be in cents.

Here’s why you shouldn’t be worried about Tips on Doordash

Trying to calculate the exact tip you make in a delivery on Doordash is like chasing shadows. You could touch it (you can determine whether there’s a tip or not), but you can’t make a hold of it (you can’t calculate the exact tip).

So what’s the way forward?

Well, personally, as a driver myself, I tend to ignore the maths about calculating tips and just go into how much I make for the delivery.

Before accepting a delivery, I simply ask myself whether the delivery is worth my time, my expenses and whether it would give me any good profit based on my standard.

…and most importantly, I take the restaurant in question into my factor.

For a restaurant like Mc Donalds where I’d end up spending unnecessary time in a queue waiting, I could just ignore it, unless I’m paid well.

Remember, Time factor is the greatest.

At least, I have someone that thinks like me…

As long as my guaranteed pay is attractive, considering the distance, total amount, and the restaurant, I’m good to go, regardless of where the money is coming from. Tips or no Tips.

Conclusion

While it’s a bit of a guessing thing, it’s still possible to make an estimate of tip you could make from a delivery.

However, remember, the essence of Tipping is to make a delivery worthwhile. If your guaranteed minimum amount is already good, why worry about what share the Tip in your order is?

It’s not worth the overthought.