Delivery drivers are not accepting orders that cost them more to deliver than they're are paid. The food delivery company scrapped its fuel surcharge in May despite soaring costs.
Curtis Demientieff, a delivery driver from Elizabethtown, KentuckyY, told Insider he now rejects nine out of ten orders. His acceptance rate is 13% and he spends $140 on gas from his average weekly earnings of $700.
Demientieff uses the company's DasherDirect card to receive 10% cashback on fuel purchases. However, not all"dashers" are signed up to receive their pay on the card, meaning some miss out on the perk. Karissa Jacobs, who has been a delivery driver for two years, said she was only getting $2 to $3 for orders that would take 30 minutes or more. "With high gas prices anything I made was going towards that and it got to a point where it wasn't worth it," she said. "I've also seen drivers cancel orders because it's not worth it and people had to wait hours for food," Jacobs said.
Another DoorDash driver, based in Long Island, New York, says he has witnessed restaurants throwing away food because no driver would pick it up.