Doordash Hidden Tips? Why Is it Happening? What Can Dashers Do?

Is Doordash hiding the tips from Dashers? Yes, Doordash has admitted they are hiding part of the tip from Dashers on certain delivery offers. On some deliveries if the tip is higher than normal, Doordash will only display a smaller pay total when offering a delivery through the Dasher app.

Only after completing the delivery do Dashers find out what a delivery truly pays.

Why are they doing this? For what reason would Doordash only tell you a delivery pays $7.50 if it pays a lot more than that? Why can't they be transparent with the pay they are offering?

Actually, Doordash has a long history of hiding the pay from Dashers. We'll look into Doordash's hidden tips, including the following topics:

• Does Doordash hide tips (and what are hidden tips)?
• How long has Doordash been hiding the tips?
• Why does Doordash hide tips?
• Is there a way to see hidden tips on Doordash?
• Strategies to accept or reject deliveries when Doordash hides the tip
• Doordash's experiment to hide ALL tips on delivery offers

Note: when this article was written originally, the Doordash platform was experimenting in some markets with actually hiding the entire tip in the delivery offer. Most of that content in the original article has been moved to the last point in this article.

Does Doordash hide tips (and what are hidden tips)?

Yes. Doordash has even admitted that they do this. In fact, even the offer screen indicates there might be a hidden tip.

Doordash representatives have even admitted to hiding tips. We'll get into that in a moment when we talk about why they hide tips.

Okay, so what exactly IS a hidden tip? What are we talking about here? Can Dashers see the tip amount when they get a delivery?

No, Doordash does not tell us what part of the offer is the tip and what part is the delivery fee. They just present an amount as the minimum pay amount. We can't see anything about the breakdown until after we mark the order as completed in the food delivery app.

But the things is, sometimes the total earnings end up being more than what Doordash told us they would be. Doordash only revealed a portion of what the pay would be.

This happens fairly frequently. I recently did an experiment where I took 200 straight deliveries, recorded all the details including offer details, pay breakdown, time and distance. The purpose of the experiment was to see if I would get better delivery offers as my acceptance rate increased and once I became Top Dasher (hint: I didn't).

Not meaning to go down a different rabbit hole there. The point is that out of those 200 deliveries, 16% of them had a hidden tip. In other words, about one in six Doordash orders paid more than what the offer on the delivery order said it would.

How long has Doordash been hiding the tips?

Doordash actually has a long history of hiding tips. It's been going on more than just the most recent years.

It really started with the old pay model that was in place until about September 2019.

The previous pay model was simple, yet complicated. It was simple because it was just $1 plus tips. But it was complicated because they added a guaranteed earnings element. Doordash calculated what they felt was a reasonable minimum pay for a particular delivery.

It was kind of like there were two pay models. $1 plus tips was one model, and whatever they used to calculate minimum pay was the second. If a dollar plus the tip was less than the minimum pay, Doordash paid the difference.

At that time Doordash didn't display total pay when they gave an offer. They would only list the guaranteed minimum. In my area most delivery requests offered $5.50. In most instances, if the tip was more than about $4, you could expect the pay to be higher than what Doordash was offering.

If you're a veteran Dasher, you may remember a screen like this:

I can say from experience that Doordash was far less transparent about their delivery pay with the old model than they are now.

When Doordash changed the pay model, they were originally completely up front about what the delivery would pay. That was one of the biggest improvements that I commented on back then.

After a few months, Doordash stated playing the hidden tip game again. I do find it interesting that it seems to happen usually when tips are over the $4 to $5 threshhold, which was the same point at which tips were hidden in the old model.

Why does Doordash hide tips?

It's all about getting delivery workers to accept deliveries.

There's the reason that Doordash gives, and there's what I believe the real reason is.

In an interview on the Rideshare Guy podcast, Doordash president Christopher Payne addressed the hidden tip issue:

Our job is to give enough information so that Dashers can make an informed decision about ‘do I want to do that job or do I not?' And we also want to make sure there's enough liquidity in the system so that the customer demand is being met. So one of the things you're talking about is the tip, and we'll show the Doordash component and a portion of the tip. But we cap that because we found that a lot of people were just waiting for the big tips.

Doordash President Christopher Payne on why Doordash hides tips

Doordash has a problem. Some deliveries are not being accepted. Too many offers do not pay well enough for the time and distance one has to drive to complete deliveries. Thus a lot of low-paying orders sit there without being picked up.

Mr. Payne's answer indicates that the problem lies with cherry pickers. These are Doordash delivery drivers who are willing to endure a long wait time for extremely high paying deliveries with a bigger tip.

Doordash figured they could put a stop to that by not letting anyone know when those deliveries pay as much as they do. Uber Eats does something very similar in the way they hide tips.

What I believe is the real reason Doordash hides tips.

To be blunt, Mr. Payne's answer is hogwash. The deliveries with hidden tips are not the ones that are more likely to be sitting unaccepted. These are typically the higher paying offers.

If you follow the reasoning, hiding tips would probably lead to a lower acceptance rate. I hear all the time that orders with a big tip sat for a long time because drivers didn't know it was worth while.

I think Doordash knows that.

This brings us to what I believe is the real reason they hide tips:

It's a psychological game.

There's an element of surprise and delight whenever you get paid more than you were offered. Doordash does this just enough that a lot of drivers think there could be hidden tips on any order.

It's a great way for Doordash to get Drivers to think they could make more than the two or three bucks on low paying orders.

In the end, it's a lot cheaper to hide tips on mostly larger orders and make drivers think they could get paid more on smaller deliveries than it is to actually pay enough to make a delivery worth while.

Is there a way to see hidden tips on Doordash?

No. At this time there does not appear to be a way to see the hidden tips.

When this was originally written, the easiest way to find out how much tip money was hidden was to use the Para app. The team at Para had figured out how to identify the actual amount of a tip by looking at the data that was sent to your phone when you receive an offer.

Para exploded in popularity, and it seems Doordash figured it out. They changed the way they sent out the data, putting an end to tip transparency.

At this point, there is no known way to see how much of a tip is hidden. Para has pivoted to a tip predictor where they try to estimate tips. For the most part it's not much more than an educated guess.

The only way to fully know the tip amount and full payout is to complete the delivery.

I've also noticed that Doordash has changed things up quite a bit. There was a time that it seemed like any time the customer tip amount was higher than five dollars, Doordash would hide the tip. You could usually guess that if a delivery offer was around $7.50 to $8.00 there was a good chance the actual amount could be higher.

However, Doordash has been showing actual amounts far more frequently. It seems like they've been changing up the algorithm to make things far less predicable. The good news is there seems to be a little more transparency, but it's far from full transparency.

In fact, Doordash seems to be working awful hard to keep tips hidden. Doing the right thing doesn't seem to be the strategy for them.

Strategies for accepting deliveries when Doordash hides the tip

I personally don't try to play the game of guessing when a tip may be hidden.

I mentioned that Doordash hid the tip 16% of the time in the 200 delivery experiment I took earlier. But here's an important statistic: Of the 200 deliveries, I received a total of $48.50 more than what Doordash offered.

When you look at it as part of the bigger picture, that's 24 cents per delivery. It's only $1.51 per hidden tip delivery.

To me, a quarter per delivery is not enough to really make me want to change how I look at deliveries.

I write a lot more about accepting and rejecting delivery offers on Doordash here. But I'll share some brief thoughts on some of the best ways we can respond to Doordash hiding the tip.

1. Assume that you will only get what Doordash is offering.

Do not take offers simply because you think you might get a hidden tip.

I mentioned that 16% of deliveries had a hidden tip. The LOWEST offer amount of those was $6.00. Doordash did not put a hidden tip on a single delivery that offered less than $6.00.

I should mention that a cash tip was even more rare than hidden tips. Only three of 200 deliveries tipped in cash.

The problem when you take a delivery you might not otherwise take just because it MIGHT have a hidden tip is, there's a higher probability that it won't. What that means is, you've now lost time on a low-paying delivery. It only takes a few of those to offset what little you gain when there IS a larger tip.

Do not roll the dice on what could happen. You're better off playing roulette. Evaluate a delivery based on the merits of the offer.

2. The chances for potential hidden tips are higher when the tip is $4.00 or more.

Of the 200 deliveries I completed in that experiment (in which I accepted every single one) 34% of deliveries had tips of four dollars or higher. Compare that to 16% of deliveries having hidden tips.

In other words, once the tip was higher than four dollars, the odds of there being a hidden tip were close to 50%.

Only one hidden tip delivery had a tip smaller than four dollars. The offer was $7.50. I received a $3.50 tip, $3.50 base pay, and $1.50 peak pay. In the end the hidden tip on that was only a dollar.

A good rule of thumb is that with the way Doordash hides the tip, the lower the delivery offer, the less chance there is that it will have a hidden tip.

I know, I just said earlier not to pay much attention to the thought you could get a hidden tip. So why am I saying all this?

Usually a four dollar tip means the pay is $6.50 or higher. I use a 50 cent rule – if I think a delivery can pay 50 cents a minute or better, I'll take it. Using that rule, I have to think I can be done with a $6.50 delivery in 13 minutes to be worthwhile.

What if it's borderline? Maybe I think it might take a minute or two longer? I might be willing to budge (but only slightly) if I think there's a possibility.

At that point, I'm looking at the restaurant and at the items ordered. If it's a fast food order, I'm less likely to think it's going to be a hidden tip. If it's a steakhouse or sushi place, there's a better probability of a large tip.

Think about time more than you do about hidden tips.

I believe we get too caught up in the full amount.

I made this mistake when the tip transparency feature on the Para app could detect hidden tips. Using the app, I could see that the delivery paid better money than what the offer says, and grab it. I was actually making less money than usual. The reason for it? I had abandoned my usual decision making process.

While total pay is important, it's only valuable in the context of how much time a delivery will take. A six dollar delivery that's done in ten minutes is better than a $25 delivery that takes an hour and a half.

A good practice is to estimate how much time a delivery will take to complete, estimate the pay per minute, and decide if that delivery will meet your price. Don't roll the dice on a possible hidden tip, just make a good decision.

If you've made a good decision based on what you do know, and there is indeed a hidden tip on the delivery, that becomes a tremendous bonus.

Final thoughts about partially hidden tips.

When I started looking at the hidden tip details from my 200 delivery experiment, it was pretty eye opening. The difference in most deliveries wasn't that much. In fact, the biggest difference was one that paid six dollars more than what was offered. All of the others had a hidden portion of less than five dollars.

We're running a business here, not playing the slot machines. As independent contractors, we get to make our own decisions on what we do or do not accept.

When I did the experiment taking every single offer, my hourly profit was well below minimum wage. My hourly profit when I'm selective with delivery opportunities is more than double what I get when I take everything.

The problem is, if we get enticed by that hidden tip, every once in awhile we might get a few dollars extra, but it's not enough to offset the loss of taking bad deliveries.

This especially happens when a Door dash driver chases a deliver with low base pay and no tip. It's a bad strategy with very little chance of earning extra.

Don't get caught up in FOMO (fear of missing out). Make good decisions with the information you have and ultimately you'll do better than if you chase the elusive unicorn with the high hidden tip, all on the thought that it COULD happen.

Doordash's experiment to hide ALL tips on delivery offers

About April of 2021, Dashers began reporting that Doordash is hiding the tip on delivery offers.

This is not the partial hidden tip that we have been talking about.

All of a sudden, Doordash drivers were getting a delivery offer that highlights the number of estimated minutes for a delivery, and then in small print an offer that says something like “Earn $2.50 in DoorDash pay + 100% of tip.”

In other words, all you see is the base pay. No idea what the tip amount is at all.

What was this about? It appears to have been just a test. It's been several months since I've heard of anyone experiencing this.

This article was originally written to address this test that seems to have been taken. As you can see, I've updated it because most people finding it are trying to find information about the current practice of partially hiding tips. However, I wanted to keep this information in place in the event that Doordash ever tries this test again.

In talking about this Doordash test, we look at:

• How is Doordash hiding the tip?
• Why is Doordash hiding the tip?
• How should we respond?
• Is it wise to use apps that reveal the tip amount?
• Can you successfully cherry pick if Doordash is hiding the tip?
• What can we expect in the future?

How is Doordash hiding the entire tip?

Several Dashers reported receiving delivery offers like in the following screenshot:

Instead of a delivery pay offer that you used to see, the screenshot showed the following: “Earn $6.00 in DoorDash Pay + 100% of tip.” In other words, Doordash was only providing the base pay, not a total expected amount as they had in the past.

This compares to the following screenshot. Incidentally, this screenshot was for an offer on the same day as the one above.

On this particular offer, Doordash is not hiding the tip. This is what Doordash drivers have become used to since Doordash updated their pay model in September of 2019. The delivery offer is $5.00, and the language underneath reads: “Includes DoorDash pay and customer tip (Total may be higher).”

So we go from an offer that “includes Doordash pay AND customer tip” to one that only shows the Doordash pay.

Doordash seems to be experimenting now with hiding the fact that there is a tip at all with this new layout.

Why is Doordash hiding the tip?

Doordash has a problem.

Deliveries are not getting completed. If the customer doesn't tip, drivers won't take the order.

Dashers understand that a $3 delivery offer means there is no tip. Even many Top Dashers understand that those offers don't adequately cover their time and effort. So the order gets kicked around and the decline button gets a lot of action.

The phenomenon seems to be getting more and more attention. In an earlier post I responded to an article where someone suggested we deliver the order, no matter the tip. The interesting thing is that the attention seems to be snowballing much like the attention to the tip-stealing accusations related to Doordash's old tipping policy.

Somehow they have to get people to pick up those orders. It's a bad PR thing for Doordash. If they let the news reports about Dashers not accepting orders snowball, eventually the word spreads that Doordash is only paying $3 per delivery.

Doordash needs to stop that from happening.

If we don't know what the total amount is, we're more likely to take a chance on a delivery we would otherwise reject.

My guess is, this is a test. It's an experiment to see whether switching to this format will increase the acceptance of low or no tip delivery offers.

What other options are there?

We'll start with what option there is NOT.

Doordash cannot require Dashers to accept any offers.

That's the problem with choosing an independent contractor model. You cannot control the work of a contractor.

Somehow they have to figure out a way to either incentivize drivers to take those deliveries, or to trick drivers into it.

This apparently is an attempt to trick us.

Couldn't they just pay more?

They could. I think we'd all agree, they should.

In my experience, Doordash has historically paid lower delivery fees than any of the other carriers. In fact, it's not even close. One of the big factors here is that other food delivery gig companies tend to bump up the pay as the time and the distance of the delivery increases.

Not Doordash. They claim to pay based on distance, duration and desirability. However, when you see fifteen mile deliveries offered for $3, you know that the first two of those three are a lie.

I feel like Doordash CEO Tony Xu is kind of set on operating on the cheap. Doordash just isn't going to shell out enough to pay a higher base pay to make those no tip orders desirable enough for a significant increase in accepted deliveries.

So why not just pay better money on the lower tip orders?

That would make sense.

The problem is, they used to do that. And they got a lot of bad press for it.

Under the Doordash's old pay model, Doordash had a $5.50 minimum that they called the guaranteed amount (in most markets). Their official pay model was $1 plus tips, but they said that if the $1 plus tips didn't equal the minimum pay, Doordash would make up the difference.

Follow me here to see how that created a problem. You order food and you don't leave a tip in the app. The Dasher would be paid $5.50. The next time you order food you decide you should tip your food delivery driver, right? You leave a $4 tip.

The Dasher gets paid $5.50.

You left a tip thinking the Dasher would get more. They didn't.

Couriers started figuring that out. Some claimed Doordash was stealing customer tips. Technically they weren't but they weren't really in the right, either (in my opinion). Any time they decide $1 for a delivery fee is legitimate, there's a problem.

Dashers felt that Doordash was pocketing that tip money or using large tips as an excuse to pay a lower amount of money. Doordash claimed they were simply subsidizing those deliveries that didn't have sufficient tips.

It was probably a bit of both.

Doordash had to pay a $2.5 million dollar settlement over this issue well after they went to the new model. It wasn't Dashers who sued. It was Doordash customers. Customers realized that Doordash workers weren't getting the extra money when they left a tip, so they sued over deceptive practices. I think Doordash realized they couldn't argue their way out of that one.

If they go back to a guaranteed minimum pay model and noticeably supplement low tipping orders, Doordash becomes vulnerable to more such legal action.

That option's off the table.

How would this help Doordash get more orders taken?

I think they're speculating that if Dashers don't know which orders to reject, they won't reject so many orders.

They probably aren't wrong.

The #DeclineNow and #NoTipNoTrip folks aren't going to know when there is and isn't a tip. Either they'll have to figure out another tactic, or they'll just move on.

In late 2018 through 2019 I noticed Grubhub experimenting from time to time on hiding the tip amount. It was always a spot thing, and never lasted long. They had (and continue to have) the same problem.

Back when Doordash announced they would come up with a new pay model, I speculated on what it might look like. I thought back then that I missed by a long shot, but now I'm wondering:

I don't expect them to be incredibly transparent, whatever it is. My guess is they are going to be more like Uber and Postmates, where they will no longer identify the payment amount. They may do something in between where they let you know the base amount but not the tip. I don't think we will know until the trip is over if there is a tip. I think they see Grubhub's struggles and will learn from them.

My speculation, in a July 2019 blog post, on what the new Doordash pay model might look like.

They did move over to a model closer to Grubhub's. Nearly two years later, they're having the same problems as Grubhub.

Right now, Doordash is just trying to figure out if hiding the tip will solve the problem.

How should we respond?

My theory is that this is just a test. I remember Grubhub trying something similar a couple of times in the past. It never lasted.

I could be wrong. This could be the beginning of a rollout of something more permanent.

Either way, you have some decisions to make.

What if it's a test? Is there any way to influence the test? How do you show Doordash that it won't work?

I don't know the answer to that one. Some might choose to sit out. If Doordash wants to pull this, we can just sit on the sideline and less orders are fulfilled. The problem is, Doordash can just add more new Dashers.

Do you buckle down and do everything you can to give good service? A lot of people think that's a way to make sure the tips stay high. It's hard to say if that helps, considering cash tips are rare and customers usually tip through the app when placing their order.

Or do you just wash your hands? Enough already. If Doordash can't be transparent about the pay, it's not worth delivering for them any longer. Maybe it's time to move on toother food delivery platforms like Grubhub or Uber Eats.

Are there ways to pivot? Can you shift your thinking on how to accept or reject offers if you don't know the amount ahead of time?

Here's my thinking on all this: You're running a business. It's easy to be great when it's easy to be great. (Thank you, Captain Obvious). The really good operators are the ones who rise to the top when things get tough. Which one are you?

Is it wise to use apps that reveal the exact tip amount?

There are some hacks out there. Some have used an older version of the Doordash app that would reveal the total amount. I've heard from some that it stopped working, others that can still get it to work.

I do know that when Doordash sends out a delivery offer, the system encodes the full pay information. Some have figured out how to get that data.

The question is, is it a good idea?

Back in December of last year, Doordash required all of their Dashers to agree to a new Independent Contractor Agreement. Most of it was pretty much the same thing as before, but there was one significant section that was brand new. That section went into great detail about how independent contractors could use the data in the app.

I wondered then if there was a specific reason they were adding this information. It's not like adding an end user license agreement – that stuff is standard fare. This was an addition to the independent contractor agreement – a totally different type of agreement from a EULA.

The thing is, why put this in the contractor's agreement? The only answer I can think of is that they want to exert more control over how the app is used. Putting this in there gives them room to take action if the app is used improperly, as defined by Doordash.

Part of my commentary on the Doordash ICA changes in December, 2020.

Is what we're seeing happen right now related to why they added all this language? I don't know, are the folks at Doordash smart enough to think that far ahead?

So here's what it boils down to when it comes to using an app that can bypass the tip-hiding part of the Doordash app:

If Doordash is indeed planning to hide the tip at scale, the ability to see the total amount would be a tremendous advantage. There are very few who have access to that technology.

If no one else knows if there's a good tip out there, you will find a lot of deliveries that are well-paying, but no one knows it's a well-paying delivery. Knowing what the final pay will be might open you up to more potential high paying deliveries than before.

Having said that, understand that in using that technology, you are taking a chance. You may be risking deactivation.

I can't help but think Doordash put that new language in the independent contractor agreement for a reason. I don't think there's a coincidence that Section 12 was added to the ICA just a few months ago and now Doordash is experimenting with these changes.

The legal grounds here seem fuzzy. I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know whether or not Doordash can legally stop you from using any tip-revealing apps.

That said, Doordash also knows that you probably aren't going to put up a fight if they deactivate you.

Are you willing to take that chance?

I know of some who don't feel particularly married to Doordash. Losing the ability to evaluate deliveries makes Doordash less attractive. They'd rather take the chance, because they feel like the alternatives to Doordash are much better if Doordash is hiding the tip amount.

It's a decision you have to make. I personally wouldn't tell someone to use such an app. That also means I wouldn't pass on where to get such technology if asked. I don't want to be responsible for if something happens.

Only you can determine if the risk is worth the reward.

Can you successfully cherry pick if Doordash is hiding the tip?

Absolutely.

Back before Postmates began pulling some shady things about stacking orders, I found that I could do quite well accepting and rejecting orders with Postmates even when I had no idea what the tip OR the base pay was. The same was true of Uber Eats, especially once I could tell where a delivery was going.

Before Uber Eats started adding the expected tip to the offer amount, we only knew the base pay. I adopted what I called a reverse cherry pick approach. If the offer was higher, I was more likely to turn it down (because I knew it would take longer). Ultimately they began offering more information, making that obsolete.

I think there are ways that having the tip amount hidden can give you a competitive advantage. Everyone else who has relied on simplistic ideas like dollar per mile is now at a disadvantage. But if you're able to think and evaluate things on a deeper level, you're more likely to pick up on good deliveries that everyone else is passing on.

Here are some tips I would offer:

1. Time is more important than dollar amount.

I will give Doordash some credit for one thing I saw in the screenshot above.

Estimated time.

Personally I find that more valuable than the dollar amount when it comes to accepting and rejecting offers.

The most important measurement of how you are doing, in my opinion, is your profit per hour. How much did you have left over after expenses on a per hour basis?

Even if you get stuck with a no-tip delivery, if you can knock that thing out in fifteen minutes, that low paying delivery doesn't hurt your profit per hour nearly as much as a $10 delivery that took a whole hour.

I shoot for $30 per hour. Say I get a $3 delivery that took me 15 minutes. I still have 45 minutes to make the other $27. However, that $10 delivery that took an hour? The next hour I have to make $50 to get back on track. It's easier to recover from a quick low paying delivery than a very slow moderate paying trip.

2. Give the 50 cent rule a try.

I mentioned earlier, I go for $30 per hour.

That's 50 cents per minute. I evaluate a delivery based on whether I can make 50 cents per minute on it. If I can, I take it, if not, I pass.

I know, that seems odd. How can you use a 50 cent rule (or 40 cents or whatever rule you decide works best for you) if you don't know what you're getting?

I think you can. I've found I could – we'll talk more about that in #4. But even when I don't know what I'll be paid, the 50 cent rule has been huge for me. Here's what it's done for me:

• The 50 cent rule helped me evaluate how much time I'm taking. Everything I do that keeps me from completing a delivery is costing me 50 cents per minute. Time is money – but now I know how much money it is. That's huge.
• It gave me something that helped me gauge how I'm doing. I completed a delivery and ended up with 7 bucks. Okay, how long did it take? Am I ahead of schedule or behind?
• It was a great way to evaluate my decision making. How many times did I meet my goal? How many times did I fail? What could I have done differently?
• I could still use it to decide on delivery offers. The difference is, I'd have to guess at what I'd be paid. I knew that I was virtually assured of being wrong. However, if I was doing it well, everythign would balance out. And if I wasn't, it helped me think about how to adjust my estimates.

3. Pay attention to the restaurant.

Unfortunately, Doordash is taking away one clue that could really help. They removed the number of items.

I found that the combination of item quantity and and restaurant type was huge when deciding on Postmates deliveries.

The bottom line is, a steak house is more likely to have a good tip than a McDonalds order. Sushi places are usually a good bet. The higher the value of food, the greater the likelihood of a good tip.

4. Play the averages.

Get to know your averages.

What's the average tip you receive? What's your average for Chipotle? How about for higher ticket deliveries?

If you know your averages really well, you can reasonably predict what you will earn.

Here's what I mean. You get an offer for $4 base and you know your average tip for that type of restaurant is $4. Okay, evaluate that offer with the assumption you'll get $8. If you would normally take that offer at $8, then take it.

The most important part of this strategy is to know your averages well. If you do this long enough, things do average out. If you're really good at understanding what those averages are, those averages are going to catch up to you.

Let's follow that example further of the $4 offer. You took that offer with the assumption that you'll get $8, but you only got $4. Guess what? The next customer stiffed you as well. You have two deliveries and no tips. Not a great start. However, if you're accurate with your averages, you know that eventually there's going to be some $12 or $16 deliveries. Over time, the averages will catch up to you.

5. Don't be afraid of a $0 Tip.

When you don't know the tip amount ahead of time, it's just going to happen.

Accept it now and it'll make life much much easier.

Life is too short to give some customer the emotional power over you. If you're playing the game right, playing your averages well, you'll get those orders that make up for it.

6. Embrace the challenge.

It's easy to cherry pick when you know exactly what you can get.

The real pros are the ones who can make good decisions without knowing.

Gamify that puppy. Look for the things you can control. How quickly can you get done? How well can you evaluate how long a delivery will take? Someone didn't tip? Were there any red flags you can think of that might have been a warning?

A year ago, I took a shot at going all in on Uber Eats for a bit. At the time, they didn't show the tip up front, and that made me really nervous. The thing is, I had a blast. There was a piece of it where the pressure of evaluating based on the dollar amount was off the table – I was amazed at how that took a load off my shoulders. I could just go out there, make decisions, and not really care.

I made a decision then that I wasn't going to care if I flopped. That seemed to free me up. I had fun and made more money than I was making with Grubhub and Doordash.

7. Keep your options open.

You may find that other food delivery apps might be a better option. Maybe you're more likely to mix in a delivery from Uber Eats or Grubhub.

If you rely much on your gig economy income, you absolutely should have a back up. Things happen. A customer can lie and suddenly you're unable to deliver. No matter what, you need to have options.

The other value of options is, it allows you to measure the impact. Is Doordash the better choice for you right now? But with the tips unavailable, is it harder to earn? Maybe now Uber Eats is suddenly better.

Or, perhaps you're finding more freedom with the new system. Doordash was an afterthought but, since you're the one putting more thought into how you're choosing deliveries, you're doing better than all those lost $1/mile Dashers at finding the good opportunities. All of a sudden Doordash is your go-to.

The more options, the better opportunities you have to adapt.

What can we expect in the future?

This is a test. This is only a test.

Anyone recognize that line? I'm dating myself.

Anyway, the thing is, right now I'm guessing this is all a test. They're taking a sample of drivers, seeing how they do things with this change. Will it lead to more low or no-tip orders being taken in the coming days? Probably. But what's the damage?

There's going to be damage. Maybe it's that they lose good delivery drivers. Perhaps the damage is that someone who tipped really well all of a sudden didn't get their order when they more than likely would have in the past.

That's why they test. Testing gives them more specific details of how things will happen. As I mentioned earlier, Grubhub used to try these tests all the time. They always seemed to bail on that particular test.

The other thing to look at is Uber Eats. It wasn't that long ago that you knew nothing about what you were getting when you took an offer from them. They discovered that it made more sense to provide MORE information. They went from not knowing the pay OR location to providing full pay information, a map with cross streets, estimated time AND distsance.

If it made sense for Uber Eats to make such a major pivot, I'm thinking that this whole thing is going to be a short term deal.

The only thing is, this is Doordash. So who knows?

Just keep an eye on things. Figure out how to adapt if they do make a change. And if this is a permanent change, hang on, this is probably just the beginning of some big changes in the delivery world.