Food-delivery driver refuses to take orders with low tips and hangs out in wealthy areas
A food delivery driver has spoken out about his biggest hack for getting the best tips.
Jack, a 22-year-old from Philadelphia, has been delivering food orders on his bike since January 2019.
He worked around 40 hours a week for DoorDash during his school summer holidays, but also works for UberEats now too, delivering primarily on weekends.
However, Jack doesn't just pick up any old order he gets through on the apps, turning down 75 percent of requests, and has preferred locations for where he works too.
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Jack explained to Insider he's not working as a food delivery driver just 'to gamble'.
He says: "I'm doing this to make money. So I'm not really interested in playing the game of, 'Oh, maybe I'll do this person's delivery for a guaranteed $2.50 (£2). Maybe it might be more.' I don't play that game.
"And most people don't like to play that game. That's what results in their order's not getting picked up, or it takes awhile for them to get their food."
Jack explained he hangs around areas such as Rittenhouse Square - one of the more affluent areas of Philadelphia - in order to try and bag orders that tip better - drivers at DoorDash and UberEats keeping 100 percent of their tips on top of a base payment dependent on distance of the delivery and some other incentive fees.
Jack also notes the tip can vary depending on the season - the delivery driver has found winter sees customers tip more generously, which he theorises could be because of the harsher weather conditions drivers are subject to.
He says: "I'll sit in Rittenhouse Square in the park, and I'll get an order that's from a fancy Italian restaurant.
"It's a two-block delivery, and it ends up paying me $20 (£16) because this person doesn't want to walk two blocks in the winter cold."
According to documents viewed by Insider, Jack earns as much as $45 (£36) an hour during the winter period, compared to the summer when his pay normally ranges from $20 to $25 (£16 to £20) an hour.
However, the average tip tends to range from $3 to $7 (£2 to £5) and Jack notes some customers have cottoned on to drivers waiting for the biggest tips, and there have been two or three occasions where he's been offered a high tip but then it's been changed at the last minute - something he refers to as 'tip baiting'.
Overall he resolves: "I think people should be tipping for the premium service that they're being provided."
A spokesperson for Uber told Insider: "On the riders side, tipping frequency and the average tip on a trip roughly doubled over the last two years.
"Food delivery has always had a high tipping rate, but the average tip on a delivery increased even further by about 20 percent."
A spokesperson for DoorDash told the outlet drivers earn an average of $25 (£20) an hour for their services and that most customers do tip.
It also noted drivers who turn down orders and wait for the ones with the biggest tips turn to actually earn less, according to the company's data.
UNILAD has contacted Uber and DoorDash for comment.
Topics: Food and Drink, US News, Uber, Money, TikTok, Social Media
Poppy Bilderbeck