Some people placing food or grocery delivery orders are asking their drivers: Did you get my tip?
Delivery services from DoorDash to Walmart Spark often ask customers at checkout whether they want to add a tip for the worker delivering their order. High-profile recent settlements have drawn customer attention to the possibility that the full amount may not reach the delivery driver, prompting some customers and drivers to strike up conversations about tips.
Four delivery drivers, three who work for Spark and one who works for DoorDash, told Business Insider that the conversations about tips have become more common over the past year.
Both Spark and DoorDash have settled claims over their tipping practices.
In the latest example, Walmart agreed this year to pay $16 million to settle claims from the Federal Trade Commission, including that it misled its Spark workers "by falsely claiming that 100% of customer tips would actually go to drivers."
Walmart has sent adjustment payments to drivers over the last several months, with the latest tranche going out over the past week, and some drivers receiving several hundred dollars at once, according to screenshots seen by Business Insider.
"Drivers retain 100% of customer-confirmed tips in addition to the base pay for the trip," a Walmart spokesperson said, adding that workers who think a tip has gone missing can contact Spark for support.
"We continue to improve the platform and identify and remedy any issues found," the spokesperson said.
A DoorDash spokesperson said its delivery workers "keep 100% of tips given to them by customers in the DoorDash app. Period." The spokesperson said DoorDash "will immediately investigate" instances where customers or delivery workers believe there was an error.
Some customers are giving cash tips
Tips are a key source of income for gig workers, with gratuities making up most of the earnings for many food delivery workers.
One Virginia Spark driver, who also orders delivery through the Walmart service as a customer, included a $20 tip on an order he placed earlier this month. When it arrived, he asked the delivery worker whether the tip had gone through. The driver showed him his Spark app, which indicated the tip was about $10.
"I was just like, 'Wow, what do we do with this information?" he said.
Two other delivery workers — one who delivers for Spark and another who works for DoorDash — told Business Insider that they regularly get questions from customers about whether they received their tips.
"They'll usually ask me something like, 'Now, I tipped on the app, but does that all go to you?'" said one of the workers, who delivers for Spark in Tennessee.
Some drivers said there are workarounds for customers concerned about their tips.
One Spark driver in South Carolina said some customers have tipped him in cash when he drops off their order. On one recent delivery, he said, a customer handed him a $5 bill and said that she had read about Walmart's settlement with the FTC.
Another worker, who delivers for DoorDash in New Hampshire, said that he encourages customers to tip drivers in cash upon delivery. Besides avoiding questions about who actually receives the gratuity, it also lets customers tip based on how well the driver did with the delivery.
"No other business gets a tip first before service," he said.
Do you have a story to share about Uber, DoorDash, Spark, or another delivery service? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
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Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.
