Cash on delivery (COD) is now available on DoorDash in some cities. Customers can pay for deliveries in cash, but many delivery drivers aren’t happy about it.
Hands-free electronic payment is one of the features of delivery apps that motivated millions of people to try working as delivery drivers because it eliminated one of the biggest safety issues—handling cash.
Carrying cash has long been a major downside for delivery and taxi drivers. Cash makes you a target for robbery.
And safety issues aside, handling cash was an annoying friction point in the delivery process. Customers had to keep cash on hand, and drivers had to make change & hold onto large amounts of cash. Forget about a no-contact delivery when cash is involved.
Now that cash on delivery is an option in several cities, Dashers will have to decide whether they want to opt in.
Will you accept COD orders or opt out?
In one Reddit thread, Dashers weren’t happy to hear about COD:
“I don’t want people thinking all DD drivers carry cash now. Sounds unsafe for everybody”
“Can’t wait to see the first ‘customer refused to pay’ story…”
“The whole point of these apps is to NOT HANDLE CASH!!! Drivers feel safer when they are not carrying cash around”
“Hard pass. You have more to keep track of and got paid the same s***** base pay”
While many drivers are opposed to the idea, others don’t mind dealing with cash. For the moment, DoorDash gives drivers a choice to opt out.
So if COD is coming to your area, read on to see how it works and how to opt out if you’re not interested in accepting cash.
How cash on delivery (COD) works for DoorDash drivers
When an order is COD, the order acceptance screen will have a cash on delivery label and a note to let you know how much cash the customer needs to give you.
There is no need to pay the restaurant—DoorDash still handles merchant payment.
The customer will pay you in cash when you drop off the order. The cash is yours to keep and DoorDash handles the earnings calculations for you.
You keep the cash, and DoorDash deducts the cash amount—excluding your earnings and any tip—from your next direct deposit.
In a way, cash payments are a way of getting your earnings sooner. But cash adds other complications and potential safety issues.
COD requests are labelled, and tell you how much cash to collect
The app tells you how much cash to collect
After a COD the app tells you how much you collected. Have extra? That’s a tip
Payout example for a cash on delivery order
In brief, you collect the cash payment and keep it. DoorDash deducts the cash amount from your weekly direct deposit.
More details:
Let’s say that you have $150 in DoorDash earnings this week. You accept a cash on delivery order with a minimum payout of $6. The app tells you to collect $25 from the customer.
The customer hands you $30 in cash and tells you to keep the change.
DoorDash will automatically add the $6 payout to your balance and deduct the $25 payment, leaving you with an electronic balance of $131.
If you stopped Dashing for the week, your direct deposit would be $131.
The final math: $131 electronic payment + $30 in cash = $161. $156 from DoorDash payments, $5 in cash tips.
More COD questions and complications
As you might imagine, cash brings complications. Here are some common issues that may arise with COD. All information is from the DoorDash FAQ about COD.
What if you don’t have enough cash to give the correct change to the customer? DoorDash says you can still hand the delivery to the customer without collecting payment. Then, select “issue collecting cash payment” in the app. You will still receive base pay.
What if the customer says they already paid online? Do not give the order to the customer. In the app, select “Issue Collecting Cash Payment” and then “Customer refused to pay.” You will still receive base pay.
What if the customer says they don’t have any cash? Let the customer know that you can’t give them the order. In the app, select “Issue Collecting Cash Payment” and then “Customer refused to pay.” You will still receive base pay.
What if your balance goes negative because of COD orders? Let’s say you only have $10 in payouts from DoorDash and get a $25 COD order.
After accepting the cash, your balance with DoorDash would be -$15 ($10 – $25).
Once your balance goes negative, DoorDash will stop giving you COD orders. You would then have to complete regular orders until your balance is positive again.
What about tax reporting? DoorDash has not said how they will handle tax reporting for cash orders.
If I had to make a guess, DoorDash will add a separate line item on the yearly 1099 for cash payments. They will likely only include cash payments from DoorDash, not tips. Tips will be up to you to report.
How to opt out of COD
You may see a popup in the Dasher app about Cash on Delivery. It will have an opt out button at the bottom of the popup.
If you don’t see that popup or want to opt out later, Go to Account>Settings to find the opt out.
You are free to decline cash on delivery requests. DoorDash says that declining a COD order will not impact your acceptance rating.
Opt out on the popup, or go to Account > Settings
DoorDash drivers react to COD
Cashless, hands-free payment is one of the biggest perks of DoorDash and other delivery apps.
With a cashless system, drivers simply hand off the delivery and go—or drop the order without seeing the customer.
Cash adds extra waiting, extra preparation, extra mental math, and makes it so you can’t do a fast ‘leave at door’ delivery.
It’s not surprising that many Dashers don’t like the idea of COD.
Negative reactions
“They don’t pay enough to put that safety risk on us!”
“If you can use an app to order food no reason you need cash for payment”
“I don’t want people thinking all DD drivers carry cash now. Sounds unsafe for everybody”
“Watch out for fake bills…”
“If you don’t have a bank or credit card get a damn prepaid card”
“You know for a fact it’s gonna be an extra chore when it comes to tax time”
Positive reactions
While the reactions from most Dashers seems to be overwhelmingly negative, some don’t have an issue with COD or see some benefits:
“Was doing it 3 years ago and do them now. Usually decent money here”
“Think of it like swapping and out your weekly balance like an ATM”
Should you do COD orders?
Many drivers won’t like the extra work and the extra risk that comes with cash on delivery orders. If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable with COD, opt out or decline COD orders.
But if you like getting a cash advance on your earnings, give COD orders a try. Make sure to keep some change on you!
C.hris says
I can’t tell on the app whether I’m opting out or opting in. It’s just a blank black button that doesn’t say yes or no. Guess I’ll find out later.
Doug H says
haha, that’s terrible. Maybe you’ll have to chat with support later on
Karla says
did my first one of these last week. Thought that was a nice tip. Nope, it subtracted from my other earnings. I got paid $3.25 for that delivery, total. What a waste. Wouldn’t have accepted if it was clear that’s how they were doing the math. Not doing that again.
T says
It subtracted because the money from the order had to be taken out of something lol, but I guess you didn’t get the math.
Laurie Whipple says
I just did a COD order and my customer never answered the door. i called, txt knocked even honked my horn and they never came out. i tried to cancel in my app by hitting customer not available. Put in a note Customer not home. It said someone will contact to complete the order. No one called me. I got on Chat support and they kept telling me I had to cancel in the app. I litteraly could NOT cancel in the app. I called Dasher Support and someone told me just hit confirm delivery and she would cancel on her side. I ask will this give me a negative balance in my earnings. She said I will fix it. Well long story short I have called Dasher support 4 times and been put on hold to be told since I confirmed the order, the money will be taken from my earnings.. So I spent my time and gas on this order and then had to pay for someone pizza because of COD… I am out about 40 bucks… Don’t accept COD orders!!!!
Becca says
Do we get any money (tips, promos, mileage) to cash when doing regular dd orders while in the negative? Meaning am I working for doordash for free until my balance is 0?
DougH says
After your balance is negative you’ll stop getting COD until it’s positive. Usually that would only be a few orders unless you got a huge cash order. While you’re in the negative you should still get tips, promos, and mileage.
TJ says
Even if a dasher opts out, the potential person that will rob you has no idea who is and isn’t carrying cash. So every dasher becomes a target. Bad idea. Company profits over safety. Then again hasn’t it always been that way?
Connor says
Under Payout example, you mistakenly completed the equation with 130 instead of 131, which makes $5 cash tip. The rest of the math looks correct
DougH says
Good catch. I updated the article
Ceri-Jayne Hawley says
Since I’m Deaf Dasher it will be complicated for Deaf Dasher to lipread or mislipread.. exaggerates time adds stress. Simply just smile after delivery or drop off at time costs my money
DougH says
That’s a very good reason to opt out of COD!