DoorDash drivers are free to accept or decline any order that comes in, and many Dashers choose to skip low-paying orders and wait for something more lucrative.
But that doesn’t mean that DoorDash won’t try to nudge Dashers to take more orders and cut down on customer wait times.
Dashers who decline several orders saw this alert for a while: “We’ve paused your dash for 5 minutes. It looks like you’re not accepting orders right now.”
Now Dashers are seeing an even harsher penalty: “We’ve ended your dash. You can start a new dash by tapping “Dash Now.”
It’s a punishment from DoorDash for having a low acceptance rate. Here’s what the alerts look like:
DoorDash may pause your Dash if you skip too many orders
DoorDash can now end your Dash if you skip too many orders
And here’s what the full message says:
“We’ve paused your dash for 5 minutes. It looks like you’re not accepting orders right now, so we’ve paused your dash to give other Dashers an opportunity to see the orders you’re declining first.
You can resume or end your dash at any time. If you don’t choose any of those options, we’ll automatically end your dash after the 5 minutes have passed.”
DoorDash Ending Your Dash – Latest Info
DoorDash gives Dashers a 5-minute time out after declining too many orders in a row. After 3 pauses, DoorDash may now end your dash completely.
Here’s why ending a dash is such a steep penalty: You lose your scheduled hours when the dash ends. You can still Dash Now if your area is busy enough, but if Dash Now isn’t available, you won’t be able to sign back on and take orders.
More about the DoorDash ‘Timeout’ Alert
Here’s what happens when you get the alert: DoorDash pauses your dash and forces you to press a button to get back online. If you don’t take action within 5 minutes, DoorDash ends your dash automatically.
It’s no secret that DoorDash wants Dashers to accept more orders. Customer wait times increase when Dashers decline orders, so DoorDash wants to do everything it can to nudge you to take more offers.
But the DoorDash contract allows Dashers to decline orders without punishment or deactivation, so DoorDash has to get creative if they want to incentivize you to accept more orders.
It’s also possible that DoorDash wants to target Dashers who are genuinely inactive on their Dash. If a Dasher skips 25 offers in a row, maybe they’re away from their phone or forgot that they started the Dash.
Experienced multiappers might recognize this as a play right out of Uber’s book: Uber drivers see a similar message when they skip too many ride or delivery requests.
For now, this alert is more of an inconvenience than a true punishment, but it shows that DoorDash is starting to take low acceptance rates more seriously.
DoorDash is Still Testing This Feature
DoorDash has not deployed the timeout feature in every city, so it appears that it’s still in development.
You’re Still Free to Be Picky about Your Orders
Despite this new alert from DoorDash, you are still free to decline as many orders as you want. You can’t be deactivated or punished for having a low acceptance rating.
And if you do get a timeout, simply resume your dash. It’s a bit of an annoyance, but if you prefer to wait for better orders, it’s worth the extra hassle.
More Reading for Dashers
Rebecca M says
Pay dasher at least $1 per mile to give them some incentive to travel 10 miles… Because $3.75 for a 10 mile trip is ridiculous.
Marcus says
If 2$ Tony would actually pay the workers a fair wage for these deliveries they wouldn’t have a problem with low acceptance rates. But since he treats contractors like garbage he has that problem.
Dan says
It’s very wrong about something coming before this new screen and by the way it’s 10 minutes not 5:00 I don’t know if the five lasted that long then change it to 10 minutes almost right away. So you kind of caught a unicorn screen there.
But what has been going on for almost a year or more before these screens started popping up after declining our orders, if you weren’t actively in the app and looking at the screen or the screen wasn’t off in the app wasn’t on in other words if you are doing some other app like checking your Gmail or whatever and then or your screen went went to to off and black and locked, when you would go back to the Dash app after receiving an order or maybe you walked away from your phone and came back, your dash is paused immediately
In other words for more than a year and a half you had to actively be in the app and actively either decline or accept or let have the screen on it just let him fall off that’s the that was the same as a decline. And still is.
Possibly you’re actively declined you wouldn’t be paused.
It used to be they would let you go three unattended Fall offs or declines passive declines, and then they would pause your dash and they would pause it with your full 35 minute timer.
That’s the case now if you aren’t attending to an order coming in, and then it falls away, when you go back to the Dasher app you’ll see that you’re 35 minute timer has been started.
Petie Perry says
A class action attorney really needs to become aware of this Doordash 10 minute pause penalty that seems to trigger after 10 delivery requests not accepted. And the end dash penalty seems to occur after three pauses (30 delivery requests not accepted). Doordash is really a scumbag organization and their main concern is now for shareholders as a public company.
One creative work a round to prevent a Doordash end dash penalty and then not busy enough to dash now, is to advance schedule shorter time frame dashes. That way if they do the we are ending your dash penalty, it was only for a 1 of 2 hour advance scheduled dash and not for one 5 or more hours in duration.
Jessika H. says
That’s exactly what I decided to start doing today!