DoorDash isn’t just for food anymore! A partnership with Petco is one of many new attempts to branch out into new delivery categories.
So if you choose same-day delivery on a Petco order, a DoorDash driver will likely be the person who handles your delivery.
But Dashers aren’t too happy about Petco orders. They say the pay is too low, and declining a Petco order can seriously harm their metrics.
Check out this Petco order shared by a Dasher on Reddit:
10 orders, 61 miles, no tips!!
Let’s decode that order: There are 10 separate drop-offs over a 61-mile route, all for $35.
This route would take 2–3 hours, so the final pay would be $11–$17 per hour, or around 50 cents per mile.
Most dashers aim for over $1.50/mile or $25 per hour. In other words, this Petco offer is terrible!
That request is a good demo of all the complaints dashers have about Petco orders: The orders don’t pay very well, and one delivery request usually has several different stops batched together—up to 10 orders!
(And you thought a triple stack was bad!)
And the next big disappointment comes after you decline a big Petco batch: Your acceptance rate can drop like a stone.
Even though you only rejected it once, it counts as 10 rejections. Say goodbye to Top Dasher!
From the customer perspective, many Petco shoppers don’t know that DoorDash will deliver their online orders, and they’re not sure how drivers are paid or if customers are expected to tip.
These Petco orders are bad!
Dashers scan through dozens of order requests every day, looking for orders that will pay around $1.50/mile or $25+ per hour.
By that standard, most Petco orders are bad.
Below is a great example of a bad Petco order: $20 for 7 deliveries covering 44 miles. That’s less than 50 cents per mile, and will work out to $10—or less—per hour.
Only 2.88 per order and potentially less than $10 per hour
Here’s a Petco batch with 10 orders that will take up to 2.5 hours for only $30. It works out to $3 per order, which suggests that none of the customers tipped. You’re only getting base pay.
10 orders, 2.5 hours, base pay only!
Customers don’t tip, can’t tip, or won’t tip on Petco orders
Getting good tips is one of the only ways to make DoorDash a profitable gig. Base pay from DoorDash is around $2.50–$5, and most Dashers expect to do around three orders per hour.
So without tips, overall pay for a dasher can dip low.
And that’s one of the main reasons why Petco orders don’t pay enough: Customers don’t tip often enough!
There are several reasons why customers hesitate to tip:
- Tipping culture: Customers expect to tip for on-demand food delivery, but not for regular item delivery
- Not sure who is delivering: A customer might tip if they know DoorDash is delivering the order, but they won’t tip during checkout if they don’t know which carrier is doing the delivery
- Missed the tip box: Customers might not see the tipping option during checkout—most aren’t expecting to see it!
Whatever the reason, most Petco customers don’t tip, so the final payout for Petco orders isn’t worth it for dashers.
Declining one Petco order can destroy your acceptance rating
Another frustrating issue with Petco orders is that declining one offer can significantly lower your acceptance rating.
A Petco offer doesn’t count as just one order in the acceptance rating calculation—it counts as the number of stops for the entire route.
So if a Petco route has 8 stops, declining the offer counts as 8 declines!
Your acceptance rate is the percent of deliveries you accepted out of the 100 most recent “delivery opportunities.” Declining one typical order will lower your acceptance rating by one percent.
Declining an 8-stop Petco order will make your acceptance rating take an 8% dive!
That’s bad news if you’re trying to keep a high AR for Top Dasher or priority orders.
Most dashers don’t think it’s a fair way to calculate AR. One decline should not change your AR by up to 10%, especially when DoorDash is doing more and more to try to tie your pay to your AR.
DoorDash now prioritizes high-paying orders to Dashers who meet a minimum AR requirement, so it doesn’t feel fair that one decline on a big Petco order can ruin your chance to get better orders.
More help for Dashers
- Can you make more with ‘Earn by time’ mode?
- Are DashMart orders worth it?
- A guide to Shop & Deliver orders
DoorDash delivery for Petco customers
If you’re a Petco customer, you may be able to get same-day delivery via DoorDash.
During checkout, select same-day delivery and check to see if DoorDash will deliver the order.
Watch for DoorDash when you pick same-day delivery
To tip your DoorDash driver, look for the tipping option in the payment section of the checkout page.
Tipping isn’t required, but it could lead to better service
Do you need to tip for a Petco order? No. But if you know that a delivery app like DoorDash is doing the delivery, tipping is always a good idea.
Here’s why tipping is the right move: On DoorDash, a tip is like a bid for better service. Dashers can see how much an order will pay before they accept the job, so orders with tips will usually win out over orders that don’t have tips.
So if you tip on your Petco order, you’re incentivizing a driver to accept your order and do a better job.
Don’t want your order delivered by DoorDash? Pick a slower shipping option. DoorDash mainly covers same-day delivery.
The slower shipping options are fulfilled by traditional shipping companies that employ full-time drivers who don’t work for tips. Dashers need those tips!
Leave a Reply