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 retail delivery on a Petco order, a DoorDash driver will likely be the person who handles your delivery.
But Dashers have two big problems Petco orders: They say the pay is too low, and declining a Petco order can seriously harm their metrics.
Check out this low-paying Petco order shared by a Dasher on Reddit:
10 orders, 61 miles, no tips!!
Here’s why that order is bad: 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 offer is not up to standard! You’re better off with typical restaurant deliveries.
That request is a good demonstration 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 just from rejecting one Petco order.
Even though you only reject one order, 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!
The order below doesn’t look terrible on first glance: $12 for one 8-mile delivery. But on closer inspection, the delivery has 93 items!
93 items? Too many!
Customers don’t tip, can’t tip, or won’t tip on Petco orders
Getting 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!
More help for DoorDash customers
Michele says
Thanks for the info. I do repeat orders with Petco the majority of my orders are shipped and delivered by UPS . I have had two orders delivered from Door Dash ( you usually find out a few hours before it will be delivered ) and you do not have the option to tip the driver on the Petco Site or after the driver has delivered the order. This is very frustrating because we should have the option if we have an order from Door Dash to give a tip. Im sure there are more people out there that want to give a tip but there is no option from Petco .
Doug H says
Thanks for your comment. When I made a same-day delivery I was able to see a tipping section at the bottom of the checkout page. Are you saying that the repeat order option doesn’t have a tipping section?
Michele says
Yes , there is no tipping section for repeat deliveries.