How would I know? 
Like I say, I don’t use such services. But if I ever did, I’d expect the doorbell to be rung and the delivery person to wait for me to open it. If I could not specify that, I doubt I’d use such a service.
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no, I dont.
again, why?
I dont. but to say
Leaving no tip is unacceptable
is to acknowledge in itself that fucked up system and be okay with it… that was actually my point. and I find such statements actually pretty offensive.
and yes, I do tip. in a country which doesnt have this insane, exploitative tip-“culture” like yours. and I am fucking poor.
We know why. An inhumane system that puts profits over people. Solidarity matters. Letting people who provide you services in that system deserve some solidarity not just derision about their lack of power within that system.
So, your way of showing that is not making up the shortfall, so that people can’t do basic shit like make rent?
And yet you posted a dumb rant by an overly privileged white dude who doesn’t give two shits about the poor… 
The realities of the system, which you and I seem to agree on, doesn’t mean that we should abandon people to that system out of some sense of “purity”… there is no outside the system…
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yes! exactly! why do you think tarantino filmed that scene? because he hates to tip?!? or the poor in general? were on the same page here mindy…
sigh yep, kills me every day a little more, this.
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… well, by definition leaving no tip is “acceptable”
If not leaving a “tip” were unacceptable then the payment would be mandatory and thus it would not be a tip but rather something else
To perpetuate itself, the tipping custom has to be simultaneously voluntary and required
I’m sure Lewis Carroll could explain it to us
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I think, ultimately, that’s the point. As positions in the US that rely on “tips” are allowed to be on pay schedules below minimum wage, “tips” are not bonuses for good service. They’re a portion of the employee’s wages that are paid directly by the customer. “Tip” is just a word and the gulf between historic, dictionary, and functional definitions shouldn’t be used to justify poor real-world outcomes.
I get the absurdity of “both voluntary and required,” but I’m sure we can come up with lots of behavior that’s unacceptable in that it violates “only” social norms, not laws. People do unacceptable things all the time.
The tipping culture that we have in the US is horrible for so many reasons. But objecting to it by putting the economic burden of that objection on the employees harmed by the system is, well, unacceptable.
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Like I said above…
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If you factor in milage on the car (using the IRS’s $0.54/mile rate maybe?) I hope it still works out to an appropriate rate
In my case, my break even is a LOT lower because I drive an electric (it costs me about 3 cents/mile in electricity whereas my old car at 30mpg cost 13 cents a mile). Granted, that doesn’t count wear and tear.
But even if you use the IRS number like you said, I tend to come out ahead. A $75 evening of deliveries will run me about 75-100 miles of driving lately. So if we take 100 miles at the IRS rate, that’s $54 worth of fuel, wear and tear. That also means I can deduct that $54 from my taxable burden.
I’m not getting rich Door Dashing and I would hate to try to make a living on it, but as a side hustle, it’s a not bad for me!
So I might not be the best one to answer this, because I simply am not depending on this money to live. This my “mad money”. My wife and I, honestly, do quite well. Don’t tell her, but I’ve been doing this to buy her a really nice birthday present! 
But let me do my best. For me, it is less about basing the tip off the amount and more about how much hassle is this delivery for me. For example, pizza boxes are pretty easy. Slide it in the pizza sleeve and off I go. A chinese food delivery for a family of four with drinks? Pain in the behind. First of all, I probably can’t carry it in one go, so it’s a pain to get it to the car and then from the car to the front door. So in MY mind, I’m not gonna grumble about a $2-3 tip on a pizza delivery (unless you ordered from a place 20 miles away and I have to drive 40 minutes to get to you … yes that happened once!)
But that same $2-3 tip is gonna feel stingy for the chinese food delivery order. To be honest, people seem to realize that and I’ve seen $8-10 tips on big family meal orders like that. Every once it a while someone goes crazy and gives me a huge tip ($20+) and while I appreciate it immensely, I feel like they are overdoing it a bit. Not gonna turn it down though!
Lastly, to your example, the distance is the deciding factor on how I’d tip. 12 miles, in any kind of urban traffic, is 20-30 minutes, most likely. I’d probably give $5+ tip on that one, though if I was the delivery guy and got $3, I’d probably be happy (remember, I’m still getting the DoorDash base pay of $2.50 or so [based on distance]). Again, I’m not necessarily the normal delivery guy, though!
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Thanks for the reply! I appreciate the various details and examples. And you may or may not be the normal delivery guy, but you certainly know more than I do 
So it sounds like (in your opinion) $10 was plenty for one item delivered 12 miles in the city. It was in a sturdy shopping bag with handles, definitely easy to carry, no mess. I do wonder how easy or not it was for the driver to pick up the item from the Apple store—like, did he have to fight the crowds in the mall or circle for a parking space? I hope/imagine that there might be a dedicated spot for couriers to park briefly, probably near the loading docks around the back of the mall, one central spot to pick up deliveries going out from any store in the mall.
So, with your reply, I’m feeling better now about the amount that I gave him. I had been wishing all along that I’d given him $20. I mean, it hasn’t kept me up at night or anything, but, just, whenever I’ve happened to think of it. I keep finding myself thinking: I’ll never see that guy again. It was my one chance to give him more, why didn’t I?
Thanks again for the info! Good luck on the job, and happy birthday to your wife when the day rolls around 
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