I can’t access the article, but perhaps they are having the non-delivery employees deliver charitable donations (bought by doordash) instead of serving normal clientele.
No, they are doing normal customer deliveries. The charitable part is that Doordash is taking the money that the dasher would normally earn for their runs (fees and tips) and donating it to some Hunger fund.
Presumably the engineer-dashers aren’t losing money, since they still get their regular salary. Except for the wear-and-tear on their car, which they may be able to deduct on their taxes (50-60 cents/mile).
I wonder if Doordash is paying for the commercial insurance required on the engineer’s cars, as they are used for deliveries. Because if the engineer is ever in an accident — not necessarily on their one-day delivery gig, but now and forever — the first thing insurance companies ask these days when you file a claim is, “Has this vehicle EVER been used EVEN ONE for rideshare/delivery?” If the answer is Yes, then they declare that your insurance was null and void. Because you lied about using your car for commercial purposes, and were in the normal-people liability pool and rates. And if you lie and say “No”, and the insurnace company finds out, well, that’s actually a criminal offense (prison) for which they will also have you proseuted.
And as someone pointed out, doing deliveries exposes you to all sorts of extra dangers. Including COVID exposure (picking up from that busy restaurant, dropping off. interacting with the customer at their door, etc.) Things that you would normally never do. Maybe get a case of mild omicron, with subsequent “long COVID” lifetime medical issues. I wonder what that lawsuit would look like.
And who says engineers are good drivers? Or that they even drive and have a car for this? (Maybe those are the ones who stay in the office and shadow the phone support people).
Finally, the idea that they see the app and the system in action up close and personal is a great idea. But suggestion that they get soe insightgul “life experience” about how the other half lives is ridiculous and incredibly insulting. The engineer is not scraping by getting paid pennies, subject to the incentive/get-fired performance rules that the system imposes, and grinding away in the winter cold ten hours a day six days a week trying to make ends meet. While shelling out for car milage (most dashers get $1/mile or less when you factor in the distance, out of which they have expenses around 50-70 cents/mile). Their ome-short-day lark of playing with the app in no way gives insight into the lives of the dashers.
