High gas prices push delivery drivers to drop DoorDash, seek out larger tips

Delivery driver Karissa Jacobs used to take more low pay DoorDash orders because she didn't mind helping those folks out. At least with students on campus, she could complete more deliveries.

But with gas getting more expensive, she could only take the higher paying orders. That was until she paused DoorDashing altogether because it was not financially feasible.

"It could get to the point, really, that no one's delivering," Jacobs said.

Many rely on using a car to get to and from work every day. Some people, however, depend on driving their car for hours-long shifts to make a living. For them, the gas price surge has not only cut into their income, but into their belief of whether the job is still worth it.

As gas prices now have climbed to over $5 a gallon, delivery drivers for services including DoorDash are debating if the service's pay is worth the amount to fill up.

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As of Wednesday in Bloomington, the lowest gas price was $4.88 at Sam's Club and the highest was $5.49 at the Fishin Shedd, according to GasBuddy. At an average of $5.234, Indiana is above the national average of $4.955 per gallon, according to AAA. Bloomington's average went up 25 cents Monday to Tuesday, 46 cents from last week, $1.06 from last month and $2.18 from last year.

With most Indiana University students off campus for the summer and gas prices hitting a recent high, Jacobs said she is taking a break working for the service.

"It's definitely taken a lot more of my paycheck, to the point it's not even worth it to DoorDash," she said.

The pay was too low — around $2.50-$3.50 before tips. The app also wanted her to rack up miles doing deliveries as far out as Judah Township in Lawrence County, which is over 20 minutes out with light traffic, for similar pay.

Driving for delivery services works for Jacobs because she has a young son at home. She and her husband often trade off shifts. She's out the door as early as 7 a.m., running errands in between her deliveries. She stays out until 8 or 9 p.m., and some nights get pretty late, especially during football season.

After dropping DoorDash, Jacobs still works for two other delivery sources: Instacart and a new Bloomington food delivery startup, Driver on Deck.

The latter, she said, prioritizes better payment for their drivers, having a base pay of $5.50 per delivery. The company website also pledges free food and discounts. For one order during graduation weekend, Jacobs said she earned about $45 for a delivery about a mile up the road.

Instacart is still beneficial for Jacobs, since it's more time spent on shopping and less on driving. She said she has seen these more time consuming deliveries drop as low as $8 and pay up to around $30 based on the order size.

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Jacobs said she hopes users of delivery apps take into account the distance of their delivery and how high gas prices are when leaving tips. If the tip isn't worth it, she said she and other drivers won't choose to deliver it.

DoorDash driver Størm Rayng said the delivery app was his main source of income, but he recently had to pick up another job after most IU students left.

"I have to think about if I can even afford to keep the DoorDashing or if I need to just rely on the other job," he said.

He started noticing recently about half of what he made was going back into his gas tank. When before he would typically take anything that paid over $6, he said he now only does over $7. Doing quick calculations, Rayng said he tries to only do deliveries that pay at least $1 a mile.

"It's starting to get really hard to take some of those orders because I know that it's not gonna cover the cost of gas," he said.

Sometimes, delivery drivers have to wait in their cars to pick up their orders, which uses gas. Rayng said he focuses more on restaurants with inside pick up and shorter drive-through lines.

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Many local restaurants also hire delivery drivers, outside of apps. Jeff Mease is one business owner dealing with the gas price surge with his fleet of Pizza X drivers.

"For sure this is an economic issue that lands on our drivers because they are employed by us and they drive and maintain their own vehicles," he said in an email.

They reimburse their drivers with a flat rate per delivery to cover vehicle costs, he said, and this amount has increased over the years. Since this payment is considered a reimbursement, he said it's not taxable income. However, he said federal law does instate maximum amount for these types of payments.

"While gas is the most obvious cost to operating a vehicle — because that is in front of us each time we fill up — the costs of purchasing and maintaining it are the really big costs over time," he said.

Cate Charron is an intern at The Herald-Times. You can reach her over email at ccharron@heraldt.com or on Twitter at @CateCharron.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana gas prices push delivery drivers to drop DoorDash, change jobs