By Emily Gu

Recently, drivers working for DoorDash have gone on strike, where they’ve stopped dashing to doors.

They’ve stopped, as part of a boycott, to demand higher pay and transparency for tips.

Here’s why.

While this strike is nationwide, and doesn’t seem to be associated with any particular company, it seems to have originated from a post on Reddit, the online forum. The post was titled “DOORDASH BOYCOTT ON JULY 31ST ALL DAY!!”

The post was urging dashers- the name for DoorDash drivers- to stop taking orders and using UberEats instead. The tail of the post also says that the minimum “base pay” a dasher earns should be $4.50. By base pay, they mean the amount each DoorDash driver receives before a tip.

Right now, the minimum base pay is around $2. Base pay is calculated by estimated time, distance, and desirability of an order. The minimum base pay used to be around $3, but it’s slowly declined over time. Many dashers are angry at this fact.

The workers have also demanded to know how much they are tipped. The dashers keep 100% of their tips, but the amount they’re tipped only shows after the order has been accepted.

This used to be able to be solved by downloading Para, another app. Para allowed the drivers to see how much they’re tipped. The app was very popular until it stopped working. This was because, according to DoorDash, Para had violated the company’s terms and conditions.

A dasher participating in this boycott told Insider: “Dashers want fair compensation for our time and efforts. We are what makes the company run but we’re treated as disposable.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/07/31/1023265561/why-doordash-drivers-are-on-strike