Folks, this story is pretty near and dear to my heart. Not so long ago, I never even considered the plight of delivery drivers, that is, until financial circumstances led me to take up the profession myself for nearly a year.
When I started driving delivery, I worked for companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats, delivering food sometimes 8 to ten hours a day. The toll on my vehicles was caused, destroying one and costing me a €1,700 transmission job on the other.
My gas costs were nearly €300 per week, and I barely saw my wife. As a driver, I would often make the best money by driving on days other people didn’t want to drive, such as snow days, rainy days, and scorching days. Other issues like dealing with heavy traffic, restaurant delays, and people who barely tip are just things every driver has to deal with.
Another unpleasant part of the job happens whenever someone cancels an order you already picked up. This happened to me on more than one occasion, and it’s particularly frustrating after spending nearly an hour or so picking up an order. When this happens, driver support will often tell you to “dispose” of the food and give you a small credit for your troubles (which isn’t much).
However, for most orders, the customer usually pays for their food up front, and if drivers have to pay, they are given a special debit card by the company with the funds on it.
But, this story taught me that other companies have a very different way of doing things. It appears the food delivery service “Grab Food” makes drivers pay for a customer’s food using their own money before reimbursing them for the food and paying them their delivery fee plus tips.
This puts a lot of pressure on drivers and makes it particularly difficult when a customer cancels an order.
Michelle A. Pacula took a photo of a Grab Food driver eating a meal outside a local shopping mall in this story. It turns out the driver’s customer decided to cancel their order, costing the driver the price of the meal and the potential profit from the delivery.
Instead of complaining, the driver simply decided to eat his losses — literally!
People online felt for the driver, saying they hoped karmic justice would find the person who canceled the order. While Grab Food does reimburse drivers in situations like this, the process isn’t quick. And since the driver has to pay out of pocket, that means he may have fewer orders he can accept if he operates on a limited operating budget.
Hopefully, this hardworking delivery driver went on to have a fantastic day and made some good money. He certainly deserves it!
Please be sure to pass this story along to your friends and family.
