Delivery Driver Declines 75% of Orders To Maximise His Earnings, Here's How

The internet is filled with stories of both aggrieved servers who think that they deserve more and angry customers who feel that the tipping culture in the country is getting out of hand. A Philadelphia delivery person recently opened up on how he has been managing to get the best tips even at a time when people are curbing their expenditures.

Jay, a delivery driver for DoorDash and UberEats, works more than 10 hours a week. He says that he only accepts the orders that pay the most, usually those with the biggest upfront tip. 

There are several factors he looks into before making a decision. Like, how much each delivery would pay and how long it'd take. Jay tells Business Insider that while the platforms do offer tips based on how the order was delivered, he prefers to not rely on it and pick the order that already offers an upfront tip, admitting that he declines around 74% of the orders he receives. 

"I'm not doing this to gamble. I'm doing this to make money," he told Insider. Fortunately for Jay, many orders he sees do have a tip and things become even smoother when he deliberately hangs around posh neighborhoods, like Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square.

"I'll sit in Rittenhouse Square in the park, and I'll get an order that's from a fancy Italian restaurant," he said. "It's a two-block delivery, and it ends up paying me $20 because this person doesn't want to walk two blocks in the winter cold," he told Insider.

Being a delivery driver is not his only side hustle, as he is also a creator on TikTok. Jay, known as @downtownhustle on the platform, makes mini vlogs that surround his delivery experiences. In one of the recent videos, he shows how he managed to get $26 for delivering burgers and fries to a location just 2 miles away. 

In the video, Jay can be seen on his motorcycle when he gets an order, "$30 something dollars?" he gasps, looking at his phone screen. "We are not going to Five Guys, for any other reason apart from this one, this is $26 for two miles," he adds as he shares his phone screen with the viewers.

"Probably gonna get told that the older was stolen, no one gets excited yet, " he says refusing to believe the too-good-to-be-true order. To his delightful surprise, the guy was standing right where was supposed to be with the delivery pin. 

"That man was 'Hangry'," he says as he walks away from the destination. "I feel very bad for him, $26 richer though!" he concludes.

According to a study by Pew Research, a majority of Americans say that they are always willing to pay 15% or less for an average meal at a sit-down restaurant, and more if there is a service involved. The study revealed that for most people, tipping is first and foremost about service with over 77% saying that the quality of the service is the main factor in deciding whether and how much to tip. 

As far as the Delivery drivers are concerned, the obligatory base rate for them has now become $17.96 an hour which went into effect in December, via CRAIN'S NY BUSINESS. 

For more such content, follow @downtownhustle on TikTok.