Especially if you're having a bad or slow day, it's easy to get frustrated over app platforms like DoorDash or UberEats. I get it. And sometimes the frustration is definitely warranted because there has been times where due to the incompetence of driver support staff, they ended up costing me money rather than making me money.
However, I see a lot of drivers on internet forums, that simply put, never have anything good to say about these platforms (Especially DoorDash). I think that part of it is because they fail to recognize what their professional relationship is supposed to be with them.
Let's start with the very basics. First and foremost, you signed up with them. Nobody forced you to do so. You asked for their permission to use their platform as a source of job sourcing as a 1099 worker. So they are allowing you to use their service to you. Each one of these platforms are under no obligation at all to keep you on as a person who can utilize them as a resource. It's specifically stated in their terms of service. Now sure, as long as you abide by their terms of service, chances are you won't be deplatformed, but you risk being deplatformed even at the slightest violation. Remember you did agree to their terms of service which obligates you to abide by their rules.
However, there's a difference between abiding by their terms of service and making business decisions that are best for you. Which is why you are under no obligation to accept every order that is sent out to you. They also make this abundantly clear in their terms of service. Keeping that in mind, you are given free reign over what work you decide to take on and what work you feel isn't going to benefit you.
There's also a flip side to this. Like you, they are also trying to make a profit and that is their main goal. They need drivers such as yourself in order to do that but they will not make any business decisions that will not benefit them. They will even make business decisions outside the scope of their terms of service (Not necessarily in violation of them) in order to push you to do work for them that you have no intention of doing because it would not be profitable. And you're not going to like me saying this-but they're allowed! Just like you are allowed to reject their offers.
So it's a constant battle back and forth between you and them. Both of you are trying to make money and using each other to ones own advantage.
Bottom line is if you don't like the way they're treating you then nobody is forcing you to keep them on as a source of income. Nobody.
One thing I learned in dealing with the employees of these platforms is that they really are not concerned about your financial well being and in some regards even you're overall well being. All they are concerned about is making sure things run smoothly on their end and making a profit in the meantime. Everything else is secondary. The sooner you understand this, the less you will learn to expect from them. And it's completely reasonable.
Remember you're a 1099 worker and NOT their employee. They have no obligation to you other than paying you for your work.
I personally operate under the concept of equal reciprocation. I will only reciprocate in the same way they do to me. If they pull some shenanigans on me like unassigning me from an order without notifying me (And not paying me for it when it's in progress) then I am under no obligation to feel bad for unassigning myself form certain orders. And it's happened to me before a few times. There are numerous times where I have found each one of these platforms in violation of their own terms of service and if they're going to do that at my expense, then I won't think twice about doing it back. On the other hand, if they treat me with respect, I will return respect. And as far as going above and beyond, I will do it for my customers, but I won't do it for the platforms unless they give me reason to.
I think that everyone who is a 1099 worker needs to operate this way. As long as you are pulling your weight morally and ethically then there really isn't more for you to do. The business is really simple. Accept an order, pick it up, drop it off and get paid for it all in a timely and professional fashion. It really need not be more complicated than that.
My advice to those who lets these app platforms get under their skin is to stop, take a step back and re-evaluate your relationship with them. Having a personal beef against them versus having a professional beef are two separate issues. They need to be separated. Nobody is forcing you to stay with them. A lot of these people who do nothing but complain never seem to leave.
I also find that fundamentally there really is no difference between DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats. They all operate at times in a very shady manner such as hiding tips, underreporting mileage, sending you to restaurants that are closed or don't even exist etc...it's just that some days one is better than the other. None of them are fully transparent. You just need to learn how to work around those issues and utilize multiple resources. It's not good to throw all your eggs in one basket when you're doing 1099 work. I personally at this moment utilize 9 gig app platforms to pull jobs from. How many are you using?
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