DoorDash warning customers their orders could be delayed if they don't tip

By Kelly McCarthy

DoorDash is testing a new notification it hopes will encourage customers to leave a tip for delivery drivers.

The delivery giant is rolling out a message to some of its app users that states, "Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered -- are you sure you want to continue?"

"While the vast majority of customers do leave a tip, offers that don’t include a tip can be seen as less desirable -- this impacts our entire community, leading to longer wait times for customers, orders sitting longer at merchants, and less value for Dashers," the company said in a statement.

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A restaurant displays a DoorDash logo in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Oct. 28, 2023.

"I think DoorDash should pay their drivers more and meet their customers, their clientele in the middle," David Slyder, who has been a DoorDash driver for nearly three years, told "Good Morning America." "We use our own vehicles. We put our own gas."

The move comes four months after a viral video showed a former DoorDash delivery man who was offended by a tip and yelled an expletive at the customer at her home.

Tipping has increased in recent years, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that left restaurants reeling for every penny following the government shutdowns; expensive safety protocols and changes; rising food costs; supply chain hurdles; and other factors that raised the overall cost of eating out.

Square, a financial services platform developed by Block, Inc., previously told ABC News that tipping has skyrocketed across the board during the COVID-19 pandemic with tips up over 25% at restaurants and nearly 17% at quick service establishments in 2022.

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A doordash delivery driver waits near a restaurant on Dec. 30, 2020 in New York City.

But even as tip and fee fatigue has grown for some consumers, tipping prompts are popping up in more places.

"COVID caused people to be willing to tip more -- but that increase in tipping kind of communicated to businesses, 'Hey, consumers are willing to tip more. Let's start asking for it,'" Mike Lynn, a professor of consumer behavior at Cornell University, told "GMA."

According to DoorDash service fees and tips are separate, the fees are shown to the customer before they decide what to tip, which varies by order. The fees do not change based on whether a customer does or doesn’t tip.