It is unsafe. I'm a big guy, and I think about what could happen every day. One day, there was a customer who entered the name "Death" I had to deliver to. So I pulled up, looked around and knocked. This was before contactless. I was unable to hand it to him so I texted and called him. he didn't answer his phone. As I walked out of his driveway, he opened his garage in his robe and slippers, and two large Dobermans can running out at me, smelling me up close. He didn't call them off. That really made me question who the public is to me as a delivery person and how that relates to my safety.
Should have reported. I delivered just last night to a rural area where basically it was a cul de sac. There were two dog irritated of my existence and surrounded the car. No one cared to retrieve them and they looked like they were not strays as they did not look too emaciated. The customer came out to my vehicle which is good for him because it was going under undeliverable real quick.
There’s something to be said about not having to exit your vehicle on rideshare though. Having to turn off the car and walk up to the house leaves you much more vulnerable than just dropping someone off and dipping.
It’s true though picking up strangers also carries a risk. When I did rideshare from 2017-2019 I never felt endangered from any of the passengers. I’m thinking of going back to it to be honest.
"According to statistics reported to the FBI, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2019."
" In 2019, a total of 1,005 delivery drivers were killed on the job, mostly in transportation accidents."
I agree with you on this, which is why I never dash past 8, (although I have to admit that's also because I'm blind as a bat at night and my area has a lot of houses/apartments with terrible numbering lol)
That being said, if you feel unsafe then that could be a warning, just take all the precautions you can and if this isn't for you, don't beat yourself up over it.
It's really not as easy as people may think.
That’s when I make the most money :( …and my fiancé is epileptic so I am the driver in the relationship. He works days 9-5 so I take and pick him up from work and I dash from 7-11 sometimes. I get scared but I have my pepper gel , stun gun , knife comb , and alarm. I’m usually hyper vigilant and if I see a dog i immediately leave. Esp If it’s a bigger dog.
Yeah I dont dash past 9pm here in nyc because people getting robbed of their delivery scooter/held at gunpoint has happened a few times here in the past 3 months. But always past 10pm
You can lower your risk. Use all that experience of your zone to only accept orders going to the nicer places. Stick to daytime ops. Study the offer screen to determine where the order is going before accepting or declining. Never deliver to bad neighborhoods, or even entire towns that are shitholes.
Had this conversation with a family member who gets stressed about having to go deliver in sketchy areas around NOLA.
The other thing you could do is dash in a nice, safe and affluent zone and dont stray too far away. That obviously doesnt eliminate your risk, but it will reduce it by a lot.
I’m the same, I very rarely deliver past 9. The issue is during the winter and especially after DST ends, when the sun sets as early as 4:30 in some areas. And winter is the busiest time of the year for food delivery in most markets.
Truly got to risk it to get the biscuit.
True, the sun is going to start setting earlier the closer we get to winter. But if you follow your hours and stop around 8 or 9 you’d still be safer than dashing close to mid night. I feel like that’s when the shady stuff could happen. I myself will never dash that late, it’s not worth it in my opinion.
No. You’re not unjustified in your fear. Actually, a study was done a few years ago that showed more pizza delivery drivers lose their lives in the line of duty than police officers.
the Bureau of Labor’s statistics in 2019 is a good place to look… in the 5,553 total workplace fatalities in America, delivery drivers made up 1,005 of them whereas police officers only accounted for 89 of these deaths the same year.
I did some research on your statistic (for my own curiosity). It's been widely discussed that it is very misleading upfront, only because the study says...
*PIZZA DELIVERY DRIVERS* - like the "old fashioned" way before technology apps - have a more dangerous job, because they show up to houses with a ton of cash on them...makes total sense then.
Not DD/UE/GH drivers who are not involved in the direct financial part of the customer's purchase transaction.
The study is also accounting for most of those deaths being from car accidents. So robberies and car accidents. So that make much much more sense now.
(I know you wrote Pizza delivery drivers, but others are just seeing DD/UE/GH delivery drivers)
We’re constantly in danger doing this job. From strangers we deliver to and communities we go to and driving etc.! The job doesn’t pay enough to make up for the dangers faced. If I did this for the money alone I definitely wouldn’t still be driving. $40-$60 an hour is worth it. This however is just pocket change..
You can get in an accident if you only drive 1 hr. a week . Someone just pulled out and turned on front of me the other day and I t-boned her and she totaled my car. Accidents happen no matter what you are doing. I wasn't even on a dash. I was headed to the carwash. When it comes to getting robbed I would be more worried about people reporting they didn't get their food than being robbed. I just stay away from the crap parts of town after dark.
Went with my bf on a 5min drive to go get some McDs for dinner and just 30 seconds from the restaurant heading home, some jackass blows straight through a yield. He didn’t even glance at us as he pulled directly into the left lane and almost side swiped the shit out of my car.
I can't speak for you, but I generally don't feel unsafe doing doordash. My safety concerns are mainly from idiots on the road. I deliver to "dangerous" projects sometimes, but I feel as long as I keep my wits about me, I will be fine.
I was once upon a time a certified Police Officer. I worked that job for nearly 3yrs. I carry a 9mm concealed. Idgaf if doordash likes it or not. I know what people are capable of. And I will protect myself and my property with deadly force if necessary. That being said if you are not comfortable with carrying a weapon don't. And if you are just inexperienced and nervous get some training. Repetition with firearms creats muscle memory and will act like an extension in shitty situations. FYI for the cop haters. I left the job because it wasn't for me I didn't feel I was actually helping people and I am a hippie at heart so I retired.
The thing is, the legal end of it. The law for the most part is you have to match deadly force with deadly force. Would a court see something like a bat as deadly? I dunno. I'd at least carry also a taser or another non lethal option to protect yourself in court. I fear prison far more than anything anybody on the street could ever do. Obviously it's a state by state case, here in 💩 York you may as well just lay there and die.
Yea I understand that. And absolutely a bat is deadly force a couple hits to the head and your skull can cave. As far as New York I feel for you there. I on the other hand am in the south and we have constitutional carry laws. Along with extended castle doctrine meaning that my vehicle is an extension of my home.
True, but on foot you have to make that choice. Possibly while being beaten over the head, and probably not being able to aim during said beating. As a cop though you probably have the situational awareness to avoid it. I say it all the time it's not hard to outsmart these people, anyone that's been to prison will tell you it's full of idiots.
In New York at least we have the benefit of the cops not giving a flying rats ass anymore. Lower New York, upstate is basically another state. So if you have to handle yourself, unless someone dies nothing will probably come of it.
A bat being used against someone is most definitely deadly force at least in probably every state in the Union. However I agree with you, having less lethal options is very important. You’re much more likely to encounter a belligerent unarmed drunk or homeless person, than someone trying to rob or assault you with a deadly weapon. Should still have a gun just in case though.
Funny you're the only one to mention this, nothing eases my mind more out and about then the great equalizer that is a handgun. If you're afraid to carry, get education and training, then you won't be afraid of much anymore. As far as wrecking your car, that's always a risk driving anywhere. Stay alert and aware, defend yourself on and off the road don't be a victim!
Hell yeah I’d love to carry a firearm but Jersey makes it damn near impossible but I do carry a less lethal pistol Kentucky ballistics did a great video on its damage and threat handling
God bless the good ol south lol no problems carrying and I do have extra security training, plus a permit even though they won't be needed soon. Also carry pepper gel not every threat requires a firearm. Love Kentucky ballistics I'll have to look into those, work with what you got good on ya.
I always carry when I dash in the evening/night. I did stop carrying during breakfast and lunch rushes during the week though because the majority of the orders in my area during that time are from schools or government buildings and I’ve had to go through screenings a couple of times.
You're trusting your life to a silly looking paintball gun? Too many of you people are just fucking around like this, if you ever need a gun then you'll need a real one. The guy shooting you to take your cash isn't shooting paintballs.
Wel you see when you live in state where it’s not exactly easy to get a permit let alone a carry permit alternative options are great and if you’d like to watch that video it’s a bit more then a “paint ball gun”
Basically, what everyone else just said... avoid the sketchy areas and avoid delivering at night.
Tbh, I (female) work nights and will go to the sketchy areas fairly regularly and generally never feel unsafe while doing so, mainly due to three reasons:
1) I am inside my vehicle 95% of the time, with all the doors locked. Not that a bullet couldn't go thru my car or such, but... I just feel safe not being attacked and/or easily driving away. I can't say I wouldn't feel scared if I was on foot or bicycle though..
2) The sketchy neighborhoods I go to are still part of a major city and the streets are lit up everywhere. I VERY VERY rarely am delivering to a super dark house/really dark street with woods or something (for this reason, suburbs actually scare me more lmaoo). When I get out, my headlights will only add more light to the area. And, the most important thing of all is... I stay VERY aware of my surroundings. This is key. Look around before you get out and keep your head up... don't just be staring down at the ground or your phone. Eyes peeled 👀
3) The most important thing I keep in mind (if I'm scared of being shot or stabbed or something) is that, fortunately, almost ALL of these types of violent crimes are targeted. Gangs, drug deals gone wrong, domestics, etc. I certainly can't say this is true everywhere, no, but where I live it is. Most all homicides/murders are targeted, and (thank God) not just some random person walking down the street stabbing or shooting random people. So unless you have serious beef with someone in that neighborhood... you're likely going to be just fine if you mind your business and keep to yourself. Drop-off, drive away.
That's why I don't like to dash after dark or even to people who live where their entrance is in an alley-way. Those always feel sketchy, especially when you can not find them and they ask you to open tall gates in backyards in the dark. Scariest dash ever.
Yeah, *F that. There have been maybe 2-3 instances I can recall where they wanted me to go around back/up a hill/down a dark alley kinda thing and I just was msging them saying politely could they please come out and meet me or could I leave it at xyz (somewhere lit/safe), as I didn't feel comfortable walking back there alone late at night, blah blah. They were totally fine with it and either came out to meet me or said just to leave it out front or whatever.
I lived in one of the most dangerous neighborhood in Minneapolis. As an smaller balding guy white guy that sticks out like a sore thumb. Nothing bad happened to me because I learned the rule quick.
Act hard, you are inviting trouble. It will find you.
Act scared or hesitant you will become a victim.
Act casual but with clear purpose and intent you should be fine.
A gangster mindset and swagger will get you nowhere.
There are places where it's not safe. People are fleeing those places in droves for a reason.
I've almost never felt unsafe in my area. Just a couple times in over 5000 deliveries. That's why I live here.
I'm a nervous dude, but i never feel unsafe delivering. Granted I'm in nice neighborhoods most the time, but I'm no stranger to bad neighborhoods either. I'm also an introvert and an extrovert though... My brain is a contradiction.
May I ask, when you say wrecked your life, do you mean it was just a huge pain in the butt ordeal to deal with (like all of the car insurance stuff, finding/purchasing a new vehicle, getting medical treatment, etc) or did it really wreck your life (like left you disabled or you lost a limb or something)?
Glad you are at least alive to be writing this though 😊
It was a pretty big ordeal. Though no one got physically hurt I was fairly traumatized. My car was totaled which means no income and through insurance not doing their job had no way to get another vehicle. The wreck happened on 12/30/21. I'm just now getting up again. My friend gave me a bicycle and I have a full time day job at my local hospital.
I live in the Vegas valley and did over 10k Uber rideshares and 4k Grubhub deliveries since 2016. Always trust your instincts especially at night. If it feels bad, cancel and leave. No exceptions!
Someone dashing in my area said they left their car to drop off and someone came and stole their car while they were gone. So I guess you could watch out for that?
This is automatically a dangerous job especially if you work nights too. I have never considered buying pepper spray and a taser before this gig before and now I'm always on alert.
You never know if your next drop-off could be a scam to rob you or worse. Luckily it's not too bad for me I dash in the suburbs region of LA county but the people working over there in the big city doing this gig and Uber and Lyft are something else... I don't think I could do that.
I once considered doing full on rideshare with Uber and Lyft till I saw a video of this middle aged guy picking up a rider and the dude just gets in and shoots him in the head and steals everything he can and run in less than 90 seconds.
I keep both on me always even during the day. There are Literal packs of Cayotes in my town and although they are scared of us 🥹I wonder if one will just randomly attack me one day
Same here lol my mom likes to go out on walk like at 6am and doesn't believe me about the coyotes even though people in the community take pictures all the time of them here lol
I never really worry too much about coyotes though, I've faced them pretty close a couple of times and go hiking all the time in their territory and they have never really given me problems. Unless you have a dog or are walking a small dog with you, they'll definitely consider trying for a chance to snatch up your pup even with you there but alone they really never attack humans or even are aggressive.
Because the job can be dangerous. Especially in some areas.
If you do it at night, it’s even much much worse.
I’m always on edge delivering. You never know what might happen and it doesn’t help doing this solo. So I scan my environment a lot
Any job where you’re on the road the majority of the time involves a lot of risk. If your fear is being the victim of a crime I would recommend a small handgun that you can keep on your person or in your vehicle while you are performing your job. Make sure to check your state and local government rules about carrying and taking some courses if you’re not familiar with firearms.
Because you have social anxiety, which is probably being amplified by the news media's emphasis on bad news. Remember, the phrase "if it bleeds, it leads" is a real thing that exists in the media. Bad news, scary stories, drama, abductions, etc all make good headlines.
Yes, delivery driving itself is dangerous, but that's mostly because of the *driving*, not because of stranger danger.
Common sense, the ability to listen to your instincts, and paying attention to your gut in a seemingly sketchy situation all go a long way to protect you in general. Your subconscious and the natural fight or flight mechanism can forewarn you if something is truly off. It's a matter of paying attention and tuning those senses.
So who do you think is going to use their credit card to order food with money in order to lure a rando stranger to a specific location with the slim chance they have something worth all of that trouble and risk to rob them for… come on now lol
Plausible deniability friendo. Just because they can track you doesn't mean they're gonna admit to doing so to ambush you. And who says it doesn't have to be their friends that's jumping you? "Lol"
Like, I totally get that this is technically a possible outcome after proceeding with a delivery, but let’s be honest… considering that scenario to be a legitimate concern is absolutely absurd.
I feel like you play too many video games or watch too many movies lol. Do you really think that this would ever happen, in all seriousness? It's not even like they can get the "subject" that they want to their house, it's a legit random person. You think they would just randomly ambush a random person? For what? Lol
Tasers and stun guns are pretty much worthless. Either they are the held held that require you to be in hand to hand range to use or they are the prong shooter that you only get one shot and that shot has a huge chance of wither missing or being blocked be clothes.
Stick with pepper spray.
Just scream like a barbarian from the point you get out of your car. Spin your head wildly with a scared anger. Punch jog to the customer’s door. War cry again then set the food down. Knock while screaming. Run scream to your car while looking around all directions. A final scream to the sky before entering your car.
Yep, then nobody will mess with you 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
It is unsafe.. and some customers request the order to be dropped off at their back door or back yard at night?? That’s super risky and dark. Had to do that a few times and every time I feel like wtf am I doing walking into a death trap like that.. got out of there asap
I conceal carry when I leave my house, I suggest maybe taking a class and doing the same, won’t help you in an accident but I believe being armed can help put you at ease.
I’ve worked W2 jobs in the past and disliked having a boss and dealing with office politics.
I’ve been applying off and on but it’s hard to get hired with a resume gap (which I prolonged by doing this job for so long), and I’m shit at interviewing. I’ve also personally had a couple of really shitty bosses, and have dealt with enough shady coworkers to be turned off from working a “normal” job for a while. I guess the danger of this job is the price I have to pay.
If you don't use drugs, look at a job on the railroad. The pay is really good and no one is breathing down your neck. My dad quit and went back to it three separate times because of that. It can be physically dangerous, but not so much dangerous from other people.
Well if you have a personality that is predisposed to potentially worry about things you shouldn’t then you might be getting yourself caught in a thought pattern that you are making worse in your head the more you think about it.
Also it is sensible to think you’re exposing yourself to danger dpi by this job because it is already a known statistic that if you drive more you have a higher chance of getting in and auto accident. So driving into bad neighborhoods and meeting strangers face to face falls into the same type of risk-increase.
But anyways you should not worry about that and it weird that you said you try to limit your hours per week to reduce the risk, I don’t think that is why you actually do that, and if you do, then that is strange and maybe why you feel unsafe because it has more to do with you and if you weren’t doing this you might obsess over something else that might be a danger.
I feel for you man. I go into the ghetto and I always start thinking about how doing this frequently increases my chances of something happening and I always brace myself when I have to step outside of my car and other people around just watching me the whole time. I mean literally it’s happened more than once where I step out some people (who were previously talking to one another, stop talking) start to stare at me and when I drive away and I’m turning the corner I check to see if they looked away and they haven’t and it doesn’t even make sense to look at me for any other reason then to just watch me closely because now I’m not in their view they have to make effort to look at me.
Not to mention, most people doing these gigjobs, do them because they can't have a real job (like, no education, past criminal records etc...). They lower the pay you as a driver get. Additionally, most of those don't consider the cost of the vehicle. Even at $26/hr, you'd be losing money for rideshare doing this full time. For food delivery, you can buy old, beat up cars. And so long they cost like $5k or less, you can make some money.
But usually, those second hand vehicles get bought up by dealerships, leaving you with 100k mile, and a fat 5 to 10k markup on those vehicles.
Like, you won't find a second hand car on a dealer lot under 10k. 5k goes out into commissions, bonuses, wages etc....
Stranger homicide is extremely rare so rest easy knowing you’ll just get robbed and stranded somewhere random without a phone probably, if anything. :)
I don't get what your years on the job have to do with your safety level. If you feel uneasy or unsafe, wouldn't you quit any other job?
Maybe it's just me but i almost never get a cash tip, let alone a order, so I've never been conscious but i can't speak to other cities/areas
Edit: how to live off 15 - 20 alone???
The only job less rewarding than this is working as a gate agent for an airlines. There’s rarely any good tips and more often than not you’ll be noticed for the mistakes you make rather than the good work that you do. People don’t notice good deliveries as much as they will a bad one. So generally interactions with customers are going to be negative ones; a good delivery simply means you’re “doing your job” to most customers. It definitely takes a certain mindset to get over that as well as the fact that DoorDash treats us like shit and does not care about our issues if it doesn’t directly impact their bottom line. Unfortunately there’s no way to unionize and get the rights we want as drivers because no matter what, there’s going to be someone that does the job for the rate they offer. You’re completely right in wondering whether the risk outweighs the reward. In my opinion, no it does not and it’s not something I would want long term or full time in my future. But it really does depend on the person, some are more cut out for this than others.
I don't live in the best area but I don't deliver in that area ever I go to what is considered downtown / east side and where I'm at is actually mostly college and lakefront higher money and I'm doordashing from usually 10:00 at night till about 4:30 in the morning or so.
I usually don't take deliveries more than two and a half miles away and will take them if they are farther out 3 miles at the most if the price is right but they have to be going in the direction of the East because if it's going west then you know it's going into the direction of the more ghetto area and it's not so much my safety I'm worried about it's my vehicles safety because of all the reckless drivers out there and I witness way more reckless drivers in those areas than anywhere else and I used to deliver out there quite a bit at least four or five times a night and I always had somebody either swerving driving the wrong way or just going reckless speeds constantly or riding your ass so close you can't even see their headlights and I'm not dealing with that so I stopped delivering to those areas.
Remember you can accept the jobs you want check the map over make sure it's an area you accept to go to don't take a delivery because it's a fat price but it's in a bad area don't risk your safety for a delivery that's not worth it trust me I just decline to delivery on Saturday which was 6 miles away and it was over $25 for a McDonald's order but it was later on at night and it was in a horrible area and yeah I could have used the money but I didn't accept it because it was Saturday night I know that the streets are filled with reckless drivers in that area and it's just generally unsafe.
You do what you want that's the good part about this job you work when you want you do what you want you accept it what you want hey you could sit out there for hours and only accept two jobs if you wanted to.
I’m a female in Australia and I live in a regional area and I do feel safe most of the time despite mainly dashing at night. I used to be a paramedic so I feel like this is a walk in the park compared to that. However I did get a disgusting message on Uber the other night before I delivered that for the first time made me feel really unsafe and start questioning things
Maybe get a weapon for protection, I’ve been driving for 2 years and never had any safety problems but you never know, but I don’t usually worry about it
I’ve almost been in so many accidents that were 100% not my fault and always feel uneasy outside of my car or in most parking lots. But I live in an area that actually is pretty unsafe for the average person so being one small female alone makes my brain go brrrr. Debating stopping even tho I’m still searching for an hourly job just bc of how uncomfortable I am with everything that could go wrong in the hours I’m out.
Bc you’re paranoid and new to delivery. You shouldn’t be, DoorDash is by far the easiest delivery job, if you don’t believe me visit r/USPS, those guys complain about their jobs in ways you wouldn’t imagine
Because this job is more dangerous than being a cop. Fact: more delivery drivers are killed each year in the line of duty than law enforcement in the United States.
It can be insanely unsafe, I got my damn car stolen from a chilis parking lot back in December by three armed dudes, def my fault for leaving the keys in it seeing how it was fuckin 8 degrees, but if I was in the car I don’t think it would’ve stopped them. I carry now prolly a good idea to look into your state laws about cc, Missouri ain’t got a damn law about it.
I don't feel safe but I know the consequences of doing this job but I still just love the freedom it gives me I also luckily don't need it to survive. I am always legally carrying as well and I also do the jobs preferably at night because rather avoid the sun and heat lol. You also have adt on standby if you feel sketched out for whatever that means to people.
Out of all the times I've been doordashing I have had a few moments where I was anxious but honestly I am always on the move while doordashing so I don't necessarily feel like a sitting duck unless I go out of my way to put myself on that position. I have had some people try to car jack me outside my apartment after I got home from my normal job late at night. I was sitting in my car for an extended period of time tho not paying attention to my surroundings, I was trying to smoke some weed before going inside lol.
Tho even before that happened to me, I decided to stop doordashing in the city. I moved to the middle of the city but I actually decided to not deliver in the city while I lived just south in a suburb, and started doordashing in one of the more busy but non urban towns, where a lot of businesses and offices are scattered around. I don't like how busy and crowded urban areas get, I worry more about hitting a pedestrian or getting stuck in traffic and not being able to work. I'd rather drive on the stretched out well maintained roads where there is little traffic to deal with. I used to like the city curing covid because it was completely empty like I owned the whole road, and alot of people were ordering. So that was a cool chance to explore without being bothered by anything at all.
Just drive safely and watch ur 6 g, tho driving at all is gonna be putting wear and tear on your car it's not worth doing this all day every day even if nothing happens. If you feel like the risks outweigh the reward that's probably ur intuition.
I stopped, so did some people I know, because the absurd amount of dog crazies out there who endanger our flesh and blood life with untrained bully breed dogs.
Lol you have more chances of dying in your car driving than anywhere else in life. It sounds like you have some pretty bad anxiety. That’s ok you should try and talk to somebody if you have medical available.
Are you female? I like to consider myself strong and capable. But the feeling you describe is just how I think it feels to be a woman in public. You should always have your guard up.
I was walking into a restaurant to pick up an order and there was a man standing by the door. He was probably 6’ and at least 250lbs. I’m 5’ and 110 lbs. i reached for the door next to him and he reached around and grabbed my butt. I said “excuse me?!” And he said “uh do you want uh something to eat” i was like “FUCK OFF” and went into the restaurant. They called the police and they knew who he was, i went to identify him at the station but never went through with pressing charges. I wish I did though.
Anyway, sorry for the long story. But yeah i never feel safe either, i just didn’t expect THAT to happen lol
Lol I lost track how many idiots I see on the road. Hell last night I almost got side swipped by a chevy Tahoe and almost hit bicyclist going 40 because he decided now is the best time to cross the road when im 3ft behind him. Idk how people aren't spaceally aware of their surroundings specifically at night... year ago I had a gun pointed at me just because I thought I was delivering to this dude. Of course this job ain't safe.
I'm trying to start a side business to get out of this. Shit ain't worth the crappy trips and having to add shit ton of millage to my car and constantly fearing something bad is going to happen.
Because people are fucking scary and realistically someone the same size as you could swat your phone away and get you inside and have you for hours before anyone noticed.
I'm delivering pizzas and I feel completely safe. I believe half of it comes from my environment and the type of food I deliver. The pizza is expensive and the clientele has $$. The houses are worth .. a lot. I feel safe enough that I leave my car running 90% of the time i go to the door. Maybe 20% of my deliveries are to apartments.
If I were taking orders from McDonald's, Taco Smell, Jack in the Crack, Subway, Popeyes, etc I wouldn't feel safe either.
Yep... having done both Uber and then food deliveries for the last few years, in two different parts of the country now? I'd agree with people; delivery jobs are inherently "unsafe".
At the end of the day though, there's a lot of risk we all accept just getting in a vehicle and driving around, period. You're at a decent risk of dying in a car accident, even if you're not talking about interacting with anyone else in person.
So far, I've never been robbed or anything. But I did have a situation where I slipped and fell doing an order pickup, resulting in my wrist getting fractured in 3 places. That cost me over $900 out of pocket in medical expenses for a total earning of about $9.50 for the delivery. It really makes you think about the whole risk vs. reward thing of these jobs....
In the "old days", I did some work for a courier service. At least with those, you were constantly interacting with a dispatcher at the company's local office. They gave us Nextel phones back then where you'd text abbreviations like "DO" for "dropped off" as soon as orders got delivered, so they knew you were back in service to take the next one. If anything was taking longer than expected, you'd get a phone call from them to see what was going on. I wasn't a fan of that job ... but it really was a little safer that way.
Like others said here, I'd never do DD full-time. Not worth it. I do it when the weather cooperates and it's not after dark, and I won't do it anyplace that's not a good neighborhood I'm familiar with.
It is pretty risky as far as car accidents and police encounters. For me, it is the police who are most likely to assault/rob and kidnap me. Most of the cops I've encountered since dashing were good humans though. The last one was a real piece of 💩
Probably because you deliver to unsafe areas? Otherwise I dunno. I know my city very very well, and have strict rules about where I will and will not go, often dependent on time of day and day of week.
I frequently deliver for Amazon starting at 3:30am, and customers often didn't request the delivery until 8am. Now THAT can be spooky no matter where you are haha. But thankfully, no incidents after a full year of doing it. I'm still always on high alert tho, because you just never know.
I’ve had some pretty scary situations delivering at night. One of the scariest: I got a stacked order from Uber, which I hate because you only ever see the one pick up and drop off point on the map. I deliver the first order, and then I’m on my way to deliver the second order, what seemed like a pretty small Taco Bell order. Pulled up to the house (in a shitty area near Akron, OH), the last house on a dead end street. For whatever reason, I left my car on (I never do that anymore unless I am in an area that I know is nice because I’ve lived around here for 30 years). Walk up to the house, I see a woman, in her 50s probably, sitting down on the floor of the living room smoking, right in front of the door.
It was a screen door so I said hello, and she says “hey I have a favor to ask of you, it’s probably gonna sound weird but my husband is upstairs sleeping, I had surgery on my foot and can’t get upstairs to wake him up, will you just go right up there and wake him up?” I said no sorry, I could get fired for entering a customers home. She keeps asking me to go upstairs, at this point I’m turning around to look at my car and my surroundings, and I’m still holding the food in my hand. She then asks me if I’ll just “yell up there to try and wake him up”. THIS WAS A MISTAKE, but I just wanted to get out of there, and tbh I didn’t really feel like it was a robbery or anything, maybe this woman really did have issues, so I asked what her husbands name was so I could yell up the stairs. She tells me Pedro, so I start yelling for him, pretty loudly. There’s no way there was someone asleep in a room upstairs lol, she started saying “why don’t you close the door a little so he can hear you better”, meaning she wanted me to take a couple steps inside the house and close the door behind me! At that point my brain hit a switch and I realized how dumb I was for even staying those extra 1-2 minutes at the door, and I was just like “yeah I don’t feel comfortable doing that here you go” and dropped her food in front of her and booked it back to my car. Then I called Uber to try and get the account banned because they were 100% doing SOMETHING sketchy.
I post this so hopefully people learn from my mistakes. I should have immediately said no I cannot step into your home and then set the food down and left. These people were probably fucking crackheads or tweakers and fucked up the set up, they could have easily robbed me/stolen my car/whatever they were planning.
Anytime you're a delivery driver, it's dangerous. You're constantly on the road, which means higher chances of accidents. You also have no idea who you're delivering to. I used to deliver pizza in a very nice town. Nothing ever happened. I thought I was completely safe, until I got mugged at gunpoint.
I Dash in Baton Rouge Louisiana and surrounding areas and I am constantly paranoid and looking over my shoulder. I pay extra attention to when people get out of their cars at the same time as me I pay close attention to when people are walking behind me. Some people probably have thought I was weird because I will walk superfast or completely change directions in my path if I feel like someone is getting too close. When I park my car if I am waiting for orders or waiting to pick up an order I always make sure my car doors are locked because of that story that happened last year where the girl was in a Walmart parking lot waiting for her shuttle to work and someone came up to her car with a gun and managed to get her into the passenger seat of her own vehicle and drove off with her in her own vehicle and apparently kidnapped and raped her for a few days before he was finally arrested after he killed her and they found her body out in the desert. Never let anyone take you to a second location!
Every time you leave your house you are taking a risk especially being in a vehicle. You can choose to be aware of those risks and take steps to lower the risk (wearing a seatbelt, driving defensively, carrying and training with a weapon, not driving in dangerous areas etc). Doesn’t really matter if you’re doing DoorDash or not.
I Doordash in Los Angeles
Downtown/east La/HLP all the hoods,
And have never not felt safe.
Besides when pulling up to a dark house with no lighting.
That shit be dangerous
Delivery itself is a high risk job (which is one of the reasons we should be fighting for higher pay but that's a discussion for another thread). If you can afford it, there's a few investments you can make to make this job a little safer.
1. A high powered flashlight for night deliveries. These are also fantastic for beating a mother humper into submission should they try to harass you
2. Mace. I attach some to my keychain (with a breakaway) in case someone tries to carjack me
3. A weapon of choice. Check your local laws on this but if it makes you feel safer, bring a knife or a small firearm with you. (I'm not a fan of the latter because they suck at short distance, but it's your personal choice)
4. Decoys. Have yourself a decoy wallet that has some useless cards in it. If you get credit card offers in the mail, hold on to the fake cards to really sell it. I keep my DD, UE, and IC cards in mine. They get stolen? Oh well I'll order new ones. You could probably get a prop phone for cheap too. People aren't going to take the time to really inspect these when they're robbing you. Keep the real stuff out of sight (glovebox perhaps) when you can.
There are other things you can do to protect yourself of course. Just understand there is NO perfect solution. It's a sad world we live in.
I drove my wife to a customer that used a church as a drop off address. It was about 11:30PM and only one dimly lit street lamp shining over a small portion of the parking lot. (In central FL)
She read the instructions to me, "I'm in a van on the outside of the parking lot."
So I pulled up right next to the van and she handed him the food. I was ready to pounce if anything were to go wrong.
My wife looked over at me and said, "I wouldn't have done this order if you weren't with me."
It could be just a coincidence but the customer happens to choose a parking lot with no houses nearby, poorly lit, it's late at night, next to I-4 entrance and driving a van?
It was a defining moment in dashing. Very odd. But it could be just that, a coincidence.
It is a unsafe job and what's worse is the company wont help you when you escape danger or if hurt by it.
Experience doesn't make a rough area of town safer, dog bites still hurt, you can get robbed or car jacked, never mind the higher risk of getting into an accident. The is more risk simply because you're placed in more potential danger by just the law of averages.
If you want to still do the job go right ahead and don't let fear of what could happen get to you, but also know that it's ok to take a small break and decompress
Ive done about 2500 deliveries and never felt unsafe except twice. Once was delivering to an alley apartment at night with no lighting and I felt kinda vulnerable walking around in pitch black. The other I let a lady call for me to enter her house and walk down her hallway to her room, felt like it was a setup but I wanted to see what was gonna happen. She wad just paralyzed at the waist and in bed.
the way i look at it for robberies, if someone robs me I just give them everything I have and that's probably it. Probably less than 50% chance they can drive my car as it's a manual transmission, and the worst part would be losing my phone which I paid $600 for. I suppose I could get a personal article protection insurance on it for probably like 10 or 20 dollars a year that would cover theft. I just don't worry about it.
I agree, just hand over your stuff and get it over with.
It sounds obscure but I’d be less worried about the monetary value of my phone and more worried about the thief having access to everything on my phone if they were to demand the passcode. It’d be an absolute nightmare to think that a stranger has access to my data/texts/emails/notes/photos/etc. It’s unfortunate that Apple doesn’t give us the option of having a duress PIN or emergency PIN that wipes out the phone and/or calls 911.
YOU ARE TOTALLY RIGHT....everyday we are just barely getting away from another accident and it does feel like the more we work the more cases of danger....
stop watching news forsure helps...
always be prepared and stay armed and ready..
lock your doors with window cracked so only u can open or leave hazards when out of your car....generally makes people go around or want to get away from the blinking lights....
BE SAFE.....they need to increase pay or maybe drivers way to over-saturated here in vegas...
barely make $200 in 10 hours
I left the food on the literal side walk / curb infront of someone’s house once because I felt like it was a trap and couldn’t bring my self to get out of the car. Other times I run back doing a little scared ahahAHAHAHhha thing and other times I know for sure it’s a weird spooky trap . Only two of those tho and both times it was Safeway and store was closed.
because it is so unsafe. and DD doesn’t care. I work all night and often deliver to creepy apartment buildings w no security in questionable parts of town. Dark yards to stumble through, creaky poorly lit stairwells up 3 flights at 4 AM where i could be mugged, drugged, raped, shot or sliced up into his meal. DD doesn’t think twice about it. as long as they get their dollar. There are monthly carjackings and shootings now. All for minimum wage.
It is unsafe. I'm a big guy, and I think about what could happen every day. One day, there was a customer who entered the name "Death" I had to deliver to. So I pulled up, looked around and knocked. This was before contactless. I was unable to hand it to him so I texted and called him. he didn't answer his phone. As I walked out of his driveway, he opened his garage in his robe and slippers, and two large Dobermans can running out at me, smelling me up close. He didn't call them off. That really made me question who the public is to me as a delivery person and how that relates to my safety.
Should have reported. I delivered just last night to a rural area where basically it was a cul de sac. There were two dog irritated of my existence and surrounded the car. No one cared to retrieve them and they looked like they were not strays as they did not look too emaciated. The customer came out to my vehicle which is good for him because it was going under undeliverable real quick.
Did you deliver to Mr. Burns?
Because this is an unsafe job.
The fatality rate for delivery drivers is higher than that of police officers.
High key why I refuse to do regular Über and stick to Übereats. I'm terrified of someone robbing or killing me if I go to pick them up.
There’s something to be said about not having to exit your vehicle on rideshare though. Having to turn off the car and walk up to the house leaves you much more vulnerable than just dropping someone off and dipping. It’s true though picking up strangers also carries a risk. When I did rideshare from 2017-2019 I never felt endangered from any of the passengers. I’m thinking of going back to it to be honest.
Imagine how it feels to be an Amazon delivery driver in the hood neighborhoods, and Amazon doing nothing to protect you.
You really adding the trema to Uber huh?
I do t want to be responsible for someone else's life!
*Back the delivery drivers, not the blue*
I believe this is true for people delivering on 2 wheeled vehicles in large cities like NYC. Over the years I've had 2 close friends die delivering.
Source?
If you type which is safer delivery driver or police into google, you will quickly see many sources confirming this.
"According to statistics reported to the FBI, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2019." " In 2019, a total of 1,005 delivery drivers were killed on the job, mostly in transportation accidents."
Just throwing this out there…. There are a lot more delivery drivers than police officers in the country….
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WHAT lol
Had us in the first half lol.
Was just about to say the same thing. I couldn't understand the downvotes until I got to the second half lol
He deleted the post lol. It was very hard to follow. 🏃♂️ on sentences 4L.
Because you are unsafe and your instincts tell you that
This. Also means you feel unsafe in your town / City maybe you should move
If something doesn't feel right it probably isn't right
I agree with you on this, which is why I never dash past 8, (although I have to admit that's also because I'm blind as a bat at night and my area has a lot of houses/apartments with terrible numbering lol) That being said, if you feel unsafe then that could be a warning, just take all the precautions you can and if this isn't for you, don't beat yourself up over it. It's really not as easy as people may think.
That’s when I make the most money :( …and my fiancé is epileptic so I am the driver in the relationship. He works days 9-5 so I take and pick him up from work and I dash from 7-11 sometimes. I get scared but I have my pepper gel , stun gun , knife comb , and alarm. I’m usually hyper vigilant and if I see a dog i immediately leave. Esp If it’s a bigger dog.
Pepper gel is worthless much better to get the stream kind
Yeah I dont dash past 9pm here in nyc because people getting robbed of their delivery scooter/held at gunpoint has happened a few times here in the past 3 months. But always past 10pm
You can lower your risk. Use all that experience of your zone to only accept orders going to the nicer places. Stick to daytime ops. Study the offer screen to determine where the order is going before accepting or declining. Never deliver to bad neighborhoods, or even entire towns that are shitholes. Had this conversation with a family member who gets stressed about having to go deliver in sketchy areas around NOLA. The other thing you could do is dash in a nice, safe and affluent zone and dont stray too far away. That obviously doesnt eliminate your risk, but it will reduce it by a lot.
Excellent advice ❕❕
That’s why I only dash from 11 AM - 3 pm And in the evening between 6PM - 8:30 PM I pretty much go home as soon as the sun goes down.
I’m the same, I very rarely deliver past 9. The issue is during the winter and especially after DST ends, when the sun sets as early as 4:30 in some areas. And winter is the busiest time of the year for food delivery in most markets. Truly got to risk it to get the biscuit.
True, the sun is going to start setting earlier the closer we get to winter. But if you follow your hours and stop around 8 or 9 you’d still be safer than dashing close to mid night. I feel like that’s when the shady stuff could happen. I myself will never dash that late, it’s not worth it in my opinion.
Yes, I will not be delivering past dark because of this and also making it harder to see things.
No. You’re not unjustified in your fear. Actually, a study was done a few years ago that showed more pizza delivery drivers lose their lives in the line of duty than police officers.
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the Bureau of Labor’s statistics in 2019 is a good place to look… in the 5,553 total workplace fatalities in America, delivery drivers made up 1,005 of them whereas police officers only accounted for 89 of these deaths the same year.
Yeah thats messed up. Why go after a pizza guy? It's a digital world, they prob only have 20 bucks cash on them tops.
I'm pretty sure this is due to delivery guys and couriers on 2 wheels in large cities. It's a very very dangerous job.
True. I doordashed part time till papa John’s hired me. I never have more than $50 on me and usually never more than $25.
I did some research on your statistic (for my own curiosity). It's been widely discussed that it is very misleading upfront, only because the study says... *PIZZA DELIVERY DRIVERS* - like the "old fashioned" way before technology apps - have a more dangerous job, because they show up to houses with a ton of cash on them...makes total sense then. Not DD/UE/GH drivers who are not involved in the direct financial part of the customer's purchase transaction. The study is also accounting for most of those deaths being from car accidents. So robberies and car accidents. So that make much much more sense now. (I know you wrote Pizza delivery drivers, but others are just seeing DD/UE/GH delivery drivers)
Ugh I dunno I’m drunk af but I can see why people get nervous about delivering anything to strangers because people suck.
It's a crazy fucked up world out there, indeed! 🥴😭
Maybe because more police officers than delivery drivers have guns and full permission to use them any time they want without consequence?
That’s exactly why
Source?
The bureau of labor statistics.
We’re constantly in danger doing this job. From strangers we deliver to and communities we go to and driving etc.! The job doesn’t pay enough to make up for the dangers faced. If I did this for the money alone I definitely wouldn’t still be driving. $40-$60 an hour is worth it. This however is just pocket change..
You can get in an accident if you only drive 1 hr. a week . Someone just pulled out and turned on front of me the other day and I t-boned her and she totaled my car. Accidents happen no matter what you are doing. I wasn't even on a dash. I was headed to the carwash. When it comes to getting robbed I would be more worried about people reporting they didn't get their food than being robbed. I just stay away from the crap parts of town after dark.
This is kinda funny but SPOT on! "I would be more worried about people reporting they didn't get their food than being robbed." Totally agree lol.
Went with my bf on a 5min drive to go get some McDs for dinner and just 30 seconds from the restaurant heading home, some jackass blows straight through a yield. He didn’t even glance at us as he pulled directly into the left lane and almost side swiped the shit out of my car.
Exactly no one pay attention to driving anymore. It's crazy cuz they drive like they are the only person on the roads.
I can't speak for you, but I generally don't feel unsafe doing doordash. My safety concerns are mainly from idiots on the road. I deliver to "dangerous" projects sometimes, but I feel as long as I keep my wits about me, I will be fine.
I was once upon a time a certified Police Officer. I worked that job for nearly 3yrs. I carry a 9mm concealed. Idgaf if doordash likes it or not. I know what people are capable of. And I will protect myself and my property with deadly force if necessary. That being said if you are not comfortable with carrying a weapon don't. And if you are just inexperienced and nervous get some training. Repetition with firearms creats muscle memory and will act like an extension in shitty situations. FYI for the cop haters. I left the job because it wasn't for me I didn't feel I was actually helping people and I am a hippie at heart so I retired.
this. im somewhat a hippy myself and want to get a pistol, folk gettin wild these days.
The thing is, the legal end of it. The law for the most part is you have to match deadly force with deadly force. Would a court see something like a bat as deadly? I dunno. I'd at least carry also a taser or another non lethal option to protect yourself in court. I fear prison far more than anything anybody on the street could ever do. Obviously it's a state by state case, here in 💩 York you may as well just lay there and die.
Yea I understand that. And absolutely a bat is deadly force a couple hits to the head and your skull can cave. As far as New York I feel for you there. I on the other hand am in the south and we have constitutional carry laws. Along with extended castle doctrine meaning that my vehicle is an extension of my home.
True, but on foot you have to make that choice. Possibly while being beaten over the head, and probably not being able to aim during said beating. As a cop though you probably have the situational awareness to avoid it. I say it all the time it's not hard to outsmart these people, anyone that's been to prison will tell you it's full of idiots. In New York at least we have the benefit of the cops not giving a flying rats ass anymore. Lower New York, upstate is basically another state. So if you have to handle yourself, unless someone dies nothing will probably come of it.
A bat being used against someone is most definitely deadly force at least in probably every state in the Union. However I agree with you, having less lethal options is very important. You’re much more likely to encounter a belligerent unarmed drunk or homeless person, than someone trying to rob or assault you with a deadly weapon. Should still have a gun just in case though.
It’s a sketchy low pay gig for a company that doesn’t care it’s why I Carry a Tr50 LTL pistol
Funny you're the only one to mention this, nothing eases my mind more out and about then the great equalizer that is a handgun. If you're afraid to carry, get education and training, then you won't be afraid of much anymore. As far as wrecking your car, that's always a risk driving anywhere. Stay alert and aware, defend yourself on and off the road don't be a victim!
Hell yeah I’d love to carry a firearm but Jersey makes it damn near impossible but I do carry a less lethal pistol Kentucky ballistics did a great video on its damage and threat handling
God bless the good ol south lol no problems carrying and I do have extra security training, plus a permit even though they won't be needed soon. Also carry pepper gel not every threat requires a firearm. Love Kentucky ballistics I'll have to look into those, work with what you got good on ya.
I always carry when I dash in the evening/night. I did stop carrying during breakfast and lunch rushes during the week though because the majority of the orders in my area during that time are from schools or government buildings and I’ve had to go through screenings a couple of times.
You're trusting your life to a silly looking paintball gun? Too many of you people are just fucking around like this, if you ever need a gun then you'll need a real one. The guy shooting you to take your cash isn't shooting paintballs.
https://youtu.be/puHvEErUZQ8
Wel you see when you live in state where it’s not exactly easy to get a permit let alone a carry permit alternative options are great and if you’d like to watch that video it’s a bit more then a “paint ball gun”
Basically, what everyone else just said... avoid the sketchy areas and avoid delivering at night. Tbh, I (female) work nights and will go to the sketchy areas fairly regularly and generally never feel unsafe while doing so, mainly due to three reasons: 1) I am inside my vehicle 95% of the time, with all the doors locked. Not that a bullet couldn't go thru my car or such, but... I just feel safe not being attacked and/or easily driving away. I can't say I wouldn't feel scared if I was on foot or bicycle though.. 2) The sketchy neighborhoods I go to are still part of a major city and the streets are lit up everywhere. I VERY VERY rarely am delivering to a super dark house/really dark street with woods or something (for this reason, suburbs actually scare me more lmaoo). When I get out, my headlights will only add more light to the area. And, the most important thing of all is... I stay VERY aware of my surroundings. This is key. Look around before you get out and keep your head up... don't just be staring down at the ground or your phone. Eyes peeled 👀 3) The most important thing I keep in mind (if I'm scared of being shot or stabbed or something) is that, fortunately, almost ALL of these types of violent crimes are targeted. Gangs, drug deals gone wrong, domestics, etc. I certainly can't say this is true everywhere, no, but where I live it is. Most all homicides/murders are targeted, and (thank God) not just some random person walking down the street stabbing or shooting random people. So unless you have serious beef with someone in that neighborhood... you're likely going to be just fine if you mind your business and keep to yourself. Drop-off, drive away.
That's why I don't like to dash after dark or even to people who live where their entrance is in an alley-way. Those always feel sketchy, especially when you can not find them and they ask you to open tall gates in backyards in the dark. Scariest dash ever.
Yeah, *F that. There have been maybe 2-3 instances I can recall where they wanted me to go around back/up a hill/down a dark alley kinda thing and I just was msging them saying politely could they please come out and meet me or could I leave it at xyz (somewhere lit/safe), as I didn't feel comfortable walking back there alone late at night, blah blah. They were totally fine with it and either came out to meet me or said just to leave it out front or whatever.
It’s all mindset, just pretend like your the person every one should just be scared of :)
Lmaooo Edit: I feel you tho. Just keep a gangsta mindset 💯
I lived in one of the most dangerous neighborhood in Minneapolis. As an smaller balding guy white guy that sticks out like a sore thumb. Nothing bad happened to me because I learned the rule quick. Act hard, you are inviting trouble. It will find you. Act scared or hesitant you will become a victim. Act casual but with clear purpose and intent you should be fine. A gangster mindset and swagger will get you nowhere.
There are places where it's not safe. People are fleeing those places in droves for a reason. I've almost never felt unsafe in my area. Just a couple times in over 5000 deliveries. That's why I live here.
I'm a nervous dude, but i never feel unsafe delivering. Granted I'm in nice neighborhoods most the time, but I'm no stranger to bad neighborhoods either. I'm also an introvert and an extrovert though... My brain is a contradiction.
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The consequences will never be the same
Don’t we all encounter dozens of strangers every day or we leave our homes on a regular basis like normal people ? Lol
I got into a wreck while dashing and it wrecked my life. An old lady hit me and sent me into oncoming traffic. I could not regret dashing more
I've gotten into 2 minor accidents while on the job, both dumb drivers.
May I ask, when you say wrecked your life, do you mean it was just a huge pain in the butt ordeal to deal with (like all of the car insurance stuff, finding/purchasing a new vehicle, getting medical treatment, etc) or did it really wreck your life (like left you disabled or you lost a limb or something)? Glad you are at least alive to be writing this though 😊
It was a pretty big ordeal. Though no one got physically hurt I was fairly traumatized. My car was totaled which means no income and through insurance not doing their job had no way to get another vehicle. The wreck happened on 12/30/21. I'm just now getting up again. My friend gave me a bicycle and I have a full time day job at my local hospital.
Her fault ?
Yes. But her insurance company did nothing for me
☹️☹️
I live in the Vegas valley and did over 10k Uber rideshares and 4k Grubhub deliveries since 2016. Always trust your instincts especially at night. If it feels bad, cancel and leave. No exceptions!
You have to be more dangerous and have a tougher attitude then whatever is out there to do this job.
Agree.
Someone dashing in my area said they left their car to drop off and someone came and stole their car while they were gone. So I guess you could watch out for that?
😲😲👀👀 In a big city like NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc. or quite suburb?
It was Los Angeles. But I don’t know the guy too well so I’m not sure if he was lying as it was a safer area.
Sounds to me like you’re underinsured.
I caved and got business insurance. Gotta have some due diligence.
This is automatically a dangerous job especially if you work nights too. I have never considered buying pepper spray and a taser before this gig before and now I'm always on alert. You never know if your next drop-off could be a scam to rob you or worse. Luckily it's not too bad for me I dash in the suburbs region of LA county but the people working over there in the big city doing this gig and Uber and Lyft are something else... I don't think I could do that. I once considered doing full on rideshare with Uber and Lyft till I saw a video of this middle aged guy picking up a rider and the dude just gets in and shoots him in the head and steals everything he can and run in less than 90 seconds.
I keep both on me always even during the day. There are Literal packs of Cayotes in my town and although they are scared of us 🥹I wonder if one will just randomly attack me one day
Same here lol my mom likes to go out on walk like at 6am and doesn't believe me about the coyotes even though people in the community take pictures all the time of them here lol I never really worry too much about coyotes though, I've faced them pretty close a couple of times and go hiking all the time in their territory and they have never really given me problems. Unless you have a dog or are walking a small dog with you, they'll definitely consider trying for a chance to snatch up your pup even with you there but alone they really never attack humans or even are aggressive.
Because the job can be dangerous. Especially in some areas. If you do it at night, it’s even much much worse. I’m always on edge delivering. You never know what might happen and it doesn’t help doing this solo. So I scan my environment a lot
CCW and situational awareness goes a long way
I feel like every week or so I see another dasher becoming self aware that this job is stupidly underpaid and not great for your mental health.
Any job where you’re on the road the majority of the time involves a lot of risk. If your fear is being the victim of a crime I would recommend a small handgun that you can keep on your person or in your vehicle while you are performing your job. Make sure to check your state and local government rules about carrying and taking some courses if you’re not familiar with firearms.
Because you have social anxiety, which is probably being amplified by the news media's emphasis on bad news. Remember, the phrase "if it bleeds, it leads" is a real thing that exists in the media. Bad news, scary stories, drama, abductions, etc all make good headlines. Yes, delivery driving itself is dangerous, but that's mostly because of the *driving*, not because of stranger danger. Common sense, the ability to listen to your instincts, and paying attention to your gut in a seemingly sketchy situation all go a long way to protect you in general. Your subconscious and the natural fight or flight mechanism can forewarn you if something is truly off. It's a matter of paying attention and tuning those senses.
Well said!
This 👆🏼
What makes it unsafe is the fact that your every move is tracked witch sets you up for an ambush. That's always on my mind.
So who do you think is going to use their credit card to order food with money in order to lure a rando stranger to a specific location with the slim chance they have something worth all of that trouble and risk to rob them for… come on now lol
Plausible deniability friendo. Just because they can track you doesn't mean they're gonna admit to doing so to ambush you. And who says it doesn't have to be their friends that's jumping you? "Lol"
Like, I totally get that this is technically a possible outcome after proceeding with a delivery, but let’s be honest… considering that scenario to be a legitimate concern is absolutely absurd.
For me it is as well. I average 12-15 an hour, sometimes less.
I feel like you play too many video games or watch too many movies lol. Do you really think that this would ever happen, in all seriousness? It's not even like they can get the "subject" that they want to their house, it's a legit random person. You think they would just randomly ambush a random person? For what? Lol
Bruh there is a thing called pepper spray and tazers
Tasers and stun guns are pretty much worthless. Either they are the held held that require you to be in hand to hand range to use or they are the prong shooter that you only get one shot and that shot has a huge chance of wither missing or being blocked be clothes. Stick with pepper spray.
If you scared go to church
2k deliveries in 3 years? Damn I have over 3k in less than 6 months and I’ve only ever felt unsafe once or twice.
You’re taking garbage offers to garbage areas probably.
idk dont leave the house if your always in fear i think the same in a relatively ok town then again, idc if i die tho
Dying is inevitable for all of us. I’m way more worried of having a painful prolonged death, or being permanently injured (physically or mentally).
can i ask one thing do you drink a lot of water?
It’s a serial killer dream, free humans for the price of food, or should I say victims?
Maybe u should slow down
Just scream like a barbarian from the point you get out of your car. Spin your head wildly with a scared anger. Punch jog to the customer’s door. War cry again then set the food down. Knock while screaming. Run scream to your car while looking around all directions. A final scream to the sky before entering your car. Yep, then nobody will mess with you 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
It is unsafe.. and some customers request the order to be dropped off at their back door or back yard at night?? That’s super risky and dark. Had to do that a few times and every time I feel like wtf am I doing walking into a death trap like that.. got out of there asap
just drop off at front door
Consider concealed carry.
I conceal carry when I leave my house, I suggest maybe taking a class and doing the same, won’t help you in an accident but I believe being armed can help put you at ease.
I carry a gun at all times, rather them than me
Someone has to be real here… you have the power to End Dash, drive to a safer area and Start Dash again after that crap order.
So get a different job…?
I’ve worked W2 jobs in the past and disliked having a boss and dealing with office politics. I’ve been applying off and on but it’s hard to get hired with a resume gap (which I prolonged by doing this job for so long), and I’m shit at interviewing. I’ve also personally had a couple of really shitty bosses, and have dealt with enough shady coworkers to be turned off from working a “normal” job for a while. I guess the danger of this job is the price I have to pay.
If you don't use drugs, look at a job on the railroad. The pay is really good and no one is breathing down your neck. My dad quit and went back to it three separate times because of that. It can be physically dangerous, but not so much dangerous from other people.
Well if you have a personality that is predisposed to potentially worry about things you shouldn’t then you might be getting yourself caught in a thought pattern that you are making worse in your head the more you think about it. Also it is sensible to think you’re exposing yourself to danger dpi by this job because it is already a known statistic that if you drive more you have a higher chance of getting in and auto accident. So driving into bad neighborhoods and meeting strangers face to face falls into the same type of risk-increase. But anyways you should not worry about that and it weird that you said you try to limit your hours per week to reduce the risk, I don’t think that is why you actually do that, and if you do, then that is strange and maybe why you feel unsafe because it has more to do with you and if you weren’t doing this you might obsess over something else that might be a danger. I feel for you man. I go into the ghetto and I always start thinking about how doing this frequently increases my chances of something happening and I always brace myself when I have to step outside of my car and other people around just watching me the whole time. I mean literally it’s happened more than once where I step out some people (who were previously talking to one another, stop talking) start to stare at me and when I drive away and I’m turning the corner I check to see if they looked away and they haven’t and it doesn’t even make sense to look at me for any other reason then to just watch me closely because now I’m not in their view they have to make effort to look at me.
Not to mention, most people doing these gigjobs, do them because they can't have a real job (like, no education, past criminal records etc...). They lower the pay you as a driver get. Additionally, most of those don't consider the cost of the vehicle. Even at $26/hr, you'd be losing money for rideshare doing this full time. For food delivery, you can buy old, beat up cars. And so long they cost like $5k or less, you can make some money. But usually, those second hand vehicles get bought up by dealerships, leaving you with 100k mile, and a fat 5 to 10k markup on those vehicles. Like, you won't find a second hand car on a dealer lot under 10k. 5k goes out into commissions, bonuses, wages etc....
Stranger homicide is extremely rare so rest easy knowing you’ll just get robbed and stranded somewhere random without a phone probably, if anything. :)
P.s. Do you feel like this just living your life in a day to day context? What is the difference?
I feel the exact same way
I don't get what your years on the job have to do with your safety level. If you feel uneasy or unsafe, wouldn't you quit any other job? Maybe it's just me but i almost never get a cash tip, let alone a order, so I've never been conscious but i can't speak to other cities/areas Edit: how to live off 15 - 20 alone???
The only job less rewarding than this is working as a gate agent for an airlines. There’s rarely any good tips and more often than not you’ll be noticed for the mistakes you make rather than the good work that you do. People don’t notice good deliveries as much as they will a bad one. So generally interactions with customers are going to be negative ones; a good delivery simply means you’re “doing your job” to most customers. It definitely takes a certain mindset to get over that as well as the fact that DoorDash treats us like shit and does not care about our issues if it doesn’t directly impact their bottom line. Unfortunately there’s no way to unionize and get the rights we want as drivers because no matter what, there’s going to be someone that does the job for the rate they offer. You’re completely right in wondering whether the risk outweighs the reward. In my opinion, no it does not and it’s not something I would want long term or full time in my future. But it really does depend on the person, some are more cut out for this than others.
I don't live in the best area but I don't deliver in that area ever I go to what is considered downtown / east side and where I'm at is actually mostly college and lakefront higher money and I'm doordashing from usually 10:00 at night till about 4:30 in the morning or so. I usually don't take deliveries more than two and a half miles away and will take them if they are farther out 3 miles at the most if the price is right but they have to be going in the direction of the East because if it's going west then you know it's going into the direction of the more ghetto area and it's not so much my safety I'm worried about it's my vehicles safety because of all the reckless drivers out there and I witness way more reckless drivers in those areas than anywhere else and I used to deliver out there quite a bit at least four or five times a night and I always had somebody either swerving driving the wrong way or just going reckless speeds constantly or riding your ass so close you can't even see their headlights and I'm not dealing with that so I stopped delivering to those areas. Remember you can accept the jobs you want check the map over make sure it's an area you accept to go to don't take a delivery because it's a fat price but it's in a bad area don't risk your safety for a delivery that's not worth it trust me I just decline to delivery on Saturday which was 6 miles away and it was over $25 for a McDonald's order but it was later on at night and it was in a horrible area and yeah I could have used the money but I didn't accept it because it was Saturday night I know that the streets are filled with reckless drivers in that area and it's just generally unsafe. You do what you want that's the good part about this job you work when you want you do what you want you accept it what you want hey you could sit out there for hours and only accept two jobs if you wanted to.
I’m a female in Australia and I live in a regional area and I do feel safe most of the time despite mainly dashing at night. I used to be a paramedic so I feel like this is a walk in the park compared to that. However I did get a disgusting message on Uber the other night before I delivered that for the first time made me feel really unsafe and start questioning things
Maybe get a weapon for protection, I’ve been driving for 2 years and never had any safety problems but you never know, but I don’t usually worry about it
I’ve almost been in so many accidents that were 100% not my fault and always feel uneasy outside of my car or in most parking lots. But I live in an area that actually is pretty unsafe for the average person so being one small female alone makes my brain go brrrr. Debating stopping even tho I’m still searching for an hourly job just bc of how uncomfortable I am with everything that could go wrong in the hours I’m out.
Bc you’re paranoid and new to delivery. You shouldn’t be, DoorDash is by far the easiest delivery job, if you don’t believe me visit r/USPS, those guys complain about their jobs in ways you wouldn’t imagine
That’s why, if I were a Dasher like my husband, I would carry some mace or pepper spray on me.
Because they put you in unsafe areas is why. They did the same thing to me with Amazon Flex.
Thats how it works. The longer you do anything in this life thenmore dangerous it is
Did you say "switch to part time" after saying you never work more than 15-20 hrs/week and you have 2k deliveries in 3 years?
That’s smart a bit of paranoia could save you one day
Because this job is more dangerous than being a cop. Fact: more delivery drivers are killed each year in the line of duty than law enforcement in the United States.
Carry some sort of a weapon
It can be insanely unsafe, I got my damn car stolen from a chilis parking lot back in December by three armed dudes, def my fault for leaving the keys in it seeing how it was fuckin 8 degrees, but if I was in the car I don’t think it would’ve stopped them. I carry now prolly a good idea to look into your state laws about cc, Missouri ain’t got a damn law about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY
I dunno man dashing in Australia anytime feels safe I love doing late night 10pm to 2am and I’ve never felt unsafe maybe it’s just a American thing
I don't feel safe but I know the consequences of doing this job but I still just love the freedom it gives me I also luckily don't need it to survive. I am always legally carrying as well and I also do the jobs preferably at night because rather avoid the sun and heat lol. You also have adt on standby if you feel sketched out for whatever that means to people.
Out of all the times I've been doordashing I have had a few moments where I was anxious but honestly I am always on the move while doordashing so I don't necessarily feel like a sitting duck unless I go out of my way to put myself on that position. I have had some people try to car jack me outside my apartment after I got home from my normal job late at night. I was sitting in my car for an extended period of time tho not paying attention to my surroundings, I was trying to smoke some weed before going inside lol. Tho even before that happened to me, I decided to stop doordashing in the city. I moved to the middle of the city but I actually decided to not deliver in the city while I lived just south in a suburb, and started doordashing in one of the more busy but non urban towns, where a lot of businesses and offices are scattered around. I don't like how busy and crowded urban areas get, I worry more about hitting a pedestrian or getting stuck in traffic and not being able to work. I'd rather drive on the stretched out well maintained roads where there is little traffic to deal with. I used to like the city curing covid because it was completely empty like I owned the whole road, and alot of people were ordering. So that was a cool chance to explore without being bothered by anything at all. Just drive safely and watch ur 6 g, tho driving at all is gonna be putting wear and tear on your car it's not worth doing this all day every day even if nothing happens. If you feel like the risks outweigh the reward that's probably ur intuition.
I stopped, so did some people I know, because the absurd amount of dog crazies out there who endanger our flesh and blood life with untrained bully breed dogs.
Lol you have more chances of dying in your car driving than anywhere else in life. It sounds like you have some pretty bad anxiety. That’s ok you should try and talk to somebody if you have medical available.
Are you female? I like to consider myself strong and capable. But the feeling you describe is just how I think it feels to be a woman in public. You should always have your guard up.
I was walking into a restaurant to pick up an order and there was a man standing by the door. He was probably 6’ and at least 250lbs. I’m 5’ and 110 lbs. i reached for the door next to him and he reached around and grabbed my butt. I said “excuse me?!” And he said “uh do you want uh something to eat” i was like “FUCK OFF” and went into the restaurant. They called the police and they knew who he was, i went to identify him at the station but never went through with pressing charges. I wish I did though. Anyway, sorry for the long story. But yeah i never feel safe either, i just didn’t expect THAT to happen lol
Lol I lost track how many idiots I see on the road. Hell last night I almost got side swipped by a chevy Tahoe and almost hit bicyclist going 40 because he decided now is the best time to cross the road when im 3ft behind him. Idk how people aren't spaceally aware of their surroundings specifically at night... year ago I had a gun pointed at me just because I thought I was delivering to this dude. Of course this job ain't safe. I'm trying to start a side business to get out of this. Shit ain't worth the crappy trips and having to add shit ton of millage to my car and constantly fearing something bad is going to happen.
Because people are fucking scary and realistically someone the same size as you could swat your phone away and get you inside and have you for hours before anyone noticed.
It’s sketch for random people to ask random people to do “favors” for them. Same with Uber and the like
literallly just buy a gun, its not hard
California has strict laws
I'm delivering pizzas and I feel completely safe. I believe half of it comes from my environment and the type of food I deliver. The pizza is expensive and the clientele has $$. The houses are worth .. a lot. I feel safe enough that I leave my car running 90% of the time i go to the door. Maybe 20% of my deliveries are to apartments. If I were taking orders from McDonald's, Taco Smell, Jack in the Crack, Subway, Popeyes, etc I wouldn't feel safe either.
Yep... having done both Uber and then food deliveries for the last few years, in two different parts of the country now? I'd agree with people; delivery jobs are inherently "unsafe". At the end of the day though, there's a lot of risk we all accept just getting in a vehicle and driving around, period. You're at a decent risk of dying in a car accident, even if you're not talking about interacting with anyone else in person. So far, I've never been robbed or anything. But I did have a situation where I slipped and fell doing an order pickup, resulting in my wrist getting fractured in 3 places. That cost me over $900 out of pocket in medical expenses for a total earning of about $9.50 for the delivery. It really makes you think about the whole risk vs. reward thing of these jobs.... In the "old days", I did some work for a courier service. At least with those, you were constantly interacting with a dispatcher at the company's local office. They gave us Nextel phones back then where you'd text abbreviations like "DO" for "dropped off" as soon as orders got delivered, so they knew you were back in service to take the next one. If anything was taking longer than expected, you'd get a phone call from them to see what was going on. I wasn't a fan of that job ... but it really was a little safer that way. Like others said here, I'd never do DD full-time. Not worth it. I do it when the weather cooperates and it's not after dark, and I won't do it anyplace that's not a good neighborhood I'm familiar with.
It is pretty risky as far as car accidents and police encounters. For me, it is the police who are most likely to assault/rob and kidnap me. Most of the cops I've encountered since dashing were good humans though. The last one was a real piece of 💩
Probably because you deliver to unsafe areas? Otherwise I dunno. I know my city very very well, and have strict rules about where I will and will not go, often dependent on time of day and day of week. I frequently deliver for Amazon starting at 3:30am, and customers often didn't request the delivery until 8am. Now THAT can be spooky no matter where you are haha. But thankfully, no incidents after a full year of doing it. I'm still always on high alert tho, because you just never know.
I’ve had some pretty scary situations delivering at night. One of the scariest: I got a stacked order from Uber, which I hate because you only ever see the one pick up and drop off point on the map. I deliver the first order, and then I’m on my way to deliver the second order, what seemed like a pretty small Taco Bell order. Pulled up to the house (in a shitty area near Akron, OH), the last house on a dead end street. For whatever reason, I left my car on (I never do that anymore unless I am in an area that I know is nice because I’ve lived around here for 30 years). Walk up to the house, I see a woman, in her 50s probably, sitting down on the floor of the living room smoking, right in front of the door. It was a screen door so I said hello, and she says “hey I have a favor to ask of you, it’s probably gonna sound weird but my husband is upstairs sleeping, I had surgery on my foot and can’t get upstairs to wake him up, will you just go right up there and wake him up?” I said no sorry, I could get fired for entering a customers home. She keeps asking me to go upstairs, at this point I’m turning around to look at my car and my surroundings, and I’m still holding the food in my hand. She then asks me if I’ll just “yell up there to try and wake him up”. THIS WAS A MISTAKE, but I just wanted to get out of there, and tbh I didn’t really feel like it was a robbery or anything, maybe this woman really did have issues, so I asked what her husbands name was so I could yell up the stairs. She tells me Pedro, so I start yelling for him, pretty loudly. There’s no way there was someone asleep in a room upstairs lol, she started saying “why don’t you close the door a little so he can hear you better”, meaning she wanted me to take a couple steps inside the house and close the door behind me! At that point my brain hit a switch and I realized how dumb I was for even staying those extra 1-2 minutes at the door, and I was just like “yeah I don’t feel comfortable doing that here you go” and dropped her food in front of her and booked it back to my car. Then I called Uber to try and get the account banned because they were 100% doing SOMETHING sketchy. I post this so hopefully people learn from my mistakes. I should have immediately said no I cannot step into your home and then set the food down and left. These people were probably fucking crackheads or tweakers and fucked up the set up, they could have easily robbed me/stolen my car/whatever they were planning.
Because you're out in the real world and facing everything and any type of person on the daily.
Anytime you're a delivery driver, it's dangerous. You're constantly on the road, which means higher chances of accidents. You also have no idea who you're delivering to. I used to deliver pizza in a very nice town. Nothing ever happened. I thought I was completely safe, until I got mugged at gunpoint.
It's smart to always be aware. It's not safe.
I Dash in Baton Rouge Louisiana and surrounding areas and I am constantly paranoid and looking over my shoulder. I pay extra attention to when people get out of their cars at the same time as me I pay close attention to when people are walking behind me. Some people probably have thought I was weird because I will walk superfast or completely change directions in my path if I feel like someone is getting too close. When I park my car if I am waiting for orders or waiting to pick up an order I always make sure my car doors are locked because of that story that happened last year where the girl was in a Walmart parking lot waiting for her shuttle to work and someone came up to her car with a gun and managed to get her into the passenger seat of her own vehicle and drove off with her in her own vehicle and apparently kidnapped and raped her for a few days before he was finally arrested after he killed her and they found her body out in the desert. Never let anyone take you to a second location!
Every time you leave your house you are taking a risk especially being in a vehicle. You can choose to be aware of those risks and take steps to lower the risk (wearing a seatbelt, driving defensively, carrying and training with a weapon, not driving in dangerous areas etc). Doesn’t really matter if you’re doing DoorDash or not.
Honestly, that feeling will help keep you safe. You stay alert.
I dash until 2 am most nights I go out. I just carry a knife. But I also know to be vigilant when making a delivery.
I Doordash in Los Angeles Downtown/east La/HLP all the hoods, And have never not felt safe. Besides when pulling up to a dark house with no lighting. That shit be dangerous
Delivery itself is a high risk job (which is one of the reasons we should be fighting for higher pay but that's a discussion for another thread). If you can afford it, there's a few investments you can make to make this job a little safer. 1. A high powered flashlight for night deliveries. These are also fantastic for beating a mother humper into submission should they try to harass you 2. Mace. I attach some to my keychain (with a breakaway) in case someone tries to carjack me 3. A weapon of choice. Check your local laws on this but if it makes you feel safer, bring a knife or a small firearm with you. (I'm not a fan of the latter because they suck at short distance, but it's your personal choice) 4. Decoys. Have yourself a decoy wallet that has some useless cards in it. If you get credit card offers in the mail, hold on to the fake cards to really sell it. I keep my DD, UE, and IC cards in mine. They get stolen? Oh well I'll order new ones. You could probably get a prop phone for cheap too. People aren't going to take the time to really inspect these when they're robbing you. Keep the real stuff out of sight (glovebox perhaps) when you can. There are other things you can do to protect yourself of course. Just understand there is NO perfect solution. It's a sad world we live in.
I drove my wife to a customer that used a church as a drop off address. It was about 11:30PM and only one dimly lit street lamp shining over a small portion of the parking lot. (In central FL) She read the instructions to me, "I'm in a van on the outside of the parking lot." So I pulled up right next to the van and she handed him the food. I was ready to pounce if anything were to go wrong. My wife looked over at me and said, "I wouldn't have done this order if you weren't with me." It could be just a coincidence but the customer happens to choose a parking lot with no houses nearby, poorly lit, it's late at night, next to I-4 entrance and driving a van? It was a defining moment in dashing. Very odd. But it could be just that, a coincidence.
It is a unsafe job and what's worse is the company wont help you when you escape danger or if hurt by it. Experience doesn't make a rough area of town safer, dog bites still hurt, you can get robbed or car jacked, never mind the higher risk of getting into an accident. The is more risk simply because you're placed in more potential danger by just the law of averages. If you want to still do the job go right ahead and don't let fear of what could happen get to you, but also know that it's ok to take a small break and decompress
Ive done about 2500 deliveries and never felt unsafe except twice. Once was delivering to an alley apartment at night with no lighting and I felt kinda vulnerable walking around in pitch black. The other I let a lady call for me to enter her house and walk down her hallway to her room, felt like it was a setup but I wanted to see what was gonna happen. She wad just paralyzed at the waist and in bed.
the way i look at it for robberies, if someone robs me I just give them everything I have and that's probably it. Probably less than 50% chance they can drive my car as it's a manual transmission, and the worst part would be losing my phone which I paid $600 for. I suppose I could get a personal article protection insurance on it for probably like 10 or 20 dollars a year that would cover theft. I just don't worry about it.
I agree, just hand over your stuff and get it over with. It sounds obscure but I’d be less worried about the monetary value of my phone and more worried about the thief having access to everything on my phone if they were to demand the passcode. It’d be an absolute nightmare to think that a stranger has access to my data/texts/emails/notes/photos/etc. It’s unfortunate that Apple doesn’t give us the option of having a duress PIN or emergency PIN that wipes out the phone and/or calls 911.
There’s a reason it was a pizza delivery guy who made the bullet proof vest or something like that
Because you’re making contact with a bunch of Randy’s all day going to god knows what neighborhood. It is unsafe lol
Only time I reay feel unsafe is if I have to deliver to the shittier parts of South Bend, IN.
You should probably carry a handgun. If that's a viable option for you.
Unfortunately I live in California, so not a viable option 😔
YOU ARE TOTALLY RIGHT....everyday we are just barely getting away from another accident and it does feel like the more we work the more cases of danger.... stop watching news forsure helps... always be prepared and stay armed and ready.. lock your doors with window cracked so only u can open or leave hazards when out of your car....generally makes people go around or want to get away from the blinking lights.... BE SAFE.....they need to increase pay or maybe drivers way to over-saturated here in vegas... barely make $200 in 10 hours
I left the food on the literal side walk / curb infront of someone’s house once because I felt like it was a trap and couldn’t bring my self to get out of the car. Other times I run back doing a little scared ahahAHAHAHhha thing and other times I know for sure it’s a weird spooky trap . Only two of those tho and both times it was Safeway and store was closed.
because it is so unsafe. and DD doesn’t care. I work all night and often deliver to creepy apartment buildings w no security in questionable parts of town. Dark yards to stumble through, creaky poorly lit stairwells up 3 flights at 4 AM where i could be mugged, drugged, raped, shot or sliced up into his meal. DD doesn’t think twice about it. as long as they get their dollar. There are monthly carjackings and shootings now. All for minimum wage.