DoorDash is the ultimate in flexible side gigs, but it’s not a complete free-for-all. To keep its customers happy, DoorDash does have standards.
Dashers can work the hours they want and choose the deliveries they want to accept, offering great autonomy. Still, DoorDash does track driver statistics to ensure they are maintaining DoorDash’s delivery quality standards.
DoorDash tracks every dasher’s customer reviews, cancel rates, order acceptance rates, and overall ratings. These performance metrics are a report card of sorts, indicating your standing with the DoorDash app.
Dashers with poor grades can face suspension or deactivation, while those with high marks can earn Top Dasher status or other driver perks.
What Is a DoorDash Acceptance Rate?
The DoorDash acceptance rate is the percent of deliveries that you accept out of all deliveries that the app offers you.
So if you accept every eight (8) out of 10 deliveries that DoorDash offers, you would have an acceptance rate of 80%.
What’s Considered a Good Acceptance Rate?
DoorDash considers 70% to be a “good acceptance rate” as that is the minimum score needed in order to be a Top Dasher. This is DoorDash’s driver recognition program. It’s meant to offer drivers special perks.
Many drivers believe that this is just a vanity recognition. While Top Dashers can dash anytime without zone or time restrictions, most drivers find that there are already enough deliveries to make this perk obsolete.
DoorDash contends that Top Dasher gives drivers access to peak pay in exclusive zones, increasing their earning potential.
Does Your DoorDash Acceptance Rate Matter?
DoorDash acceptance rate matters only when it comes to Priority Access orders. Food delivery drivers with an average customer rating of at least 4.5 stars and an acceptance rate of at least 50% can unlock Priority Access orders.
Priority Access gives dashers first dibs on orders and priority access to Dash Now (first in line for this perk after Top Dashers).
Is There a Penalty for Declining DoorDash Orders?
DoorDash has no minimum acceptance rate. You can reject as many orders as you would like and still remain in good standing with the app.
The only penalty, potentially, is your bottom line. Declining orders means you’re turning down money and gambling that a better-paying order will take its place.
DoorDash will not suspend your account or penalize you in any way for declining orders, and it will not impact the number of requests you receive.
The cancellation rate is the metric that drivers should worry about. With some market exceptions, DoorDash drivers must maintain a completion rate of at least 90%.
Your completion rate is the percentage of accepted orders you pick up and then drop off with the customer. If you accept an order and then decline it, that is considered a cancellation.
How to Improve Your Driver Acceptance Rate
If you want to improve your driver acceptance rate, for DoorDash Top Dasher or Priority Access, it’s not difficult. Here’s how you can go about improving it.
1. Accept More Orders
Increase the number of orders you accept. Your rate is calculated off your most 100 recent deliveries, not all lifetime deliveries.
If your rate is at 40% today, accepting the next 10 orders could have a major positive impact on your score.
2. Reliable WiFi
You can’t improve your low acceptance rate if you can’t access orders in the first place. Make sure you have access to WiFi.
Some drivers without a data plan for their phones will park near a coffee shop or shopping mall to get free public WiFi access.
And while that’s a good backup option, if you’re going to have a delivery app side hustle, it’s a smart idea to get a data plan. Not all plans are $60 to $100 a month. You can get cheap, reliable plans for talk, text, and data starting at just $15 a month. And many of these plans are contract-free with no credit check.
Being able to have continual WiFi can increase the number of deliveries you get (no delays while driving to public access) and improve your customer rating because you have continual communication with customers.
3. Keep Your Phone Charged
Similar to having WiFi, make sure to keep your phone charged and have a car charger in your vehicle. You need a charged device to accept orders and contact the customer or restaurant if you are not running on time.
And you especially don’t want to lose your phone charge mid-order, because it will significantly delay drop-off if you need to buy or fetch a charger to pull up the customer’s address and complete the order in the Dasher app.
4. Communicate With the Customer
Communicating with customers will improve your overall driver experience and make you more likely to accept more orders overall, and feel good about doing so.
Sometimes deliveries go awry and for reasons outside of your control. Weather, road conditions, or a busy restaurant that’s running behind are just a few examples. Let the customer know. You can send them a text message update, or even call them, through the DoorDash app.
If you let the customer know what’s going on, you might be surprised at how understanding a customer will be. They’re less likely to leave you a low rating because of the poor experience, and in some instances, they may increase their tip.
Driver’s Take
Your DoorDash acceptance rating doesn’t impact your delivery opportunities. For available drop-offs, a high customer rating and a low cancellation rate are what matter.
But if you want to be part of the Top Dasher program or have Priority Access to orders, then you’ll need to be mindful of your acceptance rates. Drivers need 70% for Top Dasher or 50% for Priority Access.
But all incentives aside, having a good acceptance rate is going to help your overall earnings. Not every order is going to be a home run with a fat tip and short driving distance. If you’re not losing money on the order, after factoring in gas and mileage, then consider just taking it and staying patient as better orders will come your way.
And if you still find yourself declining the majority of DoorDash orders, you may want to change delivery zones to a more lucrative area or consider a different gig economy hustle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the most common FAQs that readers have about acceptance rate and other DoorDash metrics.
Why is My DoorDash Acceptance Rate Not Going Up?
Your rate is a rolling average calculated based on the last 100 delivery opportunities you’ve received in the app. It may take several accepted deliveries before you see any improvement. With each new delivery you view, the DoorDash algorithm will bump the oldest delivery opportunity out of its calculation.
If your delivery rate begins to fall low, you can increase it by accepting additional deliveries. Orders you have rejected will eventually fall off your scorecard, but it does take some time.
What is the DoorDash Acceptance Rate Glitch?
The DoorDash Accept Rate Glitch, often referred to just as the “DoorDash glitch,” is extremely controversial.
Instead of declining an order, many drivers will just turn off their phones. Then, when they log back into the app the last order they viewed will not be counted against them as part of their total overall number of delivery opportunities. It essentially “erases” the last order you viewed from your account history.
Many dashers believe this is not a good practice and that it’s pointless because your acceptance rate doesn’t matter. As one noted dasher shares on her YouTube channel, her acceptance rate is consistently around 19% and she makes very good money so the practice of gaming the system for no reward makes no sense.
And if a DoorDash driver does believe that the acceptance rate matters, then they are cheating by using this glitch to gain an unfair leg up.
Does DoorDash Ever Reset Acceptance Rates?
DoorDash will periodically offer to reset acceptance rates for drivers. This does not put your acceptance rate at 100%, rather, a driver will be given a blank slate and re-start from 0% as if they were a new driver. DoorDash offers this as a way to encourage drivers to go for the Top Dasher program and accept more orders overall.
