Folks, I have to tell you. I can definitely relate to this story. Earlier this year, I needed to take up food delivery to help make ends meet and drove nearly seven days a week for 8 to 10 hours a day. It’s a tough life that definitely destroys your vehicle and costs you hundreds of dollars in gasoline and vehicle repairs. As a driver, you make the best money driving in conditions your customers would rather not travel in, such as hot, rainy, and snowy days. Dealing with traffic, long delays at the restaurant, and low tips are just a part of the job.
However, another part of the job is when people cancel their order after you spend so much time picking up their food. I’ve had this happen on a few occasions, and it’s very frustrating. In the delivery business, your time equals money, perhaps more so than any other kind of business, as you have to turn down potentially better-paying offers while you’re delivering an order. Sadly, many customers don’t seem to think about or care about the drivers who deliver their food, especially if a driver has to pay for the food out of their own pocket.
This is what happened to one driver who works for Grab Food. Facebook user Michelle A. Pascua shared compelling photos of a Grab Food driver eating a meal outset a shopping outlet. It turned out that his customer canceled their order after the driver paid for and picked up their food!
Because the food couldn’t be returned, the driver decided to eat the meal himself instead of complaining. Now, we should note that Grab Food does reimburse canceled or fake orders such as this one, but the process can take some time, and it’s not easy, which is why the driver just decided to eat his losses literally.
Folks online took pity on the hard-working driver, saying they hoped karma would pay a visit to whoever ordered this food and canceled, leaving the drive holding the bag.
Others suggested that these food delivery companies should require strict validations for all customer accounts and make them upload photos and other documents to prove they are real people; drivers don’t get as many canceled or fake orders. It may seem hard to believe, but some twisted people open accounts to order food (without paying upfront) and have the meal sent to random places or cancel the order after the driver pays for and picks up the meal.
In the U.S., meal delivery services such as Doordash and Uber Eats usually require the customer to pay upfront, or in some cases, they have the driver pay for the food using a special debit card with the funds on it. However, some services require the driver to pay for the meal out of pocket and reimburse them after the delivery is complete. Some argue this is to ensure drivers deliver the food as promised on time, but of course, this is pretty absurd. Drivers don’t want to waste a lot of time on one order and are certainly not interested (for the most part) in keeping someone’s food.
Another problem with many food delivery services is that customers can cancel orders at any time, which is horrible for drivers who pay for food out of pocket and who may have wasted a lot of time driving and picking up the order.
And when cancellations happen, drivers who pay for food out of pocket may not have enough money to continue making deliveries for the day, which costs them a day’s worth of pay.
Hopefully, things will change for drivers who work for Grab Food, so they are better protected from dishonest customers.
Thanks for reading. Please be sure to pass this story along to your friends and family. Hopefully, with enough awareness, companies like Grab Food will update their policies to benefit their drivers.