# What if Delivery Drivers Had a Counteroffer Feature?



## Driving With A Purpose (Jul 28, 2020)

I’m curious what you guys think about UberEats (and Doordash and other delivery services) adding a Counteroffer feature to delivery requests. 

Example: I got a delivery request paying about $8 in the 5am hour as I was driving home earlier this week. It was for driving over 7 miles, with much of it out of my way. I turned it down.

Two minutes later I got the same deal again, but this time they were offering 18 cents more. That’s all, just 18 cents more. I rejected the second offer too.

This was for a delivery to an area where the homes cost $2-4 million (in a metro area where the vast majority of homes are say, $400-600k). In other words, this is a VERY NICE NEIGHBORHOOD in my area.

It occurred to me that I might have been the only driver in that area at that odd time.

If there was a button which said “Counteroffer”, I could have tapped it and said $15 (or whatever figure I felt was reasonable under the circumstances). UE could then decide whether it is worth allowing the food to be delivered for that price.

This button (if added) should normally be grayed out for normal dinner deliveries where there are dozens of drivers nearby.

I would imagine the button could be used under the following circumstances:

1) Late night deliveries
2) Rural areas
3) Bad weather situations 
4) Extremely crowded areas after 
sporting events, concerts, etc.

I’m sure pretty much everyone has turned down deliveries that they would have done if paid an additional $5-10.

How do you think this would work if available in your area?


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## Uberdriver2710 (Jul 15, 2015)

TLDR









App companies are ALL greedy control freaks...they'll NEVER let the free market.. be free.


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## raider877 (Oct 12, 2019)

They would not allow this because then more people would hit decline until they raised it.

No one should take low paying orders, but it is in their best interest to play games so that you as a driver take them.

Giving some control to the drivers is not good for them.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

It would be good for drivers and good for customers actually getting their food delivered. However, UE, DD, etc.etc. would not ever do that because it would cut into what they receive. They would rather keep finding new ways to either trick drivers into taking bad offers or keep hoping to get newbies to take them.

Keep in mind their AI has hundreds of millions of data points analyzed so if they were so inclined they already know what it would take financially to get a bad offer delivered. They choose not to do it.


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## Rickos69 (Nov 8, 2018)

Seamus said:


> It would be good for drivers and good for customers actually getting their food delivered. However, UE, DD, etc.etc. would not ever do that because it would cut into what they receive. They would rather keep finding new ways to either trick drivers into taking bad offers or keep hoping to get newbies to take them.
> 
> Keep in mind their AI has hundreds of millions of data points analyzed so if they were so inclined they already know what it would take financially to get a bad offer delivered. They choose not to do it.


Or have something show up to the customer saying, based on your credit score (tip) the chances of you being approved (your order being delivered) are none, slim, average, probable, certain.


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## Rickos69 (Nov 8, 2018)

How about this food for thought.
The companies paid a time/distance based fee to the "independant contractors" that would be worked out, would be fair, and high enough that assured all deliveries would be executed.
And they kept any tips. But then again, what customer would tip if they knew the company is keeping it.
Didn't UE start that way, way back?


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## ColonyMark (Sep 26, 2019)

That would be nice but I have a feeling the delivery Apps would never include that button.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

Rickos69 said:


> How about this food for thought.
> The companies paid a time/distance based fee to the "independant contractors" that would be worked out, would be fair, and high enough that assured all deliveries would be executed.
> And they kept any tips. But then again, what customer would tip if they knew the company is keeping it.
> Didn't UE start that way, way back?


That is exactly what DD used to do until 2018 or 2019(can't remember exactly). They kept individual tips and used them (theoretically) to subsidize the non or low tip customer offers. Once word got out that they were keeping the tips they were accused of "stealing" tips and it didn't go well for them. They stopped doing it because of all the bad press. That was back in the day when you almost never saw an offer less than $10.


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## Judge and Jury (Oct 19, 2019)

Driving With A Purpose said:


> I’m curious what you guys think about UberEats (and Doordash and other delivery services) adding a Counteroffer feature to delivery requests.
> 
> Example: I got a delivery request paying about $8 in the 5am hour as I was driving home earlier this week. It was for driving over 7 miles, with much of it out of my way. I turned it down.
> 
> ...


A new level of cherry picking. Has great possibilities.

Uber allowed rideshare drivers in CA to, more or less, set their own rates.

Seems it didn't work for Uber so they rescinded the program.

Guessing they ain't gonna try it for deliveries.


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## REX HAVOC (Jul 4, 2016)

I'd never get an offer. I'd be countering $25 every time.


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## VanKalDriver (Sep 13, 2021)

What about counter-offer response times? If a human had to review each one, the counters themselves could mean the difference between food arriving at the perfect temperature for the customer (or hotter!) and stone cold if the system is backed up and no other driver takes it in the meantime (or worse, nobody else is pinged!) However, in this day and age of algorithms, those could be used in lieu of humans, no labor expenses after it's set up, and if it works right, should come up with a reasonable counter-offer between pure profit for the company (given the initially rejected lowball offer) and guaranteeing deliveries.

Take a cheapo $3 ping I once got for what was nearby (about half a mile _total_ between pickup and dropoff) when I was about to try eating Checkers (one ping for them so far) for a Shawarma King across the street that I declined between probable wait time and traffic for the dropoff (and probably no tip.) Suppose I countered with $7 because of traffic in the area and wait times. If humans had to deliberate on it and it was right on the borderline of it being too high, they could take a long time to decide whether to accept, counter the counter with an intermediate amount, or just make an offer to another driver and let me move on. The "negotiations" could very well get the food cold, even if they're with the driver and an automated system, and even though I would make reasonably quick decisions, even an algorithm could end up going slow (or it could cut out, perhaps on its end while my phone still has Internet with good weather!)

Though perhaps the customer could step in and add an expected tip like they would normally do (they should still be able to rescind it if the delivery goes wrong somehow) which, in that system, should immediately ping me with that offer to see if it's enough for me. From there it's a short step to the customer being able to _call_ me (or me the customer!) to talk about the situation, verbally negotiating something fair while the customer lets me know if they accept another driver so I can move on. In such a talk, my chief aim would be so the food ultimately arrives to the customer as fresh as possible, regardless of which driver takes it. I can just imagine that cheapo $3 turning into $13 with me calling the customer to ask what's fair and them saying "Oh, I forgot to add the $10 expected tip in there! I'll give you at least that if the food arrives warm and you're not a complete mess." or something like that. Or even better, "For your trouble, I'm throwing an extra $5 on it for $15 if it arrives warm!"

Best case from that last part, I accept, figuring as long as I get at least my original counter-offer $7 total, it would ultimately be cool all around (except for the food, which is warm to hot!) I get right across the street, order is ready and hot to my touch handling it, dropoff is close by with lucky traffic no problem, and after the customer has to wait a bit for the food to _cool_ enough to eat (an over-100% food temperature score in my book), I get a _$20_ tip for it for $23 total! Thumb up, quick and efficient and great communication compliments.

_The above was a hypothetical scenario. It has not actually happened to me yet._

Do you think a system like this could work?


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