# DD driver used their 7or 8 y/o kid to do the restaurant pickup



## Sodium101 (May 23, 2018)

I went to do a burger pickup at a local chain. I was waiting by the register and a little Latina girl with a cell phone came up and asked about an order. Turns out she was doing a DD pickup. A different worker called out an order and said Door Dash. Little girl was the pickup person. 

Parent was somewhere in the parking lot. It was 9pm on a Sunday and the strip mall parking lot was empty. No parking issues what so ever. The worker made the girl put the cell phone in her pocket first and then handed her the bags. Its not the safest area so the worker was looking out for her. She had to be about 7 or 8 years old. I have a niece that looks to be the same age.


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## oicu812 (Aug 29, 2016)

Report the parent for child labor.


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## Bpr2 (Feb 21, 2017)

What if it were a midget that looked young?


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## oicu812 (Aug 29, 2016)

Bpr2 said:


> What if it were a midget that looked young?


Report nevertheless. Midgets shouldn't be delivering food. They should be in the circus.


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## johnx (Jul 29, 2017)

don't be ridiculous. of course the kid can help. in 15 or 20 years this kid vs. your kid is probably going to be an interesting comparison


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## aeiou_- (Jul 5, 2015)

I think the right thing to do is to separate the child from the parent. I'm not even trying to be funny, I fail most often anyways. This is what I really, truly, deeply, ardently believe needs to be done. I'm all for it. Lets do it. I mean..c'mon! I'm assuming the kid is going to deliver to the door, too. They're obviously fishing for pity tips, and that is not right with me. Something needs to be done, delivery dudes.


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## Uberdude1267 (Sep 21, 2016)

I've taken my kids (12 girl, 11 boy) with me for DD and UE. My boy actually asks to be woken up at 7 a.m. to go with me. My daughter joins a little later. My boy likes being my navigator, watching the GPS and telling me where to turn, etc. At McDonald's, he plays video games at one of the tables they have with a tablet while I'm waiting for the order. My daughter said she goes with me to get out of the house. Who am I to say know if my kids want to spend time out of the house AND working with me? We talk about lots of things including using quick analytical skills to determine if we accept a delivery request or not. I teach them about how to follow street signs to find locations. We end up sharing a meal at someplace when we get hungry. Oh, and aside from them wanting to do it, I have discussed with them that hopefully someone gives "pity tips". That's called a marketing gimmick so I see it as another small lesson in how business/life works? Does anyone really see anything wrong with taking your own kids around doing deliveries?


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## oicu812 (Aug 29, 2016)

When the kids are used to do the actual pickup and dropoff, that is the problem.


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## Uberdude1267 (Sep 21, 2016)

oicu812 said:


> When the kids are used to do the actual pickup and dropoff, that is the problem.


Why is it a problem for your child to get out of the car, walk up with you to a restaurant or home, greet an individual, pick up or drop off a package, thank them, and repeat?


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## oicu812 (Aug 29, 2016)

I'm sure the state is interested in how you exploit your children for financial gain.


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## Invisible (Jun 15, 2018)

Uberdude1267 said:


> Why is it a problem for your child to get out of the car, walk up with you to a restaurant or home, greet an individual, pick up or drop off a package, thank them, and repeat?


The problem is that the child's name isn't on the account for the app, so technically they're not authorized to pickup/deliver.


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## Uberdude1267 (Sep 21, 2016)

DoorDash themselves said people can accompany you on a delivery. If I'm standing right next to them at the register, there is no issue. Every time I've done it with them, all I get are smiles. Regarding state laws, I'm not out there 12 hours a day. I really don't think there can be anyone that going around time with my kids a couple of hours is somehow different because it's "work".


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## Sodium101 (May 23, 2018)

In this case, there was no accompanying adult at 9pm in the restaurant. It was 1/3 filled with people including a crazy homeless woman who walked in and tapped me on the shoulder talking to herself in a baby voice. She was eating food that people left on the tables before it got clear away.


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## Invisible (Jun 15, 2018)

Uberdude,

Sorry I didn’t read your post correctly. So if you bring your kids to the restaurant and door, then I see no problems with that. It’s the ones I see where the kid is in the restaurant alone.


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## Bob Reynolds (Dec 20, 2014)

Technically using children, under the age of 14, for any part of a commercial delivery service would be a violation of child labor laws and is never allowed. 

The problem here is when other businesses are involved and benefiting from the child"s labor. (restaurant, door dash). The Fair Labor Standards Act covers this. They don't want jobs interfering with a child education or decision to stay in school. 

It may be possible with a child workers permit that a child ages 14-16 would be able to work limited hours and not past 9 PM. That part is going to depend on the State where the gig is being accomplished.

While is is not illegal for children to ride around with their parents while the parent is working, it does become illegal when the child participates in that work if they are under 14.

The only exception, to this rule that I know of, is when a child is working directly in a parents business (retail store, etc.). The difference would be that no one is directing the business of that store and there is not an independent contractor gig as part of the business.


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## Uberdude1267 (Sep 21, 2016)

Thanks for the explanation of what the law says. Now, speaking in terms of reality, when my kids ask me to wake him up at 7 a.m. so he can go with me to do UE deliveries for a few hours, I'm going to say no because of labor laws? We get a ping, I say "get your crocs on", we drive less than 1/2 mile to any of the surrounding restaurants, delivery it, and go home. Throughout the process, they see how I treat people at the restaurant, customers, etc. My daughter actually asked to drop off a bag herself to the customer (I was on the porch with her) and she is SHY! She actually made eye contact and greeted the person although somewhat mumbly. But she did it. Forget nonsense labor law talk. UE for a young kid isn't labor yet, if it were, labor for a young kid is a good thing. There's a difference between labor and exploitation which I think is getting lost here if anyone really is concerned about a child driving around with mom or dad in an air conditioned car to carry some burgers and fries.


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## Bob Reynolds (Dec 20, 2014)

All I can tell you is that it is not allowed in the United States.

In Florida children 14-15 can not work in "public messenger service" which UE might be. There are also limited hours that a child can work. During the school year they can't work past 7:00 PM. When school is out they can not work past 9:00 PM.

Here is the Florida link to a chart that shows the requirements and exceptions:

http://www.hr.fsu.edu/pdf/publications/compliance/childlaborlaw.pdf

There is a potential $11,000 fine for each violation of the child labor laws.

If someone reports a child delivering UE then the department of labor would investigate. My experience has been that those folks do not play around and you would have some expensive legal issues if you get caught.

The child labor laws go back to as early as 1914 and 1938 when children were working with their parents in textile mills. Here is the wiki that describes this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_laws_in_the_United_States


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## Uberdude1267 (Sep 21, 2016)

Bob Reynolds said:


> All I can tell you is that it is not allowed in the United States.


Too many charts and things to click on. I understand you're just trying to put this info out there and do someone a solid (referencing an old cheesy movie with Tom Selleck in prison).

But I'll take my chances. Regarding the working past 7 p.m. law, heck, I don't even work past 3 p.m. at my real job, I think, even though I'm physically required to sit there until 5 p.m. Between my "getting ready to work" morning break, water cooler chit chat, look at that - it's lunch time, 2 p.m. food coma, and then the random surfing on the internet, a company is lucky if they get 1/2 day out of an employee nowadays  Seriously though, I think the only way I'd get even reported for this is if I went to a McD's owned by the original poster that said taking them on deliveries is wrong. And that person, I think, meant when you send the kid out of the car and into the restaurant by themselves which is not what I do. Mine go with me sometimes and on weekend mornings. Clearly, what I do is not any kind of tyrannical practice treating them as servants.


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## toyotarola (Apr 7, 2016)

Bob Reynolds said:


> The only exception, to this rule that I know of, is when a child is working directly in a parents business (retail store, etc.). The difference would be that no one is directing the business of that store and there is not an independent contractor gig as part of the business.


If the parent is a 1099 gig worker, then legally it IS the parent's business, so the kid can work without heeding labor laws that apply to actual employment.


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## Bob Reynolds (Dec 20, 2014)

toyotarola said:


> If the parent is a 1099 gig worker, then legally it IS the parent's business, so the kid can work without heeding labor laws that apply to actual employment.


Why don't you give the labor department a call and ask them the rules in Nevada?

It looks like you must be at least 16 years old to be able to do this.

Here is the section from Nevada that you might need to check:

NRS 609.221  Prohibition by Labor Commissioner of employment of children under age of 16 years in certain sales activities.
3.  No child under the age of 16 years may be employed, permitted or required to work in any capacity, including, without limitation, *as an independent contractor*, in connection with the solicitation for sale or selling of any product, good or service at any time or place or in any manner prohibited by the Labor Commissioner pursuant to subsection...

The good news is the penalty is only $2500 in Nevada.

The bad news is there is also a criminal penalty:

NRS 609.245  Employment of child under 14 years of age unlawful without written permission of district judge or designee.  Every person who employs and every parent, guardian or other person having the care, custody or control of such child, who permits to be employed, by another, any child under the age of 14 years at any labor whatever, in or in connection with any store, shop, factory, mine or any inside employment not connected with farmwork, housework or employment as a performer in a motion picture, without the written permission for the employment signed by a judge of the district court of the county of the child's residence, or signed by a juvenile master, referee or probation officer authorized to sign such a permit by a judge of the district court of the county of the child's residence, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Here is the statute:

https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-609.html


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## Uberdude1267 (Sep 21, 2016)

So the labor laws prefer I leave them home playing video games rather than driving around singing songs on the radio, talking with them, having lunch together, etc? I'll take my chances and trust common sense will prevail.


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## oicu812 (Aug 29, 2016)

No one said you can't take your kids with you. Most have pointed it out that you shouldn't use your kids to do the actual pickup and delivery. Having them standing next to you or staying in the car while you do the actual pickup and delivery, no one questioned that.


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## Uberdude1267 (Sep 21, 2016)

To me, it's crazier (at least in Miami) to leave my kids in the car while I go in and do a pickup. The food isn't always ready and there's a wait time sometimes. I'd rather have them with me. This will be my last post on this just to avoid redundancy. But I'll continue taking them in with me (talking weekends, 7 - 10 a.m. or so) and having them help out (do pickup and dropoff). That's the part where they are learning how to deal with adults, provide customer service, etc.


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## johnx (Jul 29, 2017)

Uberdude1267 said:


> Does anyone really see anything wrong with taking your own kids around doing deliveries?


they shouldn't have any problem with it at all. Children like to work, especially with parents. Its been a good thing for thousands of years. But if you listen to the gripes here, you should have them playing video games by themselves.


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## aeiou_- (Jul 5, 2015)

I used to always want to be around my pops as a child. Didn't matter if it meant I had to help him with gardening in 100 degree weather growing up. It's really not a big deal, but "technically" you could get in trouble if you bumped into the wrong person with a strict interpretation of the law. It would take a real jerk with no life to make your life hell though


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