Having a side hustle isn’t uncommon in today’s world. Some people get a second job to supplement their income, while others work on contracts for mobile services such as Uber or Doordash.

However, one issue with Doordash is that the base wage is sometimes as low as $2 an order, and tips are few and far between.

Since the base wage is so low, employees have to live off of tips. Not only is it not worth it to drive far out for so little money, but previously, if you denied low-income orders, you wouldn’t be punished on the app.

Some employees abused this feature, however, and they would skip all the orders until they got a high-paying one, causing wait times to go up.

This recently changed with Doordash’s new “overall dasher rating” system. The new system combines your review score with your acceptance, on-time and completion rates into a 0-100 score that determines your dasher rank.

To keep a platinum rank, you have to have 85 out of 100 points. While this is a relatively simple feat, when you have to deny low-paying orders when they aren’t worth it, you lower your dasher rating.

Including acceptance rate in ranking is a measure to combat those who cherry-pick through orders. Still, it negatively affects all drivers by forcing them to take bad orders, lest their dasher rank go down.

Having a platinum rating is important because it gives drivers more opportunities for higher-paying orders, the ability to schedule a week in advance before their dash and a better support system in case of emergencies.

These are all important for Dashers, making their jobs slightly easier and better.

Nevertheless, this new system punishes workers for not wanting to take an order that isn’t worth their time or money.

We’re all struggling right now; however, if you’re going to order from a mobile delivery service, you should factor in the cost of a tip in your budget.

If you can’t tip, consider using Doordash’s pick-up option. This not only saves a delivery fee but also prevents you from having to leave a tip.

As a Doordash worker myself, operating a vehicle costs a lot of money. Plus, the gas is certainly not free, and the cost will only go up as we reach summer.

As drivers, we do what we can to expedite your food to you as quickly as we can, but that also means that we deserve a tip for our efforts.

Not everyone who orders doesn’t mean not to tip, and honestly, there have been times when I have not tipped on Doordash because the app did not remind me to do so.

If Doordash sent out a push notification after every delivery to encourage customers to tip, the number of tips received would likely increase.

Not to mention that Doordash made it even more difficult to tip drivers, with a relatively recent change requiring you to be assigned a driver before adding a tip.

The old system allowed customers to tip before placing an order, but the recent change made it harder to tip. You cannot tip until you’re assigned a driver. Doordash should revert to its old, more streamlined tip system.

If Doordash wants to encourage us to place lower-paying orders, they should make it easier to tip your driver.

Some companies have a tipping prompt on checkout, allowing you to leave a tip before you complete your order, hence making it easier and more worthwhile for the drivers.

Overall, I enjoy delivery driving, and I especially enjoy the supplemental income that comes along with it.

However, due to changes in the system on DoorDash’s part and the prices of everything going up again, if you order food delivery, you should leave a tip for your driver. If you can’t afford to tip, consider alternative ways to get your food.

Andrew Sarhan is a freshman mass communication major from Baton Rouge, La.