DoorDash Confidential with Charlie (another PennSilverTaco thread)!

Yup! Obviously I'm gonna have to do it this year because it's the law, but I refuse to work a job where I'm an independent contractor! I refuse to be taxed as both employee and employer! My job at Navmar, all the tax stuff is taken care of and I just fill out some forms...

The same thing happened at the detail shop; Accountants deal with all the tax stuff that I'm too lazy to do, and I just fill out some forms and file the returns...

My boss at the bar initially wanted to put me on as an independent contractor, but I protested this after hearing some stories from another guy who was "independently contracted". The likelihood of a hefty tax return diminishes when you are an "independent contractor" and you often end up owing more money to the government. I believe I had to fill out a 10-99 once during my time at Puck, but I didn't end up owing more money to the government. I am officially going on hiatus from DoorDash until I know how this is going to effect me. Thankfully, I have made less than $250 from DoorDash between January 6th and and January 19th. If I end up being in the hole to the government when I file my taxes this year, I'm done with DoorDash!

 

@shakerhood

What year was that Mustang of yours that had particularly cold A/C?

 

2002 GT. I literally had to turn the temperature control down because it was so cold.

 

How did that end up in this thread?

 

You could have delivered Ice Cream to people in it, lol.

 

One time I actually cancelled a delivery because I was expected to bring ice cream from a Cold Stone Creamery in North Wales to someone's house in Philly!

 

Was that going to be too far?

 

"Far" is not the right word; In terms of miles to be driven, no it wasn't...

In terms of traffic and general aggravation, and the fact that it was summer and the ice cream probably would have melted on the way there even with the A/C in the truck cranked, yes!

 

One of the biggest problems with Uber Eats is that it has not caught on in the suburbs the way DoorDash has; Uber Eats is HUGE in Philly, but not so much in the suburbs. Their other obnoxious problem is that the same algorithm for picking up people is applied to doing food deliveries, and as such there are no restrictions on Philly residents ordering food from restaurants 15-20 miles away in the suburbs...

I’ve also gone online just for grins a couple times in the last few weeks, and one time when I had both DoorDash and Uber Eats on at the same time, I got a call from Uber to pick up at a nearby McDonald’s with a $5.39 payout if I remember correctly. At the same time, I got a more lucrative order through DoorDash, immediately declined the Mickey D’s order, and logged out of Uber. The last time I went online with Uber, I got not orders whatsoever and quickly gave up; With DoorDash, I generally get an order within five minutes of signing on!

 

I recently went on a rant about the first and only Edible Arrangements order I went on; It was either in late December 2019 or early January 2020...

The order itself was annoying because it had the ability to melt if I had the heat in my truck too high; Edible Arrangements has a fleet of specially equipped minivans with refrigerated cargo areas that are separate from the passenger area so the driver and passenger can run the heat in the winter without ruining the inventory, but apparently they were understaffed. My theory, which I’ve discussed before, is that Edible Arrangements negotiated a flat rate for DoorDashers; The problem is that I only got paid $9.50 to deliver a glorified fruit basket 11 miles one way, in a different county! I then had to drive all the way back to Central Bucks!

I absolutely nuked Edible Arrangements in my post-delivery review, citing a far delivery distance and low base pay, and haven’t been sent there again.

 

@Taco critter

Most recently, I found out that I made enough money in roughly six months of driving for DoorDash to show up on the tax radar at both state and federal levels. I did not save any of my gas receipts, but my former neighbor who is a tax attorney is going to put me in contact with a good accountant and see if we can do a rough estimate to write off expenses like a oil changes and gas for my truck.

If I end up having to fork over an obscene amount of money to the government for taxes this year because I’m considered an “independent contractor”, then my Dashing days are over!

 

What is particularly galling about Edible Arrangements is they have a whole fleet of Grand Caravans and Transit Connects built especially for delivering perishable items; They pay their drivers a base wage of probably at least nine bucks an hour whether they are actually delivering something or not, and they are doing it in a company vehicle. Edible Arrangements pays for insurance, maintenance, gas, etc...

When I signed up for these food delivery apps, I was expecting it to be more like delivering pizzas without having to help out around the pizzeria when it was slow; For the most part, it has been, but Edible Arrangments needs to hire more drivers and order more refrigerated minivans so they’re not relying on Dashers with pickup trucks to make deliveries!

 

A friend of mine was expecting me to crack 150K miles on my truck within two or three years if I delivered for DoorDash any longer!

 

And I am officially on hiatus from DoorDash until I get my taxes squared away!

 

If this were a primary source of income and I actually made a living wage it would be one thing, but having to pay taxes as both employer and employee when I’m just a glorified weekend delivery driver is BS...

 

I effectively worked for four different employers between January and December of 2019! Luckily, three of them automatically withheld taxes from my paychecks and all but one of those three have sent me the paperwork I need to file my tax returns?

I just dropped $391 and change on replacing the belt, pulleys, and tensioner in my truck; Do you think I could write that off as a business expense since I put almost double the miles on my truck in 2019 that I did in previous years?

 

Here’s a story from my early days of doing Uber Eats, when I was still crazy enough (or perhaps stupid enough) to make deliveries in Philly...

It was probably January or February 2019; I stopped to put gas in my truck...

I had the nozzle in my hand and was preparing to insert it when this black woman, probably somewhere between the ages of 35 and 50, walks between the gas pump and my truck; She almost bumped into me, but she had this emotionless look on her face and didn’t give a shit...

She just kept walking as if there was nothing there, even though it was painfully obvious I was getting gas because I had the damn nozzle on my hand! She did not appear to be homeless or anything, as her clothes seemed to be clean and in good shape; I didn’t say anything to her, but I was rather pissed that she just walked between my truck and the gas pump without even saying excuse me!

 

I refuse to pick up orders in Philly or bring them to Philly...

 

Also, one thing I noticed both when I delivered for a pizza place and when I Uber and DoorDash is that the size of the tip often decreases the bigger the customer's house gets. My dad says the reason those people could probably afford such a house is because they don't tip...

 

I did DoorDash yesterday afternoon just because it was a nice day and I wanted to drive around with the windows down, and I also did it on Sunday for the first time in over a month; I intend on doing it tonight once I finish working out at the gym. I have a friend and former neighbor who is a tax attorney and is helping me write off certain truck maintenance items (oil changes, new tires, etc) so I don’t get nailed to the wall by taxes. Apparently, if I make less than $600, I don’t have to report it to the government!