At DoorDash, safety is always a top priority. The overwhelming majority of deliveries on our platform – more than 99.99% – are completed without any safety-related incident at all and the rate of motor vehicle fatalities involving Dashers is significantly less than the national average. Even so, we’re constantly working hard to make dashing even safer because any injury, any death is a tragedy.
We recently launched several new safety features including SafeDash™ Check-In to give Dashers greater peace of mind while dashing, Real-Time Safety Alerts to help keep Dashers out of harm’s way, and making it easier than ever for Dashers to report a safety incident. These initiatives build on the measures we have already put in place, including free occupational accident insurance for Dashers and our in-app safety toolkit, SafeDash™.
Today, DoorDash is taking the next step forward and announcing a new set of safety initiatives to further help Dashers stay safe and focused while on the road. The new initiatives include empowering some Dashers with advanced telematics, reducing the number of notifications while dashing, limiting in-app interactions and making the first dash even easier.
Importantly, we’re also proud to support the US Department of Transportation’s Call to Action campaign. This critical new campaign aims to address the national road safety crisis and help make America’s roads safer for everyone. We support the aims of the campaign and agree that everyone can play a role in addressing the national crisis.
Empowering Dashers With Advanced Telematics
DoorDash has launched a pilot to help Dashers who chose to participate better understand and learn from their own driving behaviors to stay even safer while driving. We’ve partnered with Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics service provider, to give participating Dashers access to their DriveWell Go® app.
Here’s how it works: Dashers who chose to participate in the pilot downloaded and use the DriveWell Go® app while they are dashing. The app uses key data about speed, distance traveled and braking, in order to provide Dashers with helpful and real-time insights about their driving.
Launched in late 2022, thousands of Dashers across the U.S. are participating in the pilot, and we are evaluating feedback about the pilot to help inform the pilot’s future and how we may evolve the initiative to best serve Dashers.
Reducing Notifications While Driving
To help Dashers stay focused while on the road, we’re rolling out changes that will reduce the number of in-app notifications Dashers may receive while dashing. While driving, Dashers will receive select notifications such as a change to the delivery address, messages from their customer, or if an order has been reassigned after being timed out. Other notifications will be muted until the Dasher indicates in the app that they’ve arrived at their destination. These improvements have been rolled out to all iOS users and will be gradually rolled out to Android users in the coming months.
Encouraging Customers to Message Safely
We’re also encouraging customers not to reach out to their Dashers to chat via the app when the Dasher is driving. When customers send a message to their Dasher while their Dasher is driving, they will now receive a notification that their Dasher may be on the road. The message encourages customers to reconsider messaging the Dasher while they are driving and helps manage expectations that their Dasher may not respond immediately. Data from our initial pilot found this message reduced customer’s in-app messaging to Dashers while the Dasher is driving.
Quick, Easy One-Tap Messaging
To further improve the dashing experience, we are piloting a new one-tap response feature to make in-app messaging easier for Dashers. Dashers will be able to easily reply to a customer’s message with just a single tap of a button. Depending on the customer’s message, Dashers will have a handful of commonly-used responses to reply with, such as ‘I’m on my way to the store’ or ‘I’m waiting for your order.’ We plan to launch the initial pilot shortly.
Making it Simpler to Decline Orders
We’re making it even easier for Dashers to decline an order if they choose. We have launched a pilot where Dashers can decline an order with just two taps of the app. Importantly, Dashers can still decline an order without ever having to touch the app by simply not accepting the order. This even more streamlined decline process will be rolled out throughout 2023.
Making First Dashes Even Easier
We’re committed to finding even more ways to help new Dashers understand what a delivery is before they ever get on the road. By showing them exactly what to expect in the app, we’re setting the stage for an ever better – and more importantly – even safer first dash. Now, Dashers will have the opportunity to go through a short demo order in their Dasher app as part of their sign up process. This demo takes them through the entire order experience – from accepting an order to marking it complete – and removes any guesswork or anxiety that might come with their first delivery.
Importantly, our work to make dashing even safer and better is never finished. We’re always listening to our community of Dashers for ways to further improve their experience on the road, and we will continue working tirelessly to develop new safety features and initiatives.
