Why Did DoorDash Close in Amarillo and Lubbock?

This past weekend's weather in Amarillo was enough. We dealt with panic buying and canceled flights. We went back and forth on whether we were going to get a lot of snow or not.

We did have something happen that I was not expecting. There were a lot of restaurants and businesses that had early closings. A lot of them didn't even open on Saturday or had reduced hours.

An Unprecedented Shutdown: Why DoorDash Hit the Brakes

The one thing I was not expecting was what happened with DoorDash. If you don't use the program either as a Dasher or a customer, you may not even notice unless you saw it was posted on Social Media.

Around 7 pm on Friday, DoorDash shut down in Amarillo. It happened in Lubbock, too. Delivery drivers were met with a notice the moment they tried to log in. We also received a message. In nearly three years of dashing, I have never seen the service shut down like this, and we have had worse weather.

Melissa Bartlett/DoorDash

I thought this was strange but a lot of restaurants were closing early. We had just returned from picking up our dinner from Chili's and they even had a note posted on their doors about closing. A lot of the restaurants on our drive home had few cars in the parking lot. There probably weren't a lot of places to pick up from anyway.

The Driver's Perspective: Frustration Over "Dangerous Conditions"

Then I saw another friend and Dasher post about her frustration:

I’ve been delivering for 10 years…..wind, fires, tornados, hail, sorry, floods, snow (like 6 inches) and the only time we ever shut down is for tornadoes or major flooding when I was running my own show or with Texas ToGo.

Tonight, with half an inch, completely clear main roads, DoorDash has shut down because of “dangerous conditions”!

So so mad! - Kristen Hunt

Inside the New Pilot Program: The Inclement Weather Fee

This is not usual. Then on Saturday, while they still haven't opened DoorDash, they sent us drivers a new message. A new pilot program they are going to try. A new fee for customers during inclement weather that will go to the driver. A new fee that I am sure will decrease our tip, but will also force the customer who wouldn't normally tip to have to give us something. So maybe that is good.

Melissa Bartlett/DoorDash

Though DoorDash still was not open by Saturday afternoon, they did have a peak pay promotion for us. Which was funny since we still couldn't get on to deliver, even though I wouldn't have done it anyway.

Melissa Bartlett/DoorDash

We finally received a message Sunday evening saying they were back up and running. The promotion that they ran at that point to get us out and deliver was an extra six dollars per order. I have never seen it that high. I did not go out, though, because I knew the area that I liked to pick up from had mostly closed restaurants anyway.

I enjoyed my weekend of not getting out in this weather, but now that DoorDash is back open, we know we will have a new program to help us when the weather is bad. Even if in the long run I feel like it's going to short the drivers. The customer knows that two dollars is going to the driver, so why tip? I just know how some customers think.