Anabella
I have never worked for a food delivery app, but do order from them often! I think it is interesting that the tipping culture difference between North America and Europe held over to food delivery apps. I have seen lots of news stories about how tips help delivery drivers in North America, as well as how certain apps take a cut, but since I was focusing more on France in this observation the issue did not come up. I have a few friends from high school who drive for UberEats back home in Vancouver, and they definitely use the apps as a way to make a bit extra easy money since they are driving friends around anyways, rather than a serious job. The only people I know who work as full-time delivery drivers work for a specific restaurant (mostly Domino's) rather than a food delivery app.
Catalin
This past summer I applied to be a delivery driver for Instacart and DoorDash in the United States. I was working in a summer job that I really enjoyed, but it wasn’t paying me that much money. Therefore, I wanted to be able to work somewhere which would have flexible hours to work around my other job and be COVID safe. I didn’t want to be working in a job where I would be surrounded by people all day long, especially those who refused to wear masks. Unfortunately, because of COVID there were many others who wanted to be delivery drivers as well. Therefore, there were no spots open during the summer and all I could do was put myself on the waiting list for those two apps. All summer long I never got a response from either one, but ironically I did receive a response from Instacart two weeks ago asking me to sign up now. Of course I can’t because I’m in France at the moment, but it would be nice if I could work a bit over winter break when I return home.
I've noticed the difference in tip culture in France vs. the USA as well! I usually tip 20%, always, and sometimes a little more if it was raining/it was really cold/or it was really far away. Twice this semester, in France, I was thanked by the driver for the "generous" tip -- but in the USA that's never happened before even though the amount is the same. I just feel guilty about tipping less...
ReplyDeleteAs a French person, I think I can try to explain this difference in tip culture. As far as I know, waiters in the USA receive only a low salary from their employer / the restaurant they work for. Thus, the tips they receive from customers is essential for them to have money at the end of the month. In the USA, the tips given to waiters "make their salaries".
DeleteThe situation in France is different: like any other employee, waiters must be paid by their employer / the restaurant: they receive at least the SMIC (French minimum wage, 1520€ = $18000 a month). It means that in France, the price of the meal is set by the restaurant so that it includes the wage of the waiters. Therefore, one could argue that the price of a dish in a French restaurant is higher than the price of a dish in a US restaurant (all things equal / for the same dish and the same food quality). Knowing that, French customers will only give a small tip to the waiters (2€ is the "norm"). They know that the tips are only an "extra" for the waiters, not the main component of their wage.
But there is a problem when it comes to delivery drivers: delivery drivers only receive a low amount of money from the delivery app (like UBEREats or Deliveroo). Therefore, it could be "just" to give a higher tip to delivery drivers (like a 20% tip). I just think that most French customers do not have such reasoning. They just do not change their habits (and this could be unintentional, absent proper information about how much delivery drivers are paid).
I hope my explanation was clear... and accurate! Please tell me if I am wrong (especially concerning the wage of waiters in the USA).