DoorDash contract violations are one of the more annoying parts of dashing for DoorDash. And if you deliver for DoorDash long enough, you’re likely eventually going to get one of these violations.
So what are DoorDash contract violations? The short of it is that you’ll get a DoorDash contract violation when you do something as a Dasher that DoorDash believes violates the independent contractor agreement you have with them. If you get too many contract violations, DoorDash may deactivate you, making it so you can no longer deliver for DoorDash.
In this post, we’ll be taking a deep dive into DoorDash contract violations, explaining what they are and how they work, along with the types of DoorDash contract violations you need to think about.
DoorDash Contract Violations Explained
DoorDash contract violations are essentially a warning you receive when you do something that violates DoorDash’s independent contractor agreement. Here’s how it works.
When you sign up for DoorDash, you sign an independent contractor agreement with DoorDash in which you agree you’ll do certain things. Here’s a copy of the independent contractor agreement I found on the DoorDash website.
For the purposes of this post, the most important part of the agreement is this section which states the following:
For each Delivery Opportunity accepted by CONTRACTOR (“Contracted Service”), CONTRACTOR agrees to retrieve the orders from restaurants or other businesses on time and safely, ensure the order is accurately filled, and complete delivery orders to consumers in a safe and timely fashion.
In essence, when you sign up to be a Dasher, you agree that you’ll deliver orders on time, generally within the timeframes provided by DoorDash in the Dasher app. If you fail to do that, you’re technically in breach of the independent contractor agreement. Hence why DoorDash calls these “contract violations.”
If you receive a contract violation, you’ll get a notice from DoorDash, usually in an email. The email will tell you which delivery had an issue and what the contract violation was. In addition, contract violations will appear in your Dasher app, in the Ratings section of the app. It looks like this:
If you click on the contract violation section, you’ll be able to see more detail about the violation. It’ll show you when it happened, what the issue was, and which restaurant you delivered from.
In the next few sections, we’ll look at what type of contract violations you can get and importantly, how many you can get before you have to worry about being deactivated from DoorDash.
Types of DoorDash Contract Violations
There are two main types of DoorDash contract violations that you’ll likely encounter as a Dasher. These include the following:
- “Extremely” Late Orders
- Order Never Arrived
1. Extremely Late Orders
Extremely late orders are the most common violation you may receive. When you accept a DoorDash order, you’ll receive two timeframes that you need to consider, The first is pickup time. DoorDash calculates when it expects you to be at the restaurant given when the order was placed and how far away you are from the restaurant. Under their terms, they expect you to be at the restaurant by the expected pickup time.
However, DoorDash gives Dashers a 10-minute grace period to arrive at the restaurant without receiving a contract violation. In practical terms, this means you actually need to arrive at the restaurant within 10 minutes of the expected pickup time. It’s important to try to do this because otherwise, you risk a contract violation.
The second timeframe you need to consider is the delivery time. This time is based on when you pick up the order and how this number is determined is based on your location and when you marked “start delivery” in your Dasher app. Again, like the pickup time, you need to deliver your order within this timeframe, but you also get a 10-minute grace period. That means so long as you complete the delivery within 10 minutes of the expected delivery time, you won’t have to worry about a potential contract violation.
2. Order Never Arrived
If you don’t deliver an order, you could receive an “Order Never Arrived” violation. This happens if the customer reports that the order was never delivered. To avoid this violation, make sure you deliver orders to the customer, ideally with the instructions they provided (i.e. if they want you to hand them the order, try to hand them the order).
There are Dashers that steal food, so in some circumstances, this can be a legitimate violation. Most of the time, however, this type of violation is the result of customer fraud (see DoorDash scams), where an order was delivered and the customer claims it wasn’t delivered to get themselves a free meal.
99.9% of customers aren’t going to commit this type of fraud, but unfortunately, if you dash long enough, you will eventually probably run into this scam. If it’s a no-contact, leave at the door order, you’re likely in good shape – my understanding is that for leave at the door orders, the customer essentially accepts that they’ll grab their order immediately from the door and assumes the risk that the order might not be there if they don’t pick it up immediately.
Unfortunately, for orders where you hand the order to the customer, it’s always possible someone could then make a false claim that their order was never delivered. This is what happened to me not too long ago when I delivered an order to a customer, who then put a false claim that I didn’t deliver it.
How Many DoorDash Contract Violations Can You Get?
DoorDash does not say how many contract violations you can receive before you are subject to deactivation. Their deactivation policy makes clear that, in theory, any contract violation is grounds for deactivation.
However, for these small types of contract violations (late order or order never arrived violations), you’ll likely need multiple violations in a short period before you are subject to deactivation. One contract violation of this type is unlikely to lead to deactivation. If you have a good delivery record with DoorDash, such as high customer ratings and a history of delivering orders on time, you’re likely to get more leeway with contract violations.
On the other hand, severe contract violations are likely to get you deactivated. Things like assaulting a customer or aggressively confronting a customer are likely to get you deactivated immediately. That’s why if you receive an unfair contract violation (such as if a customer falsely accuses you of not delivering their order), don’t confront them. This is likely to get you deactivated, even if you’re in the right.
I’ve been delivering for DoorDash since 2016 and I often have one active contract violation on my account most of the time. It’s usually because of a late order. Since I multi-app, I sometimes run into a situation where I take too long to arrive at the restaurant. You obviously want to avoid getting this contract violation if you can, but even I mess up sometimes.
When You Won’t Get A Contract Violation
DoorDash knows that some restaurants are slower than others, so if you arrive at a restaurant on time but are waiting for a while, you won’t get a contract violation for picking up the order late or delivering the order late.
Similarly, if you get a stacked order (i.e. you are assigned to pick up and deliver two orders at the same time), you won’t get a contract violation for late deliveries or late arrival to the restaurant. DoorDash makes this fact clear.
Finally, you may sometimes get orders that weren’t picked up by other Dashers (maybe because the customer didn’t tip). In that situation, the order may already be late. DoorDash understands this and doesn’t penalize you for that either.
How To Get Rid Of DoorDash Contract Violations
Contract violations don’t stay on your account forever. Instead, they’ll remain on your account for the next 100 eligible deliveries. After you’ve completed 100 eligible deliveries, the contract violation will disappear from your account. I don’t know what eligible deliveries mean, but I simply assume it means after 100 more deliveries, the violation will drop off my record. In short, if you keep delivering, eventually the contract violation will fall off your record.
You can also appeal any contract violations you receive. When you receive a contract violation, you’ll get an option in the app to submit additional information about the delivery. Unfortunately, whether this does anything is unclear. I always submit additional information after receiving a violation, but I’ve never had a violation removed after submitting the additional information.
You’ll see many people tell you to take photos of your deliveries or record the GPS location, and while I think this is a smart idea, I don’t think it does much. Maybe it would matter if you got deactivated and had to file a formal appeal, but for getting rid of violations, I work under the assumption that I’m not going to get it removed by stating my side of the story. I still recommend submitting additional information anytime you receive a contract violation, but just don’t count on it to do anything.
Finally, you can also avoid contract violations by simply avoiding getting them in the first place. This specifically applies to late deliveries. If you know you’re not going to get to the restaurant within 10 minutes of the expected pickup time, it can often be better to simply unassign the order, rather than completing the order and getting a violation. Your DoorDash completion rate does matter, but if you have a high enough completion rate, then it’s worth taking the small completion rate hit to avoid a contract violation.
Final Thoughts
DoorDash contract violations are a part of doing DoorDash. You’ll inevitably get a few of them if you do DoorDash long enough. But for the most part, they shouldn’t impact your ability to Dash so long as you don’t get too many of them. If I get a contract violation, I always make sure that I don’t get another one until the old one has fallen off my account.
It’s important to note that you still receive full pay orders that had a contract violation, so you don’t have to worry about your pay in those situations. The main reason to avoid contract violations is to avoid potential deactivation. Again, keep your violations to one active violation at a time. Anytime you get a violation, try to avoid getting a second one until the first one has fallen off your record.
I hope that helps.
This post may contain affiliate links. Financial Panther has partnered with AwardWallet and CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Panther, AwardWallet, and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- Upgrade ($200) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $200 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $200 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Ally Bank ($100) – Of all the banks out there, Ally is, without a doubt, my favorite. At the moment, Ally is offering $100 to customers who open an eligible Ally account and meet the requirements. Here are the step-by-step directions to earn your Ally Bank referral bonus.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($800) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- Fifth Third Bank ($200) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- GO2Bank ($50) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $50 referral bonus.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($25) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $25 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
Very Petty Doordash Deactivation Reason!
So I received a Contract Deactivation for the following Reasons: “Not marking the order Completed after the customer received their food order.” I explained in the appeals deactivation form: “It was raining, the rain got my phone wet that caused the app to freeze and glitche, by the time I walked back to the car, dried my phone off and restarted doordash app the order had already been marked completed on doordash end.
The next day I received an email stated “my account is deactivated for not marking order completed” even though it was and doordash called the customer to verify if “they received their order in which they stated yes.” I get deactivated for not marking order completed even though dasher app already knew the completion of the order status was Completed as I am being tracked in the background thur location by dasher app. I don’t know what is going on with door dash but I feel that is not enough to deactivated me.
Order was picked up in timely fashion delivered in timely manner.
In the independent contract does not state “if you fail to mark order completed account will be deactivated.” The contract states “an order is completed as soon as it arrives to the customer or if customer not available then both you and customer are in communication to agreed upon drop location should you have an issue with locating the customer.” Dasher app has means to track your location thur background and on current dash to know whether an order has been pick up or completed.
I feel doordash is in breech of their own contract and violates me as a dasher.
“The appeal was reviewed and the response was Dasher account permanently remain deactivated. ” It just makes no sense after I have done over 1,200 deliveries and at the current moment have a completion rate of 98% with no contract violations. I GET deactivated for completing an order by delivering the order to the customer in a timely manner. I just couldn’t confirm completed due to wet weather conditions and phone getting wet by the rain during delivery and the app is gliche already so I couldn’t call dasher support right away but in any event the purposes of background locations are for verification of instances like this door dash knew and confirmed the completion of the order with the customer in order to mark completed on their for me.
I Think this is a Very petty Deactivation Reason! I am very offended and would like more advice on how to pursue or further escalate this Deactivation decision.