More than a quarter of food delivery workers admit to eating people's food
- 28% of food delivery workers say they sometimes help themselves to a customer's food, a new survey found.
- The top complaint among people who ordered out was their food not being warm or fresh.
- Delivers' main beef was customers who give low or no tips.
Food cravings can be hard to ignore -- especially when the goods are in your hands. That might explain why 28% of food delivery workers admitted to sometimes snacking on their customers' orders, a new survey shows
"We're sorry to report that sometimes, impulse gets the best of deliverers, and they violate their sacred duty by taking some of the food!" said U.S. Foods, a foodservice distributor.
The company surveyed more than 1,500 adults who use food delivery apps, including UberEats, Grubhub, DoorDash and Postmates, and nearly 500 food deliverers.
Customers were understandably unhappy at the prospect of a deliverer snagging a few of their fries. When asked, on a scale from 1 ("no big deal") to 10 ("absolutely unacceptable"), how miffed they'd be if their driver had tampered with their food, the average customer responded with an 8.4. Nearly 9 of 10 also said they'd like restaurants to use tamper-evident labels to ensure their food arrives untouched.
The other top customer complaints, according to U.S. Food:
- Food not warm and/or fresh (17%)
- Food delivered late (16%)
- Incorrect orders (12%)
- Restaurants ignoring notes/instructions (12%)
- Inconsistent prices (11%)
- Food gets shaken or messed up during delivery (10%)
- Menus are inconsistent or limited (9%)
From deliverers' standpoint, the biggest source of frustration was receiving no or low tips, according to the survey. Some 63% of customers now tip through a food-ordering app, while 27% give cash, the company found.
Another reason some delivers might steal food -- they're hungry. Delivery jobs pay an average of roughly $13 an hour, according to PayScale. As a full-time job, that's right around the federal poverty line of $25,750 a year for a family of four, while delivery jobs also typically don't include health care and other benefits.