DoorDash’s CEO denounces ‘appalling’ claim that a major delivery app assigns drivers a desperation score: ‘I would fire anyone who tolerated this’
DoorDash’s CEO has criticized social media claims that a food delivery service rates its drivers based on their “desperation” for work, stating he would fire anyone who deemed such a practice acceptable.
The co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based company shared a screenshot of an unverified post made four days ago, in which an anonymous user claiming to be a developer for a food delivery firm makes allegations about internal practices.
The post’s legitimacy is up for debate: After gaining some traction on the social media platform, it was then highlighted by tech and democracy site Platformer. By that point, however, it had already drawn the attention and condemnation of one of the leading CEOs in the food delivery industry.
The Reddit user alleged that an unnamed delivery service holds weekly meetings where product managers discuss how to extract more from “human assets”—their delivery drivers. “They talk about these people like they are resource nodes in a video game, not fathers and mothers trying to pay rent,” the post states.
The user, who said they recently quit their role and made the post from a public library using a disposable laptop, claims drivers are assigned a “desperation score” based on their work behavior. This hidden metric purportedly flags drivers who accept low-value “garbage” orders without hesitation, then restricts their access to higher-paying orders.
Other unsubstantiated claims include that priority orders are no faster than the timings of what were previously standard orders—regular orders were simply slowed down by five to 10 minutes to make priority orders appear quicker by contrast. The post also alleges that the wording for a driver “benefit fee” is kept deliberately vague, leading users to believe they are helping drivers when the funds are actually funneled into a “corporate slush fund.”
The post, which ends with: “I’m drunk and I’m angry,” caught the attention of DoorDash’s Tony Xu. On [platform], Xu reposted a screenshot of the thread captioned “holy fucking shit.”
Xu responded: “Holy fucking shit is right! This is not DoorDash, and I would fire anyone who promoted or tolerated the kind of culture described in this Reddit post.”
Holy fucking shit is right! This is not DoorDash, and I would fire anyone who promoted or tolerated the kind of culture described in this Reddit post. There’s so much wrong with this post.
– Dashers are not “human assets.”
– Having a metric like a “Desperation Score” is an…— Tony Xu (@t_xu)
Xu—worth $2.7 billion, according to —continued, “Dashers are not ‘human assets'” and “having a metric like a ‘Desperation Score’ is an abomination.” He added that DoorDash has never had a driver benefit fee.
He concluded: “We’re not perfect by *any* stretch of the imagination, but we work every day to make our platform better for everyone who uses it. What’s described here is appalling, and if true, whoever is operating in this manner should be ashamed.”
contacted DoorDash for further comment.
Legislation is gradually catching up with the rapid growth of food delivery services in recent years. For [instance], in 2026, it will be unlawful for a food delivery platform to use tips or gratuity to offset the base pay of delivery drivers.
The law, AB-578, also requires a food delivery platform to provide drivers with an accurate, clearly identified, and itemized breakdown of the pay received for a delivery, including base pay, gratuity or tips, and any promotional bonuses.