Matthew Ervin delivers meals several days a week for DoorDash in Seattle. A few months ago, he had just picked up an order at Buffalo Wild Wings, when the dispatch system went down. With information about his destination no longer visible, Ervin couldn’t take the delivery to his customer. Nor could he take any other orders until the system came back online—three hours later.
Ervin says he’s often unable to start or complete a delivery because the company’s dispatch system fails. “It’s a regular, weekly occurrence,” he says. Fridays are the worst, says Ervin, who’s been delivering for DoorDash since 2018.
System crashes can be crippling for DoorDash’s army of delivery drivers—called dashers—whose every move is dictated by algorithms. And they affect customers whose orders are either lost or delivered late and cold.
“Customers will freak out, [asking] ‘Why hasn’t my order been delivered?’” says Stephanie Adams, a dasher in Morehead City, North Carolina….
Read More…
Source : fastcompany.com
Source link