Starting Monday, DoorDash is offering grocery delivery in 15 minutes or less in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York.
But instead of the army of gig workers it typically relies on to fulfill orders, DoorDash is forming a new company – called DashCorps – to employ couriers to handle the deliveries.
Unlike DoorDash’s gig workers, who set their own hours and decide which orders to deliver, DashCorps workers will work a set schedule, usually between 25-40 hours per week, said Max Rettig, DoorDash’s vice president of public policy. Pay starts at $15 per hour; they will also be offered medical, dental and vision insurance.
The move is a big departure for DoorDash, which has long fought efforts to classify its gig workforce as employees because it would significantly raise the company’s costs. DoorDash backed Proposition 22, a ballot measure approved by California voters in 2020 that lets DoorDash, Uber and others treat their workers as independent contractors.
Daniel Morgan, a senior portfolio manager for Synovus Trust, said the new company may mark the beginning of a shift toward a full-time employment model for companies like DoorDash and Uber, who have faced continuing challenges to their gig-based model. A California judge ruled in August that Propositional 22 was unconstitutional, for example.