DoorDash Is No Longer Allowing Walker Deliveries in 2024

As of 2023 (and still true in 2024+), it’s no longer possible to dash on foot — DoorDash quietly removed the option from the app. According to its official documentation, DoorDash supports the following vehicle types:

• Motorized vehicles:
  • Car
  • Motorcycle
  • Scooter
• Non-motorized vehicles:
  • Bicycle
  • E-bike
  • Pizza bicycle

Even though you can’t use dashing as a way to get your 10,000 steps in anymore, DoorDash still offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to vehicle choice, which makes it easy to dash without a car. 

If you want to ditch gas power for human power, dashing on a bike will still allow you to earn money while getting a top-notch workout, just like dashing on foot used to — and it lets you avoid the hassle and expenses associated with cars, too. 

Alternatively, if the primary appeal of dashing as a walker is that you don’t have a car (or don’t want to use yours due to car insurance or depreciation concerns), then motorcycles and scooters are also viable options. Renting a car for DoorDash is also a possibility, but it usually doesn’t make much sense economically. 

How dashing as a walker used to work

Back before DoorDash removed walking as an option, it worked just like any other vehicle: to become a walker, you’d first have to contact DoorDash support via phone or chat to get walking added to your account, and then you’d select your preferred “vehicle” at the beginning of your dash. You could switch between your car and walking as often as you’d like. 

DoorDash always filters the orders it sends you based on the vehicle you have chosen. So, if you have your vehicle set to bicycle, then it will only offer you orders that are feasible to complete on a bike. After all, it wouldn’t make much sense to do a 12-mile delivery on a bike — unless you’re an olympic level cyclist, the food would probably be cold by the time you arrived at the customer’s address. 

Dashing as a walker was only an option in very densely populated walkable cities, like NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, and Portland, and even then, DoorDash would only send you orders with the shortest distances — the ones that you could complete on foot within a reasonable amount of time. Unsurprisingly, that’s not very many, and that’s likely one of the reasons DoorDash stopped supporting walking. 

Can you fool the system and dash on foot anyway?

Probably not. While, theoretically, you could set your vehicle to a bike and then only accept very short distance orders that you think you could complete as fast as a biker, you’d be going against DoorDash rules, which is grounds for deactivating your account — that means you wouldn’t be allowed to dash anymore.

Consider why DoorDash likely removed support for walking in the first place: not enough orders, and the orders that did come through probably led to customer complaints due to extended wait times. 

If you try to fly under the radar by only taking short distance orders, you’ll likely end up wasting a lot of time waiting for a suitable order to come through. Then, if you do take it, the customer might think you took too long and give you a bad rating, which can lead to an account deactivation. And if you misjudge how long an order will take and don’t deliver it on time, your account can get dinged for an incomplete order — enough of those will also lead to an account deactivation.

Ryan Shaw, who has been dashing for four years, adds that “You'll also get a contract violation if you're late to the store for pickup. I had an order to pick up where the store was half a mile away, but I got caught in a traffic jam and arrived 15 minutes later than when the app expected me to. There was nothing I could do about the traffic, but it's still a contract violation, and although you can dispute the CV, Doordash is incredibly slow reviewing disputes. This happened 3 weeks ago and hasn't been reviewed yet. CVs fall off your record after 100 deliveries, but if you don't dispute them they can deactivate you really any time they want.”

Keep in mind too that people tend to make repeat orders from the same restaurant, so if a customer frequently uses DoorDash to order from their favorite restaurant a few blocks over, they’ll likely notice that you took a lot longer than all the other Dashers, and they’ll ding your rating — if your Dasher rating falls below 4.2, your account will be deactivated. Remember, the average biking speed is 12-17 mph, and the average walking speed is only 3 mph, so you’ll always be at least four times slower than every other Dasher. That doesn’t bode well for your success. 

Plus, if you can only accept a very small number of orders, you won’t be able to make Top Dasher status and enjoy the perks that come along with that, like being able to “Dash Now” whenever there is enough availability in your area.

The best alternative to walking

If you want to make your dashing experience as similar to walking as possible - and you live in one of those densely populated cities - your best bet is to get a bike. You can find used bikes online for as low as $100-$200, or you can see about renting one or borrowing a friend’s. Once you’ve got a bike, you can start working for DoorDash as a biker.

Faith McLaughlin, who has been dashing for one year, says “Some cities like San Diego have those rental bikes all over the place, so picking one up and dropping it off somewhere else in the city is super easy. They have e-bike rentals in a lot of places too.” 

Get started with DoorDash

If you’re ready to start earning on your schedule, sign up now to become a Dasher — it takes just 5 minutes, and you can start making money within days (subject to approval and local availability).