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> Their $8 McDonalds order with a $14 delivery fee.

It seems everyone is dancing around the obvious central fact: the drivers get an embarrassingly small amount of that $14 fee. The customer pays a premium, the driver is paid a pittance, it’s hardly surprising there’s an expectations mismatch around customer service.

If the delivery apps charged a fee that accurately represented their role in the transaction (running automated software matching driver with customer) it might be a better experience for both customers and drivers. But the companies have sky high valuations they now need to deliver on, so they can’t.

> Delivery has figured out how to get to hallway doors for 50-100 years. This is a solved problem.

Right. Pre delivery apps I’d order in NYC and have no problems with doorstep delivery. So apply simple logic: what’s changed? The customers haven’t. The drivers haven’t. But there’s a new middleman.

> Delivery has figured out how to get to hallway doors for 50-100 years. This is a solved problem.

Most new-ish developments I've seen have a central lobby or mail room that handles all deliveries. All external doors are locked and require a keycard. No one is delivering to your front door.

Of course, whether they're staffed at 1am to handle your Doordash delivery is a separate issue.

> Their $8 McDonalds order with a $14 delivery fee.

Yep, I'd agree that paying that fee for a service which doesn't have to deliver to your door is silly, but some people still do it

> In New York, if I’m coming to the door to meet the delivery, then I may as well just walk the 1/4 block to get it myself.

As a fellow city dweller: yep, I'd agree there, too (that's why I don't order $8 mcwhatevers with $14 delivery) but to each their own

It seems unreasonable to expect every driver to know how to legally park around, efficiently gain access to, and navigate the twists and turns of every building, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect every building tenant/employee to do so for their own. If your building was a house, you wouldn't expect the driver to know how to gain entry and navigate to a specific room in it. That's what an apartment building is: a way bigger and more difficult to navigate house.

> In New York, if I’m coming to the door to meet the delivery, then I may as well just walk the 1/4 block to get it myself.

Then people in this situation should do that.