Your food delivery driver? He’s the company’s co-founder

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Category: Business

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Unlocking Word Meanings

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.

  1. hum / hʌm / (v.) – to be busy or filled with activity
    Example:

    The bar was humming on a Friday night. It was so full of people.


  2. salaried / ˈsæl ə rid / (adj.) – being paid a salary
    Example:

    The company’s salaried workers will receive additional benefits.


  3. shift / ʃɪft / (n.) – the period of time that a person is scheduled to work
    Example:

    I’m working the night shift tomorrow.


  4. en route / ɑn ˈrut / (adv.) – along the way
    Example:

    I bought coffee en route to the office.


  5. independent contractor / ˌɪn dɪˈpɛn dənt ˈkɒn træk tər / (n.) – a person or company that provides products or services to another company
    Example:

    The hotel is looking for an independent contractor that will provide laundry services to its hotel guests.


Article

Read the text below.

Andy Fang is chief technology officer and a co-founder of DoorDash, the largest food delivery company in the US.


Once a month, he gets into the shoes of the contractors the company hires to pick up food from restaurants and hand-deliver them to hungry customers at home or at the office. One time, Fang was trying to find the restaurant where he needed to pick up two orders, but the DoorDash app wasn’t pointing him in the right direction. Searching for the restaurant’s address online gave him the right address. It’s this kind of error that Fang wants to encounter to be able to solve.


Fang is one of a growing number of executives who occasionally do the hourly work that makes their companies hum. Starbucks’, Uber’s, Lyft’s and even Air New Zealand’s CEOs are clocking in a few hours of work to understand their employees’ perspectives. Amazon also has a program encouraging employees to shadow operations workers for a week.


DoorDash requires thousands of its salaried employees in the U.S., Canada and Australia to complete at least four deliveries per year under a program called WeDash. Employees are strongly encouraged to make deliveries monthly. They can use work time to complete those shifts, and they keep any money they make.


DoorDash was founded in late 2012 by Tony Xu, Stanley Tang and Fang. Ten years later, more than 6 million DoorDash drivers — all independent contractors — fulfilled 1.7 billion orders worldwide just in 2022. Fang says he has made real changes to DoorDash’s app based on his experiences.


Another new feature, introduced recently, arose from employee feedback in WeDash. The feature, Dash Along the Way, lets drivers specify where they want to start making deliveries and then assigns them orders that they can complete en route. “It’s kind of a habit in some ways, I try to do it monthly, and I think you just enjoy doing it. And if Stanley or Tony are available, sometimes we’ll do it together. But it’s just an opportunity for me to kind of get to know the product.”


This article was provided by The Associated Press.


Viewpoint Discussion

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.

Discussion A

  • Do you think it’s important for CEOs and executives of large companies to occasionally experience the challenges faced by their employees? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • What are the potential benefits for executives like Andy Fang engaging in hands-on experiences with workers? How can this influence the executives’ decision-making when it comes to their business? Discuss.

Discussion B

  • Do you think employees feel more motivated when they see their executives work with them? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Aside from clocking in a few hours of work, how else can executives understand their employees’ perspectives (ex. conducting surveys, having casual conversations with employees)? Discuss.