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DoorDash is preparing to shell out more than $50 million this quarter to help drivers cope with soaring fuel costs as gas prices hammer consumers and businesses alike, with California emerging as a major pressure point in the nationwide crunch.
The San Francisco-based delivery giant said Wednesday that the extra spending will fund temporary fuel-price relief for drivers in the US and Canada.
The company first announced the program in March after gas prices surged amid the Iran war.
The timing is especially critical in California, where officials are increasingly worried the state could be headed toward a full-blown gasoline “crisis.”
The arrival of the last oil tanker carrying crude from the Middle East to California this week has lawmakers on edge as the war threatens global energy supplies.
Democratic and Republican assemblymembers grilled the California Energy Commission on Tuesday as officials scrambled to determine how the state will replace the roughly 30% of its oil supply that typically comes from the Persian Gulf.
America’s war with Iran has effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, and the tanker that arrived this week was the last known shipment to leave the region for California before the conflict erupted.
The situation is especially precarious for California because the state lacks interstate gasoline pipelines and depends heavily on imported crude to keep refineries operating.
According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of gas hit $4.53 on Wednesday, a staggering 44% jump from the same time last year, in California the average sits at $6.16.
California also has more DoorDash drivers than any other state in the country.
As of 2024, hundreds of thousands of Dashers were operating statewide, giving California an outsized stake in the company’s fuel-relief effort.
Unlike some companies that tack on extra customer fees, DoorDash said it plans to pay for the relief effort by redirecting money from other parts of its business.
That distinction carries particular weight in California, where app-based delivery drivers already operate under some of the strongest worker-pay protections in the country.
Under Proposition 22, gig companies are legally required to provide minimum earnings guarantees for drivers during “active time,” the period from when a Dasher accepts an order until it’s delivered.
California drivers are guaranteed at least 120% of the local minimum wage, while the state’s mandatory mileage reimbursement rate is set at 37 cents per mile for 2026.
That means California Dashers are effectively getting two layers of protection against soaring fuel costs, DoorDash’s temporary nationwide gas-relief initiative and the state’s permanent pay guarantees tied to miles driven.
Even with drivers feeling the squeeze at the pump, DoorDash said delivery demand remained resilient during the first three months of the year.
Orders climbed 27% to 933 million from January through March.
The company said it plans to absorb the cost of fuel assistance by scaling back spending elsewhere.
In November, DoorDash said it intended to ramp up investment in new features and services this year, including restaurant reservation tools inside the app and robot-powered deliveries.
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