This may have happened to you. You get home after a long day of work too exhausted to cook, so you splurge on a delivery app. The order arrives, and you’re about to chow down—but first, you have to cut your way through a gauntlet of staples and stickers to get your bag open.
Don’t get too angry: Those stickers may have prevented your bacon double cheeseburger from smelling like an ashtray.
Sonic employee Hunter (@hunterlollo) explained how in a video posted to her TikTok account on Wednesday. The video has picked up over 4,200 views as of the publication of this story.
Hunter opened her video by describing how a woman’s Edible Arrangement delivery arrived reeking of cigarette smoke. Hunter had no problem believing the claim and explained how her job at Sonic and her interactions with delivery drivers made her more than willing to believe the driver was at fault.
“I work at Sonic, and the delivery drivers that we give the food to?” she told her viewers. “I know these people do it as a job, but do you think they treat it [like a job]?”
“I’ve done food delivery in the past,” she said. “There are some people who do it well; they have the thermal bag; they’re very professional.”
But that isn’t the case with all delivery drivers, according to Hunter.
“They throw the bag, and they’ll throw the drink down. They do not care,” she said. “That is why … we put stickers over everything. At our Sonic location, we put stickers on the drinks; we staple the bag shut.”
“These are just people; these are strangers,” she continued. “There’s barely any vetting process that comes when you want to, like, be a food delivery person.”
“Just think about that when you’re ordering food,” she warned.
According to Money.com, UberEats drivers are put through a background check that screens their driving and criminal history, but no food handling experience is necessary. DoorDash also uses a similar process, but neither company requires drivers to complete a food handling certificate of any kind.
DoorDash‘s online food safety handling requirements state that drivers must not “open food containers or tamper with the order in any way” and that drivers should keep the food hot “and secure [in] your hot bag in your vehicle before you drive to the customer.”
According to the Uber Eats website, “People delivering using the Uber Eats app are not required to use insulated delivery bags.” The guidelines suggest that “opening packaging during delivery can lead to foreign matter in food, which may pose a significant food safety risk for customers,” but do not specifically prohibit the practice.
The Daily Dot has reached out to both DoorDash and UberEats via email for further statement.
@hunterlollo Yeah they usually dont care #fooddelivery #ubereats #doordash ♬ original sound – Hunter
Hunter’s video inspired some all-too-familiar complaints about delivery service in the video’s comments section.
“Like they don’t even read that I want my order left at the door,” Vanessa Gomez (@iza1095) wrote. She went on to note, “Deada** these ppl have zero customer service experience and should have a food handler certification. I did doordash for a hot second and they send you a bag to use.”
Hunter responded, “YES!!! At LEAST a food handler certificate!!”
“Bro fr. I do not smoke in my car and I keep my car very clean. As someone who delivers that should be standard.” another viewer offered.
Another viewer said they had the same experience with an order smelling of cigarettes, writing, “I had a delivery and the sealed plastic bag smelled like cigarettes too it was disgusting. I thought maybe the car smells like that.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Hunter via TikTok direct message for further comment.
