Shadowing Practice: I Tried DoorDash's Package Delivery Program (DashLink) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Dashlink is DoorDash's version of last mile delivery.

Let's take one of their partner companies for example, Factor Meals.

It's like a pre-made meal to door service.

If you order Factor from their official website, the box doesn't actually come from Factor's own drivers.

Factor and other partners ship their products in bulk to the Dashlink hub, and when a customer orders from one of their websites, they put together a route of different packages,

and send it to us drivers with 50 at a time.

That's what these orders are.

They're just random packaged goods from online retailers.

CLDR, they copied Amazon Flex's homework.

But all of that being said, this still doesn't tell me if these routes are any good.

It's just like Amazon Flex.

Higher base pay, more miles, I have to compare them.

And I could just sit here and read screenshots and speculate, but that's no fun.

In this video, I want to get three different Dash Link blocks, offers, routes, whatever the fk they call them, and see for myself.

So the night before I took my first ever Dash Link offer, I joined the waitlist in the Dash Preferences part of the Dasher app, Which meant all I had to do to see these offers

the next day was be in a dash during the estimated pickup window of 8am to 1pm.

You do not need to be dashing in the same zone as your local Dashlink facility to receive an order, you can get it from any zone.

And while the first one I ever received was a complete joke as it was only one item for $6, the second offer was more of what I was expecting.

Okay, so I just accepted that offer, I wish I wasn't filming while I'm literally on the interstate.

But when you accept a Dashlink offer, DoorDash gives you five minutes to get going.

It's the same amount of time that they give for food delivery, which doesn't make any sense.

So we're headed to the Dashlane facility now.

As you can see, $117 for this route.

So let's go ahead and see what this pickup process looks like.

Okay, Maps is saying it's up here on the right.

So if I go ahead and look, that's a like a truck fuel stop.

Because I've never been here.

I don't even know what I'm looking for.

Okay, it says it's this business.

I know I'm gonna need to pull down there, but let me pull up real quick and do any steps in the app I need to do.

So I'm gonna click continue to pick up steps, and it says go to pickup window and mention you're picking up a Dashlink batch.

Okay, so I guess there are no steps.

I do know I'll need my ID, so I'm gonna have that ready.

Let's get over there.

Okay, I see this container over here says Dashlink returns.

Um, I don't see a sign for Dashlink though.

Uh, actually wait, this sign right there says, says DoorDash on it.

Pause.

This company is worth 105 billion dollars with a B, and yet the only sign at the entire facility

that gives me any indication

that I'm at the right place is this single f*ing 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of paper

that says DoorDash written in Sharpie.

What?

So I guess I go in here.

Regardless, I pulled into the warehouse where a guy told me to park anywhere, and I came up to his death.

This is when the employees were supposed to scan my ID, but they never did, despite the app saying multiple times that it was required, and even the sign at the entrance said it entrance setting.

That seems like kind of a security issue given that literally anyone could just drive in there, say they're a Dasher, and get a route full of thousands of dollars of merchandise

and access to 52 different customers' full names and addresses.

They gave me a route card just like Amazon Flex does, and I had to scan each package individually.

But immediately I could tell the Dasher app was not designed for this route style of delivery.

As I'm scanning the barcodes on the packages, it just wasn't working.

Most items I needed to scan multiple times for it to read properly.

It's not like I was doing anything differently when it was working.

The phone camera had a clear view of the barcode every single time.

It was just complete luck whether or not the item would scan.

And other times, the app would just crash and make me find

and rescan items that I've already scanned and put away into my car.

This made the pickup process really slow, and not because I did something wrong, or even because the warehouse did something wrong, but purely because of the app.

So nasty foreshadowing here.

Another time-consuming issue I had can only be understood if we give some context to how Amazon Flex works.

On Flex, the warehouse puts stickers with corresponding numbers on the driver's packages, so you know in which order to organize them in your car, and when you get to the customer,

you can easily find which package is theirs by looking for the matching number that's in the app and on the package.

When you reach the customer, Amazon also says whether the package is a box, plastic bag, or an envelope, which helps you quickly identify which item you're delivering.

DoorDash doesn't do any of this.

There are no stickers or order numbers on the packages.

The only way to know which delivery is

which is by checking the name that's in the app

and then find the package in your car that has that same name.

But when you have 52 different customers, that is a headache and sometimes adds minutes to each drop-off.

To give DoorDash a little bit of credit, if you're lucky and the app is working properly, which to my estimate is about 3% of the time, When you scan an item,

it's supposed to show a quick pop-up that says which stop that item is.

But unless you carry a pin with you and mark all 52 packages with the order number and then organize it,

which is also time-consuming, you're going to be digging in your car every stop to find the right package.

The facility could have at least provided their own Sharpies for this.

I mean, I know they have them.

So I organized all the items the best I could given the limited information that the app gives me, I scanned all 52 items individually at least two to three times each,

and then I loaded them into my car.

This whole process took 40 minutes.

Okay, so I just finished picking up all of the packages, as you can see.

Just like when I do Amazon, I have, you know, these are the 20 to 30 number packages.

In the trunk, I have packages 40 through 50 back here.

And as you can see right here, packages 1 through 10 are in my passenger seat.

And so in the app, I've just said that I've picked up all my packages, and now I can see my first drop-off, which is in the city of Cincinnati.

So this could go one of two ways.

This could be very smooth and mostly houses.

Or this could take forever.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, pause again.

You thought this transition would end with me being in the city and on my first delivery?

Well, that would be the case, but the Dasher app broke again, causing even more of a slowdown.

For this segment, we're going to be paying attention to this little button right here that says directions that, when you click, is supposed to navigate you to the next customer's address.

This is how you get from delivery to delivery.

I'd click it, nothing would happen, and it just wouldn't work.

What the fk?

What?

I tried force-closing the app, updating the app, logging out of my account and logging back in, and even uninstalling and reinstalling the app,

all which took time and none of it worked.

You know, that's not like a key function to the app or anything.

Okay, so then now I have to fix this myself.

Well, luckily DoorDash has a feature where if you hold down on the customer's address, it copies it into your clipboard.

100

Even though I shouldn't have to do this and it still adds unnecessary time and friction between every single delivery, I can just copy the address, open Google Maps, and paste it in.

101

But when I tried that, the address that I copied in directly from the Dasher app was the wrong address.

102

I wish I was f*ing kidding.

103

It didn't even copy an address of a random customer, it literally just copied a random address that wasn't on my route that was over 30 minutes away.

104

$105 billion.

105

Let's remember that, guys.

106

105 billion dollars.

107

So I had to manually type in the address in between all of the 52 deliveries because the app just won't work.

108

Really?

109

Should I really have to do that every delivery?

110

This is a delivery app that cannot do the basics.

111

Like mapping me to a delivery.

112

What?

113

So after typing in the address to Google Maps, I was finally on the road.

114

There was a lot of construction going on in the southbound interstate, so traffic was going 30 miles an hour, and it took me a lot longer than expected to get to my first delivery.

115

And when I did, I might not have known it yet, but this was about to be the worst shift I've ever had.

116

Oh my goodness!

117

Alright, first package, it looks like this is some shoes.

118

Here goes nothing.

119

This address is a business,

120

so I'm gonna show it.

121

It's 117, and up here is that address I need to go to, but it's a one-way.

122

I can't turn left down there.

123

There's no parking.

124

Like, what on earth are you supposed to do?

125

This was on my fifth delivery, where I was getting closer to the city, and given that I can't turn left down this one-way, I turned right and tried to find the first available parking spot, which was over a quarter mile down the road.

126

But when I got there...

127

Here's a sign of no parking.

128

So now I'm stuck in traffic waiting to get back on the main road because I don't want to get a ticket.

129

And of course since the Dasher app navigation isn't working, I checked Google Maps and I see there's what looks like an alley that I can drive down right beside the business, so I hit a couple of lights,

130

turned around, and came back that way again, and I pulled into what I thought was this alley.

131

But when I pulled in, I realized this wasn't an alley.

132

This was part of the sidewalk.

133

I delivered the package, got back in my car, and I realized I'm stuck.

134

I tried to back up to get back on the main road, but with the parked cars on the road blocking my line of sight, and the bumper-to-bumper three-lane traffic, I literally couldn't.

135

Nobody would let me out, there were people walking on the sidewalk, and I was stuck in this position for 40 minutes.

136

Finally!

137

I am now two and a half hours in, and I've done, I think, 10 deliveries.

138

Um, I'm gonna be here all f*ing night.

139

Also, my next one is also an apartment that seems to be a common theme here.

140

This is going on the 10th story of this apartment building.

141

The 10th story!

142

Like, like this building looks like the f*ing Eiffel Tower.

143

But anyways, let's get up there.

144

Let's get to that 10th story and, uh, deliver this package.

145

Nope, not before being stopped by security and being told I was not allowed to go in.

146

I guess they can have fun figuring that one out.

147

Oh great, the next one.

148

It's apartment 1900.

149

100 and it's that building right there.

150

Are you f*ing like what is this?

151

But this is

152

when this shift went from bad to worse I go in the security guard stops me

153

and tells me to put the package down.

154

Okay?

155

I mark it as delivered in the app I walk back to my car

156

and the next delivery was going to the same building

157

but with a different room number So I grabbed

158

that package come back in talk to the security guard drop it off

159

and come back to my car and DoorDash tells me that the next customer also lives in the same building.

160

Why don't they tell me that all three of my customers live in the same building?

161

Imagine the amount of time this would save if they just added that small feature that Amazon Flex has.

162

And also, imagine the amount of time I would waste

163

if the security guard did let me deliver this to the 19th floor

164

if I went all the way to the top of the building just to see after completing

165

that delivery I needed to get another package from my car twice!

166

I would crash out!

167

So once again, the entry-level developers from the small business DoorDash

168

that definitely doesn't have the capital or resources to design an app that allows their drivers to do their job, has dropped the ball.

169

So after completing the next two deliveries from the same building independently from each other, I at least tried to see the positive from the shift.

170

Today might not be going as expected, but one thing that's pretty cool is look at this view.

171

You can see pretty far down there.

172

That's a, you know, that's a one good thing coming from this shift.

173

That's pretty cool.

174

What a pretty view!

175

Oh, that's so nice!

176

Oh my- Just a few deliveries later,

177

and a storm came out of nowhere.

178

Like a really bad one.

179

I made a few deliveries at the start of the storm when it wasn't so bad, but once it picked up, it was getting dangerous.

180

And if you think I'm exaggerating, I pulled over at a random business after a delivery because I couldn't even see the road, and not once, not twice,

181

but three times, Lightning struck so close to my car that it interfered with my dash cam.

182

Oh my goodness!

183

There was just over a half second from the strike of lightning to the thunder, which multiple resources says that that means that lightning was less than 600 feet from my car.

184

I was in the heart of the storm.

185

So, I waited it out, almost died, okay I didn't really almost die, and I had time to think about this question.

186

Is this even worth it?

187

The app is designed to unnecessarily stall the process at every corner from pickup to navigation to delivery.

188

I had 37 more stops in the city where there was insane traffic

189

and an even more insane thunderstorm that came feet from striking my car, all for a company that is paying me $2 per package.

190

I had a tough decision to make, but I needed to do what I felt was right.

191

So I'm at the return facility.

192

I'm returning 32 of these items.

193

And you might be thinking, Nugs, that's a bad idea because what if they don't let you do Dashlink ever again?

194

Good.

195

Also, look at that.

196

That is f*ed up.

197

So the app just doesn't work.

198

You know what's funny?

199

There was another Dasher that was here.

200

He was returning 50 f*ing items.

201

So I thought returning like 32 or 35 was a lot.

202

This guy, he said the app didn't work.

203

He returned every item.

204

This is a common theme.

205

DoorDash, fix your app.

206

It literally does not work.

207

Anyways, I'm doing the return process, so as you can see, all the packages are out.

208

They have a lovely system where you have to scan each individual package, you know, to return them.

209

So this is gonna take about 30 minutes, maybe even longer, to return all these packages.

210

I have to scan the package, then I have to take a picture of the package and put it in that return box, but most of the time, I take the picture and it needs me to retake it.

211

Even though the picture is clear as f*ing day inside the return box, outside of their facility, It is not recognizing it.

212

It's saying you need to retake the photo.

213

So it's making the process take even longer, which seems to be a reoccurring theme with this Dash Link, is in every f*ing corner, in every step of the way throughout the app,

214

the app is trying to make it harder to just do your job.

215

DoorDash will not even tell you that you have three deliveries for the same place.

216

Dash Link is so f*ing bad.

217

Anyways, like I said, whatever they choose to do with me returning the entire f*ing order, and they're paying me for it too, so that makes me really happy.

218

Whatever they choose to do, I don't care.

219

What they chose to do was pay me an additional fee for every single order that I returned,

220

increasing my total to $189 for seven hours while I only drove 90 miles.

221

Additionally, the next day, DoorDash locked my account from ever seeing or completing a Dashlink order ever again.

222

Thank goodness.

223

So for any Dashers out there, if you take a Dashlink order and have the same experience I did and the app doesn't even let you work, just return them, get your extra pay like I did,

224

like the other dashers I talked to did, and if they keep seeing return after return and it hurts their wallets, maybe, just maybe they'll fix the app.

225

But my advice is just don't accept one to begin with.

226

Amazon Flex is way better anyways.

227

Fuck this company, dude.

228

Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't say that.

229

I hope they deactivate me.

230

Don't say that, hey!

231

Suck my fucking dick.

232

Hey, stop, stop!

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189 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “I Tried DoorDash's Package Delivery Program”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: app, package, delivery, item. This video has 232 sentences and 3053 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:48. The speaker talks fast, about 206 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
scan verb	/skæn/	To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.
dash noun	/ˈdæʃ/	Any of the following symbols: ‒ (figure dash), – (en dash), — (em dash), or ― (horizontal bar).
whoa	/woʊ/	Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.
anyways adverb	/ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/	Anyway, anyhow, in any case.
alley noun	/ˈæl.i/	A narrow street or passageway, especially one through the middle of a block giving access to the rear of lots of buildings.
organize verb	/ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/	To arrange in working order.
warehouse noun	/ˈwɛə(ɹ)haʊs/	A facility for storing large amounts of merchandise or products.
goodness noun	/ˈɡʊdnəs/	The state or characteristic of being good.
barcode noun	/ˈbɑɹ.koʊd/	Any set of machine-readable parallel bars or concentric circles, varying in width, spacing, or height, encoding information according to a symbology.
dasher noun	/ˈdæʃə(ɹ)/	A person who dashes; a fast runner.
retake verb	/ɹiːˈteɪk/	To take something again.
sidewalk noun	/ˈsaɪdwɔk/	A paved footpath located at the side of a road, for the use of pedestrians.
bumper noun	/ˈbʌmpəɹ/	Someone or something that bumps.
sticker noun	/ˈstɪkə/	Something or someone that sticks (pierces, or adheres).
consume verb	/kənˈsum/	To use up.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pick up verb		To lift; to grasp and raise.
drop off verb		To fall asleep.
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
come back verb		To return to a place.
come up to verb		To approach.
drive down verb		To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease.
get over verb		To overcome.
get up verb		To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Because I've never been here.
I don't even know what I'm looking for.
Should I really have to do that every delivery?
I can't turn left down there.
You know what's funny?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being said · was required · was not designed
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've never been · I've already scanned · I've just said
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	off, which is · spot, which was

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 71 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: southbound /ˈsaʊθbaʊnd/, thunderstorm /ˈθʌn.dɚˌstɔɹm/, theirs /ðɛɚz/, thunder /ˈθʌndɚ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dash /ˈdæʃ/, dasher /ˈdæʃə(ɹ)/, navigation /nævɪˈɡeɪʃən/, foreshadow /fɔːˈʃædəʊ/, friction /ˈfɹɪkʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: individually /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/, navigation /nævɪˈɡeɪʃən/, deactivate /ˌdiːˈæktɪveɪt/, exaggerate /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like scan, dash, whoa.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: I Tried DoorDash's Package Delivery Program (DashLink) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?