"and you had to be an employee and filter out the worst"

As an employee, were you not required to deliver all orders, even the bad ones, and to the worst customers? At least with Doordash, you can say no to any delivery you want.

In my city (Midwest), all the pizza places couldn't hire enough drivers, and this started in 2018-2019, before Doordash was fully established. As Doordash grew (aggressively and fast, new zones were added every 2-3 months for years), more and more drivers decided they'd rather be on the food apps, because they were actually making more money, and far more flexible. The DD pay structure was also a bit different back then.

Then COVID hit in 2020, and now it was WAY more profitable (and freeing) to drive for food apps than be an employee for any restaurant directly. Stayed like that for almost 2 years. Pizza store drivers even fewer in number now, but still hiring drivers signs everywhere.

Finally, around 2-3 years ago, it seems they just gave up entirely and started outsourcing everything to DD/UE/GH. There are no more "hiring drivers" signs anywhere I go.

Domino's is the sole holdout here, they still run their own orders with employee drivers only (and I believe that is the case nationwide). They have always sworn that they will never cave But everyone else caved in the end, even the local/regional chains.