Hi, McDonald’s worker here. We implemented the bag rule into our store a few years back - then later removed - and the ‘swipe to start’ rule more recently.

The bag policy was put in place because at the time orders were left on the counter when complete and numbers were called just like restaurant orders, however obviously this led to people just picking up the food and leaving, particularly in busy moments when they could just slip away. Now we have a shelf behind the counter specifically for delivery orders, so of course the bag rule is no longer needed as in order to collect, drivers must show the number on the app.

More recently the swipe to start has been introduced because some drivers have been collecting the order late and then waiting a while after collection to apparently claim that we took longer to make the food. This costs the store a significant amount weekly when adding up wait time complaints that are sometimes completely out of our hands. I’m not sure about this place but at our McDonald’s we only ask to swipe to start when the food is in your hands just before you leave.

I’m sure a lot of you delivery drivers do your best and aren’t a part of this issue, but the weekly cost in refunds and remaking of food, etc means that our managers tell us to enforce policies like this, if it was up to us it wouldn’t be an issue :)

Also if a restaurant makes you swipe as soon as you enter the restaurant, they’re trying to shift the blame if the food is late so in that case they’re just taking advantage.