posted
My husband delivers pizzas in the evening. He keeps coming home with lame tips and I can keep silent no longer! Most people don't realize this, but when your pizza is late, it's almost NEVER the delivery guy's fault. Here are the top reasons why it is late.
1. The guy taking your order typed in the wrong address, and the driver had to go back to the store to call you and get the correct address.
2. The guy taking your order got your address AND your number wrong, and the driver's been driving around your neighborhood for two hours, hoping someone knows who you are.
3. The person making your order got it wrong, and your driver was cool enough to check it before leaving, and demanded that it be fixed.
4. There is a huge pizza demand right when you order, and the driver had to take your order, make it himself, and deliver it at the same time that he has to deliver two other orders.
5. Whoever took your order completely lost your ticket, and it's in between the oven and the sink, never to be found again.
6. In a few cases, the driver leaves and realizes that someone forgot to put a soda with the order, and he has to go back for it.
7. Less than point one percent are drivers who are idiots that drive slow, stop to have a beer, and finally show up, stopping to pick their noses and flick it into your front yard.
The driver is getting paid with tips. Very rarely is he going to do anything to make his last hour of driving amount to nothing. The other people working at the pizza place get paid the same whether they screw up or not. Please consider tipping your pizza guy well even when he's late, because chances are he's spent a long time on your order, and has not been able to deliver any other pizzas during that time. Think of him as the guy that's on your side.
And keep this in mind also. If you ever get a pizza for free, go ahead and tip the guy that delivered it to you. He's still delivering, and it's not his fault your pizza was free. Share the wealth! Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Yeah, we think $2 is the min. $3 is pretty good. Richard- It's a local chain. They're actually in the red right now. Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
my pizza usually costs $7.99. If I get it delivered, I give the delivery person a ten. Is that acceptable?
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
For those who've never worked this job, it's worth noting that delivery time doesn't correlate at all with tip. I've had countless people who said "wow that was fast" and stiffed me; ditto borderline angry late orders who tip big.
Added: Sometimes being late works to your advantage. There have been times when the pizza was really late, and when Jes got to the house he called the manager who gave them the pizza free. Then the customer just gave the whole $20 (or whatever) to Jes anyway! That's always cool.
posted
Biggest tip I ever got as a pizza guy: $150.
Seriously.
I delivered seven large pizzas to a group of SERIOUSLY drunk people at a bar on the edge of town. They were very, very glad to see the pizzas, and had taken up a collection that far exceeded the cost of the pies themselves -- so when I goggled and said, "Um, guys, you know there's over a hundred bucks extra here," they just said, "Go ahead and keep it, man. Get a pizza for yourself."
I tried one more time to give it back, and then ran for the door.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
He's only been doin' it for a few months...but one day...(begins dreaming of all the pizzas she could get with $150.)
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I usually give tips around the $2 range for a pizza that's around $10. The tip increases if the pizza is more expensive than that.
I've given big tips on several occasions. Once when we had had a blizzard, once when I was too lazy to figure the tip correctly, and once when I had a party. On that last occasion, the pizza guy rang the doorbell again to thank me for the big tip. Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Pizzas are definitely much cheaper where you are located. Here, a pizza with a single topping can go up to $15.99. When you tip 20%-30%, that's just way too much money to spend on a pizza.
Posts: 23 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I think the reason that many people don't tip pizza deliverers is because they don't know they are supposed to.
I am married to a bartender. I cringe every time I think of my college years, when I honestly didn't know I was supposed to tip a bartender.
There are lots of other people who depend on, or whose income is supplemented by, tips: porters, chambermaids(hey, what is the PC term for chambermaid, anyway?), delivery people, people who do birthday parties at skating rinks, etc. I saw a list somewhere, and I could feel my face going red as I thought of all the people I have stiffed in my day, without even knowing it.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Also, if the added price of the tip is too expensive, and I don't mean to be nasty, you could just drive and pick it up yourself.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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People who are stingy tippers come back in future lives as waiters and hotel housekeepers. Think about that! Also, people who don't give money to panhandlers must someday become panhandlers in order to learn deep truths of existence that can't be learned any other way. I am very superstitious about such things and so I always tip well and give money to panhandlers. Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
The biggest tip I ever got as a pizza delivery driver was $5. The smallest, other than zero, was 35 cents.
I always tip, and I tip well, but setting 20% as a guideline is a bit high. You are not getting the same level of service as in a fancy restaurant: the food is being delivered to you, but the driver won't continually refresh your drink and nobody will do the dishes for you. Also, I don't know how it is in your husband's pizzeria, but when I was a driver, I made $5.50 an hour while cooks made $5 an hour. Waiters have their own lower minimum wage, which back then was around $1.50 or so. So I certainly did not depend on the tips for my livelihood the way the wait staff did.
When service is poor, this is reflected in my tip. Don't get mad at me, get mad at the people who screwed up back at the store. This gives the driver or the server an incentive to get on the case of his or her coworkers.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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The difference between servers and drivers is that the servers can wait on four or five tables at once, whereas the driver can only deliver once every 45min to an hour. The drivers make less in the long run, even with their minimum wage.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I thought a server was the machine that web pages live on, and the driver was the program that lets it do it.... Posts: 2506 | Registered: Jul 2003
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when i delivered pizzas, i made 4 dollars an hour plus an extra 50 cents for each delivery. tips were the main part of my income because our shifts were only for about 4 and a half hours. the cooks made 6 dollars an hour. id say 2 dollars at least for your tip, 3 if you have it to spare. and every once in a while, give the guy a big 10 dollar tip or something, it will make his week.
Posts: 1612 | Registered: Jan 2003
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added: The reason drivers still get min. wage is because of all the work they do back at the store. Usually during a four to five hour shift, Jes is only delivering from 5:30 to 8:00. The rest of the time he is doing dishes, making pizzas, folding boxes, etc. He works hard for his money!
posted
I had a babysitter a few weeks ago. I called and ordered pizza, asked how much money it was, and left enough for the tip. When I got home, there was change on the counter. I had forgotten to mention that the money included the tip. Der. I felt bad, so i called and asked who had delivered the pizza, and then drove up and left three bucks for him.
Do you think he got it?
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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quote: Also, if the added price of the tip is too expensive, and I don't mean to be nasty, you could just drive and pick it up yourself.
Also, if the delivery drivers don't like their job, they can get a higher paying one that doesn't depend on tips.
quote:whereas the driver can only deliver once every 45min to an hour.
I live three blocks from the pizza place.
I usually tip a buck per pizza. Though there is one place in the town I used to live that I didn't tip at all because they charged a buck for delivery. Forced tipping? Yep, that's all they get.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Ironically, I just ordered a pizza for lunch . . . an hour ago. They just called me. They got my credit card number wrong. For the second straight time. But it took them almost an hour to decide to call me about it.
quote:Pizzas are definitely much cheaper where you are located. Here, a pizza with a single topping can go up to $15.99. When you tip 20%-30%, that's just way too much money to spend on a pizza.
Sorry, but $3 just ain't a lot of money. Far less than a 15% tip on a restaurant dinner for two.
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
30% would be closer to $5, and you don't get the same level of service (or the same quality of food) as in a nice restaurant.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Icarus, if you let the credit card number thing affect your tip, you'll be punishing someone who had nothing to do with the mistake.
Things that should affect your tip:
1) The pizza arrives cold. 2) The pizza arrives late. 3) The driver leaves something off your order that is on your receipt. 4) The driver is rude, unpleasant, or slovenly.
Anything else is genuinely not the driver's fault.
quote: Ironically, I just ordered a pizza for lunch . . . an hour ago.
That was written at the point where they called me. It took another twenty minutes to get the pizza. I had a couple of hungry kids waiting a long time for lunch.
In any case, I am, as I said, a very generous tipper. And I have walked a mile in the delivery person's shoes. But I tip based on the service I received. On the total service. I am not interested in hearing excuses, because a server will virtually always make excuses explaining why the delay is someone else's fault, precisely in the hopes of keeping his or her tip up. I tipped him a dollar. Considering that I waited an hour and twenty minutes for my pizza, it seemed generous to me.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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And I'm not upset that they got my credit card number wrong (again). I'm annoyed that it took them an hour to call me to get the correct number. How hard would it have been to call me right away?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
But, again, it's not the DELIVERY GUY who got your number wrong, or the delivery guy who took it in the first place, OR the delivery guy who called you an hour later.
It WAS the delivery guy who took your pizza when they finally got it to him and delivered it to your house in under twenty minutes.
So you tip him for doing an excellent job of delivery, then call the pizza place and complain about their phone cashiers. (And if it's really an issue, don't order from them again; just don't blame the delivery guys.)
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I don't know who did what back at the pizzeria. When I was a delivery driver, I often took the orders, and I often cooked the pizzas as well.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Stupid computer submits stuff before I'm ready.
I think we're just going to disagree here. I think it can be argued that they're not entitled to tips at all--certainly people argued that point to me when I was a delivery driver. I tip 'em anyway, but if I'm not happy with my total experience, I'm not going to be as generous. I see a server as being the face of the restaurant to me, and it is a server's job to make sure everything is perfect. If the kitchen is taking too long, the server should hussle the kitchen.
posted
As a former pizza delivery guy i've got some things to say.
Yes, the majority of the time your pizza is late, it's most likely NOT the delivery guys fault. but sometimes it is. Sometimes the delivery guy will wait longer at the shop to wait for another delivery or two that are coming out soon. Sometimes the delivery guy gets lost. Sometimes the delivery guy himself forgets something and has to go back for it. But the delivery guy will never purposefully bring your pizza late. Why? because his tip depends on it.
Now, a couple things about tipping. Delivery guys have a good memory. they have to remember the layout of all the streets in the area. Which streets are one way, what the best way to get to a certain address is, accounting for lights and traffic, etc. We also remember who tips and who doesn't. Someone who tips well on a regular basis we will work harder to make sure their pie is there on time or early. Someone who is known for stiffing the pizza guy no matter what, we will not worry so much about. It's actually a fight over at the shop to not have to be the one who delivers their order.
This isn't blackmail. i'm not saying tip your driver well or the pizza will be late. But just know that people remember who takes care of them and who doesn't. If i have the choice of delivering to someone i know tips well first, or even someone that i know doesn't tip poorly, i will do so, as long as i know that the rest of the pizzas won't be late, including the poor tipping ones.
Posts: 251 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Christ, delivery drivers are paid to do their job. I'm so sick of hearing about people bitching because they have to do their job. Pizza delivery guys are not waiter/waitresses. They don't make less than minimum wage and depend on tips. They are lucky they get tipped. It's their damn job to deliver the pizza. It's what they get paid for!
Sheesh. I hate it when people complain about having to deal with customers or about having to do their job, or their lack of tips. And, of course, if they don't like their job, they can quit!
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I must be the best tipper in the world. I hate calculating tip and suck when the pizza people are standing there, so I just give lots. If it's a 12 dollar pizza, I usually give 15 with any spare ones I have around.
quote:They don't make less than minimum wage and depend on tips. They are lucky they get tipped. It's their damn job to deliver the pizza. It's what they get paid for!
maybe, but you also have to remember something else. Getting your pizza delivered to your doorstop is an extra service. You pay the same amount whether you come pick it up or have it delivered. Unless they charge a delivery fee, which is bull i think, but i almost understand why it's done. Anyway, you are being saved a lot of inconvience by not having to leave your living room. The least you can do is tip your driver. If you don't want to tip for this extra service, come pick up the pie.
Lets put it this way. If delivery driver's weren't tipped you'd have one of two things happen. All pizza delivery services would start charging delivery fees, and i guarantee you they'd be more than $1. Or you'd have no pizza delivery guys. simple as that.
Pizza delivery isn't the easiest thing in the world(not to say it's overly difficult or anything), the better the driver is the more money they make, because they can deliver more pies quicker and end up making more in tips. That's why they do it.
Posts: 251 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: Pizza delivery guys are not waiter/waitresses. They don't make less than minimum wage and depend on tips.
Officially neither do waiters. If they make less than minimum wage (tips included) by the end of the day, the restaurant has to make up the difference. They always get at least min. wage no matter what.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Hey Paula, which chain does your dh work for? If I happen to have him deliver a pizza I'll be sure to tip well. I usually tip well after reading these posts. If the pizza comes to $12 I usually write the check for $15. Of course I assume the delivery guy gets his $3. I almost never have cash around though. It tends to wander off somewhere. Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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quote:Officially neither do waiters. If they make less than minimum wage (tips included) by the end of the day, the restaurant has to make up the difference. They always get at least min. wage no matter what.
good point. I made $5 an hour as a pizza delivery guy. I don't know what minimum wage is, but it's got to be higher than that right?
If it wasn't for tips i wouldn't have and couldn't have survived on that job.
Posts: 251 | Registered: Mar 2002
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"If they make less than minimum wage (tips included) by the end of the day, the restaurant has to make up the difference. They always get at least min. wage no matter what."
Dang, my husband is out at the store, but I do not think this is true. If a server is earning so little money in tips, they are in the wrong restaurant, and should run, quickly, to the door.
Usually, if business is slow, an extra person is sent home, with no compensation except the day off.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Sho'nuff, federal minimum wage is $5.15, and almost all states have a higher minimum. It should be posted prominently in your workplace -- you have a right to know, and if you are not being paid minimum wage, you need a raise. Talk to your boss. Seriously.
Posts: 1785 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the minimum hourly wage -- $5.15 an hour effective 9/1/97 -- the employer must make up the difference.
posted
At Pizza Hut, in the mid-'90s, neither pizza delivery guys NOR wait staff were paid normal minimum wage; rather, both groups were paid a nominal amount that, if tips did not make up the difference, was adjusted at the end of the day to total the normal minimum wage.
In other words, your delivery driver AND waitress are working for minimum wage, plus whatever extra you give 'em. Of course, as a delivery driver, you got the extra "perk" of being reimbursed about twenty cents a mile for depreciation and gas.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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OK, but I still stand by this statement, as a reality of restaurant life:
"Usually, if business is slow, an extra person is sent home, with no compensation except the day off."
I also stand by the run-to-the-door statement if you are waiting table for such a low amount of tips. Or, just wash dishes and have less stress, unless you are looking for experience as a server in order to get a job at a better restaurant.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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