Tip Your Pizza deliverer

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/11/05/pizza-driver-pees-customers-door-loses-job/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing9%7Cdl19%7Csec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D230349

 

Serves him right. I dont understand why they expect a tip when these pizzas are already so expensive (most of the time there is a delivery fee...for what if the driver is not getting paid or not paid enough that he needs tips to make it..). Last time i ordered pizza, i got one big pizza and 2 tiramisu (which were clearly not)and a 1l pepsi for close to $70. It's insane.

 

I tip these guys minimum 10 bucks. Of course, I'm not ordering 70 dollar pizzas either.

My pizza is always hot, I get extra wings if I order, and I'm always the frist house they deliver to.

Some of these drivers have full time day jobs, and do the deliveries at night to put food on the table for thier families. I had one fellow who came to the door to deliver my pizza, and noticed the bag of clothing on the front porch I had set out for goodwill to come and get in the morning.

He asked if he could take a few minutes and look through it. I told him to take the entire bag home, and donate the rest or give it to others he may know. Broke my heart. Here we are ordering pizza, sitting in a warm house in front of the big screen with six hundred channels, and this fellow was out in the cold driving around delivering pizzas to feed his kids..

I quite sure all of us on this site can afford to give a little No matter what you pay for your pizza, they guy delivering gets NOTHING out of that.

 

Do you tip the pizza guy behind the counter? No? Then don't tip the delivery boy. The hard work is all done in the kitchen.

 

Do you tip your waiter and the kitchen staff, the hostess, the manager, the owner, the bus boy, individually at the restaurants you got to? Then don't tip your waitress..

 

Delivery drivers pay for their own fuel. And those miles and spills are usually on and in their personal cars.

I like the idea of tipping. It allows for direct feedback on service received.

(I deliverdc gourmet catering on Long Island for a Holiday season. Being a car nut, I did so in a 1973.5 911T, my dd at the time. Man, the tips!)

 

Yes. I tip them.

I usually just go pick it up since it's not worth the added delivery fee and a tip. I ordered pizza a few days ago and instead got something else worth $3 instead of paying them to delivery it to me and I'm only a mile away from the store.

 

Always tip a delivery driver, usually tip more than necessary.


Mark

 

My wife would like Howie.
She would say he has a good heart.

 

Always tip even when they are late.
But I will complain if they are late

 

She deserved it. If you can't afford the tip, drive down and pick it up yourself.

Back in the day I had that happen many times. Usually it was the college students. I never got retribution though. Just not worth it.

 

I stopped getting pizza for the most part because ordering pizza is such a convoluted experience.

Your order has to fit some special they have since regular menu prices are insane (I'm talking dominos or papa johns, nothing fancy), so you never get what you really want, then add tax, delivery fee which doesn't get paid to the deliverer (or go toward his car or gas either, from what I understand), and then you're supposed to tip the driver. . . I guess I could go get it, but hell if I have to drive and pick it up then what's the point of ordering pizza.

All in all we're talking a few dollars here but it's hard to think I got my $'s worth. It's only worth it if I think of it as more of a service than a product.

 

Though our local pizza and oriental food places are close, I always tip the delivery people $5...running a car for a living isn't cheap.

 

This. Yes it's only a few dollars worth, but it's not that. It's the impression that you are being ripped off. Same as when you buy tickets online and they charge you a convenience fee (usually 20% for movie tickets..). I dont mind tipping at all when i dont feel im being taken for a ride (when you get a large pizza for $30 delivered for exemple).

But when there is a delivery fee, why do you need to tip? Where is that fee going? Are they charging me because im not eating on their premises and will have to clean my dishes?

 

Tip 'o th' Day: "Asian" is the New "Oriental".

[I still shudder at memory of Ex saying "Yoo-hoo! Mr. Chinaman!" at the wonderful restaurant I could never bring myself to go back to]

 

Wait, is "Oriental" now a derogatory term? Jeesh, I can't keep up with this nonsense!!!

 

That is correct, you Westerner, you.

 

Food delivery work is mostly underappreciated. I tip cuz I like being nice, and feel good about doing it, and feel those people get paid peanuts so we's can indulge in .....pizza. (just kiding, indulge...LOL)

serously, though, our culture is a "tipping" culture. In Norway (just an example), where food service workers are paid a much fairer wage, tipping is NOT common/expected at all.

Here, these food workers (waitresses, delivery men/gals, etc) get paid below wages, so tips are kinda expected, but still appreciated. My son was one. It stinks when one doesnt even get a thank you. No tip, and no thanks is the worst.

Around here, so many tourists, tippers are normal, except from our friends N of the 49th paralell, canadians. They never tip, period. maybe they dont do it in Canada(?), I dunno,. but its so rude (when in Rome, eh?). Waitresses will purposely aviod serving their table,its so prevalent. Thats what they do, not me. Just saying.

 

One case- a whole table of Northerners (8 or so) were served, they collectively left no more than 4-5 quarters.

 

Next time, order Domino's... our drivers are house-trained!

On the issue of tips:

I'm currently a manager in a Domino's Pizza in Scotland. Before I was promoted, I worked as a delivery driver. There seems to be a common misconception that the driver's done actually do a lot of work, as if they just get handed the pizzas to transport in their car. This is far from the case - at least in my store.

In addition to making deliveries, drivers are responsible for: the general cleanliness of the shop interior during a shift, cleaning the car park, cleaning the windows, folding all the flat-pack boxes into shape, affixing order stickers to them for the cut table staff, carrying dough trays out to the makeline staff (those making the pizzas), taking phone orders, serving customers at the counter, correctly packing and checking the orders for delivery, washing used dishes at the end of the shift, cleaning the toilets, and mopping the walls and floors. The drivers do actually work pretty hard for their money.

To cover the car expenses (fuel, tires, brakes, depreciation, etc), a driver gets £0.90 per delivery - no matter how close or far away it is. That amount was set back when petrol prices were £0.85 a litre, so these days at £1.42 a litre it does not even cover the fuel. Delivery work is very hard on a vehicle and our particular delivery areas are quite potholed, so drivers will often make a daily loss on car expenses and occasionally get hit with expensive repairs too. When you take their car expenses into account, they effectively work for below minimum wage and they rely on tips to make the job worthwhile. Drivers tend not to last very long... either they decide it's not worth it and quit, or they get promoted and therefore do less driving and more in-store work.

Generally, when I was on deliveries, I really didn't mind not getting a tip. Some people just don't tip, and that's ok. They tend to thank you with a kind word instead and that's always appreciated as cheerful customers make the shift feel much more pleasant. The only time I get mildly irritated is when someone gives me an insulting tip as it makes you feel devalued. For example, we've got one customer who always tips 1%, so for a £46 order he'll tip exactly £0.46. He actually asks you to hold out your hand and then he counts out the pennies into your palm after having paid for the order from a roll of £50 notes. It doesn't feel like a reward for providing a good service, it feels like he's pointedly making you grovel for pennies. For that he's picked up the derisory nickname "Mr. 1%" amongst the drivers. It doesn't help that he lives right on the boundary of our delivery area and his lands are quite time-consuming to get admitted to (he lives in a castle on large private lands), so the drivers feel like they lose money in petrol/expenses on the trip and they lose the time that would have yielded more tip opportunities on more local deliveries.

My advice: Tip at least £1 (or $2 in the States) or don't tip at all. If a driver got a £1 coin (or two dollar bills) from most of his customers, he'd be pretty pleased with that as at least then he's breaking even on his daily expenses (barring any breakdowns). If you normally don't tip, but are pleased with your service, then do make the effort to look the driver in the eye, smile, and say thanks - it really helps get them through the night. If you've had poor service that evening then don't tip; I've previously felt embarrassed when customers had attempted to tip as a "standard practice" when it has all gone wrong and assured them that I would be pleased to accept a tip next time when it had been earned with smooth service.

A tip of a few pennies is tantamount to saying: "I didn't forget the tip, but this meagre amount is all you're worth." - it's best used as a pointed comment when receiving bad service and is always received as a slap in the face.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Back in college I delivered for a neighborhood pharmacy. We actually would deliver to the whole city and suburbs but that was one route that left after 2pm. Most of our customers were elderly and they would get other stuff delivered besides medicine (cokes, ice cream, toilet paper etc) I would say at least 90% would tip, many of them were poor but they would still give you .10 or a quarter most at the time (1990 -1994) would give you a dollar or two and then we had the one lady who used to give the delivery guy $20.00 not bad in the early 90's . The vehicle was supplied by the pharmacy so I think we were getting $3.00 a hour plus tips, I generally made about $10.00 a hour in tips. Now he ones that were the furthest away or were the biggest PITA never tipped.

 

Maybe it's because I grew up in Vegas where tipping is a way of life, but I always valued those who performed a job for me and I tried to reward them accordingly. My philosophy is, if you keep the people who serve you happy, they'll be more valuable to you in general.

Mark

 

A tip is never guaranteed and his actions are of someone who will be a delivery driver all their life. I have a few other opinions yet they are irrelevant to the drivers actions.

 

I always tip 20% minimum anywhere I go doesn't matter if its a 100-1000 bill. Or if its a 10$ pizza delivery then I always give 5-10$. I agree with others this is money that I can spare to help someone out thats trying to make extra money. Might take me longer to get me a F430 but thats okay

 

Thanks. Need an overall update on what's PC and what's no longer so.

That's embarrassing to even think about...I've sat through a couple of similar incidents. No need to guess at why she's your ex.