Pizza Delivery Etiquette

[Former driver]

Remember if a driver has a choice of someone far away that tips and a person who is closer but the opposite direction, they will always choose the tipper!

And, no matter what the best tippers get theirs first....

[pizza driver]

for real. if i know someone tips, I'm going to get them their pizza as soon as possible. If someone is known for not tipping, well then I'll probably stop and get gas and an ale 8, and make sure to get your pizza to you right at whatever maximum time you were quoted. If you won't help me out to pay for the gas I have to use in my car to get you your food, then I'm totally not going to be in a hurry to get it to you.

Another thing too, just because a pizza place has a "delivery charge" it does not mean that the driver gets all, or even some of it. Most of the time that fee goes to the company to cover expenses like advertising or keeping liability insurance on their drivers in case of accidents.

[WHYdeliver]

This is a small town. You can get to any pizza place in 5 minutes. I haven't ordered delivery in 6 or 7 years, and probably never will again. Why wait 40 mins to an hr and then pay another 3 dollars in tips? Just go get it.

[JRay]

I always tip a minimum of 15%, just for those mentioned reasons!

[Former driver]

WHYdeliver wrote:

This is a small town. You can get to any pizza place in 5 minutes. I haven't ordered delivery in 6 or 7 years, and probably never will again. Why wait 40 mins to an hr and then pay another 3 dollars in tips? Just go get it.

It takes time to make the pizzas and 1 driver might have 5 or 6 delivers to make. Sometimes its better to go get it. If they say an hour or more, they are swamped! Go get it! Or call later.

[needalife]

pizza driver wrote:

Part 2
21. In some neighborhoods, a kid getting out of a car with a pizza in his hands is like screaming, "Rob me! I have cash!" That's why we won't deliver to some neighborhoods. That's also why we don't carry change for big bills. We're cutting our losses people.
22. When you see me drenched and shivering in the rain, it's not nice to close the door in my face while you search for some quarters in the sofa cushions.
23. When you open the door, please hang up your cell phone or put it down. It's basic etiquette.
24. I'd prefer that you have a shirt on (and definitely some pants).
25. Tips should be 10 to 15 percent of your order. If you order a lot of pizza—say, hundreds of dollars' worth, for a party or something—but give me a $1 tip, well, I'm going to have a problem with that.
26. The more gated the community, the more guarded the wallet. The best tips actually come from middle- and lower-class people who know what we go through.
27. I remember every customer who doesn't tip. I won't do anything to jeopardize my job, but shaking the soda on the next delivery would not be out of the question.
28. I'll knock on your door three times and call you on the phone twice. If you don't answer, don't call later to complain that you didn't get your food. I can't wait forever.
29. A guy once ordered pizza from me just so he'd have some help moving his sofa up a flight of stairs. I agreed to help him. He gave me a few extra bucks. I took it.
30. If you live outside of our delivery area, and we only agreed to deliver to you because our sales were slow, and you order 40 dollars worth of pizza and tip the driver 17 cents, guess what? No more delivery for you.

Damn I wish the Constitution had this many clauses. You really take this shit seriously to be just a "pizza delivery driver". I'd hate to see how much you bitched if you had a real job.

[Drive thru]

pizza driver wrote:

Things That Your Pizza Guy/Girl Won't Tell You:discount. Really, I don't. I'm just the delivery guy.

I live seriously 3 minutes beyond the end of the delivery zone off Barnes Mill I give 5 dollar tips for a ten dollar pizza, sometimes they agree sometimes they don't. Anyone think that is fair and know a way I can get consistant deliveries?

[The truth]

I lived outside any dilivery zone sept for 6motnhs back in 2000. I alwasy tipped and tipped at least $3. WHen I used to drink at the bars I tipped at least $5 3 times throgh out the 3-4hrs I drank knowing the tips went into a jar to be split up so to really tip my bartender I had to up the amount and timings.

I have friends that I wont answer the door for or drive to places like sonic because they dont tip. Some even act like assh0l35 tryin to act like their so smart and the person taking their orders the idiot.

My oldest brother waited till I was driving my car one day to throw a fit at the order menu section of the drive through at Dairy Queen a couple years back. I let him yell his order to the microphone over me (cause hes too stupid to give me his order all at once without it changing). Hes every but of 240lbs bald and looks like a bulldog but when he talks even though he claims to be hard hearing he he barely speaks. I tell him use the bass of his voice not the pitch cause hes got no lungs left due to smoking 28years of his 40 lived. But the woman can't hear him (I barley can myself) and after 3 trys he gets mad and avoids cursing but talks down to the woman that sounds over 30 under 50 and she returns with some smart talk and "I don't apprettiate you talking to me like that." standard convo etc etc. So I drive off and since I have to drive by the window but not directly beside it she gets a good look at my car that stuck out at the time. I "thanked" my older brother as that was the one fast food place I could bare the taste of at the time and he'd neer have done such a thing in his car he'd acted like a submissive punk. I proved that when white castle had trouble with his order and he started gettin mad but watched his mouth only to smile and talk nice to the guy when he drove up to pay for his food. Did I mention my brothers a corrections officer at a large jail in another county? Go figure huh.

[shawn]

RED NIPPLES wrote:

You pizza drivers are losers if you would spent half as much time doing your school work instead of pickin your nose or starrin out the window,as you did wasting time and thought on the above whining you might of been able to get on at mcdonalds or something GEEZ.

I put myself through college and grad school delivering pizzas. It's not nice to make those broad, sweeping statements.

[Pizza Girl]

Yes we hate speed humps and you can indeed give tips on debit or credit cards and yes we get all that money!! We also appreciate all the tips that u give us but if u dont tip we KNOW who you are and we KNOW where u live AND we make your food;) And i jus love ice skating down all your driveways in the winter and ice storms so betta all TIP me

[Pizza Girl]

its all about the benjamins lol

[Pizza driver]

needalife wrote:

<quoted text>Damn I wish the Constitution had this many clauses. You really take this shit seriously to be just a "pizza delivery driver". I'd hate to see how much you bitched if you had a real job.

It only has that many because apparently Richmond residents needed to be schooled on etiquette.

And it's hard to have a "real" job when you have an 18 hour course load at school.

[pizzalover]

bring me pizza i give love

[laughing]

Pizza driver wrote:

<quoted text>
It only has that many because apparently Richmond residents needed to be schooled on etiquette.
And it's hard to have a "real" job when you have an 18 hour course load at school.

I like to see how much they bitched if they worked at a pizza place while going to school full time.... and had to deal with bitches like them bitching about the fact that it takes longer than 5 minutes to get a pizza... i have never in my life acted over FOOD the way the majority of these people act!!! trust me, i've had REAL jobs... and i have also worked at a pizza place... i think working at the pizza place was a billion times worse and plus degrading because people say things like "real job".... give me a break.... I salute you, pizza person!!! i've been there, and anyone who has been KNOWS the etiquette of ordering pizza... like not to call in the last 30 mins before closing... seriously, they are finishing up the last of the deliveries, and they've probably already cleaned most everything up.... they don't go outside of their delivery area for a reason... people like you bitch about how long it takes for them to get their pizza already!!!! i could go on and on....

[I got this]

The icy road comment cracked me up considering there have been no icy roads recently.

It sounds like you need to find another job...

Try hauling a refrigerator and getting no tip whatsoever. I used to do that for a living and the delivery was free and we got tips maybe once per month (if even).

It was a sucky job and naturally, I left it.

[Pizza driver]

I explained the icy road thing earlier. Read all the posts! hahaha.

[Kim C]

Are you the guy on that porn site that you open the delivery box and there is an "extra long italian sausage" sticking out of a hole in the bottom of the pizza box?

[Worker]

I hate it when people put peoples jobs down. These days, with money being short people are lucky to find a job. Call the people on checks cheating working people out of money bums. I think if you works and work hard at any job it can be a good one.

[My Name is Ug]

Worker wrote:

I hate it when people put peoples jobs down. These days, with money being short people are lucky to find a job. Call the people on checks cheating working people out of money bums. I think if you works and work hard at any job it can be a good one.

I'm with you on that one; now we have people who have jobs, bitching at others for not getting more money for doing their job.

I'm lucky and blessed to have a good job just outside Richmond. With my job, I (as many others where I work) order quite often (we don't get lunch breaks to go out and grab something, so we have to either bring it with us, or order out).

But I had noticed something some time ago; on my receipt I would see a "delivery Charge" tacked onto the total for the order... What exactly is that? I've never seen any pizza guy around here drive a company vehicle (or one that looked like it belonged to the company, anyway), so I had always assumed maybe it was for gas or something.

I learned something else:

One night at work, I ordered a pizza, and I had known the driver from a job we worked at before. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me and started asking questions about my job. After answering his, I asked questions about delivering pizza and if it was decent work, etc. He told me that he gets paid minimum wage (which is fine) to deliver pizzas, but generally he takes home between $100-$150 in tips EACH NIGHT he works.

I didn't ask about the delivery charge because it had simply slipped my mind, and I wasn't exactly sure if the company he worked for added it on anyway. But I know Domino's does.

So, I used to tip $5 to the driver anytime I ordered, regardless of what I ordered. For a domino's driver, it felt like I was tipping $8.50 ($3.50 delivery charge added). All in all, it would cost me nearly $20 to have a $10 pizza brought to me.

Since realizing this, my tips have gone down to $3.

To the right driver, I'll tip more - just because. I do pay attention to the way drivers act, and interact with me when delivering a pie. If I get a driver that I like, I'll request that driver deliver it for me from then on. If I get a driver that acts like I'm the cause for the end of the world, not only will they not get a tip, but they won't be delivering for me anymore.

I've always thought it to be a good thing when you treat everyone like they're already having a bad day; be nice.

But the original question still stand: What is the delivery charge for?

[laughing]

My Name is Ug wrote:

<quoted text>
I'm with you on that one; now we have people who have jobs, bitching at others for not getting more money for doing their job.
I'm lucky and blessed to have a good job just outside Richmond. With my job, I (as many others where I work) order quite often (we don't get lunch breaks to go out and grab something, so we have to either bring it with us, or order out).
But I had noticed something some time ago; on my receipt I would see a "delivery Charge" tacked onto the total for the order... What exactly is that? I've never seen any pizza guy around here drive a company vehicle (or one that looked like it belonged to the company, anyway), so I had always assumed maybe it was for gas or something.
I learned something else:
One night at work, I ordered a pizza, and I had known the driver from a job we worked at before. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me and started asking questions about my job. After answering his, I asked questions about delivering pizza and if it was decent work, etc. He told me that he gets paid minimum wage (which is fine) to deliver pizzas, but generally he takes home between $100-$150 in tips EACH NIGHT he works.
I didn't ask about the delivery charge because it had simply slipped my mind, and I wasn't exactly sure if the company he worked for added it on anyway. But I know Domino's does.
So, I used to tip $5 to the driver anytime I ordered, regardless of what I ordered. For a domino's driver, it felt like I was tipping $8.50 ($3.50 delivery charge added). All in all, it would cost me nearly $20 to have a $10 pizza brought to me.
Since realizing this, my tips have gone down to $3.
To the right driver, I'll tip more - just because. I do pay attention to the way drivers act, and interact with me when delivering a pie. If I get a driver that I like, I'll request that driver deliver it for me from then on. If I get a driver that acts like I'm the cause for the end of the world, not only will they not get a tip, but they won't be delivering for me anymore.
I've always thought it to be a good thing when you treat everyone like they're already having a bad day; be nice.
But the original question still stand: What is the delivery charge for?

Part of the delivery charge is for advertising and insurance costs. The rest goes to the driver to make up for the cost of gas. Believe me, it takes a lot of gas and miles on your car to deliver, especially when you have those people who don't answer the door the first time you show up, and you are already on the other side of town with the next delivery when they call your cell back, so you have to go all the way back, and then they don't tip. It's kind of a cushion.
That being said.... drivers do the least amount of work in a pizza place, and they can be the biggest babies in the joint.... sorry... it's true.... the poor cooks, meanwhile, slave in front of a 500 degree convection oven for the same money on the hour WITHOUT the tips....
I am not a pizza cook.... I've done everything there is to do around the place, and that is an honest observation...
don't get me wrong, there are some excellent drivers that do what they should do... but most i've known (at the place i worked) made more money than their superiors and bitched the most while they did the least amount of work....