Pizzeria folk are a completely different breed of restaurant workers. They are colorful, irritable, hilarious, and hard-working. Long nights of slaving behind a five hundred degree oven will make anyone want to reach over and strangle the person next to them. After closing time, everything settles down and everyone begins laughing and joking about moron customers and kitchen accidents. Managers hang out in back for a much-needed smoke break while the drivers talk about what addresses are good tippers and which ones stiffed them.
Pizza delivery drivers are a breed of their own. They have their own clique in the restaurant, and don’t usually associate with the kitchen help. They are loud and obnoxious, but always step up to the plate when they are needed. Many of them took the job for extra money in the evenings to give a better life to their children. Others make a fulltime career out delivering pizza. Some of them are just high school dropouts and college students looking for beer and gas money until they find a better job. Whatever their situation is, they all congregate to these pizza delivery jobs to be insulted, degraded, and stiffed by ignorant customers that don’t know anything.
Imagine yourself sitting in heavy traffic forty hours per week getting cut off, people running you off the road, and being forced to drive ten miles per hour under the speed limit because the jackass in front of you won’t get off their cell phone. Meanwhile, your old shitbox Chevy sedan is burning up a gallon of gas for each delivery run at $4.27 a gallon. You just drove through carmageddon on your own dime in the middle of a blizzard in early January just to bring someone their sausage pizza and fried mushrooms. You don’t get any kind of hourly pay or anything, just a $2.00 delivery charge plus tip. That money has to keep your gas tank full, pay for the constant repairs your vehicle will be in need of, and still have enough leftover to feed your children for the week.
On your next run, you have three deliveries to make. The first one on the route is a known stiffer. No driver has ever gotten a tip from those cheap assholes, and they order every couple weeks. The second on the route is your usual twice a week customer that always leaves a generous $5 tip. Maybe I will deliver to the good tipper first, and hit the stiffer on the way back. That leaves the middle person… a customer you have never seen before. I hope they tip me good!
The car is loaded up, and you arrive at the good tipper’s house. They hand you the usual $5 tip, you complement them on their yard or make brief small-talk about last night’s Sox game then head back to your vehicle. Now it’s time for the new, mystery customer. They have a large pepperoni pizza, with a total of about $13. You ring the doorbell and wait for an answer… waiting… waiting… still waiting. Where the hell are they? As you reach in your pocket to give them a call, you finally hear the sound of footsteps. They open the door yacking on their phone obnoxiously after making you wait three minutes at the door. Of course they take forever gathering up the cash because they are too pre-occupied with other stuff. They hand you a twenty, the total is $13.73, and they tell you to just give them a five back. What the fuck? A percentage tipper, and only ten percent to make it worse? A lousy dollar and twenty-seven cents is an even bigger insult than no tip at all. That driver just burned through as much time and gas delivering your one pizza as it would have to deliver ten, and he just lost money out of his own pocket on your cheap ass.
As you fumble away from the house and murmur foul comments softly to yourself, you get back into your car and hit the stiffer on the way back. The stiffer can sometimes be really friendly or completely anti-social. You never know what mood they will be in today, but frankly, you don’t care because you don’t get any money either way which is why you decided to deliver to them last. But if they make one negative comment towards me, I’m going to blow my top. Maybe even “accidentally” trample on their flowers. As expected, you get the usual cold shoulder with no tip and head back to the restaurant.
It’s finally midnight and time to close up shop. The manager tells you to bring in your bank to count it out. At the end of the night, you come out with $90, but $40 of that has to go right back into your gas tank to replace what was consumed from deliveries. If you want good delivery service, tip on quality, not quantity or percentage. Bare minimum tip should be $3, but if you want ongoing good service, tip at least $5. Pizza delivery drivers are just trying to make a living by using their own gas and vehicles. If you can’t afford to tip decent, then get your lazy ass off the couch and pick it up yourself. Also keep in mind that unless the food is cold, any long delay in delivery service or wrong order is most likely the kitchens fault, not the driver’s, so don’t take it out on the driver.
Hey, I delivered full time for about two and a half years at Pizza Hut. If you aren’t making hourly as well as tips, you are at the wrong pizza place.
Hah yeah I remember seeing you there all the time. I worked right around the corner at Rosati’s. The big chain pizza places like domino’s and pizza hut do pay an hourly wage, but they also make you help out the kitchen, and they only give you a small portion of the delivery charge. Most family-owned pizza places don’t give an hourly wage, but they give you the full delivery charge instead and they don’t make you help out in the kitchen. You actually make a little more money off the delivery charge only rather than the 5 bucks an hour the big chains pay you. I guess it also depends on whether you are a daytime driver or evening driver too. Daytime drivers will probably make more with an hourly wage.
Rules for handling pizza delivery to come to your house:
1. Keep your dog under control in advance: Drivers don’t need to wait an extra 5 minutes while you restrain your dog. Also we don’t want to be attacked by your overprotective pitbull.
2. Do not act like a hard ass to the driver because the kitchen took forever to cook your pizza.
3. If you can’t afford the tip and need to “feed your babies” go buy Ramen Noodles or fruit and vegetables, that is much cheaper. Drivers do not care about your situation, if you are that poor you would not spend $15-$20 on a pizza.
4. Tip at least $3. Don’t use the “oh they get a wage excuse,” it’s all about respect, if you want to disrespect the driver just go buy some cheap grocery store food.
5. Don’t send your kids to do your dirty work. If you want to be a shithead and not tip face the driver like a man or a woman. Don’t hide behind your kids. Drivers have the house marked not the people. Plus they know your hidding in that house you chicken shit.
6. If you live in a apartment be ready for the driver to hit the buzzer.
7. If you order a pizza and they tell you 1 hour do not run to the store for awhile thinking the 1 hour quote is dead on accurate. Many times the driver shows up earlier sometimes much earlier. If you are not at home that is as good as stiffing the driver, because they have to waste gas to come back to your house.
8. Have the money ready for crying out load!
9. Word of advice, do not complain to hard for a new pizza and be a jerk. Have you ever seen the movie “Waiting?” If you have not, well you do not want someone to do something to your second pizza do you?
10. Don’t drop the pizza on the floor and call the place up and blame the driver! C’mon don’t be running scams and costing drivers precious gas because you are a scamming clutz.
11. If you to be an asshole and not tip please do not ask for your silver back. One of my worst experiences when I delivered was some lady screaming at me because I did not have her 25 cents change on Christmas Eve. Bah Humbug seriously. Drivers of ma and pa pizza places often don’t carry coins.
12. If you have a large order tip more than you would for one pizza, please use percentages if necessary.
Agree to these statements on how we should better treat our Pizza Delivery people. We always do…
Here’s a tip from the other side:
- Don’t ask “How much do you want back?” When handed cash. It’s classless and tacky. Give the customer his/her full change and leave it to them to decide your tip. I typically tip $10 for a delivery. If I’m asked that, I tip absolutely nothing. No one owes you or I shit…stop acting like people do and be grateful for the decent human beings out there. If you act entitled, then fuck you.
You are a idiot! No one owes you anything? Except ya f’n do, it’s called a tip. Try jacks pizza bc u sound like a cheap ass. Everyone knows u need to tip service industry, if you don’t agree stay inside no one wants to interact with you anyways!
What’s “classless and tacky” is a matter of cultural opinion, not fact. What is fact, is that without tips, delivery drivers can’t afford to keep their job. Next time you’re prancing around on your high horse in your cozy home, you should keep in mind the difference. You sound really spoiled.
I absolutely agree with you. I have been delivering pizzas for years and although i think everyone should tip the driver, i don’t think that anybody should ever feel entitled! That is the biggest problemthis with this country…….every Asshole seems to think they are owed something. I hate it!
yeah you’re a fuckin asshole. I’m a driver and I live on tips, it’s expected that the customer tips the driver. If they give me more money than the bill I always ask “did you want change back?” Its a hell of a lot easier than digging through my wallet to get them their change just to have them give it back to me.
This guy is lying. If he was a driver would know any order large enough to get a $10 tip would probably get his personal property destroyed over a stiff. “I tip $10 or nothing if they ask how much I want”. Or the guy’s poor and doesn’t know how much people actually tip so he’s making shit up.
Im a Domino’s delivery driver,and asking inasmuch a customer wants back is part of the training.
Oh and like other people have said,we mark the house not the people. If you dont normally tip its hard to “act” nice. And to new people ordering-if the driver is kinda hum drum tip him anyway cause hes acting that way because some idiot probably just yelled in his face on had their dog ready to attack him. Take it easy on drivers.WE go through a lot in one day
This whole thing is a pain in the ass. The tip should just be built into the cost of the pizza or the delivery charge so we customers don’t have to think about or worry if we’re tipping enough or not.
I think they do charge a delivery fee, cost no more than $2 extra that dosent go to the driver but the Pizza Hut store I use to work at had a shift manager that would give you a tip if he knew the customer was a cheap ass and didn’t tip or was a complete asshole about something
So true! I’m a driver and I always give exact change back and usually its handed right back to me with the person saying thank you and have a good eveing!
I’ve never been a pizza delivery guy, but I have been a waiter for quite some time. The post coming from “Kelly” is garbage service attitude. I have never asked someone if they wanted change, because tipping is up to them. Even if I live off their tips, I can’t control it. Always give exact change, or it will reflect poorly on you and the company you work for. (the money usually comes right back anyway)
I know when I use to work at Pizza Hut Delivery Drivers were okay on the social skills and made average to okay and sometimes fair amount of money on tips but now I think including to your tips and hourly wage Pizza Hut gives delivery drivers a mileage or some sort of per delivery that adds up if you take enough deliveries. Also on the tip part I don’t ever ask for exact change back plus I always try to give a personal mandatory of $2-3 back which I know isn’t much but its still a tip
so tired of hearing people complain about tips, the people who receive the tips have little/nothing @ all to do with the actual product. you receive a shitty tip because your company always overcharges and youre not actually doing anything to receive a tip besides walk a few feet – includes drivers and waitresses. now, if you pull the bullshit fees most companies charge and say fuck you to the waitress/drivers and give the tip to the person who deserves it, the cooks – then maybe people would be inclined to actual give a shit.
wait wait wait, let me guess, i should just not order right? how original. evaluate what the amount of effort youre actually putting forth while still earning more/bitching more than the people who earned YOUR tip and dont receive them.
I deliver on bicycle for Jimmy Johns, which I actually enjoy. That being said, biking 2 miles one way to get stiffed sucks. I always tip my pizza delivery guys well b/c I get hourly plus tips which sometimes can come out to 10 plus an hour, and most of the pizza delivery guys I talk to make a lower hourly than me. So I want to make sure they make what they’re worth.
For the customers, consider this. What if you were sitting around with some friends, and one of em said hey, let’s get some pizza, but no one wanted to get off their fat a$$ and go get one because it’s snowing outside. Well in this scenario delivery drivers don’t exist. So yáll decide that one of you will go instead of everyone and get the pizza. You draw straws or some shit, you have an arm wrestling competition, whatever. The person who loses goes to get it but everyone is going to give him some cash. Well if I was the guy who lost, and had to get off my ass and stop playing nintendo, and everyone only pitched in enough to give me a dollar for going, I would say screw you I wanna play super smash bros.
Moral of the story: by tipping me a dollar you just raised my hourly from 5 to 6. Please tip more than a dollar. Thanks!