Work Work Work
June 19th, 2008 by Ana
Just another post-and-run for ncsu95 who is busting my chops in the comments about being so quiet LOL Right now I am on Day #6 of at least 10 days straight of working at the pizza joint. I talked to the boss man about it yesterday, and he said he had no choice as one of the drivers has been flaking out (not showing) to his scheduled shifts and another person who doubles as driver/insider is on vacation. For the record, one of the other drivers is pulling six days a week and has been since school let out.
On the bright side, it’s hours and tips for me which equal more money. On the negative side, I am tired and am doing to much thinking in the Pizza Taxi and very little thinking at all in front of the keyboard. I just can’t remember what was on my mind the night before once I finally get that first cup of coffee down.
I’m not very confident the boss man will be able to hire another driver, either. It’s not that he can’t afford it; it’s that I am seeing “Drivers Wanted” signs at ALL the pizza places that deliver in my area. I also haven’t seen the Ford Explorer that drives for PJ’s lately. I think we are seeing yet another gas-price-related trend here … a lack of people willing to deliver pizzas.
I’m *REALLY* wondering what pizza place managers/owners will do if/when drivers start refusing to deliver to the notorious NONtippers? Now that’s an interesting thought … !!
Posted in random stuff, pizza delivery |
June 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I also work for Dominos part time. I close on Friday and Saturday. I have noticed that our staff of drivers is down from 7-8 a night to 4 or 5 drivers. As a closer the fewer the drivers the better for me. People that work just the rush can’t be making that much.
June 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
People should be tipping you! I wonder if people at their own homes just feel the lisence to be more rude. . .
June 19th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
My work is planning on retooling its schedule, due to new government regulations to limit overtime in order to decrease fatigue. I have averaged about $15,000/year in overtime for the past four years.
Needless to say, this is another government regulation that will fail, because while limiting my overtime, I am just going to get a job like yours, delivering pizzas.
While I don’t plan on making as much, it will still help out around the house. And probably make me even more tired at work.
BTW, I am a good tipper.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Thanks for the post. My wife and I have been trying to do some hyper-miling. We both drive Explorers (mine is a 98 2 door, hers is a 2002 4 door). We’re actually getting right around 23 miles to the gallon on hers. I won’t know on mine for a while. I work from home, so I don’t fill up all that often. I put less than 6k a year on mine (for the last 5 years).
June 20th, 2008 at 8:57 am
I wonder if the price of pizza will just go up to include a tip in the price, so there’s something guaranteed. For those of us who tip, not a biggie. But it might cut down on business. (Then again, if you can’t deliver…)
June 20th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
When I did floral delivery, I used to be jealous of the pizza drivers who got tips. I worked holidays during college and also filled in when the regular driver went on vacation, for three years, and in that time only received THREE tips (two $5 tips from the same customer, and $1 from a second). Okay, well, four tips if you count the nice lady who tipped me in holiday cookies. These were people in the wealthy areas of town, and you’d think that giving gratuities would be second nature.
I agree with Mrs. Micah, that some portion of the price of the pizza would include a minimum gratuity. But don’t tell the customers about it, because they would assume that’s the full tip and they are not obligated!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:50 am
I was wondering, are less people buying pizzas lately? i would think with the current economy, people would be spending less on eating out and making more from scratch. Have you seen orders decrease, or just tips?
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Maria, last week was pretty busy, but yesterday and today have been dead, order-wise
which makes it hard to get tips when very few are ordering!
June 24th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I stumbled across this, but I just had to say something about the tip business…
I started ordering pizza’s a few years ago, starting from early ‘03 on… I loved PJ’s, I loved their online interface, it was easy to use, the pizza was good, and I would pick delivery because I didn’t have a car then. Great. I would usually pay cash and tip the difference to the next whole five dollars, say I bought $12 (incl. tax), I’d give the guy $15 and say to keep the change. I thought that was very appropriate, and I usually got a smile.
I did that for a while, I might have order pizza once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Then came higher gas prices, and what do you know, a “delivery surcharge” was introduced… hmmm, I figured, that’s $1.50 that I wouldn’t have to pay if I just went to pick it up myself… too bad I still didn’t have a ride then, so I’d pay this for a while, and still tip, a bit less than I used to.
One day, I ordered pizza again, and I had a good number of spare quarters, probably about $2.50 worth… on top of some paper money. I figured I’d pay the pizza with the paper cash and give the guy my quarters as tip, money is money, right?
Well, the guy didn’t think so… when it came time to pay, he took my money, gave me my pizza, and about half way back down my driveway, he threw a bunch of coins on the ground, too obvious to be have been an accidental drop…
What did I learn from this, obviously a few quarters wasn’t good enough.
That was the day I decided that I’d change how I’d tip. I kept myself to $1 no matter how big the order was.
Now that the “delivery fee” has become $2 around here, I gave up, I pay my food via credit cards now, so no cash chances hands at the door, and I don’t tip anymore, because I think it’s bad business practise to charge a fee to get something delivered, that I could just pick up myself.
I know this might punish the delivery drivers, but honestly, in this day and age, every dollar counts and tips are something that people can save on…
June 24th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
How much is appropriate to tip the drivers? I generally do what is in my mood for the moment. Sometimes a couple of dollars and sometimes 4 or 5.
And I had no idea I was supposed to tip flower deliveries!!! Not that I get tons of deliveries.
But it didn’t ever occur to me.
June 25th, 2008 at 9:36 am
After reading your last post a week or so ago about the pizza drivers and tipping, I thought for a while about whether or not I tipped enough. Over the last year, we have only had pizza delivered once or twice due to discovering my husband’s wheat allergy, but while he was gone to England last week I decided to order and generously tip the driver. (The power of suggestion is very strong! I didn’t really want pizza until I read your post!)Since it was a relatively small ticket, my total including the delivery charge, the tax and cost of food was about 12.00. Rather than paying by debit card online, which is where I ordered, I wrote a check for $18.00 and gave it to the driver. I am usually a good tipper, but not quite that generous.
As close as I could tell, he didn’t even look at the amount, nor did he acknowledge in any way that I had given him a 50% tip. Formerly the drivers would always say thank you, but this guy acted like it was his due. I regretted my generosity a bit, especially since the food was almost cold by the time I got it despite the fact that the location where the food is made (not a regular restaurant but delivery only) is just a couple of miles away. I decided that it was probably a good thing we don’t do pizza anymore. tm