Tip the pizza delivery driver!

[Bugfatty300]

It is truly amazing how many cheap there are where I live. They order a $18 or $17 worth of food, give me a 20 and they expect every penny of change back. Then there are the people who give the exact amount. You just know they were never intending to give a tip in the first place.

Some points and grievances:

For those who do not tip:
-Pizza Hut does not pay for the gas which I use to bring your pizza to your sorry ass. I do. It is not worth my time and effort for me to drive to your house and give you pizza and get nothing in return.

-Pizza Hut does not include tips in the bill. Its up to YOU to cover it.

-Pizza delivery (sales drivers) is considered the 5th most dangerous job in America. Not just danger from robbers and murderers but also from car accidents since we are on the roads and highways pretty much all day.

-The "Tip" section on your visa slip is just that: A tip for me. None of it goes to Pizza Hut. Its all mine.

For others:
-When you give the pizza driver the money, make sure you indicate that they can keep the change or tell them how much change you want back. I'm not allowed to ask how much you want back. And If you don't tell me to give change back then I assume the change is my tip then I say "thank you and have a nice day" and I walk away. Don't chase after me cussing me because you didn't get your 3 bucks back.

-Please do not pay half the charge in quarters. So far I have been nice and accepted it but its getting to be a pain to count them all on your doorstep and cause me to loose time.

-Please do not prank people by calling in fake pizza orders. The only person you are hurting is the drivers who you don't even know. When we take a pizza to someone who didn't order it, it is a huge waste of time and money for the driver.

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Sorry for the rant but its been a crappy 2 weeks for me. I'm working overtime at Pizza Hut and am not even able to pay my bills because of people cheaping out on tips on most of my deliveries. I hope this is just a bad spell or else I have to look for another job.

So please remember. When you order a pizza, please tip the driver.

 

[Leonel]

I always tip my pizza drivers!

 

[Mise]

£19 I'd tell him to keep the change. £18 it would depend on how quick/nice/friendly he is. £17 I'd want all the change, and possibly leave him a tip. £16 i'd give him a £20 + 2x £1 coins (or 1x £2 coin) and ask for a fiver back. Anything less than that, I wouldn't tip.

 

[The Yankee]

I hope I'm a fairly good tipper to delivery guys and waiters/waitresses, etc.

Feels odd to have a $28 delivery and only give $30 total...I generally tip several dollars above that, closer to $35 if I can't do $35. Same idea for being in a place with wait service. And I usually don't even bother with asking for coins or giving coins (which is why my father irritated me every time he wanted to bring me three quarters or whatever to give exactly $3 tip). I suppose that'd be a bonus.

Seems to be working most of the time for me.

 

[downtown]

I hear you. I used to be a pizza guy too, unless car costs (both fuel and repairs) drove me out of business. There are still neighborhoods where its profitable, but its too dangerous.

If your pizza is on time, and the pizza man resisted the urge to eat a slice, you should tip 20%. Its a lot harder, and more dangerous, to deliver a pizza, than it is to wait a table. If you made a big order during a very busy time, consider paying more.

Remember, we remember who tips and who doesn't. A good tipper moves to the front of the line, no matter where they are on my route.

 

[Bamspeedy]

-When you give the pizza driver the money, make sure you indicate that they can keep the change or tell them how much change you want back. I'm not allowed to ask how much you want back. And If you don't tell me to give change back then I assume the change is my tip then I say "thank you and have a nice day" and I walk away. Don't chase after me cussing me because you didn't get your 3 bucks back.

When I delivered pizzas, I never assumed the change was mine unless they had written out a check (until I've delivered to the same person enough to memorize what they usually tip). Usually I averaged $1.50-$2.00 if you include the stiffers into the average (our most popular item on the menu came to $8.39 after tax, so I'd get $1.61). Some people are more likely to tip if you aren't assuming all the change is yours by walking off with their change (of course I still did have a few rare people that wait for every penny back).

For example, If their change was $3.83, I start reaching for the bills to make their change and then hand them the $3 then start going for the coins. Almost always they would stop me from going for the coins and tell me to keep it and then hand me some of the bills back.

I would run 4-5 deliveries at a time during our really busy times and would make $100-$120 and drive 100 miles in 10 or 12 hours of work. But this was back when gas prices were only half the price they are now.

-Please do not pay half the charge in quarters. So far I have been nice and accepted it but its getting to be a pain to count them all on your doorstep and cause me to loose time.

I've delived to one guy that paid his order in coins and he put them in ziploc baggies. I suspected it was a drug house and sure enough, six months later the house was busted.

When they pay with a ton of coins I usually don't count it on the spot (unless I suspect they are really trying to short-change me). Most of the time it isn't worth the time losing out of tips from other places. I'll keep all that change seperate and count it later. If they did short-change me more than a few pennies, then I remember it and warn the other drivers in case that person ever orders again.

-Please do not prank people by calling in fake pizza orders. The only person you are hurting is the drivers who you don't even know. When we take a pizza to someone who didn't order it, it is a huge waste of time and money for the driver.

Yeah, losing out on other tips. But then that means free food!

 

[Asher]

Here's a question for you.

I always tip the delivery drivers, but in cash (about 15% tip). I pay always on a creditcard though (which they have on file, so I sign).

So I fill out the tip part, enter 0, then give cash to the driver.

Is that better than adding something in the TIP part of the receipt?

 

[MobBoss]

Nice rant. However, if I order a pizza and the person taking the order tells me it will be there in 30 minutes but it takes 50 minutes and the driver had to call me twice because he got lost - why should I tip you for a cold pizza?

I will usually tip 2 bucks for a pizza delivered on time with no problems. But service is service....and if your service sucks...so will my tip.

And I say this as a guy who has driven pizza for Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pizza Time in his day. Also, a bit of advice...you may want to check out to drive for some locally owned pizza place instead of Pizza Hut or Dominos. The big chain stores hardly ever pay decent. When I worked for Pizza Time they paid an hourly wage and a percentage (6% a night....10% of you delivered over 200 bucks that night) to cover your milage. That plus tips meant I could make anywhere between 12 and 15 bucks an hour driving pizza. That wasnt too bad at all for a part time job.

 

[Zelig]

The market will sort it out, if people don't tip, it will become harder for pizza chains to attract drivers, and they'll have to raise their prices in order to pay for more expensive labour.

I've actually never ordered a pizza in my life, the few times I've called to have one made, I've gone to pick it up myself. I generally tip well in circumstances when tips are required though.

 

[skadistic]

Here's a tip: Get a better job!!!


Seriously I tip the change mostly and if its not much I'll toss in a buck or two.

 

[Mirc]

Well I usually give to anyone (waiter, taxi driver, etc) a tip of 10% - 18%.

But I never order pizza. Only at a restaurants.

There's something I disagree with, though:

And If you don't tell me to give change back then I assume the change is my tip then I say "thank you and have a nice day" and I walk away.

That's not a really civilized thing to do, IMHO. Maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't really sound ok with me. Also, how much can the change that you assume is your tip be? If I order something that costs 13 Euro, and I give you a 20 euro banknote, do you take the change if I don't tell you to give it back?

 

[Godwynn]

Luckily for me I only eat Little Caesar's.

 

[.Shane.]

My rule of thumb:

1 buck + loose change per pie.

So, 1 pizza is 18.63, I give you a 20, keep the change (or write a check, which happens more often).

2 pies for 33.23? 36 bucks, keep the change.

How does that rate me as a pizza tipper?

 

[Fetus4188]

-Pizza Hut does not pay for the gas which I use to bring your pizza to your sorry ass. I do. It is not worth my time and effort for me to drive to your house and give you pizza and get nothing in return.

-Pizza Hut does not include tips in the bill. Its up to YOU to cover it.

-Pizza delivery (sales drivers) is considered the 5th most dangerous job in America. Not just danger from robbers and murderers but also from car accidents since we are on the roads and highways pretty much all day.

-The "Tip" section on your visa slip is just that: A tip for me. None of it goes to Pizza Hut. Its all mine.

They are supposed to pay you the standard IRS reimbursement rate for using a personal vehicle for work (assuming you're in the US). You should bring that up with your managers.

 

[Bamspeedy]

How does that rate me as a pizza tipper?

Nothing special, about average. It isn't that great that drivers would really give you a high priority, but you aren't a cheapskate/stiffer, so they won't be making your house their very last stop.

 

[Perfection]

How do you figures out where you're goin'?

 

[Elrohir]

If they get here quickly, I usually give them a couple of bucks (A dollar or two per pizza) I'm not sure whether that makes me stingy, or not. But if they take an hour and fifteen minutes (Which has happened to us before) then I'm not giving him squat. Good service = good tip. Bad service = bad tip.

 

[Godwynn]

I have a question.

Is the amount of time required to deliver the pizza mainly fall on the shoulders of the cook, or the driver?

 

[Commodore]

bring your pizza to your sorry ass

See it's that attitude that makes me skip the driver all together and pick my pizza up. I also encourage people I know to either pick up their pizza as well or not tip the driver. Also, like Mobboss said, if I get my pizza later than I was told, sorry no tip for you.

Oh, and like skadistic said, if you don't like it, you gotta find another job my friend.

 

[Bamspeedy]

How do you figures out where you're goin'?

We use maps if needed, but the town I lived in it didn't take very long to remember all the streets.

If they get here quickly, I usually give them a couple of bucks (A dollar or two per pizza) I'm not sure whether that makes me stingy, or not.

No, that's not stingy (unless you ordered over $50). For most orders, stingy is a tip of under $1.

Edit: Basically, I remembered those that gave under $1 as the stingy ones, and the people who gave $4+ as the great tippers. Everyone else is kind of a blur and don't really have any outstanding memories of their tips.

Is the amount of time required to deliver the pizza mainly fall on the shoulders of the cook, or the driver?

It could be either one. Sometimes it isn't the driver's fault. Sometimes there are so many orders that come in at the same time (like halftime for the Super Bowl) they just don't have enough drivers or in some cases just don't have enough oven space to cook that many orders. I've had times where it took over an hour to get a pizza someplace, but the pizza was fresh out of the oven (but I can understand why the tip would suck due to the time, but they should know that since the pizza is hot, it wasn't the driver's fault-he didn't get lost).