Pizza Delivery Charge

[JustMeUC]

Yes, but you don't/can't tip your UPS driver. And a shipping and handling fee, well thats a whole nother thing. Plumbers and Electricians get paid an hourly rate, not less than minimum wage, they don't rely on tips.

Delivery drivers do rely on tips, and I assumed that people were not tipping well enough so it was the pizza places way of "forcing" the public to tip so they wouldn't have to pay them a decent wage.

Of the 6 people I spoke to, only one knew that the drivers didn't get this money.

I also assume that when they ad in a 18-20% charge to parties of 6 or more in a restaurant that it goes to the server, I guess in the future I am going to ask.

 

[NW-Bound]

I guess I am surprised that anyone would make such a direct connection, and 'compartmentalize' this to the point that the delivery charge money went directly to the driver...
-ERD50

No, not directly, but I would assume that the extra charge would apply towards compensation to the driver for the gas and wear and tear on his personal car, and then for some extra pay vs. a counter clerk who does not have to drive.

Then, someone said that this compensation is usually not enough, let alone the guy not getting a tip while having to drive around.

Come to think of it, we rarely eat fast food, and have never ever ordered for home delivery. Good thing we didn't, because we would likely undertip for the service, not knowing how tough it is for these people to make a buck.

I remember seeing somewhere an ad for guys doing home delivery. The requirement was that the driver car had to be a subcompact. It appears that they do not want the driver to get screwed too badly, by losing money on gas for the job.

Man, it's tough for people to make a buck all around the world. Just now, I saw an interview in Bloomberg of a young Greek waitress who dropped out of college to make €500/month (less than $US 700). There's no tipping there either. Her English surely was a lot better than my Greek.

 

[ERD50]

Delivery drivers do rely on tips, ...

Relying on tips or not, I still would not assume that any charge listed by the company would go directly to any specific employee, rather than go into their general operating funds. Tips are different, as those have their own regulations and rules.

In fact, it's probably illegal to do so. As I mentioned with FICA and such, there are accounting issues. I would think the driver might need to be an independent contractor for that to work. Exceptions are probably things like specific EPA fees for tire disposal etc, I think those are spelled out explicitly and have their own regs.

-ERD50

 

[aaronc879]

No, not directly, but I would assume that the extra charge would apply towards compensation to the driver for the gas and wear and tear on his personal car, and then for some extra pay vs. a counter clerk who does not have to drive.

Then, someone said that this compensation is usually not enough, let alone the guy not getting a tip while having to drive around.

I had some hours where I actually made negative money. I would get back to back deliveries at the far end of the delivery area and it would take a full hour just for those 2 deliveries. If I get no tip(which happens too often) then I make $5.25 in wages for the hour plus $2 for the 2 deliveries. That's $7.25 earned before taxes. Those deliveries are 16 miles round trip(each) totaling 32 miles. In city driving lets say I get 16 mpg. That's 2 gallons at $3.80/gal. That's $7.60 in gas and $7.25 in earnings. I actually had to pay to work. I gave notice shortly after the last time that happened. Even in a good shift i'd profit(after gas) $5/hr in tips for a total wage of barely over $10/hr before taxes. Not a very good job and it can be very stressful always going as fast as you can.

 

[Lsbcal]

Yes, but I still feel badly for the drivers who are just trying to make a living. It's a dangerous job and one that deserves a decent wage. We had a pizza guy here killed not long ago from the store that I order from and I wondered at the time if it was one of the guys who delivered to me

My friend did hand the guy a couple more dollars. We grew up together, I've known him since we were both in diapers... and we can joke around without getting upset, neither of us are the sensitive sort so we probably say things to each other that most people might find offensive. We are more like brother and sister than friends, sometimes we get irritated with each other, but never stay mad with the other long.

Thanks, you are doing a service here educating us on this pizza guy issue. We generally don't have much pizza and I go out to get it because we only eat about 4 slices between us. Got to have room a nice salad ... and for a little desert . If we do order I'll be making sure the tip is a good one.

Sounds like you have an enviable friendship going there.

 

[FUEGO]

I usually tip a buck a pizza, although I don't think I have ever ordered just one pizza - in that case I might do $2 as a bare minimum for getting them to show up. Although I have all the major pizza chains either in the neighborhood, across the street from our neighborhood, or within a mile of the neighborhood. Even if I was the only destination on their delivery route, they aren't spending more than about 15 minutes getting to/from my house and giving me the pizza. My $2 works out to an additional hourly rate of $8+/hr in that case. Not unreasonable for unskilled labor, on top of some min wage.

If I lived out in the country somewhere and they had to spend 45 minutes - 1 hr getting to me and back, I'd probably give $5 minimum.

 

[woodguy00]

My 20 year old son calls himself the VP of Culinary Logistics, delivering pizzas for a local shop in the evening while going to college. The prior owners paid $5/hr under the table plus the $2 delivery charge plus he keeps the tips. New ownership pays $8 per hour on the clock plus tips. The shop eliminated the delivery charge for now anyway. He did a little better with the original plan. He averages about $5 per delivery in tip but has received numerous $20 tips too. Pretty rare that he get stiffed but he's really friendly and comes across well.

I used to tip a couple bucks but now seeing how the math works will tip $5 or so.

 

[LoneAspen]

For those of you pizza fanatics out there (as am I), that posted about making your own pies, I found a website years ago you should check out, the Pizza Making forums:

Pizza Making Forum - Index

They even have sub-forums for New York and Chicago style, and many other styles. Lots of recipes by people trying to recreate famous pizza houses' recipes (Giordano's in Chicago, etc).

Now I'm hungry

 

[jon-nyc]

Call me cynical but I would never assume a delivery charge went to the driver.

 

[youbet]

He averages about $5 per delivery in tip but has received numerous $20 tips too. Pretty rare that he get stiffed but he's really friendly and comes across well.

.

Clearly your son does not deliver to many of our posters!

 

[youbet]

They even have sub-forums for New York and Chicago style, and many other styles. Lots of recipes by people trying to recreate famous pizza houses' recipes (Giordano's in Chicago, etc).

When it first opened, our local Giordano's was doing Restaurant.com coupons. We ate a lot of excellent pizza on the cheap for a year or so until they discontinued the coupons! Now we just go occasionally.

Thanks for the tip on the web site.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Saw a short segment on the national TV news this morning that this sort of "tipping" thing is going on with a lot of restaurants in major cities. I think the news was pointing out that if the "gratuity" is added right on the check and there is another line at the bottom for "additional gratuity", this is just another way to increase the profit to the restaurant and not going into the pockets of the wait staff.

So, I guess this "tipping" is moving into other segments of the business community.

 

[pb4uski]

Saw a short segment on the national TV news this morning that this sort of "tipping" thing is going on with a lot of restaurants in major cities. I think the news was pointing out that if the "gratuity" is added right on the check and there is another line at the bottom for "additional gratuity", this is just another way to increase the profit to the restaurant and not going into the pockets of the wait staff.

So, I guess this "tipping" is moving into other segments of the business community.

So are you saying that the gratuity added to the check goes in the restaurateur's pocket and not to the waitstaff? I would take my business elsewhere.

I guess that is one additional question to ask where the gratuity is added to the check - does this go to the waitstaff? I always assumed that it did and the gratuity on the check was to get around the cheapskates who left an inadequate tip.

 

[bUU]

I was thinking $2.50 was actually fine, and adding another dollar on was just extra. I figured most people don't even do that. He then told me that he had read the box once as he was eating, and noticed it said the driver does NOT GET THE DELIVERY CHARGE! I then called the "major pizza chain store" to find out the real deal and they told me that no, the driver gets NONE of the delivery charge and only gets mileage, plus tips.

The drivers don't get the $2.50 fee.

The delivery charge does go to the drivers.

So which is it? Indications seem to be leaning towards "does not go to the drivers".

 

[W2R]

Can't remember last time had p delivered.

Me either. It has been over a decade, maybe 14 years, since I had a pizza delivered. I love pizza but it is just too fattening to have in the house, given my constant battle to lose weight.

The last time I had one delivered, I think it was a little under $8. I gave the delivery man a ten and was done with it. Sounds like times have changed.

 

[JustMeUC]

So which is it? Indications seem to be leaning towards "does not go to the drivers".

I can't speak to the mom and pop places, but I have now spoken to Dominoes and Papa Johns and neither of them give the drivers this money "directly" as tips. They would not tell me what they pay the drivers as an hourly rate, only that they pay within what the law allows.

 

[bUU]

Thanks. That jives with my instinct outlined as follows: One of the most powerful mechanisms I rely on for such things is to watch what people do - their actions say an awful lot that they won't talk about. So if the pizza delivery driver job was highly sought-after, and people clamored over such jobs as valuable commodities, then I'd think that these people are getting paid good money and the job is a pretty good job. Since that's not the case, and because of my other observations about the people who do such work, I'm led to believe that the job is often a choice of desperation or at least something less than favored, making a standard tipping arrangement seem more appropriate to me.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

So are you saying that the gratuity added to the check goes in the restaurateur's pocket and not to the waitstaff? I would take my business elsewhere.

I guess that is one additional question to ask where the gratuity is added to the check - does this go to the waitstaff? I always assumed that it did and the gratuity on the check was to get around the cheapskates who left an inadequate tip.

Well, from this mornings news segment and with the posts on this thread, I think this may becoming the trend in the country. I've seen too many mentions of the tipping issue for it not to weigh on my mind in the future. For example, our country club uses this system and I'm going to check on it. Every dinner check has 17% added as "gratuity" with another line item at the bottom of the check for "added gratuity". I generally round up and add an amount to get to the 20% range. Now I want to find out who gets the 17%. If it's not the wait staff, I'm angry.

 

[FinanceDude]

Maybe your local pizza parlor is run by an ex-annuity salesman?