OK, so I just got back from one of the WORST pizza delivery shifts I’ve ever had, and so I feel the need to vent this information to the general public. If anyone out there has delivered before, and has different ideas, I’d love to hear them.
OK, it’s pretty much accepted that the amount to tip your waiter in a restaurant is at *least* 15%, with the standard starting to approach 18%. This is as it should be. Waiters have one of the most difficult and thankless jobs on God’s green Earth.
However, no one really knows the standard for delivery drivers, so here’s what I have found while working at Vocelli’s Pizza.
1) The minimum tip is either a) 2 dollars, or b) 10% of the check, whichever is greater. Also, it helps to know how far away your delivery location is. If the driver has to travel for more ten minutes to get to you, throw in at least another dollar. Not only does this cover the extra travel time (which could have been spent on getting another delivery order), it also helps offset the rising cost of gas.
2) Most drivers do not carry more than twenty dollars at any given time (for safety reasons), so please don’t be waiting with a fifty dollar bill on a ten dollar order. Also, please don’t ask for exact change. Dealing with coins inevitably means rummaging in pockets, and there’s time wasted all around. Calculate tip, then round off to the nearest dollar amount.
3) Please understand that if we get your pizza to you late, it is quite honestly usually not our fault. Either a) there was a backup in the kitchen (you can only have so many pizzas in the oven at once), b) you just live a long ways away, or c) there weren’t enough drivers, so one driver had to deliver multiple orders, which takes extra time. Also, if you live in a place where the driver will have to cross even one major road and it’s during rush hour, don’t expect it within 30 minutes every time. Line ups at traffic lights can sometimes exceed 5 minutes during rush hour. Also keep in mind that drivers are now heavily trained NOT to speed. It was one of the reasons why Domino’s got rid of its 30 minutes or its free policy: too many accidents. Of course we want to get you a nice hot product, but if I’m driving at night through a residential area that families live in… sorry, that extra four minutes ain’t worth taking that kind of risk.
So to sum up. The average order is around 15-20 bucks. Anything less than two dollars is cruel. Three bucks is always nice. Four or above (on a twenty dollar order) and the driver will be very happy AND will make sure to hit your house first next time he/she has to prioritize between multiple houses. We remember these things.
Thank you for listening to my lecture. Again, if anyone’s had a different experience delivering, or honestly feels that delivery folk shouldn’t be tipped as much, chime on in.
One dollar more
I guess the rule for me is that I take what I feel like giving, and add one dollar.
The reasoning is this.. I eat out once a week (not counting Panera and Taco Bell) and order chinese or pizza once a week. At 52 weeks a year, that extra dollar is costing me one hundred dollars a year, or less than one long shift at work.
Fot that difference, I’m always the nice guy, and my servers get a little more. So if I am going to give the normal 15%, I add a dollar. If they suck, and I’m gonna do the 10%, add a dollar.
As for Pizza deliveries, I do know that when I was a deliverer, if it took a way long time, I would have coupons and comps handy. If they come to my door and apologize for it being late, then I’m more generous 10-15% plus a dollar, but if they seem not to care.. 5%, plus a dollar.
THankyou THankyou Thankyou
–Ok THANKYOU for standing up for us waitress out there. A waitress’s most loathed item is that tip’s card. Most of those things out there are out of date and don’t take into account really how well your server does. Now on to deliver’s I alway’s overtip unless I find that I constantly have a problem with order’s comming wrong or missing something. I do believe that it is the driver’s responsiblilty to make sure the total order is correct before leaving, because they are the last to have it. Don’t just take it on faith that it’s all good. I have known some that just grab and go. With that said I would like to also add that DEFINITLY DEFINITLY DEFINITLY if the weather is bad. i.e. raining or snowing, tip more. Remember they took the chance on the roads that you were not willing to. We all look for that comfort food delivery when things are gloomy outside and they are nice enough to bring it to us. Tip more America because what you give them isn’t what they take away. Someone else get’s a cut. Delivery driver’s give to the gas man, waitress to runner’s busperson’s bartender’s and sometime’s hostess. So your 15% is really only about 8 to 10% in the end. So remember if you are leaving less than that your leaving less than you know. Teresa the Flautist and fire dancer
I am an uncultured swine
I’ve generally given waitresses in restaurants 15-20% and always given pizza drivers 10% or less.
No wonder they gave me dirty looks. I just thought they were grumpy.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
My Rule
My tipping rule is $2 for every $10 – always round up.
So, a $15 pizza delivery will get a $4 tip, which usually becomes $5 for the obvious reason that they don’t print a $19 bill.
——– Visit my blog, eh! The Murphy Maphia
Pie
My favorite is with black olives and mushrooms.
I’ll tip extra if the delivery girl is wearing a bikini.
Great information!
Thank you for the tips on tips! I’m sorry you had such a rough day in the process. We do try to tip well. I feel that if you are going to eat out, you shouldn’t unless you can afford to leave a nice tip.
When we take our four kids to dinner, I try to tip extra just because somebody else has to clean up the mess. That’s typically why we’re eating out in the first place. I finally get the kitchen clean and I don’t want to clean it again after dinner!
Pizza delivery was the fuzzy area that I didn’t know how much to tip. I guess since you don’t have to clear the table afterwards and refill my drinks, 10% is sufficient. I’ll try to remember that.
As for our small town with pizza pubs everywhere, I sure wish we could get some of the other restaurants to deliver…like Chinese! I’d be ordering in all the time!–
Christy
Get a real Job
Get a real Job, and don’t worry about tips.
Tips are a bonus, not a requirement. If I feel like it I will, if I don’t, I won’t.
I’m going to respectfully go
I’m going to respectfully go out on a limb and make a completely uninformed guess that you’ve never had a serious “tipping” job, because the assumption that tipping is a bonus, not a requirement, is regretfully erroneous.
And I have federal law to back that up. The minimum wage currently is something like $5.45 an hour, yes? Most restaurants, however (including 5-star ones, not just your local IHOP), actually pay their waiters around $2.20 an hour, and they are allowed to do so legally, because even the federal government assumes that a waiter will make most of his/her money from the tips. Many delivery jobs follow the same format.
So by all means, don’t tip if you don’t feel like it; there’s nothing that legally forces you to. But thanks to this handy information I’ve provided, you can no longer plead ignorance as to where a server’s pay really comes from. So just be aware that from the perspective of the average American (at least 20 million of whom don’t have “real Jobs,” by your definition), your attitude makes you sound like a tightwadded jerk. Miss Manners would be very disappointed.
Arthur Rowan Brother Katana of Reasoned Discussion Rebel Leader and Dance Instructor for the Unitarian Jihad
OK OK OK. Some of you are
OK OK OK. Some of you are really starting to get to me. please follow this link and read that information http://tipthepizzaguy.com/compare/ . I apologize to any waitresses/waiters I may upset but this is the truth, we do the EXACT same job, except you have to deal with the customer longer. But you don’t have the expense of using your own vehicle. And as for the smartass that said “get a real job” I would like to see you find a job that can pay 15+ dollars an hour for part time. The work is real and when you don’t deal with pricks the money is good.
Always…
I can’t speak for everyone but I can say I’m always happy to see the pizza guy. I’m never ungrateful for his service (after all, I was too lazy to do more than pick up the phone) and I almost never make sarcastic comments to him like, “Nice way to spend a friday night, eh, chief?” So yeah, I tip him as I would a waiter.
——– Visit my blog, eh! The Murphy Maphia
Hey, that’s a great site!
Hey, that’s a great site! Thanks for the link.
The only job I didn’t have as a driver that was listed on the site was taking the customer’s orders: that’s now done by a call center which then electronically transmits the order to us. Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally catch hell from the customer for getting an order wrong, when really it was the fault of someone literally three hundred miles away!
Arthur Rowan Brother Katana of Reasoned Discussion Rebel Leader and Server of Melted Cheese on Bread for the Unitarian Jihad
$15+/hr vs $2.15/hr
Ok, first I wanted to state that I do always tip the delivery guy. Usually its a good 10-15%, unless its really bad weather then I tip more. But could someone please help me with this for a second. Wait staff makes less than $3/hr with the idea that tips will make up the difference minimum wage. Does this mean that since the guy above is making $15/hr to deliver that he shouldnt get a tip or shouldnt complain? I mean, he is getting paid 5x the amount of the wait staff for the “same” amount of work. Just a thought
— Bryan
What he means is that he
What he means is that he gets paid 15$ an hour *including* tips. Without those tips he makes minimum wage, minus the wear and tear on the car.
I’ll admit, pizza’s not bad money. I made 13 an hour on average, upwards of 20 an hour on a good night. But Vocelli pizza costs more than the usual (because it’s of a much higher quality, of course. 🙂 ), so I wouldn’t necessarily say that my experience is the average.
Heh… if I got paid 15 an hour as a base wage y’all could tip me a quarter per delivery and I’d be happy as a clam.
Arthur Rowan Brother Katana of Reasoned Discussion Rebel Leader and Dance Instructor for the Unitarian Jihad
Thanks for the clarification
Thanks for the clarification Rowan… Either way $15/hr, including or without tips, for working at a pizza place, seems like a lot of dough. 🙂 — Bryan
minimum wage laws
You are correct about the law and working for tips. However, if a waiter does not make min wage after claiming tips, then the employer must still pay them federal minimum wage. That being said, service has to be really, really terrible for a waiter to get no tip. I have been in pizza delivery for almost 7 years now and no of no national chain, and almost no mom/pops that pay drivers less than min wage plus some form of commission and tips. And no national chain makes drivers claim their tips upon check out. All that being said drivers deserve tips and are often undertipped.
it is a real job.
it is a real job.
The pizza guy rarely makes
The pizza guy rarely makes 15$ an hour. Usual it is between 7 and 10 dollars an hour.
tips
o,k I know some one that deliverys pizza and he told me the keep a list of none tiping people and the next time u order food from them the f… with your food rembere they are along with your food for about 15min
So true!
Having delivered pizza for too long, I can not agree more with your summation. Do not forget to mention delivery charges and how much of them go to the company and not the driver (Who says profit is not theft?).
tipping
I was surfing the internet and foud your blog. I totally agree mainly because I work as a pizza driver. I do think that tipping less than $2 (or rounding up to the next dollar for example $15.45 and the customer gives you $16.00 saying “keep the change”) is insulting. The Driver is bringing the customer lunch/dinner, using their vehicle.
here are some other things:
pizza is late:
1. back up in the kitchen
2. multiple deliveries for 1 driver
3. short on drivers or inside help
4. customer gives the wrong address because they are too stupid know where they live so the driver takes the pizza back to the store.
5. no apt number (customer forgot to give it) so the driver takes the order back to the store.
6. driver knocks on the door and there is no answer because the customer is not at home because they went to the store thinking that they will be back before the pizza gets there. NOT!!
7. driver knocks on the door and no one answers the door and the driver takes the order back to the store. customer calls wanting to know where their pizza is and CSR explains that no one was home when the driver got there. they explain that they were in the back yard and did not hear the knocking.
8. no house number on the house or the mailbox.
9. house is 1 mile back from the main road and of course no number on the mailbox.
10. certain times of the day there is heavy traffic and the pizza driver is not going to drive dangerously because you want food.