| |
BGonline.org Forums
Tipping etiquette...
Posted By: Jake Jacobs In Response To: Tipping etiquette... (Stick)
Date: Wednesday, 7 December 2011, at 3:49 a.m.
Stick, as someone who delivered pizza before you were born, I can assure you that tipping pizza drivers is not something invented recently to bedevil you.
In 1973, when I drove for Jake's Pizza (no relation), our town of 50,000 had seven pizza restaurants, of which three delivered. (I don't know the current figures, but there are probably dozens of pizza joints, and almost all deliver.) The other places typically had one driver, who might actually have been a waiter or bus boy doing double duty. Delivery time was "whenever." Jake's had 2-3 drivers on week nights, 4 on Sundays, and 5 on Friday and Saturday. We charged fifty cents per delivery, and the drivers were guaranteed two bucks an hour or the sum of their delivery charges, whichever was greater. I averaged fifty cents a delivery in tips, which was good, as most drivers were getting forty to forty-five cents on average.
We told the customer we'd get it there in forty minutes, but when busy we would warn them it might be an hour. Sometimes we arrived in as little as twenty or twenty-five minutes. This was considered amazing. We were a highly competitive bunch, and strove to be the top dog each night we drove. Pizza delivery was the first game in which I excelled. I had just left a computer job where my take home pay was $202.50 twice a month, working full time. Driving three nights a week I was taking home more than that, and at the end of the night felt like I had earned my money.
We paid for our own gas (the oil crunch that fall and winter was a shock), and used our own cars, switching from propane ovens to Canned Heat during the year.
One downside was the seven brake jobs I paid for during that year. I blamed the car. ;-)
One of the best jobs, ever!
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.