Please Tip Your Delivery Driver!

I think the title says it all...

I deliver pizza as we all know by now. Many people may not realize this but we depend on tips just like servers do. We mostly buy gas with them but still, we depend on them. They aren't required, but they are nice. It's a way to say thank you for the service you're providing. At least that's how I feel. I know, I said all of this last week. Today I'm going to get more into tipping though. It does matter.

People think "Why should I tip?" Here's why:
- you're grateful for what we are doing
- it makes you a better customer in our eyes which can bring you better service
- everybody has to make money somehow, this is how we choose to do it.

Yes, I know I said choose. Most people think if I chose to do this job than I should be fine without getting tips. My decision and if I don't like not getting tipped then I should find a new job. I've heard it all. The point is that it's not easy for a college student who is a single mom to just hop on out and find a new job. Where I work, schedules are really flexible. They ask every semester about my hours at school so they can schedule me to receive the most hours I can. I can't get much better than that. Oh yeah, and, there really aren't that many jobs right now!

What about the delivery charge? Isn't that our tip? No, it's not. That's for the store. It goes to providing insurance so we can deliver pizza, it goes to pay for the phone call you're making to our customer service center. It goes to everything but us!

Another thing, if you're going to order pizza not only should you apply some sort of tip, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have a porch light on WITH numbers on your house. I know that it's not a big deal to most people, but you go try and find a certain house in the dark in a popular neighborhood. It's not easy. We may know the general area of where you live, but we can pinpoint the house exactly ( unless you're a repeat customer).

How much should you tip?? Well in general, 15 percent is nice. Just like you were at a restaurant with a waitress. Think of us like that. Instead of you going to the restaurant, the restaurant is coming to you and w are your server. There are other factors that help decide how much to tip.
- if it's gross outside (i.e...rain,snow,sleet, thunderstorms or extreme cold) add a little bit. We're like the mailman, we come rain, shine, or snow.
-if you're pizza arrives early and you say something, show your appreciation and give us a little more.
-if we're rude, don't not tip, that encourages the rudeness sometimes, just don't give as much.
-if you've ordered an extremely large amount of pizzas (10 or more), please be generous. Pizzas get heavy, and most of the time we carry it all by ourselves. Sometimes, we have to tip out the cook who made the order also. If you give me $5 dollars for $100 worth of pizza, I get $3.50. That's not even ten percent!

I could go on and on here, but I don't want to. I just want people to realize that we do a service for others and there are ways to help us out and return the favor. If I sound all greedy, I don't mean to. It's a hard job sometimes. A good tip can brighten the day and not make it seem so hard.

If you have questions, feel free to ask! For more information, check out tipthepizzaguy.com. It's a site dedicated to why people should tip, and much more about our profession. It's really interesting and all that good stuff!