A tip of almost 1/3? Hell no. $2 or maybe $3 if it was fast.
To me, there is a problem with people over tipping. If people over tip regardless of the service, then the people receiving the tips come to expect greater tips for shitty work.
That is all I tip. $5 is standard pizza delivery tip and our ticket usually runs over $30
Nm
Me too, and I think the idea that delivery drivers should get a minimum 25% tip as a matter of course is unrealistic, if not absurd. A nice pipe dream, though. Certainly wouldn’t have protested, should some tyrannical government entity have required it.
Well, I don’t see how you justify tipping them at the same rate as waiters. In most cases, they pay for their own gas and use their own car. The customer should take this into account and tip accordingly. Otherwise, drive yourself there.
When I delivered pizzas in the 90’s I was tipped less often than that. 
Because tipped waiters are usually working for less than $3.00 per hour, while delivery drivers are being paid minimum wage, plus some amount for each delivery… right???
White person here, he’d get about 2 bucks, maybe 3 on a higher order and/or bad weather conditions etc. In my book 5 is REALLY generous.
If I ever had occasion to make a huge pizza order (like a former rant here in the pit), I’d tip more, but it would still be far less than those I’d tip those who wait tables.
Ok, good point. Didn’t think of that. The place I worked just gave me $30 cash at the end of each night. However, that $30 usually went to fill up my gas tank so I worked pretty much entirely on tips. I really think you got to consider how far of a drive it is, and how much that would cost you, the customer, to drive there and back.
RE: The whole waitstaff vs. delivery drivers, and who should get the most tips thing. For me it’s very much a matter of which is more labor intensive. Delivery drivers don’t have to be on their feet carrying heavy hot plates and trays for 8 hours, (not to mention all the sidework). Someone said something in a recent pizza delivery thread about “what, waitresses have to walk maybe 30 feet from the kitchen”? Yeah, about 400 times a night.
I’ve been both a waitress and a delivery driver, though I was a parts runner, which is like a pizza delivery person, only with car parts, and it entails lots more deliveries and customers per shift and no tips.
Delivery is far less taxing on the body. Plus when you deliver, you drop off the part (or pizza) it gets signed for, and you don’t have to see the customer again until next time.
With waitressing you’ve got 5-10 tables, and you’re with each set of customers (that many all at once) for the entirety of their dining experience. Refilling drinks, running hither and yon for all sorts of little piddly stuff, (ranch dressing, butter, more coffee, ice tea, my soup’s cold, this isn’t what I ordered, it’s never ending).
That versus getting to ride in your own car, listening to your own choice of music, maybe having a friend ride along (at least that’s how a lot of delivery drivers did in my home town of Anchorage, I haven’t ordered much pizza since I’ve been in the states), and are only on your feet for the few minutes it takes to get to the door of the delivery address and back to your car? LOTS less physically difficult, therefore in my book, more tips for the one who’s working the hardest, and like folks upthread have stated, are giving me a lot more service.
That is another absurd standard. Besides, given that most delivery radii are less than a 10 minute drive (or say 5 miles to be generous), that the cost to drive an average sedan is about $.60/mile, and given that the delivey fee is usually around $2, even by your dumb logic this guy still OVERTIPPED. And that’s with some generous assumptions on my part, and having the driver travel a full 10 miles to make one delivery, which is almost never the case.
It all depends on your location. Many times I drove 10 miles or more. At the same time, I do not recall not being tipped anything very often. At the end of the night, I’d usually take home around $50. The delivery charge does not all go to the driver so you cannot hold that against them. In fact, cut it in half and then account for the fact they have to pay for their own gas. They work entirely on tips and if people don’t tip, they actually pay to work.
Whereas, if your a waiter, the worst thing that can happen is you will at least make minimum wage.
Rest assured that far from feeling busted my balls feel as though they have been gently massaged with loving care and are now being caressed by a warm breeze that soothes me while suggesting just a hint of tickles to come. You make a fantastic argument, but, regretfully, I must disagree.
Take my order did he? Maybe. I wouldn’t know because it wasn’t a face to face discussion. The only interaction I’m really aware of is the 20-60 seconds we spend swapping currency/signatures for the pizza. I have a lot more direct interaction with a waiter in a sit down restaurant. He takes my order, he refills my drinks, if I have questions he answers them and if there is a problem he takes care of it.
Of course, making minimum wage as a waiter would be be horrendously unfair, seeing as how it is a physically and mentally demanding job, perhaps one of the most demanding jobs that there is.
Delivery driving? Not nearly as stressful.
Did you read the thread? The delivery driver gets a fraction of the delivery charge if he gets any of it.
I agree but that’s not the issue. I’m comparing modern day waiting to delivery driving and the worst case scenario for both. Ill take making money over paying to work any day. Thats why you should always tip your driver generously. Even more than your waiter.
Askthepizzaguy said that he needs about a 2 dollar tip per delivery on average to make enough money to make ends meet. Knowing that there are a lot of jerks out there who don’t tip even 2 dollars, I always tip about 5 bucks when I do order pizza for delivery (which isn’t often at all). If it were a particularly large order, I would do a larger tip.
Hahah! My exact thought when I heard this story.
I am a black guilt big tipper. Tipping actually happens to be one of my few luxuries in life, and if white folks are calling a 33 percent tip a poor tip, then I just don’t know how I can keep up…Will I have to start tipping more than the damn bill if I want to be an exceptional tipper?
But something is off in this story. The man says he tipped 21 percent, which doesn’t jibe with a five dollar bill on the 15 dollar tab. I think maybe the man really did stiff him, and the driver was being sarcastic about the five dollar tip.
Still doesn’t excuse the behavior, and I understand why he lost his job over it, but my gut is telling me the dude did get stiffed.
I’m a cheapskate. I’ll get carryout rather than delivery so I don’t have to tip.
But in the OP, I’d say the tip was actually rather generous.
It seems like all the black dopers are guilt tippers! Nzinga, monstro… I think another couple who have piped up in threads over the years.
Never fear, Nzinga. Speaking on behalf of all white people who are authoritative on the issue of tipping, that $15 dollar pizza order deserved a tip of 2 or 3 dollars minimum, up to 5 dollars max. So you’re doing just fine 