Dammit, Tip Your Pizza Delivery Person Good !!!!!!!

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@Siam Sam

It sounds like tipping in the US has gotten way out of hand. Or maybe I’m just a cheapskate.

No, what has happened is that employers, especially in the marginal business of low end food service, are trying to find every way to cut costs, so they push the burden for paying waitrons and delivery persons onto the customer. Most waitron positions pay about enough to pay for gas–in many states, employeers aren’t even required to pay regular minimum wage to service employees who receive tips as an inticipated part of their income–and are reliant upon tips to actually pay rent and buy food.

I think the fundamental problem here is that the o.p.'s daughter is being paid a reasonable wage, but is then expected to bear the burden of carrrying business costs (providing a vehicle, maintanence, gas, et cetera) without compensation. This is, frankly, an obscene scenario; this would be like being sent on travel to a meeting across country and being expected to pay all travel expenses out of pocket. This would obviously not be acceptible in a white collar job, but for some reason it is de rigueur in low wage delivery jobs, instead of having the employer provide the vehicle and expenses. (I think it is especially egregious that they charge a delivery fee and then keep a majority of the money for themselves, especially since they are not providing anything toward the delivery other than taking the order.)

My advice; find another job. Your expenses aren’t going to go down and people aren’t going to tip better, regardless of how much you outrage on a message board. There are plenty of jobs that don’t require that you front your own expenses and aren’t sit-in-an-office-and-slowly-go-crazy work. Or set yourself up as an independent contractor and deliver stuff for a fee that is equitable to you. But if you choose to do marginal work for an exploitative employer, don’t criticize the customers for not making up the difference.

Stranger

[ZipperJJ]

@lissener

That’s not true, at least it’s not any truer for pizza delivery than a waitron bringing things to your table. In fact, I’d go the opposite: a waitress brings the food 30 feet across a dry floor; delivering a pizza is a LOT more work than delivering a plate to your table in a restaurant. Especially since you know the driver is probably getting some shitty tips.

You should tip 15% at least. Otherwise you’re an asshole. (Speaking generally.)

I know you like to play the part of the down-trodden little guy in the big bad world of nasty customers, but you totally didn’t read my post.

All I said was that I don’t tip a percentage of the total because it makes no sense in a pizza delivery situation to make more or less money based on what was on top of my pie. If I order 1 incredibly overpriced toppings on my medium pizza the driver would end up getting a lot less than if I had ordered 5 incredibly overpriced toppings, but would have extended the same amount of time, effort, gas and car wear.

If I order more than 2 pies at once (say if I have folks over), I’ll up the tip because the effort is going to be slightly higher. Otherwise, $2 + change + whatever they get from the delivery charge is more than enough when I only spend $15-20. I’m not going to give the driver extra because I had a hankerin’ for mushrooms that day or penalize them because I’m tired of peppers and onions.

[adhemar]

All jobs differ to some extent but we got paid mileage to defray the cost of wear and tear on our vehicles and FD’s daughter is getting an additional $20.00 per month for her insurance.

I am of the opinion that if I am charged in my bill for the delivery then that takes the place of the tip. The fact that she (or her dad) don’t think that is enough compensation is an issue with the employer not with me.

I have delviered pizza and been a waitress, I tip well unless the compnay decides to include it in my bill in which case you get whatever was in the bill.

[Fuji]

@adhemar

I am of the opinion that if I am charged in my bill for the delivery then that takes the place of the tip. The fact that she (or her dad) don’t think that is enough compensation is an issue with the employer not with me.

If you want good, quick service then it certainly is an issue with you.

Otherwise, fine.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@FairyChatMom

This isn’t an issue for us. The closest pizza place, all of maybe 7 miles away, won’t deliver here. Are delivery zones really that small? So I just place an on-line order and go there myself. Since the place is next to my grocery store, I can grab dessert or another critical item during the same trip.

But if I did get delivery, I’d tip well. Especially in light of gas prices.

Suburban delivery zones at the chain stores usually top out at around a 5 mile radius. I assume the zones get bigger in rural areas.

@Ruken

Agreed. $8/hour is good money. That’s ~$27k/yr at 70h/week for 48 weeks/yr. Not bad. Not something I’d want to do forever, especially on a job that isn’t providing marketable skills for better pay in the future (unlike, say, I grad school stipend, which is about the same pay or a bit less.)

Where the hell do you live that 70 hours is a normal workweek? That’s 30 hours of overtime; good luck getting an employer to approve that in the first place.

[Sam_Stone]

@Fuji

You seem to get it here…

…but then you lose it here.

This is bullshit. Aside from the fact that, there actually is an element of skill involved in efficiently getting to your door in the first place, I’ve worked with enough mouthbreathers (and had enough delivery me food) to know that some drivers certianly do take better care of their customers than others. Perhaps I’ll take the care not to walk across your lawn. Maybe I’ll remember that you like crushed red pepper and bring enough with me. Perhaps I’ll try hard not to make any noise if I know you have a baby sleeping. There are any number of variables that go into receiving good service, and it doesn’t just fall it out of someone’s ass. Good service takes an element of professionalism that you might only recognize by its absence.

I don’t tip people because their job requires ‘an element of skill’. I don’t tip them because they didn’t destroy my lawn in the process of making a routine delivery.

The job of the delivery person is pretty cut-and-dried - Take the order, put it in the car, drive to the house, ring the doorbell, collect money.

A waitress or waiter gets a tip because they have to be actively thinking about what I might need. They take the initiative to come around and ensure that everything’s okay. They bring the coffee by to fill up my cup before it’s empty. They make suggestions for food, bring me the bill promptly, etc.

The important point to grasp is that tipping is not supposed to be welfare. It’s not supposed to be charity. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement that solves some thorny problems in the service business - namely, ensuring that customers get good, prompt, pleasant service in an environment where people don’t get paid a whole lot and there is little management oversight. So tipping has evolved to make the transactions more efficient while satisfying everyone.

I don’t really see that being a valid mechanism for a delivery driver who isn’t doing anything his job specifically calls out for him to do. His job is pretty mechanical, and tips really should affect performance at all (unless he’s malicious and actually goes out of his way to hurt people who don’t tip).

I think a closer analogy is to a bellman, who isn’t really doing anything other than carrying your bags for you. Yet, they expect a tip because the service was optional and you chose it. I suppose you could make the same claim about delivery drivers.

Again, I do tip the pizza delivery guy - I’m not cheap, and I’d rather spend my money giving it to people doing the jobs I want done than to a faceless bureaucracy. I do consider it a part of my charitable giving (but that’s my choice, and I would reject that argument as a rationale for tipping in general), and as a result I sometimes give huge tips if I like someone and think they could use the money.

But answer this: How come we’re supposed to tip the pizza delivery guy and not the UPS driver? They’re doing essentially the same job. The UPS driver actually has a harder job that requires more skill and effort. But they don’t get tipped. The delivery guys on bikes between offices work their asses off, and have to be quite creative to get you a package extremely quickly - and they don’t get tips. Why should pizza guys be different?

[Fuji]

@Sam Stone

I don’t tip people because their job requires ‘an element of skill’. I don’t tip them because they didn’t destroy my lawn in the process of making a routine delivery.

My reference to an “element of skill” was not directly germane to the subject of service and tipping, but rather a preemptive effort to forestall condescension in discussing the nature of pizza delivery. Apparently I failed.

The job of the delivery person is pretty cut-and-dried - Take the order, put it in the car, drive to the house, ring the doorbell, collect money.

You’re sure that’s the entirety of it, huh?

A waitress or waiter gets a tip because they have to be actively thinking about what I might need. They take the initiative to come around and ensure that everything’s okay. They bring the coffee by to fill up my cup before it’s empty. They make suggestions for food, bring me the bill promptly, etc.

Yes, they do. I am very appreciative of the good work that competent waiters perform. That doesn’t mean that a driver doesn’t also have to provide good customer service if he wishes to maximize his income potential.

The important point to grasp is that tipping is not supposed to be welfare. It’s not supposed to be charity. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement that solves some thorny problems in the service business - namely, ensuring that customers get good, prompt, pleasant service in an environment where people don’t get paid a whole lot and there is little management oversight. So tipping has evolved to make the transactions more efficient while satisfying everyone.

I fully agree.

I don’t really see that being a valid mechanism for a delivery driver who isn’t doing anything his job specifically calls out for him to do.

Then why should I tip my waiter? After all, it’s his job to bring me food and drink.

His job is pretty mechanical, and tips really should affect performance at all (unless he’s malicious and actually goes out of his way to hurt people who don’t tip).

If you’re an ignorant simpleton, then yes - the job is mechanical. However, provding good service, as opposed to poor or merely adequate service, does require performing tasks above the bare minimum.

I think a closer analogy is to a bellman, who isn’t really doing anything other than carrying your bags for you. Yet, they expect a tip because the service was optional and you chose it. I suppose you could make the same claim about delivery drivers.

Give me a fucking break. Delivering a hot pizza requires no more skill than picking up a suitcase and moving it 100 meters. Right.

Again, I do tip the pizza delivery guy - I’m not cheap, and I’d rather spend my money giving it to people doing the jobs I want done than to a faceless bureaucracy. I do consider it a part of my charitable giving (but that’s my choice, and I would reject that argument as a rationale for tipping in general), and as a result I sometimes give huge tips if I like someone and think they could use the money.

That’s good to hear.

But answer this: How come we’re supposed to tip the pizza delivery guy and not the UPS driver? They’re doing essentially the same job. The UPS driver actually has a harder job that requires more skill and effort.

How do you figure that?

But they don’t get tipped. The delivery guys on bikes between offices work their asses off, and have to be quite creative to get you a package extremely quickly - and they don’t get tips. Why should pizza guys be different?

Hey, I don’t create social customs - that’s just the way it is. However, I’d imagine that the custom probably began because some people were willing to pay more to get their food faster.

[LurkMeister]

I tip pizza delivery people (as well as the person who delivers from the local Chinese take-out place) because they’re saving me (or, more precisely, a friend of mine, since I don’t drive) the trouble of going out to get something to eat when I don’t feel like cooking and we don’t feel like going out to eat because either we’re too tired or the weather is too bad. My usual tip for a delivery in the $20-$25 range is three or four dollars, depending on how flush I am and how bad the weather is. My usual restaurant tip is in the 20% range, just as a point of information.

I have noticed that over the past year it seems like my deliveries are arriving faster than the 30-40 minutes that I am told it will take to receive my order. I have no idea whether this is due to the fact that the drivers know that I tip.

I just wish I could find a Mexican restaurant in the area that delivers.

[VinylTurnip]

@Sam Stone

But answer this: How come we’re supposed to tip the pizza delivery guy and not the UPS driver? They’re doing essentially the same job. The UPS driver actually has a harder job that requires more skill and effort. But they don’t get tipped. The delivery guys on bikes between offices work their asses off, and have to be quite creative to get you a package extremely quickly - and they don’t get tips. Why should pizza guys be different?

I can only answer for myself, but I’m generally less concerned about the UPS driver spitting on my package.

[Fuji]

@Vinyl Turnip

I can only answer for myself, but I’m generally less concerned about the UPS driver spitting on my package.

You wouldn’t say that if VCO3 was your deliveryman.

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

Is $8/hr really all that good? I think the US people are looking at it with US eyes. While I know the CAD is worth just about what the USD is these days, have the Canadian prices caught up yet? Have they even fixed the fact that books (at least through last year) were still several dollars higher in Canada? When I was there last, Canada hadn’t gone around lowering all of its prices just because the US economy was plummeting.

Personally, I don’t know why anyone would take a delivery job the way they are run: you’re generally responsible for all your own maintenance/gas costs, the tips are shitty, and if there’s a delivery charge the restaurant will often pocket it, even though it causes people to often not tip when they’re already paying a surcharge. However, trying to change this social custom by not tipping one person at a time is a really shitty way to go about it.

How would posters in this thread change their minds if the OP’s daughter were making US min. wage, at what, $5.85?

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

some comments.

The only thing I’m bitching about is shitty tippers. Hell, my daughter loves her job and she pulled in $57.00 in tips from fine upstanding citizens yesterday in 6.75 hours netting her over a $100.00 for the day. I’m not even bitching about her employer. Why should he take on additional expenses that other pizza joints don’t have?

What I want people to know is that the pizza delivery delivery person has to shell out her expenses that are not adequately reimbursed in order to get you that meal. That’s the norm in the industry around here. If you don’t tip or tip reasonably then you are a parasite.

[x-ray_vision]

@The Flying Dutchman

If you don’t tip or tip reasonably then you are a parasite.

I’d agree if it weren’t for one thing: The customers of the establishment your daughter works at are charged $3.00 for delivery. It’s not the customer’s job to inquire about how much of that ends up in your daughter’s pocket. If the establishment your daughter worked for didn’t charge for delivery, would you consider $3 a reasonable tip for a pizza delivery? I would.

[norinew]

@The Flying Dutchman

If you don’t tip or tip reasonably then you are a parasite.

Please tell me I am mis-reading here. It seems as if you are saying “if you tip reasonably, you are a parasite”, iow, if you don’t tip more than ‘normal’, you are a parasite.

I tip what I hope is ‘normally’. Please tell me you are not thinking of me as a parasite. Of course, if I’m tipping ~15% and you still think I’m a parasite, then that’s not my concern.

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@The Flying Dutchman

I’m not even bitching about her employer. Why should he take on additional expenses that other pizza joints don’t have?

What I want people to know is that the pizza delivery delivery person has to shell out her expenses that are not adequately reimbursed in order to get you that meal. That’s the norm in the industry around here. If you don’t tip or tip reasonably then you are a parasite.

So your essential argument is that a customer is a “parasite” if he does not pay an additional charge to cover the actual expenses of delivery offered by said establishment on top of the $2.50 charge incurred by said establishment for “delivery expenses”, in effect, accepting being double charged for the same service because said establishment is too cheap to offer up the requisite reimbursement for their drivers? That’s a pretty lame argument, and this comes from someone who worked service jobs for years and routinely tips 20% for any service. Why should the employer take on the additional expensive of paying for delivery costs? Because they are charging the customer for it. If I get a check at a restaurant and it says, “gratuity included”, I’m not going to leave an extra tip unless the service was extraordinary.

You should express your complaint to the employer in question, not to customers who are already paying above menu cost for delivery service.

Stranger

[Zsofia]

I tip well for pizza because I think, hey, maybe I’ll get mine hot and fast and right!

Well, I do seem to see more of the same drivers than other people do.

On the other hand, I get my pizza wrong half the time and slid off the pizza onto the side the other half.

My problem probably is that I just tip on the online order form. I ought to tip cash and only after checking the damned pizza, but I never seem to have the cash on me.

Still. I’m a grownup with a professional job. I don’t make as much as I’d like to, but I know I make a lot more than the teenager bringing me a pizza. Bestow some largesse, would you?

(This does not go for the pizza guy who after delivering my pizza sent me a text saying, and I still have it, “I think UR sexxy. Want 2 go out with me?” and when I didn’t respond, texted it again. I told my boyfriend after that that I didn’t care if he was in his underwear, he had to get off the couch and be seen from the door when the pizza guy comes.)

[Frylock]

@x-ray vision

I’d agree if it weren’t for one thing: The customers of the establishment your daughter works at are charged $3.00 for delivery. It’s not the customer’s job to inquire about how much of that ends up in your daughter’s pocket.

Whos’ telling you to “inquire” about anything? There’s no reason for you to put any effort into making assumptions that any of it goes into the driver’s pocket. It most likely doesn’t!

If the establishment your daughter worked for didn’t charge for delivery, would you consider $3 a reasonable tip for a pizza delivery? I would.

What you pay the establishment and what you tip the driver are completely different matters. Lowering the tip because of a charge by the establishment would be tantamount to lowering a tip in a restaurant because the establishment charges more than you like.

-FrL-

[Frylock]

@Zsofia

(This does not go for the pizza guy who after delivering my pizza sent me a text saying, and I still have it, “I think UR sexxy. Want 2 go out with me?” and when I didn’t respond, texted it again. I told my boyfriend after that that I didn’t care if he was in his underwear, he had to get off the couch and be seen from the door when the pizza guy comes.)

Out of curiosity, how did you know it was the delivery guy who was sending the texts?

-FrL-

[Justin_Bailey]

@The Flying Dutchman

Hell, my daughter loves her job and she pulled in $57.00 in tips from fine upstanding citizens yesterday in 6.75 hours netting her over a $100.00 for the day.

What I want people to know is that the pizza delivery delivery person has to shell out her expenses that are not adequately reimbursed in order to get you that meal. That’s the norm in the industry around here. If you don’t tip or tip reasonably then you are a parasite.

That’s nice, frankly I don’t give a shit. This attitude is why people get so animated in discussions on tipping. Your daughter made $57 in tips, that’s great. But then turning around and saying “it should have been more” is what get’s people all riled up. Tips are not mandatory and when servers act like they and start dictating how much the tip should be is when I start subtracting.

And with $57 in tips for one night, it should like her expenses were very well reimbursed.

[x-ray_vision]

@Frylock

Whos’ telling you to “inquire” about anything? There’s no reason for you to put any effort into making assumptions that any of it goes into the driver’s pocket. It most likely doesn’t!

I didn’t imply that anyone told me to inquire about anything. The OP stated that her daughter received $1 per delivery while the establishment charges $3. Who gets what is not my business, so you’re right, there’s no reason for me to make any assumptions. I know I’m paying $3 for delivery and it’s up to me to decide if paying any more for a pizza delivery is warranted. I’ve decided it isn’t.

@Frylock

What you pay the establishment and what you tip the driver are completely different matters. Lowering the tip because of a charge by the establishment would be tantamount to lowering a tip in a restaurant because the establishment charges more than you like.

No, it wouldn’t be. A delivery charge is a charge for the delivery- not the food. I would not tip the delivery person less because I thought the pizza cost too much. Likewise, I would not tip a waitress less because I thought the price of the food was high. I would skip tipping the waitress altogether if the establishment added a gratuity that I thought was sufficient. That’s what the situation in this thread is tantamount to.