I work at a hotel, and often during snowy weather, guests will ask for delivery menus to avoid having to go out and forage for food in slick conditions. I imagine is the case of people at home, too. I see the appeal, and am often tempted to do the same, but always feel bad making someone else risk their life to deliver my food, even though it’s their job.
What do you think, is it bad form to make someone else drive in dangerous conditions so you can have a pizza/chinese/whathaveyou, or does it not bother you since it’s part of the job description? For anyone who may be or have been a delivery driver, do you resent all the orders in bad weather?
I don’t mind doing it- if it’s actually dangerous out I assume they won’t deliver, but when I lived in a bad weather climate and did so, I tipped WAY extra for it.
I worked as a pizza delivery person one summer. Since it was summer, there was never any really terrible conditions (except for the occasional downpour–it was Oregon, after all) but I would often have to go to far out places in the dark (with people who couldn’t be arsed to turn on their porch lights) and I didn’t feel particularly safe. My opinion as a former part-time pizza delivery girl is–drivers will be out there whether or not you personally call and order or not. If you feel the need for delivery, give the driver a big tip and I’m sure you will make his or her day. But ultimately, it is the driver’s job. If conditions are genuinely unsafe, his restaurant would hopefully shut down delivery (like if there’s a tornado coming or something…) If it’s just snow, s/he will survive.
I do it, and tip a lot. I tend to tip big anyway, since I don’t eat out that often, and have done PLENTY of restaurant work in my time.
When I lived in Indiana, we had a driver at the pizza place I worked at who drove the biggest, blackest, ugliest Lincoln Towncar you can imagine. It was…ridiculous, as far as a choice of delivery vehicles go. I mean, the gas it ate up was crazy.
But when the snow was deep, that car would GO!! I swear, he got better tips for blundering that beast through the drifts than anybody ever got for being prompt.
Ditto. If it’s too dangerous for them, then they should suspend delivery. Just like they did in February of 1993 in Charlotte, NC during one of those once-in-a-decade- snow storms, when I was 8 months pregnant and needing pizza… those bastards.
My boyfriend delivers pizza for a living. If he has to be at work in bad weather, he’d rather be busy and make some money. Give them an extra-good tip. It’s a dangerous job, one of the most dangerous in America, and bad weather of course ups the odds of an accident (but probably lowers them for muggings!).
Unfortunately his employer refuses to shut down in all but the most extreme circumstances (like last week’s 12-hour total white-out).
I’ll call and ask if they are running deliveries. If no, then no big deal. If yes, then pizza is coming to my house. It’s up to the business to decide if they are going to do deliveries.
I see no problem with it, as long as you’re not impatient about the delivery time and you give a really good tip. I order delivery when I don’t wanna leave the house–and chances are good that when the weather’s bad, I don’t wanna leave the house.
So if it takes an hour when it normally takes half that, I don’t mind.
And if I’d normally tip 5 bucks, I tip 8 or 10. (My order at my usual Chinese delivery joint varies from $18 to $21. My usual tip on it is $5. Unless, like I said, the weather is awful.)
People don’t think of San Antonio as having “severe weather,” but we flood like nobody’s business from time to time, and when our roads do ice over, nobody knows what the hell to do, so it’s more treacherous than it probably would be elsewhere.
Back in high school, I used to deliver pizzas. Granted, we didn’t get many requests to deliver in the snow, but I usually made a few extra bucks taking orders from out of our delivery area. We were on the outskirts of the major metro area, and being Texas, other delivery options were few and far between. The daytime (corporate) manager didn’t like me doing it, but the night managers (the cool ones) knew I worked only for tips and didn’t care if I went out of the way as long as it bumped the total sales for a slow Wednesday night (or whatever night).
Nowadays, if the weather is bad, I’ll ask the guys if they are delivering. If they are (God bless 'em), I make sure to tip extra. The way I figure it, if they’re willing to work, it’s what they do. So why not give 'em an extra 15% on top?
Granted I haven’t lived there in 15 years, but I’m talking about those “snowed-in” snowstorms, the big ones. They’re not that common in the Piedmont area.
Well, we don’t have any pizza delivery places in my tiny little town, but we have a diner (just around the corner) that delivers, and another diner a mile further away that delivers if they have enough extra help to cover delivery.
If the weather sucks too much for me to go out, I’ll order delivery from the diner around the corner, where the delivery person just walks to my apartment, I’m sure. I tip extra when the weather is bad.
I completely agree with that you should of course tip generously if you order in when it’s really shitty weather, but what makes you say that being a pizza delivery guy is the most dangerous job in America?
I delivered pizza in college. Delivery guys LOVE crappy weather. Just like cab drivers. They are there to make money, and bad weather brings in all the more of it.
I only order from the pizza place that’s about 5 blocks from my house, and I order regardless of weather. We tip very well in regular weather, and more in crummy weather. I figure in that distance, it’s just quiet suburban streets, very little traffic, shouldn’t be that bad.
Well, being a delivery person is, as far as workplace fatalities go. There’s probably a more detailed report somewhere, but I imagine it’s the combination of being on the road and the kind of robberies that plague any fast food workers.
I agree with those who say order away and give a great tip. Better they deliver to five houses while out and actually make some decent money than risk their lives for pennies!
I’ll order in snow or rain but not in Ice or Tornado type conditions. IOW, if it requires skill, I assume the drivers’ got it. If it’s simply dangerous, I won’t order.
I am frankly shocked by the number of people who think that the manager would shut down the restaurant (or even have the authority to do so). I’m betting that in most situations unless the Governor has shut the roads down, the restaurant employees will be expected to continue trying to provide service. I assume that it’s up to me not to wave dollars at managers during dangerous weather.
Always, always, I tip big for delivery. Especially if the weather is bad. I am amazed by people who tip more to a person who walked across a restaurant floor to deliver their food than to someone who drove to their house to deliver it. I just can’t parse that. I mean, if nothing else, ask yourself “Which person knows where I live?”
