Do you tip your letter carrier every time you receive your mail? Likely as not, he/she had to walk your mail to you and all your neighbors.
That’s a fair point. But I thought that delivery drivers were paid at least minimum wage, which isn’t a fortune, granted, but is a fair amount more than most sit down restaurant waitstaff are paid per hour.
I could, as usual, be wrong, though.
I am not sure if this cite is sufficient for you (it’s from a Consumerist article) but #2 on this list seems to indicate that delivery drivers can and do get paid less than minimum wage.
Not to highjack, but but by any chance have you worked at an environmental consulting company in the Texas. You have just described a former boss of mine whom I am certain will one day be the target of an employee or ex-employee on a rampage
That’s a fair point, I suppose, but full-time mail carriers start at $30,000 a year.
Restaurant waitstaff can serve a dozen customers in an hour; pizza delivery people might get to five, if it’s an incredibly lucky route or a horribly understaffed pizza joint.
Waitstaff don’t have to purchase additional insurance or an extra 20,000 miles a year worth of gas and auto parts.
ETA: With regard to Ms. Whatsit’s link, I’ve never heard of a delivery driver not making minimum wage + tips, and I worked for each of the “big three” and two family-owned joints in college.
Letter carriers while not the most well-paid of public servants do receive compensation and benefits well above wait staff and have better job protection.
Interesting. I guess things have changed in the twenty one years since I drove for Domino’s (which is also when, I’m embarrassed to admit, that I found out that it was common practice to tip your pizza deliverer). In '89 the minimum wage was $3.35 an hour, and that’s what we got, plus tips and gas compensation (provided we were driving our own vehicle, and not the company truck, for the evening).
If you’re going to deal with the public, in any position, you have to get thicker skin. I know several people who will bitch and moan about anything because they know that bitching usually means a discount. We’ve quit dining out with one couple because they embarrassed us one time too many with their imaginary bad service, bad food, long wait, etc. Sad, but true.
If you’ve done everything right, then hold your head high and go about doing your excellent job.
So then, by that rationale (shitty pay equals tip), I’m to assume that you do, in fact, tip your barristas. Moreover, that you tip the staff at McDonald’s, Taco Bell, et al., as well whenever you give them your patronage?
I tip. Without fail.
But I agree with MTCicero.
Hear! Hear! I always tip well (unless the service is incredibly crappy - as in the server takes our drink order then disappears for a half hour. It happened once.) I tip especially well when we are out with the kids. The waitstaff are not housekeepers and babysitters.
Would you believe: according to the nice man who brings food to our house (and is treated as a god by the boys), nowadays drivers are expected to provide their own vehicle, and are not paid for mileage. I tip him well.
My only experience in this field was busing tables at the student union in college. A thankless job, if ever there was one. Assholes would put out cigarettes in their food or stuff uneaten food into a glass or coffee cup. No tips, of course. It taught me what I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life, so that’s a plus. I always leave a 20% tip for waitstaff, unless there is a serious problem. They aren’t responsible for the cost, the quality, or the quantity of the food.
On the rare occasions I order pizza, I always do so online, and Papa John’s offers a box to enter the tip to go with the rest of the charge. So before the driver even steps out the door, he knows he’s got a $5 tip from me. Yesterday when I ordered out, PJ’s website estimated 30-40 minutes for delivery, I got it in 15 minutes, and the guy looked delighted to see me when I opened the door. Go figure. 
I hate coffee and fast food, so tiping in the places you have mentioned aren’t an issue. At the the restaurants I do eat at, the waitstaff gets a proper tip unless they do something absolutely disgusting.
What a wonderful way to sidestep the question.
If, hypothetically, you had to mix with the peasants at your local fast food joint, would you tip the person behind the counter?
Worse, ime. And the more crosses and Bibles and other things that scream “LOOK AT ME! I’M A GOOD CHRISTIAN, I JUST CAME FROM CHURCH!” there were strung about their person, the bigger assholes they usually were and the smaller your tip usually was. And Og help you if there was a big ol’ church lady hat on anyone at the table–you were about to be held personally responsible for everything from the wait to be seated to their undies riding up, and your tip on a 6-top was going to be a handful of change and some religious tracts.
When I left Cracker Barrel, I swore that I would sell my body on the street corner before I’d wait tables on a Sunday ever again.
2nd place? At least the African-Americans tip money. With the post-Church crowd you’ll probably just get religious literature(acc. to a friend who had to deal with them in his former life as a waiter).
I see someone has already made my point
I’ve worked fast food. It’s not a reasonable comparison. For one, working fast food doesn’t damage your car or cost you in gas. For another, most of the big name fast food joints will eventually - if you work enough hours for long enough - offer some sort of benefits. Rarely true for delivery drivers. Lastly, fast food employees are not providing any personal service. They takes your money and they makes your taco, and that’s what your $1.39 gets you. The delivery driver is someone engaged in an extra step that you have decided to have done for you, and, as such, rates a tip in our current system. You can pick that pizza up yourself if you don’t want to tip.
You’re talking about delivery drivers, I’m talking about waiters in restaurants.
The delivery driver knew what he was getting into, in terms of pay and losses, when he took the job. I doubt anyone promised him that he would receive X in tips per night. This is the risk you accept when you agree to be a pizza delivery driver.
Look, I have no problem tipping them. I understand that they do more work than your average fast food employee. However, I also have no problem -not- tipping them if the service doesn’t warrant it. Same with regular waitstaff in a restaurant.
Tipping should not be something that is expected, or scoffed at when it’s less than what you think you deserve.
You know what else pisses me off? “Delivery fees.” $2.50 to deliver my food, when none of it goes to the driver. I really hope drivers are pushing back against this practice. I’m doing my part by not ordering from establishments that engage in this practice.