I say the restaurant usually keeps it.
Depends on who owns the vehicle used for delivery. If the restaurant owns it, they generally keep it all.
But most pizza places do not own their delivery vehicles; the drivers use their own. In that case, the restaurant usually splits the charges 50-50 with the driver. This is to compensate the driver for fuel, maintainance, insurance, etc. It doesn’t completely do that, though, unless the delivery charge is really high. This is one reason why you should tip the driver.
There’s no one answer to the question. Some places, as has been noted, share the delivery charge with the driver to help compensate for gas, mileage and etc.
If you want to know about a particular establishment, you can always ask them directly.
A few previous threads on the topic.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=475326&highlight=driver+tips
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=473904&highlight=delivery+tips
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=459379&highlight=delivery+tips
Ask them. Then, ask the driver also, if you aren’t sure.
Interesting threads…
I know I’m a strange duck but I don’t get this delivery charge == tip thing people have.
It costs money for the pizza place to deliver the pizza to your place…they have to pay a driver. Therefore, it is essentially added to the price of the pizza. If the driver gets any money from the delivery charge…it is irrelevant as it is clearly meant to defray wear/tear on car and gas. If the driver gets nothing of it…well that is between the driver and his employer and none of my business.
So, I tip irregardless of a ‘delivery charge’. However, if the price of the pizza +delivery charge is too high, I will shop around to another pizza place.
As a former pizza guy, I can tell you that I kept it. I drove my own car. This way I never got completely stiffed, I got a buck. The wear and tear on a pizza guy’s car is incredible. I know what hot brakes smell like thanks to that job.
Back when I used to deliver pizza, they charged a dollar per pizza for delivery. If a driver drove their own car*, they got 75 cents per pizza for the delivery, the store kept the other 25 cents.
- There was only one “company” delivery vehicle, a crappy little Ford Escort that nobody ever wanted to drive, so almost every driver drove their own car.
It’s the same annoyance I have with fuel surcharges on plane tickets or UPS shipping. I’m paying a menu price to have something delivered. If I bought a gallon of milk from the grocery store and got a “refrigeration surcharge” I’d feel the same way.
I tip anyway, but the delivery charge is usually subtracted from the 15%.
The above examples I understand. However, delivery is different in that one can always pick up the pizza themselves.
Another former comestible transportation specialist here, We got the $2.50 delivery charge, it was even a separate check from the hours worked check.
Paso Robles, CA, if we wanna start sorting by area.
The “Big Three” pizza chains added blanket delivery charges of $2-ish over the last 5 years. No big deal. Unfortunately, the driver’s per-delivery stipend went up about 10-50 cents.
In other words, the chains essentially hiked the prices of their pizzas and didn’t tell anyone. Now the drivers get stiffed, or at least get smaller tips.
I tip on top of the delivery charge too, but most people assume that all or most of the charge goes to the driver, which is simply not true.
I agree with your annoyance but you are punishing the driver when he’s not the benefiting from the surcharge. Even if he gets *part *of that, it is minimal base pay.
Baggage handlers for one of the airlines sued when the airline did something similar. They started charging for curbside check-in, so people quit tipping the baggage handlers. IIRC they won the suit, but pizza drivers are not as powerful a group. So they get screwed.
I doubt it’s that they’re not as powerful- there are an awful lot of them.
It’s that they’re a more fluid group; kids do it for a couple of years in college (like me). Not many people make a full time career out of it.
I didn’t discover the ‘delivery charge’ until about 2 years ago when Domino’s opened their website. Unfortunately, I am limited to D’s only due to store proximity (it seems 1.9 miles is okay, but Pizza Slut is only 2.1 miles away and they won’t have anything to do with me).
I can only hope that the drivers get most of this ripoff, and I still tip despite noticing this charge. Although I don’t like paying it, I know it is not the fault of the drivers and they shouldn’t get the short end because of company policy.
OH: And I used to deliver way back in HS as well. I made less than minimum wage (probably on par with a waitress), but kept 100% of my tips. No tip-out for cooks, dishwashers, etc. It was my car, and my gas. The rule was, “If you hustle, you can make some money. The rest is up to you.”
(“The rest” is wear and tear on the vehicle, gas, insurance, tickets, blah blah blah. As a young’un, I never did the cost analysis on “the rest” versus cash in my pocket. All I was worried about was I HAD CASH IN MY POCKET!!!)
They are not powerful as a group, regardless of their numbers, because they are transient (as you say) and widely dispersed. They are not organized enough to take collective action.
What if they ride a bike?
I worked for Domino’s before they ever charged for delivery. The drivers got a stipend for gas and maintenance which came out to about $0.75 per run (not very much). I think at one point they added a $1 deliver charge to cover this, but other places charge $2 and I’m sure that not all of the drivers get to keep 100% of that.
I imagine it going something like, “we charge $2 for delivery and pay the driver $0.50-0.75 of that for gas. The rest is just bonus money for us”
Huh?
Paying the driver is the cost of doing business. Do they pay “delivery charges” when their vendors bring ingredients? Or when the trash guys take away the trash?
NOt saying that makes it equivalent to a tip, but why itemize that and not everything else that goes into it? It is bogus to me, and I don’t buy the “you could have picked it up yourself” argument. If that is the case, then discount the eatins, but be honest about what it is really - a failure of a business to be profitable at the price point it wants to market at.
I agree - how hard could it be in real life now for all, say Domino’s drivers to organize sit down for a nite or two, and get things fixed? hello facebook. that is the message being sent when the delivery charge is subtracted from the tip: “Hey Driver, you are in a position to fix this better then me! I might even back you and not order on that night or until it is fixed”