yellowmac

I don't order pizza for delivery much anymore, and when I do order pizza, I usually specify that I'll pick it up for carryout, mainly to avoid having to tip. I remember always being confused as to how much or what percentage to tip. I think it usually always varied between 10 and 15%. I had known that 15 was the norm for waiters, and the argument was that delivery guys didn't do as much as waiters, so back off the percentage a little.

Lately I've been tipping waiters closer to 20, more out of good karma, I suppose. Based on what I've been reading here, I'll probably try to tip delivery guys a bit more, but I haven't had any food delivered to my house in months, probably years...

Grancey

Absolutely. Always. I even tip the kitchen help when they made me a BLT at a restaurant that doesn't offer a BLT on the menu. People, you have to tip. Deliverers don't make that much, and it's a tough job.

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Blasphemy

Never tip if it is expected.

Nothing pisses me off more than kids who think they deserve extra money for doing their job, they already get paid.

levite

Yeah, standard rule should always be to tip anyone in service. And with delivery (pizza, or any other kind of order-in) you should tip at least $3 or $4 if you live in a small city or large town, or at least $5 if you live in a big city. More if possible, since gas costs have shot through the roof. Obviously, if it was really crappy service, that's different, or if your delivery person was rude or something.... But other than that, tip and tip well.

I worked delivering pizza, delivering cafe food, waitering, and a whole bunch of other crap service gigs like that when I was trying to work as an actor. Tips are indispensable: restaurants generally pay minimum wage, or not much above it. Delivery work is highly irregular, and conditions aren't great: you end up having to do a lot of scut work at the restaurant that isn't covered by tipping or extra wages, and you pay for your own gas, insurance and so forth. Plus, drivers usually have to give a cut of their tips to the supervisors and the kitchen staff.

Not only are you just a better person for tipping the delivery guy, but it can really work in your favor. Delivery people remember who tips well, and who stiffs them, and service is often prioritized accordingly. I don't just mean the occasional delivery driver who gets too fed up with the guy who always stiffs him, and puts some ice on the pizza, or spits in the pasta or something. But much more often, drivers remember who tips well, and they'll bust their ass to get the order correct and delivered quickly. They may even sometimes slip you some free extras to keep you happy. I was never a spitter or a pie-icer, but I sure remembered who tipped well, and I'd sometimes throw in some free cheesecake or breadsticks, and I'd work hard to remember what kind of salad dressing they liked and stuff.

Similarly, with waiters: the fancier the place, the more you should tip-- not because you're paying for style, but at a fancier place, the waiters have to cut more people in on their tips...bus boys, wine waiters, prep cooks, dish washers. If you go to a really swanky place, and you tip your waiter $10, just know that probably only $3-5 of that ends up in your waiter's pocket. But the tipping karma thing works even harder for restaurant tipping than for delivery: waiters remember who tips well, and you will-- I assure you-- get better service, better tables, more attention, more perks. If you consistently under-tip waiters in a restaurant, don't be surprised to wait for a table, get poor seats, and minimal service.

Believe me, nobody gets rich waitering or delivering: it's not something most people choose early and deliberately, and it's very hard to make a living doing it. It's incredibly thankless, and you all would just never believe the rudeness that service workers have to deal with. For every decent joe or jane like you guys, there's five bastards who have no problem verbally abusing the poor schmuck who drove their dinner over to their house because they gave the wrong cross-street and the driver got lost, or screaming at the guy taking their order over the phone for having to put them on hold for a minute.

It's been ten years since I worked in food service, and I still remember some of the customers I liked best-- the college kids who tipped me by smoking me out; or the rich guy who ordered 25 pizzas, tipped me a hundred bucks, and a Cuban cigar; or the dozen sorority girls that ordered five pies, barely made the total by scraping coins from under the couch cushions, and tipped me by all flashing me for a thirty-second count. I also remember the customers that were the worst: the guy who never tipped me, and looked at me like I was dirt; the guy who screamed abuse at me in front of his family and passers-by for getting lost and being ten minutes late; the guy who made snide comments about my appearance, made vaguely anti-semitic remarks, and then tipped me a penny.

I tip very generously in all cases, and let me tell you guys, I have never regretted it for a moment. If I get to Heaven, I wouldn't be surprised if it's for tipping.

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snowy

Did you not read any of the previous responses, wherein it is revealed that pizza delivery people largely pay for their own gas, drive their own vehicle, and pay for the maintenance? If they're lucky, they might get a couple extra bucks from the pizza place for those things, but that typically isn't the case. They rely on your tips to make ends meet. With gas up over $4/gallon, do you really think the pizza guy is making extra money off of your tip? I doubt it.

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Terrell

I used to tip 3-5 but I don't order as much as I used to.

shoegirl

Also know that many places don't give the "delivery charge" to the driver. Some may get a portion, but rarely do they get the entire thing.

So, tip your pizza delivery drivers - even if it's only a couple bucks, it's better than getting nothing.

grumpyolddude

We rarely get delivery, but it's always at least a $5.00 tip when we do. I even try to tip the staff when I pick up, although less than the delivery guy would get.

Last time I picked up at Dolly's, there was just one guy, doing all the cookin', waiting on the counter, bustin' his ass. I tried to give him a couple of bucks, to which he said, "Thanks, but I don't accept tips." Near as I can figure, either he didn't want anyone see him put cash into his pocket, or Dolly's has a policy about tips.

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mixedmedia

I always tip $3.

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Baraka_Guru

Yes, we do. Usually $4 or $5 on a couple of medium 'zas. We tip the Thai food and sushi delivery guys the same way.

They are usually courteous beforehand, and grateful afterwards, which is good considering many of them might be trying to eek out a living on a second or third job. Most delivery guys in my area are Middle Eastern, African, or Asian men in their late 30s and early 40s. This is not what I'd like to see myself doing at that age, yet they always seem to be courteous and grateful. They are always on time and say thank you. What is more deserving of a tip?

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Gabbyness

Haha, you damn Canadians.

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lotsofmagnets

to answer the OP here in iceland tipping in any form seems to be unheard of but back in au i´d usually tip $3aud. i was a delivery boy for a while for pizza hut and about 1 on 3 people would tip. it ranged from the rest of the note (as little as 5c up to $3.05c) but on occasion i was tipped $10 or more, usually by famous ppl.

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Shauk

EX DELIVERY DRIVER EDUCATION TIME.

1st off, Pizza delivery is the biggest SCAM ever as a job. They advertise that they hire at 12$ an hour (no shit) and when you get there, and after they have you fill out everything, and after the interview they will drop it on you that...

1. you get minimum wage. Period. They wholey pass the remainder on you to collect from your target deliveries. They expect the customer to tip, but they do nothing to encourage it. IN FACT, it's gotten so bad now that they help discourage it.

2. To discourage it, they came up with the BRILLIANT idea of "Delivery Charge" (WHICH THE DRIVER WILL NEVER GET) Think about that for a moment. Depending on area and company this varies from like 1.00 to 2.50 or so in my experience. This is a frivolous fee for no other reason than extracting free profits. It's not to cover anything that wasn't already covered in the cost of their pizza to begin with.

Totals that were sitting at 16.XX all of a sudden became 18.XX so those guys who just used to give you a 20$ and said "keep the change?" yeah, all of a sudden you went from decent tip to a 1.xx waste of time.

3. Car maitenence. Oil changes, gas prices, tire rotations and replacements? Who do you think pays for that? not the company, thats for sure. They give the driver a certain amount of money per run for milage. I used to get 20 cents a mile, then they figured that it was too much and switched to 85cents per run. At the time my average run was about 6 to 8 miles round trip and about 20 runs per night.

I was basically losing money on driving

all that figured in?

well yeah, it's a crappy picture, so I can yell "TIP THE DRIVER" until i'm blue in the face, but I have a better idea. Keep stiffing them until they get a better job, because seriously, it's what I did, and I wouldn't ever support that business model again. Not as an employee, or a customer. I'll drive my ass to the pizza place if I want any. End of story.

lotsofmagnets

heh minimum wage? we got ORAL contracts (a way to bypass several laws aparently) and $3.10 per delivery and averaged 1.5 deliveries an hour. should have bought a hummer with my savings....

fyi minimum wage at the time was about $11

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mother nature made the aeroplane, and the submarine sandwich, with the steady hands and dead eye of a remarkable sculptor.
she shed her mountain turning training wheels, for the convenience of the moving sidewalk, that delivers the magnetic monkey children through the mouth of impossible calendar clock, into the devil's manhole cauldron.
physics of a bicycle, isn't it remarkable?

Gabbyness

Nicely said Shauk, I suppose I never got that into the weeds about the whole process.

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mixedmedia

Just for the record, I order my pizzas online and the place I order from has a place to put your tip in when you order. And this is on top of the delivery charge. I think that's a pretty righteous attempt to make sure their drivers get tipped. And this is a big, national chain, not a mom and pop place.

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Blasphemy

not all of them, I don't care if they have to pay for their own gas, vehicle etc. that's the job they choose to work in. I don't pay extra to anyone if they haven't done a really good job. Tipping someone for their normal job is stupid. If they don't like it, get a new job.

Tips are stupid.

telekinetic

I look at it as a convenience charge. Hey, guy I-don't-know...I'll give you $5 to bring me hot food! It's worth $5 for me to get my pizza quick and hot and not have to waste my time.

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smoore

You are the guy who gets extra sausage.

Vote for a higher minimum wage if you don't want to subsidize the behavior of the restaurant business any more. Can't really have it both ways.

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JohnBua

I use to have my ex come to the door naked. That seemed to work for everyone.

LoganSnake

Ever found any special sauce in your pizzas?

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Dragonknight

I tip if the food gets to my place quick enough, if it takes forever then forget it. I think delivery guys expect tips, and they should realize get the food there fast and you get a little extra. If the food is cold then no tip so sorry.

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GakFace

I always tip my delivery guy. Generally i'm too lazy to go pick it up, so I figure I can tip him. That and I'd tip the server if I sat down in the restaurant and this guy had to find my house and knock on my door.

But also I'll be damned if I don't get a pizza in 20-30 minutes whenever I order. 45 minute wait? hour wait? Regardless of what they tell me its never been over a half hour. Makes me wonder if my tipping has anything to do with it.

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blahblah454

For real? If so thats pretty awesome.

Mister Coaster

Blasphemy: I hope you realize that you HAVE eaten someone's saliva, snot, pubic hair and/or 'special sauce.' I may not like the idea of tipping either, and I'll admit to not being a particularly generous tipper, but I DO tip within the range of mormal. If for no other reason than to avoid the wrath of the untipped server/delivery person.

I think I'm going to put a tip jar out on my workstation tomorrow and see if I get anything...

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Shauk

So, regarding special toppings/extra sauce, it happens.

Don't think that it doesn't. that extra sausage is a booger, the mouth of your soda bottle taking the whole trip in the armpit of a driver making minimum wage in 100 degree heat happens. This usually only happens if you're notoriously aggravating.

now I'm going to address a few things. Food service = trust in someone else to handle your food. Chances are, you're indirectly asking someone else to serve you against their will, Maybe you should treat this person like you would a friend? They're getting paid by their employer to show up and be on the clock and do all sorts of errands at the store, they really care less what you're doing out on the road....

so from a driver perspective, maybe there are closer, well known good tippers that they know are better runs, We run in to all sorts of people far from the store who like to waste our time and "chat" yet don't pay us for it, You can be the nicest person in the world, you can be my best friend, but if i'm at YOUR door, while on the clock, when OTHER customers runs are going to OTHER drivers who arent me, and YOU'RE stiffing me, I WILL HATE YOU FOREVER...
Driving is a very part-time job, with a very finite window in which to take advantage of making money.

lets say you're notorious for writing a check for the exact amount, never having your fucking drivers licence number on the check even though you've been told 14 times that it's the fucking policy and making us wait, yet again, as you go out to your car and get it because you can't keep it in your wallet/purse like a normal person, I have to suffer the smell of cat piss whenever you open your door while your kids are crying, OR maybe you're that jackass who thinks XYZ pizza is a substitute for a babysitter, thanks for leaving exact change with your 8 year old kid, you're lucky I don't call CPS on your stupid ass. Or maybe you're that fucking stoner who can't count and keeps shortchanging the driver at the door so I have to waste even more time for you to look through your wet/damp nasty assed pockets for some quarters or something.
or maybe your idea of "keep the change" is when you give me 17.05 for a 17.01 order.

wow, seriously, I'm so glad I don't drive anymore, I'd probably kick the next person to open the door right in the nuts if I knew they were a stiffer.


those people who are like "boo hoo, my pizza took 45 minutes" don't realize that a pizza oven is only so big, it holds, lets say, 6 pizzas on a conveyer, i've worked on bi and tri level ovens, but the third level of the ovens rarely are used as they require someone who isn't a complete idiot to work the ovens or else they stand around going "gee which box does THIS go in?" (because some people have a hard time recognizing toppings and letter codes on the boxes) which results in pizzas basically mushing in to eachother and having to delay all the rest of the orders since they'll have to remake them because mr guy with a spatula putting shit into boxes SUCKS AT HIS LIFE (no, this doesn't happen to me, I was good at what I do, because I'm good at everything I do /gloat)

the average order is 2-3 pizzas, but, all it takes is ONE order in the middle of it all to screw up the queue for the rest of the night, and the drivers can't do anything about it. That school that is having a pizza night? 50 pizzas, your order? yeah, good luck with that.

anyways, drivers get blamed for everything, but everyone has a cell phone these days if they're driving, if they can't find it they'd call you. Plain and simple. Otherwise, most of the 45minute-1hr+ runs I'd take only really had me in the picture for all of 10-15 minutes. Think about how close you are to your store and figure it out, if you're 2 miles away, they didn't get lost, they're just backed up with a lot of orders.

I just went to a better job instead, because clearly, you can see, I hated this job.

Blasphemy

Ever lived in a place where tipping isn't expected, and is somewhat rare.

I just find the whole thing that they expect extra payment pretty stupid. If they barely make a profit from their work. Get a better job OR talk to the manage about better conditions.

Borgs

Damn right. It's not like we should be teaching these kids that hard work pays. There's nothing like the gripping realization that no matter how hard you work, you are still fucked.

Plus, the pay is absolutely justified given the drunken assholes that they have to deal with every night.

Hain

In the States I tipped. The states has a far better delivery system in place than in Germany. No joke- you are lucky if you get to keep the box the pizza came in, and the pizza is not even cut.

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lotsofmagnets

do you?

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mother nature made the aeroplane, and the submarine sandwich, with the steady hands and dead eye of a remarkable sculptor.
she shed her mountain turning training wheels, for the convenience of the moving sidewalk, that delivers the magnetic monkey children through the mouth of impossible calendar clock, into the devil's manhole cauldron.
physics of a bicycle, isn't it remarkable?

Gabbyness

I live in Japan and God forbid you tip - people will go ballistic. Major no-no.

But I sure as hell tip when I'm in the States.

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MSD

What magical world do you live in that pizza guys make more than minimum wage?
Tips are a big part of the salary and an incentive to do the job well. You can go on raging against the machine and saying it's not your fault that the pizza places don't pay well enough, but everyone is going to think you're an asshole and you're not going to change anything.

Jackebear

Long time ago, I used to be a pizza driver. Not the best job in town but it paid the bills. Dealing with irate customers who think I am late, foul weather, getting lost when you can't see the house numbers, drunk customers who have no money left after boozing it up and paying for my own gas and lying to my insurance company that I do not use my car for deliveries. And yes, we (the drivers) always commented and marked the map of places that didn't tip.

It actually feels kind of terrible when I didn't get a tip. Driving as quick as I could in a snowstorm and not even receive a buck or two, when I see the cute blond waitress make a buck or two for every drink in the local bar.

So, now I am a great tipper to the delivery people. It's just the nice thing to do.

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LoganSnake

Yes, for half my life. Now I live in a place where tipping is expected.

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kutulu

I don't see why people make such a big deal out of it. It is basically an extra cost of getting service, just like a waiter. The low price is subsidized by cheap labor which the consumer is expected to make up for based upon the level of service.

Cheapskates who don't tip are unfairly manipulating the system.

xepherys

No, but if you do, this whole thread doesn't really apply to you. If you live in the US, then you don't live in a place where tipping isn't expected... NOWHERE in the US is non-tipping typical.

Frankly, you aren't paying the tip for them doing their job, you're paying the tip for you to be a lazy bum. *shrug*

There are countries where tipping it not the norm, as brought up by Daniel_. Singapore is also like this. The difference there is as follows. In the US, waitstaff make subminimum wage (was $2.52 an hour when I worked as a waiter, even at an upscale restaurant I made $4/hr or so... still less than minimum) because it is a tipped job. The federal government actually expects you to earn tips. Wow, must be abnormal... *boggle* In Singapore, everyone makes at least a certain wage based on the career they work in. They don't NEED tips because they actually get paid.

So, yes, waitstaff and delivery folks do choose that job... because there is an ABSOLUTE expectation of tipping as part of your wage. Sure, if the job is done poorly, than adjust accordingly. Even having been in a tipped position, if a waitress is REALLY bad I won't leave her anything.

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Cynthetiq

if I recall correctly in singapore, it's ++ for everything

gratuity is included in your bill along with the tax.

so a sale for $1 beer is listed as $1++ because it's really $1+tax+gratuity.

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xepherys

Granted it's been a few years since I was there, but I recall the restaurant bills having a reasonable total. I don't know if gratuity was built in but it certainly never seemed that way. Of course it all went on the Corporate AMEX, so I guess I didn't really care either way...

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Frosstbyte

This is a bizarre thread. I don't understand how the answer could be anything other than an unequivocal yes, assuming we're talking about the US, which I'm pretty sure we are. I haven't been in delivery, but I have been both a busser and a bartender, and it doesn't take very long to figure out that if people don't tip for whatever reason, you're not making any money and whatever money you are making isn't worth the horseshit that people are putting you through.

If you have "moral qualms" with tipping, that's fine. But remember that every time you take that stand, the ONLY PERSON you're hurting is the guy making a good faith effort to provide you with a service and who counts on those tips to pay his rent and feed himself. You're not hurting the system, you're not making a political statement, you're just making someone's day worse because you're a cheap asshole.

If you don't like tips, don't use services in which the servers rely on tips to make their money. Seriously. Either tip the pizza guy or pick up your own fucking food. It's pretty simple.