To pay off some medical bills last year I took a temporary job as a pizza delivery driver. Sounds crazy right? Not really.
Because of tips, it paid decently despite headaches and extra expenses. Plus, the boss was beyond super. She gave me absolutely no problems when I was late because of my primary job. Compared to my day job, pizza delivery was low stress (after I started getting the hang of things!)
It also gave me a glimpse into a world that I hadn't discovered. Make no mistake, pizza delivery is another realm. The drivers may fuss about each other but are pretty well bonded. They pick and jab but they have each other's backs.
The glimpse was fascinating but it had a shadowy side.
Homes that ordered pizza regularly were known among drivers. The homes that tipped the most got the best service. Pizza drivers have even been known to take pizza to places out of the delivery route because the tip was good. (The delivery still had to be close to the boundary.)
If your home didn't tip you might not get good service. Maybe those napkins routinely got forgotten or the driver grabbed the wrong drink. It's not that the drivers that I worked with set out to give bad service. It's just that they would take care to double and triple check everything before leaving if they thought they were getting a $5 tip.
Most drivers rely on the tips as their main form of income. The following is an article that I wrote for Associated Content. It's called "Confessions of a Pizza Delivery Driver".
Next time you want good pizza delivery service be sure to tip the driver well. When you place your order, it doesn't hurt to mention that the driver may get a tip of a certain amount. To learn how much is considered good or mediocre read the above article.
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