Delivery story 225 Patrick writes: I worked as a delivery driver at two Mountain Mike's stores (a Northern California chain) in Sacramento the past two summers. Now, most people don't know what summer in Sacramento means, so I'll just clear that up: it's hot. As in week-or-longer stretches where it's 100 degrees or higher. This past summer we had a 5-day period where it was hotter than 110 every day. Needless to say, hot pizzas in a hot car wasn't fun; fortunately, it did help with the tips a bit. I have two stories that show the good and bad sides of delivery. I'll give the bad one first. I've just cashed out on a Friday night (about 10:30) and I'm just about to go home when another order gets called in. I check it over and see that it's a Mountain and two orders of hot wings. The Mountain is our 20" extra large. The freakin' things have their own hotbags 'cause they won't fit in the regular bags. The order was $40, so I figure on a good tip and agree to take it. At this place drivers got to keep all the delivery fee ($2.00) but didn't get an hourly wage, so I'm not getting paid while I'm waiting for the order to cook. The order comes out, I drive the two or three miles to the place, and get there around 11:20. A Mexican guy comes to the door, gives me a check for, you guessed it, exact price, and doesn't say thank you. I'm pissed because I just worked an hour for $2, but glad to be done with the shift. Next Friday, same thing: cashed out, about to leave, large order, have to wait for it, and it's the same house. No tip again--another hour for $2. I never agreed to deliver there again. Maybe I should stick a tipthepizzaguy flyer in the mailbox. That same summer, I got an order for 4 or 5 large pizzas. I show up at the place and two kids answer the door. They were maybe 10 or 11. By the sound of it, it was a birthday party, which explained the size of the order. Now the order's like $57, so the second kid asks the first if he should go get the first kid's dad. At this point, kid 1, who must have been feeling like a bigshot, says nah, he's got it. He pulls $60 from his pocket and tells me to keep the change. Now, normally I don't have a problem with a $3 tip, but that was just over a 5% tip on the order. So I start walking back to the car, pissed at arrogant kids, when the dad gets to the door. He stops me, asks how much it was and how much the kid gave me. I tell him, and he pulls some cash out of his pocket and gives me 8 more dollars, says thanks, then turns to the kids and starts saying, "That's the pizza guy. You gotta take care of the pizza guy." I walked back to the car with my now $11 tip, wishing there were more dads in the world like that guy. return to top