Most recent edit on 2005-02-07 11:42:39 by RichardBerg
Additions:
Originally posted here∞
I've worked this gig off & on for years; if my career ever fails to pan out, I'll likely go back.
The key is to find a good store. That means a combination of managers you can get along with + decent pay + good area. Don't be afraid to commute a bit to fill these requirements -- you'll be putting lots of miles on your car anyway. (One pizza gig I've worked was 25 miles away).
Agreeable managers are pretty much impossible to screen. A few will be jerks from the get-go, but most will be ok until it comes time to do closing duties on a night that's kicked your ass. All I can recommend is live & learn. (And FFS, even with borderline assholes, it's not that hard to just shut up and work; you get to cruise in your car for a living.)
Decent pay means at least $9/hr average each day and $15+ at peak times. Don't expect to get more than $5-8 of that from the store directly, including wages + per-delivery compensation. Also, if you're a poor student, don't discount the extra perks available in a restaurant, read: free food. Just about any assistant manager will be ok with rolling up spare ingredients into a calzone on a slow Sunday night, but if you can score a real meal on a regular basis that's worth something -- and generally not something you'll find at corporate stores. However, the latter's business tends to be more stable (and of course, offers many more choices of location), so it all depends.
Location, location, location. As far as per-delivery tips, my experience has been something like ghetto < old gentry < moderately poor < nouveau suburbia. Most any large area will be pretty decent with its ups & downs, but the couples with young kids moving into manufactured suburban homes are pay dirt. Having a lot of hotels in the area is also a major plus, since you get a lot of lonely travelers who can't cook together in a convenient location, plus huge lunch orders from business conventions, etc. Apartments are generally bad, with average tips (at best) and ever-confusing numbering schemes that will take a long time to learn, while your other drivers/competitors are out making money.
Just as important, however, is delivery volume. You can do ok working a $10k/week store in a nice neighborhood, but you'll do much better at a $25k/week store in a mediocre neighborhood. This goes back to good management, in part, but from your POV all you care about is the results, not the process.
Get a fuel-efficient car, preferably a stick since you'll spend most of your time merging in & out of traffic. (One store fronted a 55mph road, as did many of the delivery locations; you had no choice but to be aggressive). Find a good classical station.
And oh yes, don't work at Pizza Slut or Domihos. Their products are a personal taste, but as an employee PJ is the best chain. I can elaborate if you wish.
I got around 39mpg, letting it idle during deliveries and short trips into the store. But enough talking about my car in non-pertinent threads...
"Remakes" (fuckups) are your friend when you're hungry. Some managers are anal about throwing them into the trash, but that's why you keep a few empty boxes discretely hidden in your car.
I usually did 3.5-4 deliveries per hour* during rush times, which on some freakish days (e.g. when the power was knocked out of several counties) lasted all day & night. Usually, though, working a 5-to-8 shift netted $50, and 5-to-close $75-100 depending on the night (we closed later on weekends); personal bests were $80 / $130 respectively. You could do better waiting tables -- averaging $120 on a 5-to-11 shift at a nice restaurant is quite attainable, but requires a lot more work. Don't get me wrong: you'll do your fair share of folding boxes, answering phones, and (when closing) mopping floors, but my grunt work was done by my turbodiesel, not my legs.
Little Caesar's is a nice working environment from what I hear, but like the Big Two is more often than not participating in a price war = lower tickets = less tip.
*Excellent drivers all hang around this average, I've found, but those without a sense of direction need not apply. The guys who are looking up street names months into the job are invariably the ones struggling to break 3.0 in the stats, if that. Personally, while simple trips to & from a given location got old, I loved the thrill of putting all the side routes and back alleys into use in creative fashion when having to go between two distal addresses.
If you work in the right areas you can make 5-8 deliveries an hour.
I was assuming a store limit of 2 deliveries per run, which my last two engagements had. Back at my first job, it wasn't unusual to take 6 orders to the nearby army base after a particularly grueling basic-training activity.
As for putting a dollar figure on the nouveau suburbia, I never averaged less than $3/delivery, which if you don't know is really good. I've never worked a college scene -- in fact, I went out of my way to avoid them for fear of delivering to old acquaintances -- but I imagine it can be a lot of fun (getting paid in beer, scoring invitations, etc.); whether it'll be lucrative sounds like the luck of the draw.
Ugh...was that regardless of the locations? That would suck big time. We'd do 3's and 4's all night long.
In both cases the areas were pretty spread out, with very few apartment complexes (like <5 in a 7x7 mile box). Only time you could count on getting 3+ was if you had a minor rush after everyone else had gone home. I was peeved at first, but for the situation at hand it was a fair policy. (And if an exceptional string of proximities cropped up, I knew all the managers' passwords ;) ).
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Originally posted here∞
I've worked this gig off & on for years; if my career ever fails to pan out, I'll likely go back.
The key is to find a good store. That means a combination of managers you can get along with + decent pay + good area. Don't be afraid to commute a bit to fill these requirements -- you'll be putting lots of miles on your car anyway. (One pizza gig I've worked was 25 miles away).
Agreeable managers are pretty much impossible to screen. A few will be jerks from the get-go, but most will be ok until it comes time to do closing duties on a night that's kicked your ass. All I can recommend is live & learn. (And FFS, even with borderline assholes, it's not that hard to just shut up and work; you get to cruise in your car for a living.)
Decent pay means at least $9/hr average each day and $15+ at peak times. Don't expect to get more than $5-8 of that from the store directly, including wages + per-delivery compensation. Also, if you're a poor student, don't discount the extra perks available in a restaurant, read: free food. Just about any assistant manager will be ok with rolling up spare ingredients into a calzone on a slow Sunday night, but if you can score a real meal on a regular basis that's worth something -- and generally not something you'll find at corporate stores. However, the latter's business tends to be more stable (and of course, offers many more choices of location), so it all depends.
Location, location, location. As far as per-delivery tips, my experience has been something like ghetto < old gentry < moderately poor
nouveau suburbia. Most any large area will be pretty decent with its ups & downs, but the couples with young kids moving into manufactured suburban homes are pay dirt. Having a lot of hotels in the area is also a major plus, since you get a lot of lonely travelers who can't cook together in a convenient location, plus huge lunch orders from business conventions, etc. Apartments are generally bad, with average tips (at best) and ever-confusing numbering schemes that will take a long time to learn, while your other drivers/competitors are out making money.
Just as important, however, is delivery volume. You can do ok working a $10k/week store in a nice neighborhood, but you'll do much better at a $25k/week store in a mediocre neighborhood. This goes back to good management, in part, but from your POV all you care about is the results, not the process.
Get a fuel-efficient car, preferably a stick since you'll spend most of your time merging in & out of traffic. (One store fronted a 55mph road, as did many of the delivery locations; you had no choice but to be aggressive). Find a good classical station.
And oh yes, don't work at Pizza Slut or Domihos. Their products are a personal taste, but as an employee PJ is the best chain. I can elaborate if you wish.
I got around 39mpg, letting it idle during deliveries and short trips into the store. But enough talking about my car in non-pertinent threads...
"Remakes" (fuckups) are your friend when you're hungry. Some managers are anal about throwing them into the trash, but that's why you keep a few empty boxes discretely hidden in your car.
I usually did 3.5-4 deliveries per hour* during rush times, which on some freakish days (e.g. when the power was knocked out of several counties) lasted all day & night. Usually, though, working a 5-to-8 shift netted $50, and 5-to-close $75-100 depending on the night (we closed later on weekends); personal bests were $80 / $130 respectively. You could do better waiting tables -- averaging $120 on a 5-to-11 shift at a nice restaurant is quite attainable, but requires a lot more work. Don't get me wrong: you'll do your fair share of folding boxes, answering phones, and (when closing) mopping floors, but my grunt work was done by my turbodiesel, not my legs.
Little Caesar's is a nice working environment from what I hear, but like the Big Two is more often than not participating in a price war = lower tickets = less tip.
*Excellent drivers all hang around this average, I've found, but those without a sense of direction need not apply. The guys who are looking up street names months into the job are invariably the ones struggling to break 3.0 in the stats, if that. Personally, while simple trips to & from a given location got old, I loved the thrill of putting all the side routes and back alleys into use in creative fashion when having to go between two distal addresses.
If you work in the right areas you can make 5-8 deliveries an hour.
I was assuming a store limit of 2 deliveries per run, which my last two engagements had. Back at my first job, it wasn't unusual to take 6 orders to the nearby army base after a particularly grueling basic-training activity.
As for putting a dollar figure on the nouveau suburbia, I never averaged less than $3/delivery, which if you don't know is really good. I've never worked a college scene -- in fact, I went out of my way to avoid them for fear of delivering to old acquaintances -- but I imagine it can be a lot of fun (getting paid in beer, scoring invitations, etc.); whether it'll be lucrative sounds like the luck of the draw.
Ugh...was that regardless of the locations? That would suck big time. We'd do 3's and 4's all night long.
In both cases the areas were pretty spread out, with very few apartment complexes (like <5 in a 7x7 mile box). Only time you could count on getting 3+ was if you had a minor rush after everyone else had gone home. I was peeved at first, but for the situation at hand it was a fair policy. (And if an exceptional string of proximities cropped up, I knew all the managers' passwords ;) ).
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Edited on 2003-09-22 01:49:30 by RichardBerg
Additions:
See also DrivingStyle
Edited on 2003-08-16 21:28:50 by RichardBerg
Additions:
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Oldest known version of this page was edited on 2003-08-16 21:28:33 by RichardBerg []
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Originally posted
here∞
I've worked this gig off & on for years; if my career ever fails to pan out, I'll likely go back.
The key is to find a good store. That means a combination of managers you can get along with + decent pay + good area. Don't be afraid to commute a bit to fill these requirements -- you'll be putting lots of miles on your car anyway. (One pizza gig I've worked was 25 miles away).
Agreeable managers are pretty much impossible to screen. A few will be jerks from the get-go, but most will be ok until it comes time to do closing duties on a night that's kicked your ass. All I can recommend is live & learn. (And FFS, even with borderline assholes, it's not that hard to just shut up and work; you get to cruise in your car for a living.)
Decent pay means at least $9/hr average each day and $15+ at peak times. Don't expect to get more than $5-8 of that from the store directly, including wages + per-delivery compensation. Also, if you're a poor student, don't discount the extra perks available in a restaurant, read: free food. Just about any assistant manager will be ok with rolling up spare ingredients into a calzone on a slow Sunday night, but if you can score a real meal on a regular basis that's worth something -- and generally not something you'll find at corporate stores. However, the latter's business tends to be more stable (and of course, offers many more choices of location), so it all depends.
Location, location, location. As far as per-delivery tips, my experience has been something like ghetto < old gentry < moderately poor
nouveau suburbia. Most any large area will be pretty decent with its ups & downs, but the couples with young kids moving into manufactured suburban homes are pay dirt. Having a lot of hotels in the area is also a major plus, since you get a lot of lonely travelers who can't cook together in a convenient location, plus huge lunch orders from business conventions, etc. Apartments are generally bad, with average tips (at best) and ever-confusing numbering schemes that will take a long time to learn, while your other drivers/competitors are out making money.
Just as important, however, is delivery volume. You can do ok working a $10k/week store in a nice neighborhood, but you'll do much better at a $25k/week store in a mediocre neighborhood. This goes back to good management, in part, but from your POV all you care about is the results, not the process.
Get a fuel-efficient car, preferably a stick since you'll spend most of your time merging in & out of traffic. (One store fronted a 55mph road, as did many of the delivery locations; you had no choice but to be aggressive). Find a good classical station.
And oh yes, don't work at Pizza Slut or Domihos. Their products are a personal taste, but as an employee PJ is the best chain. I can elaborate if you wish.
I got around 39mpg, letting it idle during deliveries and short trips into the store. But enough talking about my car in non-pertinent threads...
"Remakes" (fuckups) are your friend when you're hungry. Some managers are anal about throwing them into the trash, but that's why you keep a few empty boxes discretely hidden in your car.
I usually did 3.5-4 deliveries per hour* during rush times, which on some freakish days (e.g. when the power was knocked out of several counties) lasted all day & night. Usually, though, working a 5-to-8 shift netted $50, and 5-to-close $75-100 depending on the night (we closed later on weekends); personal bests were $80 / $130 respectively. You could do better waiting tables -- averaging $120 on a 5-to-11 shift at a nice restaurant is quite attainable, but requires a lot more work. Don't get me wrong: you'll do your fair share of folding boxes, answering phones, and (when closing) mopping floors, but my grunt work was done by my turbodiesel, not my legs.
Little Caesar's is a nice working environment from what I hear, but like the Big Two is more often than not participating in a price war = lower tickets = less tip.
*Excellent drivers all hang around this average, I've found, but those without a sense of direction need not apply. The guys who are looking up street names months into the job are invariably the ones struggling to break 3.0 in the stats, if that. Personally, while simple trips to & from a given location got old, I loved the thrill of putting all the side routes and back alleys into use in creative fashion when having to go between two distal addresses.
If you work in the right areas you can make 5-8 deliveries an hour.
I was assuming a store limit of 2 deliveries per run, which my last two engagements had. Back at my first job, it wasn't unusual to take 6 orders to the nearby army base after a particularly grueling basic-training activity.
As for putting a dollar figure on the nouveau suburbia, I never averaged less than $3/delivery, which if you don't know is really good. I've never worked a college scene -- in fact, I went out of my way to avoid them for fear of delivering to old acquaintances -- but I imagine it can be a lot of fun (getting paid in beer, scoring invitations, etc.); whether it'll be lucrative sounds like the luck of the draw.
Ugh...was that regardless of the locations? That would suck big time. We'd do 3's and 4's all night long.
In both cases the areas were pretty spread out, with very few apartment complexes (like <5 in a 7x7 mile box). Only time you could count on getting 3+ was if you had a minor rush after everyone else had gone home. I was peeved at first, but for the situation at hand it was a fair policy. (And if an exceptional string of proximities cropped up, I knew all the managers' passwords ;) ).