Pizza Delivery Tips

I had a bit of a flashback recently when the delivery driver dropped my Pizza order off and disappeared before I could even tip him. I guess he was that well paid he didn’t need any pizza delivery tips.

Going back to my student days when things were tight I decided to get a part time job delivering pizzas. Me and the other guys would always have a little wager on who would get the most tips and bear in mind these pizza delivery tips would make up a significant part of the pay as the actual hourly rate was ridiculous.

Now it doesn’t matter whether it’s pizza delivery, kebabs, chinese or anything else the process is the same. You drop the food off and they either tip you or they don’t. You can’t ask for one and you definitely can’t demand one, you can only stand there fidgeting with a silly smile on your face until they either clock on or just shut the door in your face.

Working Friday and Saturday night meant anything between fifteen and thirty deliveries over the two days and if I was lucky I would manage about five maybe ten pounds max in tips.

There was this other driver who always came out with at least twenty pounds a night…until he eventually got sacked for short changing the customers!

It was only when talking to the head chef one day that he made a suggestion that just nailed the tip business for me. He had started off as a driver and tried everything until finally finding the perfect ‘tip heist’ as he called it.

So here’s how the delivery process worked. If the customer’s order came to say sixteen or eighteen pounds we would be given enough change to cover a twenty pound note. So either two or four pounds meaning if the customer gave us a twenty pound note we would give him or her the correct change.

If the order was for example twenty eight pounds we would have enough change on us to cover the customer giving us fourty pounds (two twenty pound notes). It works pretty much like this in most places.

Now Here’s The Scoop

The chef told me to brush up on my acting skills and use this scenario every time I delivered a pizza.

Me: “Here’s your pizza delivery Sir, that will be £18 please”

Customer hands over a £20 note.

Me (whilst fumbling in my pockets): “I’m really sorry Sir I must have left the £2 change in the car. I’m only parked down the road. I’ll go grab it, give me two minutes”

Customer (wanting to eat their pizza): “It’s okay don’t worry about it” – BINGO!

This worked probably eighty percent of the time when it was only a couple of pounds involved and I even managed it on £5 a few times.

My tips went to twenty or thirty pounds over the two days!

I did find though that the bigger and posher the houses the tighter the customers. Although on one occasion I managed a tenner from one of these only because the drive was that long it took about five minutes to walk from their front gate to the front door, and I guess they must have been starving!

And it didn’t stop there. I went on to expand this little empire by keeping a selection of DVD’s and cigarettes in my car with a printed price list (prices of course included my commission).

Pizza and a movie – a perfect combination and an extra £50 for me.