Biggest Tip Ever

... don't get excited, it wasn't tonight.

Desiree took a delivery tonight to XXX Indiana. (The address has been changed to protect the innocent). The order was for about $115 worth of pizza!

This is a highly coveted delivery. They have ordered 7 times in the past 5 months and their minimum order was $60. They always pay by credit card and always leave a nice tip.

I kiddingly offered Desiree $10 to let me take it. I have only gotten to take that delivery once, about a year ago. That time they ordered 7 large pizzas, 35 breadsticks, 35 cinnamon sticks, 35 wings, and 8 2-liters of pop. The total was about $125 and they added a $35 tip onto the credit card.

Desiree wasn't as lucky tonight, she only got and $11 tip.

One of my deliveries tonight was to a nice house in a newer development about 5 miles away. They got 1 pizza, about $11, and left a $3 tip. I was hoping for more due to the long trip, but I really can't complain. The thing that made this delivery interesting was the cars in the driveway / garage.

One garage bay was open and I saw a Lincoln Navigator parked inside. There were 3 more cars parked in the driveway. A Mercedes was facing me (I didn't notice the model). Beside the Mercedes was a Hummer H2. And on the other side of the pad was a Jaguar.

There were 2 more garage bays closed so there could have been more inside, I'm not sure.

My final story of the night concerns a serial-stiffer. This is a customer who orders repeatedly and never tips. Any pizza delivery driver will have a few of these names & addresses memorized that they despise going to. I got one tonight.

Usually when I go there I have the coin change counted out and ready to give back. I really don't want their 2 cents, it's an insult not a tip. Tonight I decided to take a different approach. "Killing them with kindness" as one of my coworkers called it.

There was an order with 5 breadsticks just ahead of this order. Our breadsticks come in pans of 10 so when someone orders 5, the other 5 are either:

• used to fill another order of 5
• eaten by the crew
• thrown out

Well there were no more orders coming in the near future, and I wasn't hungry, so I decided to take another approach. I boxed them up and took them with my delivery.

"We had some extra breadsticks, I thought you would like them" I said when I got to her porch. "Thanks" she replied, almost smiling.

She handed me a $20 for her $11.08 order. "You don't have the 8 cents do you?" I asked.

"No, you just keep the rest of the change for yourself" was her surprising answer.

She actually intentionally tipped me 92 cents. Not much but at least we're making progress. "Thanks, I really appreciate that" I said as I was walking away.

All in all, it was a slow night for me with several far-away deliveries. I worked 5 hours, took just 7 deliveries, but drove 39 miles. I made $15 in tips. Three of the orders and $7 of the tips were in the final hour before we closed, or it would have been a horrendous night.