New Year's Eve 2007

Happy New Year indeed! I had one of my best New Year's Eve nights driving tonight. I drove for 7 1/2 hours (4:30 - Midnight), took 23 deliveries, made $58 in tips, and drove 80 miles.

Special thanks to managers Nick & Brianne and cook Steve for staying late to keep the business going. We usually close at 11 PM on Mondays but we stayed open an extra hour tonight due to the holiday. I actually didn't get out until 1:30 as there was a huge stack of dishes to wash after the last delivery was taken.

Surprisingly, I didn't have a large order to a party or group all night long. In fact my largest order was under $30.

As is typical, we were overstaffed early and understaffed late. I was actually the only driver scheduled past 9 PM. New drivers Ted & Cliff both stayed a little over and then Nick even got on the road for a couple runs.

It took me 10 trips to take my first 10 deliveries. My next 11 were done in just 3 trips (2 triples and a quintuple)!

Poor Nick had a delivery to an apartment building and the woman wouldn't tell him what apartment they were in, she said she wasn't in the apartment building but the office across from the apartments. After much searching and multiple phone calls, she finally realized that the office was nothing more than an apartment with a desk!

Tips were mostly generous tonight, with 11 of my 23 deliveries tipping over $3 (but nothing over my first run of $4.92). And I was only stiffed 3 times.

One stiffer was bold enough to give me $13 for his $12.57 order and suggest that I "keep the change." I actually said "forty-three cents?" and laughed out loud. He responded with an awkward chuckle.

One recurring theme throughout the night was customers asking for specific (odd) change denominations. My 2nd delivery was hoping to pay with a $20 and 8 $1's for his $16.47 order and get a $10 back. But, as it was just my 2nd delivery, my bank was pretty sparse and all I had were a $5 and 10 $1's.

A few deliveries later a guy paid with a $20 for his $17.71 order and asked for $1 back. But he asked if I had 4 quarters, "so I can do some laundry." Lucky for him one of my previous customers had given me quarters!