Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Landscaping and the One that Got Away

Out of my first 4 customers tonight, 3 of them were outside working and doing landscaping in their yard. Not surprisingly, I made $16 on my first 5 deliveries. People with pride in their home's appearance and who believe in sweat equity seem to be decent tippers.

Then I just missed a delivery to the site of my biggest tip ever ($35). Vince got it instead and got a $20 tip. That was the turning point in my night as I only made $6 on my next 6 runs.

Totals for the night were 5 hours, 31 miles, 11 runs, $22 in tips, and an extra hour doing dishes at the end of the night.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Surprise? Geeks Like Pizza!

One of my late night (11pm-ish) deliveries tonight was to a house full of mid-20's aged guys playing video games. Guys, video games, pizza, what a stereotypical geeky Saturday night! They did tip well ($5 on a $17 order).

I drove 6 hours, took 13 runs, covered 61 miles, and made $36 in tips. This was the first weekend night I have worked in a while and it is nice to bring in some cash!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Close To Zero

I almost came home with 4 cents tonight. Manager Mike had told me he would likely be sending me home early. For most of my first hour, I had no deliveries, then when I finally got to take one, they gave me $15.50 on a $15.46 order.

Luckily in the next half hour, business picked up and I ended up taking 9 runs in 4 hours. I made $18 in tips while driving 33 miles.

Nothing amusing happened all night.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Nick Out and a Good Book

Nick announced today that he's being (temporarily) transferred to another store. I'll miss working with him for sure, and hope he's back soon.

In the meantime I'm reading a great book, Pizza Tiger, by Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's pizza. It's quite interesting, describing the early days and the growth of the franchise.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Not A Dream Delivery

Ask any pizza guy about his ideal delivery, and here is what he will NOT say:
  • Delivery to a motel on the other side of town
  • Check is only $12.72
  • Middle aged man answers the door in his pajamas
  • Guy pays with exact change

But yes, that was my 6th delivery tonight. Luckily I had made $20 in my first 3 hours on just 5 deliveries so I was able to laugh it off.

And the next guy tried to stiff me but he miscounted his wadded up money and gave me an extra buck!

Final delivery was (a sandwich) to a Hungry Howies driver who used to work with Manager Desiree.

Totals were 8 deliveries, $25, 43 miles, and 5 1/2 hours. The mileage was kind of high due to all singles and 5 of the 8 being quite far away.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Five Years

Tonight was my 5 year anniversary of starting my job delivering pizzas! I drove 5 hours, took 11 deliveries, made $28, and drove 39 miles.

The highlight (or lowlight) of my night was a delivery I didn't get to make. Supposed to be at the hospital, maternity ward room 129. Well the maternity ward is on the 3rd floor. They don't have a room 129.

The nurses walked their halls and checked each room but nobody ordered pizzas. I called back to the shop and told them I was on my way back.

Manager decided it was probably a prank.

First, he didn't get the customer's phone # so that we could call, he entered our own store phone number. Why, I'll never know. Next, he returned me before I got back, so he was short $44 in his drawer. He voided several other orders to make up the difference so no big deal, but it frustrates me to no end the silly games people play to pretend their on-times look better than they are.

Of the 10 runs I did get to deliver, 4 tipped between $1 and $2, 5 tipped between $3 and $3.75, and one tipped $5.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Wrong Driveway

Well in contrast to last Monday (no stiffs) I had 5 out of 11 stiffs tonight. Luckily for me the other 6 customers each tipped $3 to $5.50 so I ended up with $24 in 5 hours work (driving 40 miles). Our reimbursement went up to $1.05 per run ($1 last week and .95 for a long time before that) so I got $11.55 towards gas.

On my next to last delivery, I was looking for house number 329. I saw 319 and 2 houses down there was a house with a porch light on, so I pulled in. Their house number was small and on the mailbox by the door, I was out of my car before I saw it was 327. Instead of restarting and moving my car, I just walked (on the sidewalk) to the house next door.

I saw a woman come to the door (of 327, the wrong house) in a bathrobe, look out, and shut off her porch light.

After I made the delivery, the woman came back to the door and called out to me to not hit her cars that were parked in the street. Thanks for the good advice but I wasn't planning on it anyways!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

No Stiffs!

Tonight was a pretty good night. I drove 5 hours (6-11) and worked another 1.5 hours doing dishes and clean-up afterwards. This is because we had just 2 drivers all night long.

I took 14 runs, made $39 in tips, and drove 59 miles.

First was a double that included Colonial Oaks, a large trailer park. Made $5.50.

Next a single run of $38, made $2.

Next a triple, again ending up in Colonial Oaks. First delivery on my way tipped just $1 (smallest tip of the night) and he was a regular customer who usually tips $2-3. Made $5.50 on the triple.

Next another triple with Colonial Oaks in the middle and ending up in Grafton, the next town over about 7 miles away. Made $10 on the triple, including $4 from my little old lady / sports fan in the trailer park, and $4 in Grafton. It was a street that was far from the main drag and I commented that in 5 years I had never been there. The guy said that most people can live in Grafton for 20 years and not know the street is there.

Next were 2 singles where I made about $2 each, one to a house with a "DAY SLEEPER" sign where the woman apologized for me driving that far for just 30 wings.

Finally another triple for $10.75.

The amazing thing was that even with 3 triples I still averaged over 4 miles per run!

I didn't eat any pizza (even though Talisa made a delicious looking one) but I did eat some boneless wings. They are protein but probably not as lean as I should be having.