Day 3: A Tale of Two Cities

Seems like I've written this one before.

I was scheduled Friday night from 5-10.  I worked Friday night from 5-12:45 am. We were kind of busy.

Our pizza shop serves 2 cities, Lorain and Sheffield Lake.  In my first 12 deliveries, I took 5 to Sheffield Lake and 7 to Lorain.  In Sheffield Lake, 4 of the 5 orders tipped, a total of $24.  In Lorain, I got zero tips in 7 deliveries!

I did take 8 more to Lorain and got $21 on those 8, so things did improve slightly.  Totals for the night were 8 hours, 21 deliveries, 102 miles, and $49 in tips.

One notable delivery, the address was outside our delivery area and did not match the zone on the ticket. Also there was a phone # in the notes that did not match the phone # on the ticket. When I called, the address was different, and even further outside our delivery area. The order was placed online.

If it says we don't deliver, don't fake your address, find the correct shop that does deliver. They will get you your food faster!

Day 2: Can You Close?

Today (Saturday) I was scheduled to work 6-10 PM. Around 9 PM, Manager Desiree asked me if I could close.  I didn't really want to, but I said yes I *could*.

Well at 10 (4 hours) I had taken 10 deliveries and made $38 in tips.  My next double (my first runs after 10pm) earned me just 42 cents.  I jokingly told Desiree I didn't want to work later if people stopped tipping at 10.  My final 3 hours (10pm - 1am) I took 12 deliveries and made $33 in tips.

I'm curious if this is a trend, that tips per delivery decrease after a certain time of night?

The theme of the night seemed to be "send your kids to the door to not tip".  I had 1 young boy who took the credit card slip to his mom and returned with no tip, then I had an older (high school) girl pay $13 for a $12.97 order, then call me back to give me more money (67 cents!).

I'm still having fun but my eyes do have trouble reading house numbers late at night so I hope my closing shifts are rare.

My wife is out of town next weekend so I'm not planning to drive again for 2 weeks!

Ready Driver 1

Guess who's back in the pizza delivery business? 

Teaching, coaching, and robotics take all of my time during the school year. For the past several years I've also taught technology camps in the summer but this year I turned in my availability too late and didn't get assigned to any camps.

So having extra time, and missing the extra income, I contacted Manager Desiree and she hired me to drive part-time for the Pizza Hut closest to my house (but ironically not the Hut that delivers to my house).

As you can see, they even named a parking spot after me!

Not much has changed, except this store has no dining room, thus no cups and no pop machine. Every delivery I went on, I considered buying a water, but I didn't want to spend the time off the road so I waited until I got off work.

No extraordinary deliveries tonight, except the high-rise apartment where you had to go in, take the elevator up, then go outside as all the doors open to the outside walkway. Oh and the 1-pizza delivery about 1/2 mile from the store that tipped $.

It was a pleasant surprise to get $2 or more on each delivery, and three $5 tips (all on credit card orders).

Totals for the night: 5.77 hours, 10 deliveries, $36 in tips, 51 miles.

Oh and Nick of YouTube fame stopped by. Nick was a 16-year old cook when I started at Pizza Hut way back in June 2004, and is now a District Manager who oversees multiple stores!