Pizza Driver Safety Advice

What was he thinking?

On Sunday we drove past this house where the robbery took place last week.  It's hard for me to believe that even in the dark, the driver got out of his car at this house.

Here is some safety advice for pizza drivers.

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  Carry a cell phone.
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  Call the phone number for new addresses to verify the order.
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  Never get out of your car at a dark house.
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  If there is any question about the safety of a location, don't even pull into the driveway so that someone could park behind you and block you in.  Pull up on the street and leave your flashers flashing.
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  Don't approach a house with numerous people loitering near the door or on the porch.

Oh and a quick shout out to my friend Ward, a former pizza manager.  He was attacked with a golf club the other day while doing repo work for Rent-A-Center.

Still Not Driving

Just as I was considering going back to driving after soccer season ended, we had a family tragedy and I still have not started back to my 2nd job.  However, my wife just lost 2 of her day-care kids (their mom lost her job) so I may pick up a night or 2 in the near future.

Meanwhile, here are a few pizza-related links I have found lately.  First, a video from CNN about a pizza guy (and EMT) who arrived just in time to give CPR and save a life!  What a great story!

The other link is not so great.  It is an article about a local pizza guy getting set up and robbed.  Come on guys, make your call-backs and never go towards an unlit house!

Weird Story

Here is a weird story, sent to me by a reader, about a mix-up in the order, and a strange way the pizza shop chose to resolve the order.

As a driver, I highly doubt any shop would "reuse" (re-sell or even eat) the returned food in any way. More likely they just didn't want the customer getting something for nothing.

April Madness

Tonight was the NCAA basketball championship game, but I didn't really expect much extra business. Getting a gang together to watch the big game and having pizza delivered seems to have gone out of fashion, I did deliver to 1 party of guys getting ready for the game though.

Two of my first 4 deliveries were free re-takes of things that were not delivered properly the first time. Breadsticks & cheesesticks. No tip either time, which is the rule. But the original driver should have had to take the remakes, not me!

After 6 deliveries I was up to just $7. That was around 8 P.M. and it was just 2 drivers, Thomas & I. Then business picked up. I don't think it was the game though. Of my last 9 deliveries, 2 were to nurses at work (hospital & nursing home) and 3 were to women with small children.

Twice I returned to the store to find that Thomas had skipped the oldest run. Now, being creative and routing yourself with doubles & triples is expected late at night when we are down to just a couple drivers. But you must take the oldest run! If you skip it to take a better order, I can skip it too, and it just gets later and later.

The first "skipped run" that I took was over an hour old. The girl actually put her finger in the pasta to see if it was still warm. It was! She also actually put $1 back in her pocket that she had clearly intended to tip me.

I'll be off for the next several weeks, probably until late May, due to coaching and refereeing youth soccer. In the meantime, I highly recommend Diary Of A Pizza Girl! I may post a news article or some other curiosity now and then.

Totals for the night: 5 hours driving, 15 runs, $34 in tips, 48 miles.

Hi-Miler

Tonight was a wierd night. Just 2 drivers, Joel and I until around 8 when Joel left and Thomas arrived.

I started off with a triple, including a single pizza to a 3M factory where I watched them packaging sponges, before getting stiffed. Total for the triple was 2 stiffs and 1 $2 tip.

Next was a double with 2 credit card orders. Each one added $1 as a tip. So after 5 deliveries I had made $4 in tips.

Next came another triple. Finally some tips, made $9 combined, including $5 on a $20 order.

Next were 2 single runs where I made $2 each.

After that I took a double to south Elyria and Grafton. Stiffed on 11th St. (after waiting for about 5 minutes while the customer scrounged up the last dollar. "Mom can I borrow 90 cents?", and made $5 in Grafton.

Came back and found another double to almost the same 2 neighborhoods. Made $2 in Colonial Oaks trailer park and $3 in Grafton. This was actually a triple as I had to re-run some garlic sauces.

Totals for the night were 15 deliveries, $27 in tips, 5 hours working, and 71 miles. That's the wierd number, almost 5 miles per delivery. I usually average a little under 4 miles.