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!

New Year, No Purpose!

I apologize for taking an entire year between posts.  I've been mostly treading water as a pizza guy, due to many other jobs, including teaching C# as an adjunct professor at the local community college.

I will summarize:

• I worked a few weeks in the "nicer town" until the GM there realized (and rightly so) that the part-timer (me) can't work only the best shift (Friday).  So I got transferred back.
• My friend and GM for the original store, Nick, got promoted to Regional Manager.  Good for him, bad for me.  The new GM and I did not seem to speak the same language when I was making schedule requests.
• I worked at the original store from January to July and discovered a new favorite quasi-holiday.  The "Sunday after the 4th" (of July).  By this time, the man of the house is tired of cooking out, the woman of the house is not ready to go back to the kitchen, and the kids still want to eat.  Pizza is the answer!  I took 21 deliveries in 8 hours and made $93 in tips!
• In August I transferred again, to a quiet town, following the same GM I followed previously.  I needed to work once every other pay period at minimum to stay on the payroll (and stay grandfathered in at the higher split pay rate).
• I only worked 3 times after school started (September to November) until I let myself fall off the payroll.  I was really at peace with this until ...

Last night on New Years Eve, I ordered from my franchise, the nearest location to me.  At the pickup window, the GM there recognized me from many years ago, gave me the employee discount, and basically told me I could work whenever.  I wish I had known prior to losing my grandfather status ...

To be continued ...

Split Pay for Pizza Drivers

So the minimum wage in Ohio goes up in 2015 from $7.95 to $8.10.  The minimum for tipped employees is $4.05.  Our franchise chose 12/31 (since some people may work past midnight) to implement this as well as "split pay" for drivers.

Split pay means we are paid sub-minimum while we are driving (and thus earning tips) and minimum when we are in the store, doing dishes, prepping dough, and other non-tipped tasks.

Our franchise chose $6.10 as the driver rate ($2 less than the minimum) but they did grandfather in all current drivers, so our split rate is $7.95 (our previous rate).  If not for the grandfathering I would be pretty upset.

My time was evenly split tonight, 3:32 on the road and 3:33 in the store.

This was a non-typical New Years Eve for me, I made good money early then things slowed down the last hour (but we closed at 11.  I prefer to stay open until 1 on NYE).

Totals for the night were 7.08 hours, 14 deliveries, $54 in tips, and 67 miles.  Oh and I made a $2 tip on a pick-up order at the window! And I met my new GM (Will) ... if my transfer goes through.