Late Start

One of the hazards of delivering pizza as a 2nd job is that your schedule sometimes depends on your day job, and occasionally you miss the best hours. This happened to me today, shortly before I was ready to leave my IT job, my boss gave me a task to do. It was simple enough but it took a chunk of time.

I called the pizza shop, found the first guy to leave, and asked him to stay for me until 8. I would have been getting in around 6.

Well even with my short 3 hour shift, I took 6 runs and made $14 in tips. I can't recall my mileage at the moment but let's say 20 miles.

First run was supposed to be Jimmy's but a while back Jimmy "threw the guy through a window, and it would have been awkward." The guy tipped me just $1, I see why Jimmy gave him a beating.

Last run was a credit card but the customer didn't have the card, his sister had bought him the food. He said I could call her and confirm. How silly! If it's a scam or a stolen card, how hard would it be to get someone to answer a phone and say "Yes he has permission to sign for my card" ?

Pizza Delivery As A Second Job . . .

. . . or "why is a 39-year old with an engineering degree delivering pizza?"

I was a divorced dad with a mountain of debt. Then I remarried and we bacame a blended family with 6 kids. Victoria worked 1 day / week as a school librarian but for the most part she was a stay at home mom. Our home needs it and she is good at it!

But the bills were piling up and we realized we needed some extra income. So after talking it over, I went out one day and got a 2nd job delivering pizza. At first I was only working weekend nights (Friday - Saturday - Sunday) because I thought that would be when the pizza shop was busy and needed extra help.

I soon realized that I enjoyed the work and, although the money was good, we could use still more. So I started asking to work a few weeknights when my kids were with their mother. I worked hard when I was there and did a good job so eventually Bill (the manager) began scheduling me whenever I would work.

I was working 5 nights / week for a while, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday-Sunday. When I was still paying alimony, my pizza delivery income of over $350 / week was actually more than the take-home portion of my regular job in the IT department for a large company.

When the alimony ended I was able to start taking more nights off. Now I pretty much work 3 nights per week.

Delivering pizza is a great second income. It's totally different from what I do during the day, sitting at my computer and solving IT problems. I get to drive around, listen to the radio, and interact with people.

Delivering pizza is very stress-free, every night when I leave my work is totally done. Contrast this with my other job where some projects last for weeks and are always in the back of my mind, even when I am at home.

I get cash every night, so I almost never have to take money out of the ATM anymore. This cash is good for gas money, lunch money for the kids, allowances, and other incidentals.

Once I established myself as a good employee, I was able to pretty much set my own schedule. Of course at first I had to work when I was needed the most, but since I have a family and most of my co-workers do not, I can usually find someone to cover for me if an important family situation arises.

And let's not forget the food. I love pizza so I am happy to feast on the mistakes, buffet leftovers, and crew pizzas pretty much every night that I work.

Of course the main reason I drive is for the money. And when a few more bills are paid off, the need will be less. But I will probably try to work 1-2 nights each week even then. The money is almost too easy to give up!