Money Making Monday

We were super-busy tonight. I think it's the $10 pizzas. Of my 16 deliveries, 4 were a single $10 pizza and 2 were 2 pizzas for $20. Most of the other 10 included a $10 pizza but with wings, breadsticks, pasta, Pepsi, I really can't say which ones.

I worked 5 hours and took 16 deliveries, drove 53 miles, and made $44 in tips. My first 6 deliveries each tipped $3. My next trip was a double that tipped $5 on the first house and $1 on the 2nd house.

Adventure of the night was a delivery to xx07 West ave. I get there and there's xx05 and xx09. I call the customer 3 times before they answer and admit they are on xx07 Middle ave. (Luckily just a block away). I'm on the phone as I'm pulling in their driveway and still they let me wait on the porch at least a couple minutes before opening the door. Want to guess if they tipped? (No).

My only other stiff was my last run of the night. He was so excited to get his pizza so fast, he had been quoted an hour on the phone. He questioned whether his pizza was fresh. (It was, we don't premake anything, ever). He said he wanted me to always deliver his pizza. I'd be happier with never.

At one point tonight we had 6 drivers in the store. Joel, Joel's mom, 3 new guys (Matt, Jonathan, and Paul?) and me. But 2 of the new guys may have just been doing prep and dishes, I never saw them on the road. Any other Monday it would have been WAY too many drivers but tonight we needed them all!

DiGiorno Delivery

Check out this hilarious video for "DiGiorno Delivery". Much thanks to Cale for suggesting it.

New Hotbags!

We got new Hotbags in the store. They don't even have our name on them, just the "Red Roof" logo. I realize that's not really interesting enough to blog about, but neither was anything else tonight.

I worked 4 hours and took 6 deliveries. I drove 13 miles and made $15. My first 4 deliveries were to South Logan, Purdue, and a double to Warren & Clark so those 4 deliveries only took 4 miles driving to accomplish!

The delivery on Clark was to an older couple celebrating the man's birthday in a small bar. They were the only people in the bar!

Howdy Neighbor!

I had an interesting delivery tonight, houses 122 & 123 on the same street, about 10 minutes apart. Of course I waited around and took them as a double. Total tips from that run was $5.83.

Ironically I just read a blog post about a similar situation, where a fake customer placed 2 orders and while the driver was trying to deliver the first order (at a hotel), the customer stole the 2nd order out of his car! Read the blog to find out how the driver caught them the next time. It's a great story!

I asked and got let go early tonight, I worked just 2 hours, drove 13 miles, took 4 deliveries, and made $10 in tips.

How's The Weather?

Crappy!

Four of 5 customers specifically mentioned the roads or the weather tonight. The one that did not, the husband said, "CHILLY" as the wife held the door open a little too long.

Two of 5 customers still didn't tip!

Worked 2.5 hours, drove 18 miles, took 5 deliveries, made $10 in tips.

Bad Weather Driving Tips

The weather has been nasty this week. I'm sure the money was good but I'm actually glad I didn't have to be out in it as much.

Here are some winter driving tips from our local newspaper.

The biggest thing I can add as a pizza driver is, be prepared. Keep your car running well and gassed up. Have an ice scraper and maybe even toss a shovel in the back seat.

And take doubles & triples when it makes sense. If 2 orders are 6 minutes apart to the same part of town, in the summer they might go out as singles but in the winter they are definitely doubles. Customers will be more understanding about on-times in bad weather, and we really need to work together as drivers to minimize our miles (and time) on the road.

A Tale Of Two Tippers

It was the best of tippers, it was the worst of tippers.

I worked 5 hours tonight (4 on the road and 1 doing dishes), drove 42 miles, took 13 deliveries, and made $28 in tips.

I had 3 different tip amounts tonight. At 5 houses, the customer showed their realization of the bitter cold weather and nasty roads, and tipped $4-5. These were the best of tippers.

At 3 houses, I got the standard $2 tip. One was on a free delivery (the customer had a credit, we had messed up so their order was free). This type of customer usually doesn't tip so the $2 there was actually a nice surprise.

At 5 houses, I got zero, zip, nada. Two stand out as especially bad.

One was out of our delivery area. The order taker said to me, "It was in the computer, we went there before, we have to go back." No, we don't. Just because we made a mistake in the past, doesn't mean we have to keep repeating it.

The other was to an apartment complex that is blacklisted due to it being a dangerous place. Lately we have been taking deliveries to the front security office to meet the customer. Well this kid didn't bring the credit card. I had already waited 5 minutes, and didn't feel like waiting while he walked back to the apartment then back up front, so I went ahead and gave him a ride back to the apartment. Still no tip.

New Years Eve 2009 - Summary

It is late and I have plans in the morning, so I will make this brief. I may add a blow-by-blow recap later on.

I was scheduled from 5 to ? tonight. I ended up making deliveries until 11:30 (we closed - stopped taking calls - at 11).

I drove 82 miles, took 25 deliveries, and made $67 in tips. I made another $20 when one of the closing drivers paid me to stay until closing (which I was hoping to do anyways).

Highlight of the night was my 2nd-to-last delivery, 4 large pepperoni pizzas and 4 double-orders of cheesesticks to the apartments near my house. Total was $66 and I got a $14 tip!

People Are Lazy

It snowed several inches Sunday night and throughout the day on Monday. So of course today we were super-busy on deliveries. A little snow, a little cold weather, and people suddenly want their food brought to their doorstep!

In my 6 nights working since I started back, I took a total of 26 deliveries, or an average of 4.3 per night. My most in a night was 7. Tonight I took 15 deliveries.

I was driving from 5:40 to 10:40, then I stayed around another 1.5 hours to do dishes. There were 2 other closing drivers and they were both on the road until almost 12.

None of the deliveries were really remarkable. I did start the night with a 4-bagger where the 4th delivery was to a drive-through (beverage store). I also delivered to a Convenient Food Mart right behind our shop.

The majority of my deliveries were not in neighborhoods where you would expect big tips, so I ended up so-so on the per-run average but with 15 deliveries I did make decent money. I delivered to 3 apartments (Abbe, Chestnut Ridge & Oberlin-Elyria), West, Middle (x2), Wood, Gateway, Grafton Rd (x2), Arrowhead, Illinois, and Caroline.

I drove 62 miles and made $31 in tips. Bummer was that Monday was my wedding anniversary and I was hoping to get home earlier, but with 7 kids, Christmas puts a serious dent in our budget and the $ will certainly help!

Robbery

This one is way too close to home. I'm surprised nobody mentioned it on Monday when I worked. Be careful out there my friends.

Santa Hat

I did remember to wear my Santa hat today, and also a green long-sleeve t-shirt under my black uniform shirt. I almost never wear a coat when driving, I'm in and out of the car so fast ... my car stays warm from running (and also from the pizza) and putting a bulky coat on and off is just not worth it.

Anyhow, I drove 4.5 hours tonight (stayed until almost 10:30) and took just 6 deliveries (including a double right before 10). I drove 22 miles and made $14 in tips. Of the 6 deliveries, 3 were cash (for $7 in tips) and 3 were credit (also $7 in tips).

Best tip was on a $30.42 cash delivery, the customer counted out $35 and said, "Merry Christmas!"

Jeannie had delivered a gift from the managers, a Christmas mug and some chocolate. Today I also got a card, a pen, and several homemade cookies and treats from waitress Catherine!

Only One Delivering Night Left Before Christmas

... and I forgot to wear my Santa hat! I better remember it next week!

Tonight was a pretty boring night. I got stiffed by the same guy as last week, who was talkative about driving around and smelling pizza. Tonight he didn't have much to say.

On the night I worked 4 hours, took 7 deliveries, drove 21 miles, and made $13 in tips.

Unique was the fact that everybody paid cash, nobody paid by credit card!

Eight Million Stories

Ok I exaggerate. How about 6? I only worked 3 1/2 hours and it was a Monday!

Delivery #1 - $28.77 on credit card - the customer (a young couple) was very proud to have ordered pizza over the internet for their first time ever! Tip = $3

Delivery #2a - $13.99 cash order to an apartment less than a mile from the store. Older man with a cane answers the door (slowly). Tipped $4.01 which was very generous for a small order so close to the store. It was my best tip of the night.

Delivery #2b - This was a double, delivered to a house I had been to 2 weeks ago. Remarked to the customer that this was getting to be a regular thing. Order was $16.99 and the customer added $2.01, paying by credit card.

Delivery #3 - $13.42 pasta order. Customer paid by credit card, tipped $3 cash, and was wearing a Hungry Howies shirt. He obviously works for a competitor of our shop! But they don't make pasta.

Delivery #4 - $16.99 cash order, and a stiff. Young guy was friendly, remarked how good it smelled and "I don't know how you guys drive around with pizza in your cars, I'd be munching on it if it was me." My first stiff after 11 consecutive tips in my first 4 nights back driving.

Delivery #5 - $23.91 on a credit card order, customer tipped $3.09. The unique thing was the credit card was a ULoad card in the name of Valued Customer. I never saw one of those before!

Nightly totals are 3.5 hours worked, 20 miles driven, 6 deliveries, and $15 in tips. The first hour was the best with 3 deliveries and $9.

Short People, Big Tips

or ... Midgets Like Pizza Too!

I worked 3+ hours tonight but only took 2 deliveries. One was to the same house I got a $5 tip at last Monday ... this week it was only 1 pizza so it was just a $3 tip.

The second delivery was my first ever to a legitimate midget! The tip wasn't that big, it was pretty average at $2.50, but I didn't think that would make much of a headline.

I feel like I'm working pretty much minimum wage as a dishwasher ... if things don't improve in the next several weeks, my pizza delivery career may come to an end.

Total miles driven = 18 miles.

Turkey Night - Sent Home Early

As I've said many times, the night before Thanksgiving is a busy night - moms busy cooking for Thursday that don't want to cook dinner, plus college kids home and getting together.

And we were busy, but we had 7 drivers in the shop. I was scheduled to work from 6 to 10 but got sent home at 7:30. Apparently I've lost all my seniority.

I took 3 deliveries (2 runs), all 3 were credit card payments. Made $3, $7, and $2 for a total of $12 in tips and drove 14 miles. No complaints!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

First (slow) Night Back

Tonight I mostly did dishes, frustrating as our hot water heater is out an we have a "temporary replacement" smaller one. Every few loads I had to wait and let the water get hot again.

We had 3 drivers working so I only took 2 deliveries. One far away to a house, a credit card delivery that tipped $5, and one to an apartment almost right across the street, a cash delivery that tipped $1.

No dangerous deliveries so I'm happy.

Totals 2 hours, 2 deliveries, 11 miles, an $6 in tips.

Another Robbery

This is the 2nd publicized robbery in my town in less than a week. Not surprising, since the newspaper published a large amount that was stolen the 1st time.

This time there was a gang, they used a gun and took the guy's car (or at least his keys).

I have to admit I'm having 2nd thoughts about going back to work even 1 night / week.

Chinese Food Driver Robbed

I'm on the schedule to work again 1 week from tonight. Unfortunately, this morning I read in the newspaper that a Chinese food deliveryman was robbed in our city.

Doubly unfortunate is that the newspaper chose to publish the amount stolen, and it was ridiculously high. I would not carry even 10% of that amount into that neighborhood if we did deliver there, which we do not!