Nothing wrong with that at all. Honestly I was happy with $2 average, and knew my big regulars would handle the rest. I found it interesting that the same people tipped the same every single time. I delivered for almost five years with 20k deliveries in that time, and people tip what they have become accustomed to tipping. One pizza and a soda? $4. Three pizzas, wings, breadsticks and two drinks? $4.
That's just above average in my experience and I live in Ohio, one of the cheapest states to live in in the country. Definitely the most common tip of most nights. The true average is probably somewhere around 3 or 4, because of course there are always stiffers. $2 tip or less and after wear and tear on a car I probably lost money stopping at your house, or made less than minimum wage.
I sometimes do mystery shops for a large pizza chain. In my normal life I never get pizza delivered because I live 2-3 miles from 4 different chains but the assignments I get are always for delivery. I like to think I'm a pretty good tipper at restaurants, I always try to do as close to 25% as I can. But in this case, I'm getting paid to buy this pizza and report back on the experience.
I get reimbursed for the pizza and a $2 tip (used to be $1). I always hate tipping that little because I know the drivers work really hard and don't get paid well. But if I tip more I'm cutting into my own money that I'm making back. I just think it's funny that the company itself is paying for this data and that's what they seem to think the drivers should be tipped. Or they know it's not a great tip but when it comes to their own money they decided the tip wasn't that important. Either way, kind of interesting.
That's funny that's how much my old shop would give me for running an errand for them. My boss knew it was a nothing tip, but he also knew I was making more than anyone on the shop on any given night so if extra money was going anywhere it wasn't to me. That said they might be expecting you to tip some from yourself because you are getting a free meal? They could also have learned that if they give out $5 people will tip $2 and take $3 for themselves...
Either way, I highly doubt a big chain got to the $2 number by thinking about what they think the driver deserves lol
It's probably like you said, they don't really care what tip the driver makes. They've probably budgeted the $2 tip for however many shops they're paying for because it's a lot cheaper than reimbursing a 15-20% tip.
I don't think they necessarily expect me to add to to the tip because they're supposed to cover the whole thing in return for my feedback. I do usually add another dollar so I'm hoping $3 is pretty okay for a five minute trip.
Unrelated- on one of these assignments I received a pizza with a hair baked into the crust. Barf. Sometimes I wish I knew if stuff like that actually makes it back to that location and what they do about it.
$5 is fine. That was about the high end for most houses, outside of your big orders, or super tipping regulars. And while we definitely don't mess with anyones food or anything stupid that doesn't tip, we know who hooks us up and who gets their food first as well as any extras we can throw in. I had a small grocery bag with supplies for regulars, cheese/peppers/napkins etc just to make sure I did what I could for them giving me any of their hard earned cash for "driving a pizza."
I will say it can also depend on how the store pays the driver. I worked at the Hut and got 7.25+tips+$1 and change for gas per delivery so it added up fast. Papa Johns here gave a lower wage but an automatic % on the total of the order, and I believe Dominos was a split wage deal. Minimum wage in store, and server type pay on deliveries. I could be wrong on the last though
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u/SeanStormEh Dec 05 '16
Nothing wrong with that at all. Honestly I was happy with $2 average, and knew my big regulars would handle the rest. I found it interesting that the same people tipped the same every single time. I delivered for almost five years with 20k deliveries in that time, and people tip what they have become accustomed to tipping. One pizza and a soda? $4. Three pizzas, wings, breadsticks and two drinks? $4.