Anyone have experience delivering pizza?

[dean owens]

hey y'all,

well timing kinda stinks. my wife and i are getting serious about our debt (mostly student loans) and right when we are my wife finds out that she won't have her job after august. we really want her to be able to stay home with our girls. and i'm a campus minister so i have a pretty flexible schedule. so i'm trying to find out what job i might be able to pick up for the weekends to help dig into this debt.

so, i'm thinking about pizza delivery. any of y'all done it? can you make more money at that than flipping burgers at mcdonald's? any insight you have will be much appreciated.

thanks

 

[AJ_rider]

If you can find a way to deliver pizzas on your FZ then this could be a win/win! Just take it easy in the corners, leave some cheese on the pizza!

 

[blu04]

I did it for about a year and a half in Fl before moving to WA, not too bad of a job as long as your car gets good mileage especially with gas prices now. Of course weekends are good usually busier. Plus it depends on your area if you have good tippers or not. I have averaged up to about 11 bucks an hour just in tips but had some bad nights to. Pretty easy job plus your not stuck inside flippin burgers all night.

 

[jtarkany]

I delivered pizzas almost 18 years ago, when we were expecting my first daughter, the money was definitely in the tips.

I quit after I was robbed at knife point for a pizza I was delivering .

The order that was called in was a set-up. The people didn't get any money, I recognized what was going down as soon I saw people coming toward me from various directions. I was able to get back by my car at about the same time they converged on me, as the guy with the knife approached me I asked him if he wanted a free pizza and shoved it in his hands to minimize his ability to use that knife, as he took the pizza from me I opened the car door and got in, I even heard him mumble thanks

Fired up the car, went back to the pizza place and quit, the last thing I wanted to do was leave my new wife and daughter to be without a husband and father.

That being said, if you decide to do this, please pay attention to your surroundings.

 

[sam5c]

I am a student right now so most of the week I'm busy so i work the flea markets on Saturday. Since you're a campus minister you probably know many people. You would be looking for people who wholesale merchandise, whether it be clothing, fruits, garbage bags, socks... basically anything. Check out some of your local flea markets and see if there are any markets for your product. It's a fun way to make money and for me, I'm in NJ right on the border of NYC, I make more than anyone I know working just one Saturday a week selling clothing. Just a suggestion

 

[Steph]

I did it once upon a time...easiest money ever! Got about $5 per order in tips plus $7 an hour. On a good weekend I could clear about $300-350. All under the table of course.

 

[DaveOTZ]

I think like everyone says a lot depends on the tippers... when I was in undergrad I delivered and we had a connected guy on the route that would drop me a 20 or a 50 for a sandwich or a slice... The Stoner Frat would forget how much they gave me and call me back to tip me...

The benefits... usually free food for your shift... then I was offered to take home the pies at the end of the night... If its good pizza itll feed you all week...

At my house my frat bros would take my pizza from the fridge I kept it in my closet and a peperoni pizza is shelf stable for up to 5 days unrefrigerated and tasty...:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Steph]

a peperoni pizza is shelf stable for up to 5 days unrefrigerated and tasty...:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Seriously? I won't touch anything that has been sitting out for more then a couple hours...Too much training before I was a cook I guess.
Nah, actually, it just grosses me out lol

 

[kustom17]

this thread is making me really hungry.... god is it lunch time yet

 

[Hellgate]

As a pizza "dude" you are pretty much trading the equity in your car to a paycheck, miles, wear and tear, maintenance, etc. Technically you would also need to change your insurance from personal use to commercial use but we won't go there.

That said I had a buddy who is a career (seriously) pizza delivery dude and he buys cheap cars at auction, like $200 is an expensive car for Ted. He drives the car until it is dead and buys another. With that plan he actually does pretty well at it. Tips are the key!

 

[DaveOTZ]

Seriously? I won't touch anything that has been sitting out for more then a couple hours...Too much training before I was a cook I guess.
Nah, actually, it just grosses me out lol

Back then I had the stomach of a goat.... no a goat terminator...
Now if I have a milkshake Im burping chocolate and my ass jiggles like the moonwalk at the state fair....

 

[ELIZABETH]

I had a delivery man at a pizza shop tell me that some guy came in to pick up his large pizza...on his motorcycle! He said he watched out the window as the guy struggled to hold the pizza box on his lap, and work the clutch and throttle, and steer. He finally managed to get going out of the parking lot. About 5 minutes later the delivery man left to make a delivery, and when he got out on the freeway, he saw a pizza box and slices of pizza scattered ALL OVER the highway!! :-0 No dinner that night!!

 

[D-Mac]

Good on you for being willing to do what it takes. +1 on having an economical car for this job too. If you have a tolerance for drunk teenagers (which I suspect you do from your regular job) it could be a good gig. Try the 24-hour stores in your area too. I used to work part-time at a 24h pharmacy and it was a great side job.

I have a couple of pizza/motorcycle stories to share (these will not help, but you made me think of them):

I hired an undergrad student and friend as a field assistant a number of years ago. He had been working at Subway and a pizza place, so he quit both jobs, got on his motorcycle (a beat-up Kawasaki 400LTD) and rode 1500 miles to where I was to take the job! He was pretty broke on the way out so he loaded up his bike with free pizzas and subs before he left. After camping out on the side of the road for 5 days, he showed up and he was still eating the 'leftover' pizzas and sandwiches! It had been 80+ degrees outside every day and some of them were actually starting to mold over! He then continued to eat the pizzas until I finally threw them out and bought him some groceries A WEEK AFTER THAT! Ironically, he ended up pursuring a career in microbiology!

On a recent trip to South America (Suriname) my students decided to order from Pizza Hut. It's new to Suriname, so we weren't sure how delivery worked (Pizza Hut and Burger King market themselves as 'health food' down there, but that's another story). Anyway, after ordering in broken Dutch, the pizzas came an hour later and were delivered by a guy on a scooter. He must have had AT LEAST 50 pizzas balanced on the back! I have no clue how he kept his balance and kept them upright. It's important to realize that the roads in the area were complete crap too.

 

[Owl]

I work part time as a pizza delivery driver. I've done it for three years. Great job, and I dont even have an economical car. I drive an 08 4.3 GMC pickup. I get paid a dollar every delivery, $7.55 an hr and tips. I'd say part time (30 hrs a wk) I make $20,000 or better a year .

 

[gew]

i did it for a couple years in highschool. i lived in a very rural area. i had to drive from one end of the county to the other for usually zero tip...not even a keep the change. after a 30 mile drive out i would hand them their stuff and they would hand me the money and just stare waiting for the change. i generally made $5-20 a night plus $5.15 hr and .75 on each trip. so yeah it can vary wildly. i quit because i pretty much ruined my 2 year old car at the time. considering that i lost money doing it.

 

[SovietRobot]

I've never done it and the reasons are:

You have to use your own car(with most companies)
Pay for your own gas
Pay for your own insurance. If you don't have business use insurance on your car and you get in an accident on the job, you can get screwed.
During slow hours you aren't making much money

 

[xgrafcorex]

My experience is that it mainly depends on the area you are delivering to. I delivered pizza down in the Boca Raton area in Florida, and then later in the Havelock, NC area. The tips down in FL were a lot better than they were in that area of NC.

Having lived with a bunch of waitresses (3 at one time once) I would think you could make more money being a waiter..but then you have to go through the "new person" phase where you don't get the good hours on busy nights. Also, seems like that job would be a lot more of a pain in the arse.

 

[Crystal]

Back then I had the stomach of a goat.... no a goat terminator...
Now if I have a milkshake Im burping chocolate and my ass jiggles like the moonwalk at the state fair....

Total TMI....