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What's wrong with a teenager making 10+ an hour??? You guys are what is wrong with this country.....
Not a teenager, like the above poster pointed out. More and more people are being expected to sustain themselves and their families on these types of jobs.
I haven't read the whole thread but can tell you a thing or two since I've worked at several pizza places.
1. Any delivery charge typically goes to the store to cover their insurance. Depending how busy a store is the owner could actually profit from delivery charges so why not trickle it down to their drivers? Everyone always considers this a tip but really it's not in no way shape or form because the owner gets it.
2. Reimbursement varies from store to store. I've had one store do 1.25 for a 15 mile area and another goes as low as .81. Again delivery charge goes to the store and the owner decides reimbursement rates. Both 1.25 and .81 cents is nothing considering how much wear and tear goes into a car. The other day I had $1000 in repairs done to my car just to fix a couple problems with my steering wheel and ignition. I still have to fix the engine and this is on a car that's had 85% of its miles on the job. It's a 2011 btw. Gas eats up most of my tips, how am I to pay if almost all my money is gone just to gas. A car has a ton of components not just gas people.
3. Everyone considers it an easy job that anyone could do. Hah, I've seen more people leave the job because they couldn't handle the pressure or just flat out sucked. It takes some skill and great driving abilities. Not crazy driving, finess and knowledge of the area is needed as well.
4. Pay should be higher because there are many inherit risks involved. You could get in an accident, robbed, police tickets etc. I've been in one accident and lost a car, harassed by people for no reason. All over pizza wtf.
5. Auto insurance companies hate us and force us to get commercial coverage. Liability won't cover anything btw.
I could go on and on as to why delivery drivers deserve better pay. But I'm sure you get the point. Hey if raising minimum isn't the answer then maybe there should be a shift to where the delivery charge goes to and tipping.
Look, I can rock with this. I used to deliver for Domino's, in 2001. At the time, we were paid by the mile (which was good, as it was said that this Domino's had the second-largest delivery radius of all Domino's pizza places in the entire state of New Jersey). I had a 1972 Cadillac, which was not exactly the most fuel-efficient delivery vehicle, and I had to buy my own gas. At the time, it cost me approximately 21 cents per mile to drive my car and I was reimbursed 15 cents per mile... but only because I was willing to "close" some nights... meaning I'd have to be there until 2 AM on Saturdays sometimes.
We were paid $4.00 per hour and got tips on top of it. (This means that when I was at the store, folding boxes or cleaning pans because we didn't have enough deliveries for me to take one, I was earning less than minimum wage for that work. If those wheels weren't turning, I was barely earning.) I kept meticulous records on how much I spent, how many miles I drove, and how much I earned. If you factor out the starter that I fried in one summer from firing up that big V8 engine 30-40 times a day every day for several weeks, I calculated that my average take was $5 - $10 per hour (depended upon the day) and it was entirely possible that I could make as little as $2 per hour. I quit very shortly after they transitioned to paying 75 cents per delivery rather than 15 cents per mile. Saved them money, screwed me.
These days, cars are still at least that expensive to run even if they're compact. Get yourself a fuel-sipper that'll give you 30 mpg to run it, even in pizza-delivery driving, and you're still paying around 21 cents per mile to operate that car between the ever-increasing costs of gas, oil changes, and maintenance. They're still paying below minimum wage, expecting you to survive off of tips. There are still people who refuse to tip, even if there is no delivery charge. Is it possible that delivery drivers could make less than minimum wage? Absolutely. I did the math when I was a delivery driver and things haven't changed. (I still ask delivery drivers about the conditions of the industry, to see if anything has changed. It hasn't.)
Given the inherent danger of the job, where you are carrying money and constantly visiting the homes (or motel rooms) of strangers, the pay should be much higher. I don't see why anyone would want to deliver pizza these days when there are constantly stories in the news about delivery drivers being robbed. THAT is the one thing about the industry conditions that HAS changed in 12 years.
The people suing probably aren't in a great location with good tips where everything runs smoothly. Additionally, since one is paid a lower wage for tipped employees, tips shouldn't have to cover their vehicle expenses.
Here is how things worked at a pizza delivery job I had recently (I left quickly) while living in a relatively rural area....
The average run was 10 miles. I had some runs 12 miles away (24 miles round trip). The average vehicle MPG in the US is probably more like 20, and while a delivery driver should have a fairly efficient vehicle, MPG while delivering is significantly lower. Also, they can't afford a nice car with this job, nor should they have one. I was required to use a car topper placed horizontally that ate MPG as well. My car that normally gets 23-24 MPG was getting maybe 17. Then I was getting about 6 runs total for a 4-5 hour shift. My shift started at 5PM and ended whenever things slowed down, so the hours were unreliable as well.
The math for this location was closer to...
$4.77/hr base pay
$2.25/hr for gas ($1.50 per delivery X 1.5)
$4.50/hr in tips ($3.00/hr X 1.5)
And I drove 15 miles per hour
That brings us to $11.50/hr before vehicle expenses. Delivery drivers are also taking a lot of risks since they are driving their car, and they should carry commercial insurance. Using the IRS reimbursement rate of $.55/mile, the hypothetical driver made $11.50-$8.25=$3.25/hr. By your gas only math, we have $11.50-$3.00=$8.50, but that assumes no tickets, no added insurance, no vehicle repairs or wear and tear on the vehicle. I think 35 cents a mile is a fairly reasonable number, so $11.50-$5.25=$6.25 and this includes decent tips.
Given that they are paid a lower rate reserved for tipped employees, I don't think it is reasonable for their tips to have to cover vehicle expenses. So doing that math...their pay rate is actually $7.00/hr ($4.77+$2.25) minus $5.25 or $1.75/hr. Even if you are only including gas (no tires, no oil, no repairs, no insurance, no depreciation) they are making only $4.00/hr before tips.
Years ago, I did pizza delivery in a more urban area where I was delivering 4-5 orders an hour, and the numbers worked well and would work even with higher gas prices, but it really depends on the location. I think I was making about standard minimum wage with this job, but it really was debatable, and again there are all sorts of risks including life and limb with the job.
[quote=bobtn;24268340]
Quote:
Originally Posted by forgetwhoiam
I deliver pizzas for Pizza Hut. I think the $16 per hour is not accurate what so ever. We might get to take out 3-4 pizza orders per hour during rush hours, which is from about 12pm to 1:30pm and 5pm to 8pm. So if you are working from 2pm to 5pm there is no way you are leaving there with $16 per hour. Okay, now with the tipping situation, on average, we recieve $2.50-$3.00. The delievery charge that you pay when you order a pizza is $2.50 and the driver only recieves $1.10 of that. Also the average driver only has a 3.5 hour shift, and about 20 hours per week. So let's add this up really quick.
Delivery Driver Pay Rate: $5.25 per hour
Tips (Averaging 3 per hour @ $2.50 per delivery ): $2.50*3=$7.50
Delivery Charge Received (Averaging 3 per hour): $1.10*3=$3.30
TOTAL PER HOUR : $16.05 per hour!
TOTAL PER SHIFT (Assuming It's The Average Shift): $56.18
TOTAL PER WEEK: $321.00
Now before you start screaming at my comment saying oh I was right...now you need to take out the deductions that a driver has because of his job:
The average delievery is between 2-10 miles from the store. So we are going to round to 5 just to keep it simple.
So each hour the driver takes 3 deliveries: 3*5=15.
Average shift & milage/hour: 3.5*15=52.5
So let's take some gas into consideration now. The average car gets around 25 miles per gallon.
So assuming you get 25 mpg you are going to use 2.1 gallons of gas on an average shift.
Now, in Missouri, gas is at $3.65 per gallon. So after one night the driver will spend $7.67 in gas alone.
Time for some more math:
Pay Per Hour: $16.05
Gas Used Per Hour: $7.67
Total Pay (After Gas Expense) per hour: $8.38
Pay Per Week (After Gas Expense): $167.60
Pay Per Month (After Gas Expense): $670.40"
Hello, the $7.67 is gas used per SHIFT,as the 52.5 miles was a shift, not hour total. Redo your math, dividing 7,67 by 3.5 BEFORE deducting. That adds $5.11 per HOUR to Gross effective pay.
Of course there would be. A decent deilvery man can do at least 4 pizzas an hour if not more. That would be $2.50 to $3 per pizza to deliver it. And since tips can be assumed of at least $2 or so, you can see where the pizza man can bring in $16 an hour which should pay for wages, gas and the use of his cellphone plus a few bucks left over for profit for the business which is already making a good profit on the pizza itself.
The cost of driving is not just gas, but also vehicle servicing and added depreciation, and in many cases increased insurance premiums.
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That adds $5.11 per HOUR to Gross effective pay.
