This is generally directed at those of you in the USA or other places where it's custom to tip a delivery driver. If you don't tip for whatever reason there's no real sense in answering.

1) Are you tipping delivery drivers a higher than normal amount due to the high cost of gas?

2) If your local pizza place adds a nominal delivery fee (which is given to the driver), do you reduce your normal tip amount by that much?

And, for once, please don't let this derail to poker tokes - there's almost always a B&M thread that can accomodate you.

I'm just curious as to what people are doing. I know a couple shop owners having problems with drivers in addition to their own costs increasing for food and was wondering about how this could be affected long-term.

I actually never thought about #1, but my local joints do #2 and I have changed my tip rate with the years. For example, growing up it was always $1, sometimes $2. Now, as an adult I'm tipping $3-$4. Yesterday I ordered pizza and tipped $4.73 (change from the bill)

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i always just tip $5.. seems fair to me

well worth the convenience imo

I've never encountered a delivery fee, but if I did I don't think I'd tip at all.

And, no, it doesn't change based on the cost of gas. I just tip around $5. Less for longer service obv.

Also in before reservoir dogs mention.

5 dollars...? I tip like 2 dollars. Isn't the pizza alone like 10 dollars, so you're tipping 50%? BTW, I haven't ordered pizza in like 1.5-2 years.

Just to add context here:

A lot of places are increasing their product prices overall. The dollar is weak so there are more people overseas buying our cheese and wheat, and that's on top of the price increases brought about by the increase in cost of processing and delivery (which in turn is partially due to gas prices).

The place I worked payed a delivery compensation of 1.35/delivery to the drivers. (+8/hr+tips) This compensation is supposed to cover gas and oil/brakes/tires etc. With the prices as they are it doesn't. They also raised the price on all the items by .75-1.50 saying ingredients cost more, without adjusting the driver compensation/delivery. Still, it was decent money (grossed about 20/hr before taxes and gas, maybe net 15) only because there are some pretty generous/crazy customers with 5-10 dollar tips that more than make up for the cheapos with 1 or zero dollars. Probably averaged four dollars/ tip, but this was in an extremely good area for pizza tips.

I think 10-15% is reasonable, I usually tip 20% and round up to the dollar.

how did tipping get started? its completely ******ed.

Anyway I'm talking to someone about it and they're saying their food costs have gone from like 15% to 25% of their operation costs, so they have to increase base prices considerably. So people are paying higher prices, but ordering less, and picking up more often when they do order. Drivers are almost impossible to keep and I'm kind of wondering what the best approach for these shop owners is.

I think tipping probably saves the consumer and business/corporation money with the service getting the shaft. I imagine the origin is rich people wanting to feel generous and superior so they started tossing coins to their servants.

I don't think anyone knows for sure where tipping originated (there was a thread on that too some time ago).

As far as being ******ed, maybe, but in this case it's necessary. There is no way some kid with a driver's license is using his car and gas (at any price) to deliver food for a few bucks an hour, and most small shops aren't capable of making up the difference in wages (labor costs tend to be around 65-70% of overhead in these places to begin with). Very few provide vehicles, if any do this at all anymore.

But anyway I'm more interesting in hearing what people who tip are doing like I pointed out in the OP.

yea my pizza costs like $8, delivery is like $5 so I usually just give them $15-20 depending on the bills i have

in canada i used to tip when i was younger.. then i delivered for about a week... found out how easy the job is and is not worthy of any tip over 1$

Here in thailand i usualy tip 1/1.5$ which is a lot when the meal is only 4-5$ but those guys are dirt poor driving in disgusting traffic all day long wearing very hot suits

I disagree. I like it for things like delivery. It lets me reward really fast/good service and punish ****ty service.

Yay Capitalism!

1) No. Maybe I should, but I think I'm a decent tipper anyway. I could claim that I expect the cost of my food already reflects rising gas prices/inflation so since my absolute tip amount goes up too.

2) Depends. I definitely tip less, but I still tip pretty decently if it was good service.

So you might pay up to $12 to have an $8 pizza delivered? Your pizza place charges $5 for delivery, and you still tip on top of that? That's madness.

awesome, its been a while since we had a good tipping thread (im being serious...it actually has been a while since weve had a tipping thread)

I worked as a pizza guy for a stretch. This was years ago and gas was cheaper......

but PizzaHut here payed their drivers minimumwage x 2. Which is decent considering it's basically fastfood.... Same corporation that owns Pizzahut operates KFC and Taco Smell.

Then +$3 for each delivery (gas).. and I never had to drive far enough to actually use up even a dollar in gas....

All I had to do is drive in the comfort in my car, smoking weed, listening to music, and got paid like $15-20/hr after tips.



But yeah. I tip, because I remember how much I liked to get tipped. But it's totally not necessary and I don't tip at all if the service isn't decent..... which it usually isn't.

Jesus that's not just decent that's insane -

One of the people I was just talking about used to work at a Pizza Hut that had just started offering delivery (she didn't know that when she took the job). They gave her minimum wage plus .50 per delivery, which was half of the dollar delivery charge [which I think is a bad practice since most people would assume the driver gets all of it].

(No one knew this place delivered yet and drivers had to do dish duty when they weren't delivering. After about a week of washing dishes and taking 5 pizzas out a night she quit.)

A place I worked at myself years ago we used to pay the drivers minimum wage, this was back when gas was like $1/gallon so things were a bit different.

But ya I'm not ordering out as much, and we're definitely picking up a lot more. An $11 pizza is like $14 now, and when you factor in sales tax (NJ) you're looking at $15 before you even get to the tip anymore. A lot of places are charging for delivery now which wasn't that common ten years ago, so you have to look at the receipt too.

In my case I'm just giving the dude $4 altogether nowadays, but I'm guessing people are all over the place. I'm sure some people are still giving the driver a buck and change too lol

You probably have but haven't noticed. Either that, or you've been ordering exclusively from the last restaurant on earth that doesn't have a delivery charge.

Drivers only get part of the delivery charge. The rest goes to the restaurant. It's to partially offset the restaurant's cost of providing delivery. They can either charge a fee to delivery customers or raise menu prices across the board and force their carryout/dine-in customers to pay for a service they don't receive.

I made about $15-20/hr doing delivery a few years ago also. This was after gas costs but not really wear and tear on my vehicle. I honestly thought people tipped me way too much for what I deserved (but of course I happily took it). I think people just like to feel generous.

My g/f and I just got a new apartment. We are having a bunch of appliances and a plasma delivered from sears ($65) delivery cost. We are also having furniture delivered ($85) delivery cost. I'm not even sure if i'm supposed to tip, but i'm pretty sure i'm not going to tip a thing. My moving company is charging me $335 to total to move all of our stuff out of storage. I may tip like $50, if anything. What's the standard play in these scenarios?

I wouldn't tip a dime for any of those services.