Not to hijack... I am female and was a delivery driver for Papa Johns for two years during college. I am also not a lesbian. I was never raped but I did have to deliver to some areas that were pretty sketchy. I carried a gun most of the time on my hip, which is a big deterrent to most idiots. It was also against company policy but they weren't going to get me raped.
When I was in Whistler, a friend said it was common practice when they were drunk to order a pizza to the street corner they were on and offer the driver half to take them back home. Have you ever heard of this/done this yourself? If you haven't, do you think you would do it?
Have there been any occasions where one of your drivers has been robbed while on delivery? I know a couple guys who've been mugged at gunpoint for as little as $50 CAD while driving around in some dodgy areas. As I understand it, these fucks order a pizza from a cellphone, order it to a house where no one's home, and mug the guy when he shows up to deliver. In the same vein, what are the scams that have been pulled on your drivers or yourself?
Am I the only one who thinks this should not be a thread topic? The purpose of the "ask a" thread is to find out about a job or lifestyle that's uncommon and interesting. Not to insult you silentshadow56, but pizza delivery does not fall into either of those categories. Just my $0.02 DrFrylock EDIT: Am I the only one who thinks selective misogyny should not be a user who is allowed to post on our board? The purpose of being a "user" on TiB is to be funny and interesting. Not to insult you, selective, but you don't fall into either of those categories. Just my 0.02. [strike]Oh and enjoy your week in the cornfield.[/strike] DrFrylock EDIT 2: After a review of the play, no cornfield. However, in the future, try to spend your energy constructively. Post something useful or funny. If you don't like the thread topics, post better ones in the suggestion board.
kuhjäger Off the top of my head I def. don't know when I open up tomorrow I can check it out and post on the board it would probably be upwards to $60 or so. Besides tasting like shit because the toppings wouldn't blend well together it most likely wouldn't cook properly either once again to all the toppings being piled on to it...
OBY There isn't any kind of secret handshake or password that we have to get discounts at other stores. It would actually be pretty cool if we did because I should be able to get a discount wherever I go. I've never tried but I'm sure I could convince someone to give me a discount it just depends on how receptive they are, just because we all work for the same company doesn't mean that everyone you talk to isn't going to be a douche bag...
Roxanne I've never heard of people doing that and do be honest for starters I wouldn't deliver a pizza to a street corner to because that's just fucking sketchy. I also wouldn't pick up a hitch hiker so I'm not about to have some random person on a street corner get into my car for a ride home. Not to mention I work at a Pizza Store having someone offer me pizza as a bribe isn't really enticing because I can just make it for myself for free. Also my job is all about getting you a fresh hot pizza in a timely manner. Anything that adds extra stops along the way and prolongs my drivers from getting back to the store is counter productive and I don't really condone it. Just because your not physically at your place of employment every minute your clocked in doesn't mean I want my drivers stopping at the grocery store to pick a few things up between their deliveries. I've had people ask for my drivers to stop at the store and pick up beer and cigarettes and they get down right vicious when I refuse to send my drivers to do that. Basically again it's about getting my drivers to and from a customer as quickly as possible and any extra stops are counter to that.
Volo I've personally never had any drivers robbed at my store although it unfortunately does happen. My company policy is that they don't care any personal money on them, including credit cards, and don't leave the store with more than $15 in cash. This helps to deter theft and in the even that someone does get robbed the robber won't make off with a lot which will hopefully encourage them not to try robbing another dominos driver. However I was made aware of someone that was recently stabbed to death in boston for a pizza and $20, which is really horrible when you think about it. I recently just had a manager of mine fired and arrested for stealing money from me. A popular scam is for a customer to place an order for say $30 after the customer pays my manager would then edit the price from $30 down to $10 and pocket the extra $20. She would also just straight up take money out of the register and put it in her pocket. She thought I was an idiot and a pushover, but when I'm missing $300 in the course of a month and it comes out of my bonus I know something isn't quite right. So I just went over my reports and started calling back people that she had changed the prices on their orders to see if there were any problems. Lo and behold there weren't so I just rewound my cameras, compiled all the evidence I needed, called the cops in and basically had her arrested. I made sure to do it in front of everyone else so as to make an example of her, when someone confesses to stealing over $1,000 in the course of two months they deserve what they get, and also just to let her know that I wasn't a pushover...
SilentShadow56, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions! First, I have to ask--how much did it blow to work for Dominos pre-recipe change? Y'alls pizza is pretty good now, but I remember that it used to taste like gummy cardboard slathered in cold marinara. Dominos was notoriously terrible...did you ever get any complaints back then that seemed over the top or excessive? I once had a delivery driver insist that my address didn't exist. He had my cell number so he called me to tell me that he wasn't coming because I gave him a fake address. I eventually led him, turn-by-turn, to my driveway...but he was pissed that my address wasn't in his GPS and charged me an extra fee for gas because he got lost. Is this normal? How does Dominos handle this situation? Should I have given him $10 in gas money, or was I being a pushover? I just looked over the Dominos menu online and noticed that y'all now offer sandwiches....and they look pretty gross. Be honest--are they?
Fuck that noise, I love pizza and want to know all about its cheesy goodness. Here (at least, I'm guessing it's universal) we have to give a phone number whether we're ordering for pick up or delivery. Is that just a bluff thing, or do you actually have a situation where you call it? I imagine a lost driver might, but I was meaning more in terms of people making false orders.
I worked for Domino's for a year and a bit in the mid/late 90's in Australia - so this advice is dated and geographically distorted - but here - The driver would be told to suck it the fuck up, you'd get a free pizza for the hassle, there's absolutely no way you'd be asked or expected to kick in for gas. I'd laugh in the face of a driver who wanted gas money from me and be on the phone to complain my ass off before he was out of my driveway. The phone number for pickups thing here is specific to the owner of the stores - mostly here store owners tend to own at least half a dozen stores in an area - there's very few single store owners - and they set their own policy. The phone number thing was a requirement for a computer system that they upgraded in most stores in like 2002 - but some owners wouldn't go to the new system or kept the rule in place to be assholes. The whistler thing for delivery drivers - wasn't uncommon for the stores I worked at or from my friends stories. We had a couple of regulars who would order home delivery after walking into the front desk and pay extra to grab a ride home with the driver. The basic theory was that the drive would charge about 1/2 to 2/3rds of what a taxi driver would charge for the same trip and only do it for regulars who we liked. About 2/3rds of Australians who can ski go over to Whistler to work for a season - so it might actually be our fault.
Sorry for not getting back to any additional questions sooner but right now I kind of live at work during the weekends and it's followed up by a regular work day on Monday. But i'll be glad to answer whatever questions I haven't and answer any more questions you might have...
Pinkcup I never really got any complaints about how the pizza tasted prior to our recipe change. I figure most people knew what they were buying before they ordered, but I guess corporate really heard a lot of the complaints. Corporate wasn't also really stringent on the manner in which we made our pizzas, yes there is many many different methods one can use to make a pizza, and now they are a lot more so. Depending on the method a pie maker chooses to use to make the pizza can drastically affect the taste of the pie and the way it cooks. Corporate comes three times a year to check our stores to make sure the operations are up to par and one of the things they now test us on that they previously didn't is precisely how we make the pizzas. So again I never really got complaints but obviously someone That delivery driver was just a moron and a dick. They are absolutely in no shape way or form allowed to ask for a tip of any kind. If that was one of my drivers he would def. be in danger of losing his job. It is mandatory, im fairly certain, that all stores have a map in the store that cover the entire delivery area. As well the ordering system that we currently have has a gps like system in it that pinpoints exactly where the individual house is. You shouldn't have to have given the driver step-by-step directions. I can understand getting lost, but once you've taken deliverys for more than like 2 weeks you know your way around the delivery area pretty damn well... The sandwiches while being god awful for you, check out the calorie and sodium count of some of them, are actually pretty damn good. I mean yeah the chicken parm sucks because well it's not made like chicken parm should be. However some of the other sandwiches like the sweet and spicy chicken habenero and the buffalo chicken are pretty good. Granted they aren't on the same level as a regular deli sandwich or something like subway but considering we've been strictly a pizza business for almost 50 years to add something like that its pretty damn good.
Disgustipated The ordering system that I use requires that I take a phone number before being allowed to put the order through. It makes sense too because sometimes I need to call the customer back to confirm something on the order etc... As well its useful for when the driver gets lost to be able to call the person and get directions, albeit hopefully not step by step ones...
I don't know if Dominos does this or not, but some of the big chains charge a $1-2 delivery fee, while others have "free delivery." If there's a fee, does this go to the driver? Should I count it against the tip? When I order online, I usually pay with a credit card and go ahead and tip ahead of time. Then, I feel like a dick because I don't add a tip at the door. Does the driver know what they got tipped at the time of the delivery? Do they find out later? Finally, I think it's Dominos that does this, but I might be mistaken, if so, ignore this. Some major chain has basically a play-by-play you can see when you order online. It tells you when the order has been started, when it's going into the oven, when it's out for delivery, and is amazingly accurate about when my pizza arrived. Is this just automated based on average times, or does someone actually report in at every step? Oh, and just a quick rant about your competitor, Papa Johns (my favorite, no offense). I was working on a congressional campaign and we were ordering a bunch of pizzas for our headquarters grand opening. We were literally about 100 feet from the Papa Johns, and I asked if they could just bring the food over, because I was going to be pretty busy getting things ready, and they turned into complete Neanderthals. First, they said they couldn't do it without an address (I didn't know what it was), and wouldn't accept me pointing out the window. They also said they would have to charge whatever the delivery fee was, even though it'd take about a minute to bring the pizza over (I would have tipped, but I wasn't paying a delivery fee for that). I'd recently moved from NY where I was used to local restaurants being really cool about delivery, and this just struck me as a terrible way of getting future business from the staffers. They also got really annoyed when I asked if they had paper plates and napkins, which they didn't (I'd gotten them from other PJ's in the past, and it's a really nice extra touch). Rant over.
I don't believe charging a delivery fee is a corporation wide decision but rather an individual choice by each franchisee. My franchise currently charges a delivery fee of $1.50 per delivery. This is really just to offset some of the costs of making the individual items. To be honest I don't understand I don't really know what that means, but that's what I'm told. This fee does not go to the driver and should not be considered part of their tip so please tip the driver accordingly! Again we compensate the drivers based on average gas costs but you shouldn't hold that against the driver... I don't order dominos online so I don't know entirely how the process works. When people pay by credit card there is the order total, a line beneath it for the tip, and then the total. If you can somehow already include the tip online it doesn't hurt to tell the driver when they get to the door that you already tipped them. Trust me nothing hurts their morale worse than not getting tipped and nothing brings it up more when they think they've been stiffed but it turns out they got a tip. Dominos def. does this and its called the pizza tracker. They have a very sophisticated online ordering system that links to our stores and handles all of this for us. Essentially you just get to see what we see. From the second the person on the phone finishes taking the order and processes it the order is sent over to our makeline screen. At that precise moment a timer is started telling us exactly how long ago the order was taken. It keeps ticking until we finish making the order and clear it from our makeline screen. From there it goes to our dispatch screen. Our ovens are conveyor ovens so it takes 6 minutes and 30 seconds to go from one end to the next so essentially the computer knows from the moment I clear something from my makeline screen its going to take that long to cook. Finally the driver will clear it off the dispatch screen which tells you on your computer that they are on their way to complete you order. Essentially that's how it works. Again just because a company is a corporation you can expect the same products but can only really hope for the same service. If I was the papa johns I would have been more than glad to accomadate a group of that size. I need an address to put the order through on my end but honestly I could very easily find a work around it just depends on how cooperative the people want to be. Also if you were really going to pitch a bitch fit about the delivery charge, understandable its a walks distance, I would just very simply remove it. I'm not going to sacrifice $80 in sales over a $1.50 charge thats just stupid. Again paper plates and napkins I always have them at my store and its never a problem. Its all about customer service and getting my customer what they want and how they want it, thats how you bring in business. I mean granted you may never order from my store again but you could come on to a message board and gripe and hurt the business otherwise...