Sunday, July 13, 2008

Delivery: Like Running a Business

Disclaimer: This will be a lengthy post, and it will be pretty in-depth about pizza delivery.

Business owners are faced with tough decisions when it comes to things like cost control, equipment selection, and involvement. In my job as a delivery driver, these decisions can make the difference between running a successful $1,000/week driving "business" or a losing proposition involving $1,900 transmission repairs. And while I am currently enjoying the former and then some, I suffered the consequences of the latter in previous years.

The two most important decisions drivers make involve which shop they will work for and their vehicle. An outsider might think a rich town like Dublin would be the best to deliver in. However, when an experienced driver breaks a city like Dublin down, it is only slight favorable compared to a ghetto shop. Let me explain: First, Dublin is a town full of 9-5ers. This makes for a very tight dinner rush and an awful late night. To be successful as a driver, late night hours must be spent on the road, not in-shop. Second, a common misconception is that rich people tip well. Rich people typically became rich by being cheap, not by tipping the pizza guy $7. Per capita, I've gotten more $1 tips from $500,000+ houses than anywhere - except the retirement home. Components of a great shop include management that allow triples and quads, slight understaffing of drivers, smooth traffic flow during rush hour, and a demographic of lower-middle to middle class. A bonus for late night traffic would be a state college campus, and having a lot of businesses in the delivery range can boost lunch traffic, which is traditionally a slow time in Pizza World.

3 things are important to a delivery driver when it comes to a vehicle. Fuel efficiency, reliability, and comfort. The first 2 are obvious, but the 3rd can easily be overlooked. To be successful, drivers must work a lot of hours. In addition to increasing weekly income, working a lot of hours gives drivers the chance to get to know the repeat customers, which leads to a higher tip average. If a vehicle is too small, uncomfortable, or not equipped with heat/AC, the driver will not enjoy the job as much, and not want to work as many hours. I can't say anything about fuel efficiency that hasn't already been said here. An important thing to note is that only the City EPA rating is relevant to delivery drivers, as they typically spend over 90% of their driving on city streets. Reliability is extremely important to drivers. The way I see it, a driver can never go wrong with a Honda or Toyota for a delivery vehicle.

Driving style is a big decision for pizza guys. There are three schools of thought here. One is the idea of hypermiling to save gas. While this is the cheapest way to drive, I personally think pizza guys who hypermile too much will save even more gas by missing out on a lot of runs. Idea #2 is the standard style of driving, what they teach you in driver's ed. This can also include slight speeding. This is basically what I do, but I would also point out that I have developed the skill to cut into traffic quickly over time. This probably gains me more time than excessive speeding ever would. The third and final idea is to excessively speed, drive very aggressively, and hope the cops see your cartopper and give you a free pass because your shop gives them free food. In the past, I have incorporated #3 into my arsenal, but I do not attempt this much any more because of the cops in Hilliard. It is very important to know about the cops in the town you are delivering. Depending on where you are, cops may be much tougher, much easier, or impartial to delivery drivers. Generally, I feel that no tip is worth a speeding ticket. While it's true that the tip is much lower than the cost of the ticket, the worst parts of a ticket are the added insurance cost and another strike toward delivery ineligibility, as determined by the shop's insurance company.

There are a lot of additional decisions that can influence profitability:

-Buy gas now while I'm half full or wait until tomorrow to see if it goes down more.
-Rent a car for $30 while my car is in the shop or give my shift to someone else/call off. (this should be an easy one for any serious delivery professional)
-Be frugal on expenses or buy items like TTPG pens and dog treats to boost tips, and hope the break-even analysis works in your favor.
-Take the single run that's close to the shop or take the double that is further away.
-Confront the stiffer and risk the consequences or stand there and take your beating.
-On a double, take the guy who always tips $5 first or the unknown who will be late if taken second, et al. (There are very few situations where I won't give preference to the high tipper, one happened tonight when I had a known $5 tipper 27 min OTD on a 60 minute quote, and an unknown 42 min OTD on a 40 minute quote. Tough call, but I knew I would still be quite early for my good customer)
-Tip out cooks/managers on exceptional nights or keep it all. (see below)

A lot of decisions that drivers make may serve no benefit at the time, but will come in handy for the future:

-Tip out: If I have a great night, it means the inside staff worked their butts off while I cashed in. Spreading the love is not only the nice thing to do, it keeps these insiders happy to the point where it can hopefully happen again in the future. Additionally, this helps underpaid insiders to root for drivers to have good nights, instead of becoming upset that they are making significantly less money than drivers. My favorite thing to do is buy the closing insiders ice cream at UDF.
-"Forgetting" the TTPG pen at a stiffer's house.
-Buying a first class stamp to send the TTPG letter to a stiffer's house.
-Building rapport with customers to sow the seeds for long term business relationships.
-Learning how to cut pizzas and make pizzas: While this doesn't seem necessary, just today I got a double that I would have missed if I didn't make pizzas. With just Grant and me as the drivers, I saw an H-10 pop up 9 minutes after a J-10 was already on there, and Grant already had his run allocated in D-9, far away from mine. I rushed the pizza in the oven, the two orders came out 4 minutes apart, and I got them both to the door in under 30 minutes, collect $6 and $4.75 tips for my efforts. The $6 was from the second order that went in. On a close-together double, the second reimbursement becomes free money, so it's like I got an extra $7.30 for knowing how to make pizzas in just that one instance. Breaks like that can mean the difference between good and bad days.

I think I had more to say on all this, but I'm getting tired and I've already written a lot. I'm done at Pizza Hut until next Saturday. I'm going to San Antonio with the youth group this week. I will finally get to see my wife as well.

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