Imbalance in the food delivery business

It's no secret that working in the food service industry is less than glamorous. To put it bluntly, it pretty much sucks. Servers (otherwise known as waiters and waitresses) receive a pay rate far below the minimum wage based on the idea they receive the bulk of their income in tips. For example, even in a major city like Chicago, a server may only receive a pay rate of $3.00 an hour, give or take a dollar or so an hour. The case is similar for bartenders. I would imagine the case is similar for other service people.

Delivery drivers, however, only have a partially similar case to servers. Both bring hot food from a kitchen in front of customers who chose to not cook their own food. Both rely on the generosity of the general public to produce sizable tips for any significant income. Both receive the bulk of their pay in cash. And for the most part, neither one receives health benefits, stock options, or time for sick leave.

There are differences, and they are significant. While both the servers and the delivery drivers bring hot food from the kitchen to the customers, the server remains in the restaurant and only walks a distance measured in feet. In contrast, the driver drives a car, burns gas (I don't need to point out how significant that is), fights traffic, and often is forced to park illegally and risk getting parking tickets. Also, there is an almost universal standard that patrons who dine in restaurants--whether they be the cheap 24 hour diners or establishments rated well by Zagat's--are expected to pay a tip that is at least 15% of their bill, or 20% if they're generous or can't do the math. For all their effort and risks, drivers typically earn at most $5 in tips for each order, no matter how much it may cost. I should also add that many delivery customers pay a handful of change or nothing at all, even though they may live in a highrise condominium overlooking a lake. Finally, while servers are paid an hourly rate, delivery drivers are only paid per delivery. Which means, if somehow a delivery driver doesn't receive any orders for delivery, that delivery driver doesn't get paid at all. Even though that driver invests his/her time waiting at the restaurant.

My last delivery job was working for Fornello Trattoria on Irving Park Rd. and Sheridan, which is four blocks directly north of Wrigley Field by way of Sheffield (which turns into Sheridan). Each delivery order has an extra two dollars tacked on, which goes to the delivery driver. In other words, each driver receives two dollars--plus tips--for each delivery. Some delivery customers use free delivery coupons, so the driver doesn't even receive a delivery charge for those orders. At the end of a driver's work week, a driver then receives a lump sum of money which is $10 per day, for gas. For example, if a driver works for four days, he/she gets an extra $40 at the end of his/her week. This would have been adequate even in the days of $2/gallon of gas, but not so much for $3/gallon. At $4/gallon, this is pitiful. On average, if I made 10 deliveries a night (and I seldom made more than that, often made less), I might make $40 or so that night.

Essentially, I only earned enough money to drink and drown my financial sorrows. Just to clarify, though, I'm not a big drinker. So I would only spend about $10 a night on beer, if that.

My current delivery job is here at Purgatory Pizza and it's twin (or whatever you call it--both places share the same owners and kitchen), Risque Cafe. I earn $3 per delivery, plus an extra $2 for some reason, making it a total of $5 per delivery, plus tips. This would actually sound pretty good, if I actually got as many deliveries per shift as I did at Fornello. In a given week, I might get a whopping four deliveries. Four, per week. Compare that to ten, per day, at the old place. And at other places, I've heard of delivery drivers making between fifteen and twenty deliveries a shift. If I received that many deliveries, I might even be able to afford to live in the city again!

Unfortunately, the owners refuse to drop off delivery menus in the lobbies of high-rise buildings and apartment mailboxes. Apparently, there's a law against this, although it's never enforced. Fornello spread menus like this all the time, and they've been in business for a good fifteen years or more. Oh, we have a poster on the roof that's in plain view of the el train riders. But who remembers the ads they see while riding the el? What's more, people who ride the el typically don't live very close to the restaurant, which means if they did order from us, they'd be too far away to make it matter. [Note: Fornello has no delivery radius, so many deliveries would take upwards 45 minutes, just to get to the customer's residence. This means fewer deliveries in a shift, less money for the driver, and more gas being burned.]

If you're reading this, and you order food for delivery, I'd like you to consider my proposed tipping standard for delivery:

-Like servers in a restaurant, each driver should receive at least 15% in tips for the order.

-If the weather is really crappy, or there's a nearby event in progress (like a gay pride parade, street festival, ball game, or apocalypse), the driver should receive at least 20% for each order.

-If the driver gets mugged, a parking ticket, carjacked, or has his/her car towed, you should go above and beyond and either offer an incredibly generous tip or something unusually good. I'll leave this to your imagination, and it can include sharing part of your dinner with the driver, a shot of whiskey (or whisky, or bourbon), or a sexual favor, just to get the creative juices flowing.

I hope you find this post informative and I hope it makes you think about how service people get screwed in our society. Who knows? If you think hard enough, you might find someone else who has it bad in some aspect of the service industry.