I was very surprised to learn that the 'delivery fee' does NOT go to the driver. I asked at pizza restaurants and they admitted this. Some places may be different but it does to the owner/restaurant.

Read here on delivery charges, etiquette and tips:

http://tipthepizzaguy.com/qna/2dollarfee.html

http://tipthepizzaguy.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Pizza Guy

In my town the delivery guy gets the tips. The price you pay is same as on the menu.
I am clueless what goes on in bigger towns.

I knew a guy that worked for Mr. Gatti's Pizza and he got to keep ALL of the tips for himself as he had to provide his own car, fuel, insurance, maint. ect. He was paid minimum wage and got to keep ALL of his tips. It averaged out to a good hourly wage.

I'm not talking about tips. Generally they always go to the delivery person. What I'm wondering about is the delivery charge. For instance, throwing out round numbers, say a pizza is $10 and they add a $2 delivery charge and $1 in tax. Your delivered total is $13. Does that $2 go to the driver? I've read the tip the pizza guy site before and some of the things he said were at that time rather questionable. It's really got me wondering. That's why I thought I'd see if anyone has first or at least second-hand knowledge.

If they DON'T get it, why do they tack that on? The insulated bags don't constitute that much overhead to add that much to the price. I understand trying to add a little extra profit, but if this is simply profit, this has me annoyed. Boxes are often used by people who come in so that isn't warranted. The cost of plates, napkins, furnishings, waitstaff, dishwashing and the like surely would be higher than the costs associated with delivery.

I don't like what I'm smelling....

Here near Tampa, FL, the delivery charge is extra and is for the franchise only. Tips to the driver. We're being punished for being lazy?

Wouldn't you think that the delivery charge is to cover the cost to deliver the pizza? Such as gas & oil and wear & tear on the vehicle. If the pizza place is not increasing the cost of the pizza to be delivered over what you would pay if you "ate in", then the delivery charge would be to cover those costs. You need to tip the delivery guy over and above that. And yes, Mimi. That's the price for being lazy.

I've never heard of a delivery charge. We pay the price of the pizza and then tip the delivery person.

I noticed the extra delivery charge when the cost of gas went up so much. I never thought the driver would get it, just assumed the company/owner was trying to cut their losses. But now I'm thinking if the driver has to pay for his own gas that doesn't seem quite fair? And now that gas has gone back down-the charge is still there!!

My DH started picking up the pizza himself if he was coming home from work (On his way) so we skip that charge and the tip!

Teresa-who unfortunately wants pizza now at 9:00pm!

"I've read the tip the pizza guy site before and some of the things he said were at that time rather questionable........ That's why I thought I'd see if anyone has first or at least second-hand knowledge. "

I work in the restaurant business. Maybe I can clarify what you found 'questionable' on the site.

Pizza guys use their own vehicles. Their own gas. And pay their own insurance. The newish trend is to have them work for tips only and no paycheck from the owner, and consider them 'independent contractors' so that the restaurant is not held liable for when they get robbed, raped, killed or involved in a major auto crash. By not having the delivery guy covered as an employee the restaurant pays way less for their own insurance.

Naturally rules vary with different franchises and small family owned places have differences too. Some states have more stringent laws regarding how to define 'independent contractor' status but that does not mean that a restaurant will not skirt the law for as long as they can get away with it.

Read up on the IRS 'Seven Points' for self employment. In order to be considered 'self employed' or an 'independent contractor' there must be a criteria of seven things met. The point where most restaurants fail is 'requiring the person to follow a set schedule'.

Pizza delivery drivers HATE that tacked on 'delivery charge' because as you can see from the above posts, many people assume that the delivery charge is the 'tip' and confuse the two hence give no tip payment to the driver at all.

Cynic, do you have a specific question that I might be able to answer for you?

Here is a link that might be useful: Delivery Charge.

ok I see now. Sorry I goofed on the answer. That will teach me to read slower! LOL
Our Pizza Ranch has its own vehicle, they charge $1.25 to deliver. I'd guess it goes to the Pizza Ranch franchise. But that is an assumption.
The Pizza Ranch employee drives Pizza Ranch's car for deliveries.
Now I wonder why I tip the delivery guy? LOL

My son delivers...he gets to keep the dollar...not everyone tips...so the owners add that in to cover his gas, insurance, wear and tear...if he gets the tip...all the better...

What gets me the most are the companies who place huge orders for lunch and don't tip...Our hospital ER is the worse...they'll run up a 100.00 order and he'll get no tip...and it's 1.00 per order...not 1.00 per pizza...most private individuals tip him very well...

I could go on and on the stories he's told...some have me shaking my head and some have me laughing out loud...

My son delivers pizza so I have a little first hand knowledge of this. The first place he worked had a $2 delivery charge. Dilly Dally is right. Most people assumed that went to the driver and he got very little tips because of it. That job wound up costing him more than he was making between gas, wear and tear, insurance and one accident trying to help another delivery guy that slid off the road because of ice. (long story, another time).

The place he works now, does not charge a delivery charge. The reason the owner doesnt want this charge is because he knows his drivers tips suffer so he chooses not to do this.

To be honest, I have always given a tip of $2 to $3 to deliver pizza. Apparently, I was not being a good tipper LOL. I never really thought about percentages, but delivery charges should be at least 15 to 20% of the bill. (a little more if you're far from the pizza shop. Anything more than 3 or 4 miles should be a bigger tip) I'm a better tipper for pizza delivery now, of course it helps that my son delivers LOL, hes kind of cute ;)

I always pick up my pizza since the place is less then a mile away. Once I did delivery and between the delivery fee and tip it cost me an extra $5.00. So now I just pick it up.

On Domino's website...right when you enter your credit card information...it says the delivery fee is not the tip for the delivery person and goes on to suggest you might want to add a tip for that person.

By the way, I really like their new pizza. When they said everything had changed except the round shape, they were sure right. Much, much tastier.

dilly_dally, it's been a couple years since I looked at his site so I don't recall exactly what the issues were. I should clarify that I'm not saying I disagreed with tipping the pizza guy of course, and that he had legitimate points on there. It was just some of his logic at the time I didn't quite agree with. I've been in retail a long time, been in restaurant/fast food handling too for a portion of my time. So it's not that I'm saying his site is bad. I just didn't look at it too thoroughly earlier and maybe I should have.

I did notice one curious thing, he changed his position on whether you were obligated to tip on a re-delivery, for instance if you got a burned pizza or something. At the time I hadn't really thought about it but what he said made sense. At the time he was quite adamant that a tip was required on a re-delivery since it wasn't the driver's fault, and that you likely wouldn't get the same driver both times, and that it was still an expense to the driver since they made two trips. Although it would be a rare situation, it's still worth considering. I don't think the drivers have a responsibility to check each order that it's complete, not burned and the like. Interestingly, now he says no tip is required.

While it's on my mind I want to point out something else. With them making the drivers independent contractors, many people don't understand the ramifications of that to the driver. That automatically makes the person pay more in taxes since they have to pay double the Social Security that an employee pays. As a contractor you have to pay the employer contribution too. Been there, makes for a painful tax filing the first time when you don't know about it. I was a traveling photographer for a number of years and part of the time I was a contractor. I made GREAT money some days. I had some days with no customers, yet I still had to make payments on the equipment, pay for a motel, gas, vehicle expenses, commercial insurance (since standard auto policies don't cover you if you're driving as part of your job), dress clothes, meals, etc, and then get a double whammy at tax time... well, that was not good times.

I didn't realize there was any mileage reimbursement but I'm sure it's not much.

I do now recall one issue that I had with him. He claimed that they would have 1 driver per order. At least in the past, this is not accurate. It could be, but I do know they would have 3-4 orders sent with a driver so it's not like you drive 3 miles, then 3 back, out 4, then 4 back, etc. It could be drive 3 to the first, 1.5 to the second, 4 to the 3rd, 2 to the 4th and a mile back, as an example. Granted it's going to vary with how busy they are but I do know that they at least used to combine orders with a driver which is why it could take a while to get the order.

Pizza delivery drivers SHOULD hate that tacked on scam. I'll call it as I see it. This is something I've wondered about for a while now. And it explains why I always had trouble getting a receipt when I was traveling! They never wanted to send one. I believe it's because they didn't want people to see this added charge. When it was 50-$1 I imagine people (like me) just thought it was sales tax.

FWIW, my usual philosophy is that, assuming it arrived in a reasonable time, that is what they said it'd be or even 5-10 min after, I usually took bills to cover and add $2 more so they'd get $2+coins which could be up to 99¢. If they get there extra fast or other circumstances, such as pouring rain, definitely an extra buck or two, or if I hadn't shoveled and they trudged through snow warranted something extra since I didn't think that was fair to them.

I'm glad I brought this up for clarification. This definitely irritates me. Tip the pizza guy and what the heck... tip the pizza gal too!

Say nodakgal, are you sure they're driving Pizza Ranch vehicles and not just having magnetic signs on their own cars?

(sigh) Now I guess I need to start a peeve thread... Holding gas station cashiers responsible for drive offs, waitstaff for dine-n-dash, and now this... WHERE WILL IT ALL END?????

We live too far out for pizza delivery, we always have to pick our pizza up. We do not lack for pizza places for a small town. I think there are at least five. Yes, I have heard of a delivery charge, but don't know who gets it.

Sue

It is not legal to charge servers for a dine and dash. All the place can do is fire the server. That's the legal standpoint. But...........Most places will confront the server and say "Either pay the bill out of your pocket or you are fired" (completely 'off the record' BTW) and the server chooses to pay up rather than lose their job.

If the place is unionized, most waitress unions will forbid a firing with a dine and dash if any part of the job entails the server to leave the dining room for any reason. If the place has food runners to bring the food out of the kitchen and cocktail servers to bring the drinks from the bar and other attendant to restock supplies in the restrooms, ect. a union with back a firing. They don't understand how tricky those dine and dash people are. They usually have a "routine" that has been well rehearsed ahead of time and go from restaurant to restaurant pulling the same stunt. I could tell you stories.

The pizza place near me does not charge for delivery. They also sell hot wings and salads. We always add about 25% for the driver. I "assume" he keeps everything extra. I remember once, at a restaurant overhearing a man give a tip to the waitress and also handed her a few bucks to give to the cook for preparing a delicious dinner.

We try hard not to order any thing from a place that charges a delivery fee! It is for the restaurant and the delivery person does not get any of the charge. When the last place in our area that delivered free went with a fee we quit tipping the delivery driver. We also let them know why we didn't tip. They were pretty upset because we are generous when it comes to tipping and especially on a busy night or one with RAIN. Our neighbor boy was a driver once and told us the delivery drivers vied to see who would deliver to us. Many other people did the same thing.
Most drivers left one businesses (either quit or was fired for protesting the fee & asking for better hourly rate). They depend on tips to make a decent hourly wage, just as servers in the restaurant depend on tips the same way. When one franchise owner had to deliver one night he stopped the delivery fee in his store got his drivers back and now is doing better business than ever on the delivery side. Now only one place in this area still charges a delivery fee and they do not have as much business. If business falls off and stores lose money, with customers letting the store owner know why, that delivery fee will disappear quickly.
LIL