I was a fast food delivery driver for some years. Pizza, burgers and fries, drinks, subs, Chinese food.
-I had to deal with people who are passed out when I get to the house. Banging on a door at 3am is not fun. Them not answering the door isn't good. Or coming to the door after 5mins of knocking.
-Neighbours angry because they got woken up and not the actual person who ordered.
-Parents waking up their drunken kids who ordered.
-Coming to the door, seeing the passed out guy through the screen door sleeping in a chair, stereo *BLASTING* music, me YELLING for him to wake up, I can't yell louder than the music. I go in, nudge the guy, no reaction, after a minute or whatever, another guy comes into the room and gets the food and it's ok. Is it wrong for a food deliverer to go into a house at 4am? Do I go in, do I go back to the store, do I go in and turn the stereo off to wake the guy? That was one FUCKED delivery. I was probably there for 15 minutes, but I delivered it.
-Doing a delivery, getting out of the car with the pizza, take one step and fall flat on my back on pure ice. The pizza fell upside down, luckily wasn't harmed(I checked), and all was well.
-Customers not having enough money or taking 5mins. or more to find it.
-I took a guy to the bank once to get money for his food. What am I going to do? I know that's fucked, but the food goes to waste and it's all a big hassle. You don't know unless you've delivered at 4am.
-Customers or their friends at the house wanting to beat me up for no reason.
-Customers not wanting to pay for the food because it's been too long. Which was not my fault-it sometimes took the restaurant over an hour to make the food, then send me out, etc.-Lovely!
-Getting 3 or 4 no tips in a row. WTF. It is a job which needs tips to survive. Gas and repairs are a killer.
-Going on a delivery, getting to the building, a customer is there. He takes the food, says I'll just go get the money and he dissappears. Never to be seen again and I'm out $60. That happened to me 2x. I was too trusting and not paying attention. I wish I could meet those guys in an alley with a pipe.
-The restaurant not giving the right street address. It happened a couple times a week. Bad spelling, wrong street #, bad hearing on the phone.
-Working New Years and Christmas, holidays. Just a "bad" time. Everybody else drinking and being with their families and I was driving on the streets. A bit lonely.
-Getting stuck in the deep snow, during a snowstorm, taking 3x as long to do a delivery because there's no other way.
I never worked for a large franchise. They probably are paid better and have a more relaxing work environment.
You never know what the driver has gone through on that day or done to get to your house. I mean when I was flying around town at 3am, trying to find an address, in the dark, dodging other cars and pedestrians, the boss expecting you back in 15 mins for another order, and more after that. It's a crazy job.
So please tip your drivers. A couple bucks was fine. 3 or more was pretty good. 5 bucks was something to talk about. But this was 10 years ago and I never worked in Toronto.
I bent over backwards for my customers. I loved the job, the excitement of driving around, meeting new people if only for a minute. The adrenaline rush. But it is not a well paying job.
. Food has got to be good given the number of stars that's eaten there. or were they there for the tits?
