How much do you tip the food delivery person?
I never know if I'm doing it right. Do I give too much? Too little? I tend to tip by distance and/or weather. If the restaurant right downstairs from me brings lunch it's one tip, usually a couple bucks, if it's from 10 blocks away and raining it's double.
What do you do? How do you figure your tips? Is it by food cost, weather, distance?
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21 Comments:
Personally, I tip by food cost, clunkiness of food (tons of food or one order of fries?), timeliness (close to ETA?), and weather. I'm not saying I'm right either.
Someone who is around the block carrying 4-5 containers of food in a snowstorm (only reason I wouldn't walk there myself) totaling $40 would get at least $10-15. Whereas, on a clear day three times the distance...wait, I'd pick that up myself.
Cassaendra at 7:28AM on 01/27/09
20% always
nhfoodie at 9:39AM on 01/27/09
I recently realized that small, independent places that deliver charge more for delivery, though they don't tell you that. They tack it on to the price of your food; so there's that extra "fee" and then the driver gets a tip as well. I noticed this after going into my favorite Thai place for a Pad-Thai combo meal to go, which was $5.15 and then ordering the same thing to be delivered on several occasions only to find that it was $8.15. This may seem like small potatoes to most of you, but when you're broke it's worth noticing.
Here in L.A. there's no snow storms or super bad rain or any of that. If you're ordering food to be delivered it's because you're a lazy ass, so I don't really take those weather type things into account and I don't work with percentages either because I'm incapable of doing math. Whether it's pizza or Chinese food, I usually tip around three or four bucks.
PumpkinBear at 10:14AM on 01/27/09
I have a pretty solid minimum tip of around $4. Just because I only ordered $10 of food, I don't think the service charge should be shrunk down to less than $2.
silvermike at 10:38AM on 01/27/09
More than I used to, since my bf is a delivery guy. My advice (and what I do) is a minimum 15% of food total, plus more for long distance or bad weather. Also, at restaurants in my area, they do not build delivery charges into the prices of food, though they may have delivery minimums.
emgroff at 11:02AM on 01/27/09
Chain pizza joints are the only places around where I live that deliver, and after I realized I was tipping a few dollars ON TOP OF a delivery fee, I stopped getting delivery. The town I live in now is pretty small and my cheapness trumps most lazy streaks I have these days (hell, ordering pizza for dinner is lazy enough when I have food in the fridge).
I used to live two blocks from a really good local pizza place (Fox's, for you Pgh folks - I miss it!), and when I was feeling really lazy one day (it might have been cold, can't remember that well), I called in for delivery. When I gave them my address, the guy on the phone started teasing me about it and gave me this "we're bored at work - at least come say hi if you're right around the corner!" spiel. He gipped his delivery guy in doing so, but they were funny so I walked my butt over and picked it up. And in a college neighborhood, it's no wonder they were trying to talk girls into stopping by the shop on a slow day lol.
joyyy at 11:10AM on 01/27/09
It depends on the situation if they are extremely late for the estimate time they give me and it is NOT because of weather, a game day, or prime time then I will give less. Now if it was because any of those reasons then I will tip higher. On average I will give them 15-20% of the bill.
pjracz10 at 11:12AM on 01/27/09
Lighting Speed = Better tip.
therealchiffonade at 11:19AM on 01/27/09
We order delivery from one place in town, Schezhuan here in Bend Or.
I know they have everything on file from payment info to address.... they could probably pack an order based on our phone number and it would be right on and delicious. 20% tip or there abouts (+).... We joke that the delivery dudes leg wrestle to see who gets to pack it over to us!! They are awesome!
rlwycoff at 11:44AM on 01/27/09
If I am actually feeling lazy enough to not walk or even drive 1 block & pick-up my own pie, the guy who brings it to me piping hot deserves at least $5. The guy from the Chinese place a few miles away gets $10 or 20%, whichever is more. (longer drive, bulky order with 22 little cardboard & plastic containers).
KitchenHawk at 12:39PM on 01/27/09
always at least 20%
but if he is cute....I'll add an extra 5% :)
sweethoney at 1:26PM on 01/27/09
I always tip 20%.
Deseree at 1:39PM on 01/27/09
You guys are generous - I tip 20% minimum (barring really bad service) for servers in a restaurant - but part of that is that I have worked that job and I KNOW that it's entirely possible for them to be making $2.83/hour (that's what I got) before tips. Correct me if I'm wrong, but do delivery folks not start at minimum wage?
This is also part of why I don't get delivery (in addition to the lack of good places that deliver) - I'm too cheap to pay 20% of the bill (plus a delivery charge) when they guy isn't doing much besides dropping stuff off at the door and I don't like to gip people. It's not like the guy swings back around to ask if the food is good or to actually provide ongoing service ...
joyyy at 2:39PM on 01/27/09
Yeah, I'm afraid I don't get delivery. The only time I got delivery was when I was an undergraduate at a small liberal arts school in the middle of nowhere with no car, with everything closed (it was late and I was studying for finals and tired of vending machine snacks). And then the pizza guy got lost navigating the dorms.
HeartofGlass at 3:24PM on 01/27/09
Usually about 15-20%. I usually give more if the weather is crappy.
Hillary
Chew on That at 3:57PM on 01/27/09
Some places have a delivery charge on top of the price of food that goes to corporate instead of to the drivers. If you don't know how it works at a certain restaurant. My husband worked through much of high school as a pizza delivery driver and didn't see a penny of money from the delivery fee.
MeganCochran at 5:01PM on 01/27/09
Like others have said 15% to 20% depending; more with bad weather. I tend to overtip food delivery people because I feel guilty for being too lazy to get off my ass and get it myself. It's a sort of guilt tax.
RegrettableFoodie at 6:10PM on 01/27/09
I usually round up to the next 5. Works out to 20-22%.
Ribster at 8:47PM on 01/27/09
I'm thrilled to read such totally reasonable comments! I'm pretty much in line with everyone here. If the delivery fee is too much for me, I don't order rather than stiff the driver on a tip. When we do order delivery (and it's fairly rare these days) we tip a minimum of $5 and usually it's just a jump from $5 to $10 if the order got bigger than our usual. If we tipped 20% it would almost always be less than that.
ccbweb at 2:49PM on 01/28/09
Where the hell do you people live? lol
I'm lucky if I get even a dollar tip to our cheap customers...
I love the ones I take food to in the middle of the winter that have a bill of $17.68 and give me $18.00 and say "Oh you can keep the change" like they're doing me some great service... delivery people don't carry loose change!
tommybluez at 3:52PM on 04/14/09
Delivery for me and BF (pizza or chinese) usually runs about 20-25$. We generally tip 3$.
And I agree with Chiff. If they say 45 minutes when I put the order in, and some dude shows up 20 minutes later with delicious hot food, there's a better tip in it for him.
Conversely, if delivery shows up 55+ minutes later when I was quoted 45, I take a dollar off the pile.
Kerosena at 4:17PM on 04/14/09