re: Anyone ever been a pizza delivery driver? Or any crazy stories?

man i really want some pizza right about now.

You used to be able to make some money delivering pizzas back in the day. Gas was cheap, the neighborhoods, were nice, people ordered like crazy, and tips were decent (on top of hourly pay and commission). The Coursey area was money, and I could make 6 runs at a time in minutes. I'd clock in for 2-3 hours on a Friday and Saturday and have more than enough money for what I needed.

Strippers, drug dens, exorcisms, homosexual advances, extra marital affairs, parking lot blow jobs, road rages, inexplicable milk runs, home vandalism, lewd behavior, et al. I'd probably seen it all.

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Anyone got any crazy stories too?

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One of my dad's students from his high school class used to deliver to our house. The kid had a brand new Tacoma and always delivered to our front door, even though our fam always used the carport door. As the kid was knocking on the front door and I was opening it for him to pay him for the pizza, I see my dad sneek out from the side of the house, jump in ole baw's truck and drive away. I knew who it was, but the dude didn't see him and the look on his face was priceless.

Dad made the block and pulled back in front of the house and told the kid not to leave his car running unattended in the hood again.

I used to deliver - you learn pretty quick that the black areas wont tip shite, the affluent areas will give you $2, and the middle class areas will get you $5. But after gas prices skyrocketed, it wasn't worth it anymore because that's where all of your tips were going - you were basically just getting minimum wage and destroying your car while the chain you work for pockets the delivery fees.

I used to deliver for pizza hut. This was back in 1999-2000. My store had a policy that if a customer bitched about their pizza not being correct or being late we would 1st apologize and then offer them $5 off. If they were still pissed, offer them at half price, if they were still pissed we were to call the store to get approval to give it to them for free.

Many many many times I claimed to give $5 or 1/2 price discounts when a customer paid with cash. I'd just pocket the money. I had a few buddies in college that would always order pizza when i was working and they would call & raise hell about their order on purpose because i told them about this policy. They would order like 3 or 4 pizzas and then call & raise hell until they got it for free. They would always throw me $20 when i delivered it though.

The craziest story i have is as follows:

I make a delivery for a pizza, bread sticks and a 2 liter coke. I go to the door and rind the door bell. This little kid comes to the door & I can hear a woman in the back of the house yell "the money is on the table. Make sure you get change." Now this kid was little, under 10 for sure, prolly 7 or 8. anyway, the bill was a little over $20. The kid hands me a coupon & a $100 bill. I hand him the pizza, bread sticks & soda. He says thank you mister & slams the door in my face.

Needless to say I hauled arse! Never heard a word about it either. I thought for sure the woman was gonna call the store but I never heard a thing.

I delivered for Papa John's on and off through LSU, out at the Coursey location. $20/hr would be a great night, but $15/hr was pretty common for busy nights. That was before a delivery fee, so no idea how that would affect things. We got $.75 per order delivered to cover mileage, which was nice if I could stack 3-4 orders in a small area. Sucked if it was a single order way off Hoo Shoo Too Rd.

The only area we had blacklisted was St. Jean apartments, a few drivers got robbed so we stopped delivering there altogether. Fortunately I was never robbed or anything. No crazy stories either.

Best tip was actually some older lady who gave me $20 to get her two packs of cigarettes at the gas station.

I used to have a guy order a couple times a week.

He was easily over 400 pounds. He had his couch positioned so he could open the door without getting up.

He'd take the large pizza and breadsticks and rest them on his gut while he paid me. Then he'd start eating before I closed the door. Always tipped $5 though.

I delivered pizza for Mr Gattis on Gilbert in S'port from 1990-1991 and made good money. I always had an ashtray full of cash and put away enough money to pay for my first year of college.

Our delivery area was a very nice older part of town so tips were pretty good. I made minimum wage plus .75 per delivery.

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When did you work at that location?

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2000-2003, off and on.