The standard tip for food service is 15%. This is a standard for a sit-down setting, but as far as pizza (and other food) delivery goes, throw that standard out the window. Waiters and waitresses don’t have to drive to your table.
Your pizza delivery driver is in a much different situation than the waiter/waitress at your local restaurant. The pizza driver uses his/her own private vehicle on every delivery. There are very few exceptions to this, but the standard driver is using their own car, buying their own gas, using their own oil, and paying for the replacement of their own parts, such as alternators, radiators, belts, tires, transmissions… and the list goes on. If a driver is using a company vehicle, it will be obvious; the car will be a traveling billboard that leaves nothing to the imagination and very clearly tells you what it is; not just a regular car with a car topper. As previously stated, company vehicles are a very rare occurrence.
Think of the expenses that you have in the operation and maintenance of your own vehicle; now triple that, and you have the typical expenses of a delivery driver. Usually, drivers are doing this at or below the minimum wage. Tips are what determine the affordability of doing the job, and as much as it may seem like common-sense to tip, some times it doesn’t happen and as a result, a driver’s compensation is far short of the expense that he/she had to cover.
We have all heard the standard of 15% for tips, but as far as home delivery, it costs the driver the same amount of gas and vehicle wear to deliver a $4.00 sandwich as it does to deliver a $25.00 extra large pizza with trimmings. The driver has incurred costs that are close to the same as your 4 dollar sandwich, so a sixty cent tip is almost the same as a “stiff”. Based on all of the expenses of getting your order to you, a standard minimum delivery tip for any order should be at least $5.00 or about one and a half or two times the cost of a gallon of gas. Remember, gas prices and vehicle wear very much affect your driver. This is probably one of the reasons you chose delivery.
Sometimes it is necessary for a driver to deliver a free pizza or other products and one would think that there would be a great tip associated with free food; not as much as you would think. It seems that many people have the mindset that if they tip, then the pizza is no longer “free.” Keep in mind that the company doesn’t cover the costs incurred by the driver, they still buy their own gas and lose out on another delivery that might have given them a better tip. You should still always tip on free food unless you know for sure that the driver is the reason you’re food is free.
Some stores will add a delivery charge; this is not a driver’s tip. Most of that charge goes to the store to help cover the business costs of hiring drivers. The driver will get a portion of this so that the store can legally claim that they are paying gas compensation, but it is usually 75 cents or a dollar. It never compensates and definitely doesn’t cover mechanical problems. Mechanical problems, by the way, are not compensated by the store; it all falls on the driver. Remember, this is their job, almost as an independant contractor, it’s not a hobby.
If you do get absolutely horrible service by your driver and it is obviously their fault, don’t feel like you have to tip anyway. Tips, by their nature, are extras given on the basis of the level of service you receive; but even if you only get average service or even below average service, remember that somebody you don’t know spent their own gas money to drive your food to you, so that you wouldn’t have to leave the house or stop what you were doing. Don’t neglect them and Happy eating!