Do you have to tip the delivery guy if you are already charged a delivery fee in Toronto?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 9 Aug, 2023
- |
As someone who used to deliver pizzas, we never saw any of that delivery charge. I can only speak for the US, but it’s customary to tip on the order total.
BUT!
Tipping on a pizza is a lot different than tipping a server at a restaurant. 15-20% is customary for a server, but they’re doing a lot more: taking food orders, delivering food usually, taking care of you all night. Pizza delivery drivers have different challenges, like managing traffic and showing up at your house before your pizza is cold.
Here, the customary amount to tip on a food delivery is only 10%, so tipping $2 on a $20 order makes sense… but it really sucks to jump in your car and drive like a madman trying to get a pizza out so you can make $2. For me and the guys I worked with, we were happiest for a $5 tip on orders up to $50. I mean, really, $5 so you don’t have to deal with traffic? Is that THAT terrible?
The answer is that it’s up to each person individually. Maybe you can’t afford the $5. That’s fine! But at that point, do you really need to be paying all the delivery fees and surcharges just for a pizza? Go pick it up, there’s usually some kind of carryout coupon anyway.
But everything is subjective, and I certainly can’t speak for Canada.
The answer is a bit more complex…
A pizza franchise is actually two separate companies: 1) the store (franchise) owned by some local small businessperson, and 2) the corporation that centralizes advertising and the order-taking and payment process for delivery.
When you walk into a pizza place you pay the local business for the local costs. When you order delivery you are paying the corporation for the separate business they run for order and payment. The corporation charges the local business for that service.
The local business has no option to not use the service; they have to according to the franchise contract.
Your delivery fee goes to the corporation. The local business just gets to sell one more pizza and gets the $8 less their cost for the pizza.
The delivery guy gets his minimum wage.
You never HAVE to tip for delivery pizza, but if you become known as a non-tipper, the delivery people will be less inclined to treat you well (hot, prompt, etc.).
As far as two American chains go, Pizza Hut and Papa John’s both charge delivery fees and if you look hard enough on their web sites, those delivery fees do not go to the drivers, at all.
Perusing several forums, some say it is a way for the Pizza franchises to recoup the cost of delivering pizza to your doorstep that the store would not have if you ate at the establishment (box, etc). More agree that it is the only way that franchise owners can raise prices.
Pizza is a very competitive market. We have three chains that deliver to our area, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut and Domino’s. They are all essentially the same, when it comes to just the pizza. Some chains have started trying to compete by offering other kinds of foods, deserts, etc, but when it comes to the pizza itself, they are all mostly the same. So if two of them raise their pizza prices even a dollar, chances are we’ll go to one of the others. So, according to many, in 2005 Papa John’s started charging a delivery fee. This was a way for them to raise the prices (increase lagging profits) without actually raising the list price of their pizzas.
Now, to answer your question.
For the chains, the delivery charge does not go to the driver, in any amount. This is not to say the driver is or is not paid a minimum wage, just that, according to the web sites, the delivery charge is not meant as a tip for the driver, at all.
If you wish the driver to be rewarded for delivering your pizza hot, on time and all still on the crust: tip him or her accordingly
You never have to tip. But the norm in Ontario is that you do. Since 15% would be just under $3, hand the delivery person a $20 and say “keep the change.” Even if the $8 (probably less, I bet there was GST too) is all for delivery, I doubt it all goes to the driver. They make minimum wage and some of them have to use their own cars and gas.
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