how much do you tip delivery people?

leffertsgirl

just wondering if i'm way out of touch. i ordered delivery and got some major 'tude from the delivery person when i handed him two bucks. he literally took it from me and flipped it around in his hand as if to say "this is it?" seemed fair to me, but maybe i need to step my game up. how much do you usually tip for food delivery?

mrkraayon

2 bucks, unless it's raining.

anonymous

$4 - $6

anonymous

but I always order for 2+ people

$2 tip is for the $8- $10 car ride

boygabriel

$2 per meal (ie # of people eating)

more if it's raining or if if the delivery person had to travel a long way (but that's usually never the case)

violet

Subject: Re: how much do you tip delivery people?

I usually start with 20% and round up to the nearest dollar. But if the bill isn't much money I'll tip more than 20%. I think I tend to over-tip.
I'd be annoyed if the delivery person made a big deal about not being tipped enough... That's not very classy. But I guess it is a good way to get us to think about it.
Here's another thread about tipping:
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34090

carlton banks

$3... if the weather is bad $5 or 6. food delivery has to be one of the most dangerous, shitty jobs out there... you've got to ride a bike around at night in nyc dodging in and out of traffic. you're also an easy mark to get mugged (everyone knows you've got cash on you). if they are lucky they are getting paid minimum wage (but in most cases they aren't that lucky). they live off tips so give them that extra $1!

boygabriel

What I don't understand is why delivery people don't wear a bike helmet - or if cost is the issue, why restaurants don't provide them.

then again, delivery people are far from the only ones i see on bikes without helmets.

i love hate

i give once a dope and he was very happy

jocelyn

Subject: 20% minimum

20% minimum, rounding up to the nearest dollar

j.b.

For food, I generally start at a $3 minimum and then follow a 10% guideline once you're past $30. A restaurant gets 20% in my mind because they have multiple guys dependent upon tips. Takeout places don't (normally) require the delivery guy to split tips with the cooks/dishwashers.

Freshdirect guys get a $5 tip for bringing 4-5 boxes up two flights. Laundry delivery gets $4 to bring it to my building door - usually a 30-40lb load.

leffertsgirl

Subject: Re: 20% minimum

jocelyn wrote: 20% minimum, rounding up to the nearest dollar

i'm curious as to why you and others base tip on the cost of the food. whether i ordered $10 or $50 worth of food, the delivery guy is doing the same thing (unless of course you ordered for 20 in which case your order is obviously cumbersome).

isla

$3-$5 depending on amount of food, weather and timeliness.

i love hate wrote: i give once a dope and he was very happy

I would be.

anonymous

$2 is too little i think. i would use 15% as a guide. and whether logical or not, the amount of food one orders does change the calculus; it's just the social norm. plus, these delivery guys have it tough. if you're only going to give 2 bucks, maybe you should just go pick it up.

escap

Subject: Re: 20% minimum

LeffertsGirl wrote: [quote=jocelyn]20% minimum, rounding up to the nearest dollar

i'm curious as to why you and others base tip on the cost of the food. whether i ordered $10 or $50 worth of food, the delivery guy is doing the same thing (unless of course you ordered for 20 in which case your order is obviously cumbersome).

Do you use the same logic at restaurants? If you order the $65 surf and turf or the $12 spaghetti, the server uses approximately the same effort to carry the dish out to you, but the convention is clearly to tip according to the bill. I don't see how it's any different with delivery guys--if anything they're more deserving.

j.b.

I don't see where that perspective comes from, I guess. At a typical chinese takeout place and night, they're doing about 50-60 deliveries a day (remember lunch deliveries as well). Even if everyone tips an average of $2 per order (low for our neighborhoods), that's still 100-120 bucks for one day's work. That's taking into account that they can sometimes be able to deliver 4 orders in one trip. I'm not saying it's a fun job or without dangers, but we are talking (for the most part) about people with little english language skills, variable educations and who trend towards not having SSNs.

Tipping has more to do with status enforcement or guilt over one's relative socioeconomic disparity than labor value. It's also not necessarily valid to judge a gratuity by how much you're willing to pay in order to avoid doing the same task - if that's what one's doing.

My biggest problem about all this, I guess, is that somehow we lost the definition of 'gratuity' along the way. I'm culturally hardwired to tip, but I do think the european way in this area is better than ours. I'd rather feel like someone's getting consistently covered instead of this unhealthy emotional relationship food patrons have with servers/dishwashers. I'd rather they feel like they're professionals rather than they feel 'lucky' one night and 'robbed' another. It seems to work out for restaurants by offloading some of their cash-flow risk, redirecting some potential employee frustration and keeps them chasing after big scores.

leffertsgirl

Subject: Re: 20% minimum

escap wrote: [quote=LeffertsGirl][quote=jocelyn]20% minimum, rounding up to the nearest dollar

i'm curious as to why you and others base tip on the cost of the food. whether i ordered $10 or $50 worth of food, the delivery guy is doing the same thing (unless of course you ordered for 20 in which case your order is obviously cumbersome).

Do you use the same logic at restaurants? If you order the $65 surf and turf or the $12 spaghetti, the server uses approximately the same effort to carry the dish out to you, but the convention is clearly to tip according to the bill. I don't see how it's any different with delivery guys--if anything they're more deserving.

of course i don't use the same logic in restaurants. if i spent $65 it means either a) i had more people at my table or b) the food is more expensive. and the labor need for either of these scenarios increases with the cost: a) there are more of us to tend to or b) i expect excellent, attentive service.

it's just not the same with someone bringing a plastic bag of food to my doorstep. same bag, same distance, same doorstep every time.

i will say, however, that i've started tipping $3 or $4 for the average delivery. thanks to all for the insight!

escap

Subject: Re: 20% minimum

LeffertsGirl wrote: [quote=escap][quote=LeffertsGirl][quote=jocelyn]20% minimum, rounding up to the nearest dollar

i'm curious as to why you and others base tip on the cost of the food. whether i ordered $10 or $50 worth of food, the delivery guy is doing the same thing (unless of course you ordered for 20 in which case your order is obviously cumbersome).

Do you use the same logic at restaurants? If you order the $65 surf and turf or the $12 spaghetti, the server uses approximately the same effort to carry the dish out to you, but the convention is clearly to tip according to the bill. I don't see how it's any different with delivery guys--if anything they're more deserving.

of course i don't use the same logic in restaurants. if i spent $65 it means either a) i had more people at my table or b) the food is more expensive. and the labor need for either of these scenarios increases with the cost: a) there are more of us to tend to or b) i expect excellent, attentive service.

it's just not the same with someone bringing a plastic bag of food to my doorstep. same bag, same distance, same doorstep every time.

i will say, however, that i've started tipping $3 or $4 for the average delivery. thanks to all for the insight!

This makes no sense. The tip does not go to the chefs or the management, whose labor and costs are higher if the ingredients are more expensive or more difficult to prepare. It takes the same effort for a waitress to carry out caviar and lobster as it does to carry out a grilled cheese sandwich. And in fact for deliveries, a higher bill usually indicates more quantity b/c there's not that big of a price range in delivery options, so the greater the price the greater the effort in carrying all the stuff that's been ordered.

However, as to j.b.'s more general point about tipping as a social norm, I wholly agree. I wish we'd abandon the whole practice and just have employers pay their workers according to market conditions and have the cost of that pay blended into the overall bill. I hate tipping and think that it often actually leads to worse service. But since it's the custom here, I naturally do go along.

leffertsgirl

Subject: Re: 20% minimum

escap wrote: This makes no sense. The tip does not go to the chefs or the management, whose labor and costs are higher if the ingredients are more expensive or more difficult to prepare. It takes the same effort for a waitress to carry out caviar and lobster as it does to carry out a grilled cheese sandwich. And in fact for deliveries, a higher bill usually indicates more quantity b/c there's not that big of a price range in delivery options, so the greater the price the greater the effort in carrying all the stuff that's been ordered.

i'd love to know what grilled cheese-serving restaurant you go to where you get the same level of service that you do at a restaurant that serves caviar. :roll:
if you do know of one, please share! i hope it's not news that servers do a lot more than carry sandwiches or lobster from kitchen to table.

anyhoo, i do agree with the tipping thing. i wish they'd just pay servers and other tipped staff a salary and allow me to tip when i feel compelled.

escap

Subject: Re: 20% minimum

LeffertsGirl wrote: [quote=escap]This makes no sense. The tip does not go to the chefs or the management, whose labor and costs are higher if the ingredients are more expensive or more difficult to prepare. It takes the same effort for a waitress to carry out caviar and lobster as it does to carry out a grilled cheese sandwich. And in fact for deliveries, a higher bill usually indicates more quantity b/c there's not that big of a price range in delivery options, so the greater the price the greater the effort in carrying all the stuff that's been ordered.

i'd love to know what grilled cheese-serving restaurant you go to where you get the same level of service that you do at a restaurant that serves caviar. :roll:
if you do know of one, please share! i hope it's not news that servers do a lot more than carry sandwiches or lobster from kitchen to table.

anyhoo, i do agree with the tipping thing. i wish they'd just pay servers and other tipped staff a salary and allow me to tip when i feel compelled.

Well, glad we agree on the second point, but I'm sure you're aware that different items at the same restaurant can be priced very differently. Same server, same service, same effort, different bill, different tip. Well, to each his own I guess.

anfield

j.b. wrote: I don't see where that perspective comes from, I guess. At a typical chinese takeout place and night, they're doing about 50-60 deliveries a day (remember lunch deliveries as well). Even if everyone tips an average of $2 per order (low for our neighborhoods), that's still 100-120 bucks for one day's work. That's taking into account that they can sometimes be able to deliver 4 orders in one trip. I'm not saying it's a fun job or without dangers, but we are talking (for the most part) about people with little english language skills, variable educations and who trend towards not having SSNs.

Tipping has more to do with status enforcement or guilt over one's relative socioeconomic disparity than labor value. It's also not necessarily valid to judge a gratuity by how much you're willing to pay in order to avoid doing the same task - if that's what one's doing.

My biggest problem about all this, I guess, is that somehow we lost the definition of 'gratuity' along the way. I'm culturally hardwired to tip, but I do think the european way in this area is better than ours. I'd rather feel like someone's getting consistently covered instead of this unhealthy emotional relationship food patrons have with servers/dishwashers. I'd rather they feel like they're professionals rather than they feel 'lucky' one night and 'robbed' another. It seems to work out for restaurants by offloading some of their cash-flow risk, redirecting some potential employee frustration and keeps them chasing after big scores.

50-60 deliveries a day :!: :?: :shock: Maybe if they have 3 guys delivering.

anonymous

Actually, I worked delivering pizzas in Tucson, and I *easily* made $100-200 a night, about two-to-four dollars at a time.

I didn't have to work lunch to do it, either. The night is long, and it adds up. I imagine that here, where you don't have to pay for gas and everything is much closer together, and people obviously tip much better, you could make this much or more every night.

Based on my experience, I don't see any reason to tip any delivery person more than $2 unless:

1. The order is backbreakingly huge
2. It's raining hard
3. It's after midnight (it's not a safe job, I think "hazard pay" is good karma)

anonymous

I think the cost of living in NYC is a little more than in Tucson.

j.b.

Sure, but $500-750/week or so (pre-tax, undeclared) isn't pocket change for those who minimize their housing costs by any means necessary, and are able to live without credit.

anonymous

This is the guest who wrote about being a delivery driver in Tucson.

FWIW, I made almost the exact same money waiting tables in Manhattan at a serious joint. Sure, my highs were higher while living on tips in Manhattan, but my lows were just as low, and the average was only slightly higher.

I have only two points to make:

I lived very well on 500-750 a week in NYC--in fact I make less now, and I still do OK.
Delivering food is not hard. Tipping is good, I am not anti-tip. But delivering food is not worth 20%.

(Laundry delivery is different. It's by weight. It should be 20%.)