Working through weather to deliver

Kim Nelson

You remember that night.

It was so cold icicles formed on your eyelashes when you stepped outside.

You were hungry. So you ordered a pizza. Consider for a moment the person who risked life and limb to bring the steaming pepperoni pie to your doorstep.

Ice, snow and windchills in the negative double digits don’t keep devoted delivery drivers for Jimmy John’s, Little Caesars and Pizza Hut from getting food to hungry customers.

None of the three restaurants force their drivers to go out in extremely bad weather conditions, but most drivers said they go anyway.

Some of the delivery drivers for Jimmy John’s even make the rounds on their bikes, said Stephanie Cloud, a Jimmy John’s driver.

Little Caesars’ delivery driver, Jayson Koppin, said it’s the driver’s prerogative as to whether they want to go out in treacherous conditions. He said although there was only one time that he didn’t deliver because of the weather, if he thought the conditions were “too dangerous,” he wouldn’t go out.

“I don’t want to die. It’s only pizza,” he said.

Jayson Nelson, who delivers pizzas for Pizza Hut restaurant, said he usually drives in all weather, but then again, he doesn’t care if anything happens to his car.

“Some people who have nice cars might not want to go out,” he said.

Delivery drivers said orders tend to sky rocket in bad weather.

Koppin said in bad weather the number of orders doubles from about 15 to 30 orders an hour.

Although the orders increase, the tips usually don’t, he said.

For those who wonder, Koppin said the appropriate amount to tip a delivery driver is about $1.50 a box, but he “rarely” sees that. Most college students don’t tip at all, he said.

Cloud said if people live farther away they sometimes pay higher tips in the cold. “A lot of people on campus don’t tip, but sometimes in the cold they do,” Cloud said.

Nelson said although tips at Pizza Hut do not increase much in bad weather, commission does seem to increase.

When the temperature hits 30 below zero with the wind chill, commission increases from 50 cents to $1 per delivery as an incentive, he said.

Commissions at Jimmy John’s and Little Caesar’s are uniform no matter what the weather conditions, said Cloud and Koppin.

Very few accidents have occurred during deliveries for any of the three restaurants. If an accident does occur during a delivery, “Pizza Hut covers what you do to the other car,” Nelson said.

Bad weather makes it a challenge for any delivery driver to get to his destination.

Cloud said the frigid temperatures are worse to deliver in than the snow, but having “ice under snow is the worst to drive on.”

Koppin said there is not one specific incident in which the weather has affected his deliveries, but he said “every day is an adventure.”