Domino’s Pizza is one of the greatest places I’ve had a chance to work at; and I’ve had quite a few jobs I must say. I am what you call “Highly Employable” — Being that I’ve had more jobs in one year than the average person has in a life time. At the end of the year its like Christmas all over again. My mailbox is stuff full of W-2, awaiting me to file and collect my returns. I’d have to say I’ve always found it difficult to be content at one job for any length of time. But for some reason Domino’s has grown on me a bit. I’ve managed to keep this job through most of the year, and I really look forward to finding another Domino’s out west to work at when the time comes.

        I am what is known by Dominos as a Delivery Expert. My job is to deliver pizza’s and other fine cardboard boxed delicacies on time at a safe pace. Contrary to common belief, the “You’ve Got 30 Minutes!” campaign is not a guarantee, rather it is what Domino’s calls a Challenge. You won’t ever get a free pizza for being later than 30 minutes. If you listen carefully on the phone with the CSR, you might notice they give you a quoted delivery time. It usually gets there in that time frame. And if you ever watched the commercials, you might notice that the people are finding things to do in the time they are waiting. So basically its saying, “You’ve Got 30 Minutes to do what ever you want to do to pass the time, you might get more, so stay busy.”
        You would be amazed at what it takes to get a pizza their in under thirty minutes. If you were the only one to order a pizza, and there were at least two people making you pizza, (One person slaps out the dough, the other tops the pizza) and one driver awaiting to take the delivery, you might get your order within 15 to 20 minutes. Now compile that with 4 phone lines full, one guy taking orders and putting up order stickers on the boxes, two others, if you even have that many people in the store, making 10 or more items, and one person cutting and boxing the orders — which is usually a driver if there is one in the store at the time. Sometimes pizza’s sit on the heat rack for 15 or 20 minutes before a driver even gets back from a delivery to take the order. The driver may have 2 or 3 orders to deliver, and can be on the road for an hour each run. At this rate, your pizza might get there in 45 minutes to an hour; and this is on a normal night with the right amount of staff. On nights we are understaffed, drivers even make orders, answer phones, and cut and box orders. Which increases the time to an hour or more.
        Remember that delivery drivers work hard for their money. We only make minimum wage, and that is for the work we do in the store. The rest of our income relies solely on tips. We do get a small amount of compensation for gas, which is usually 90 cents a delivery; not a mile. The delivery charge, which for our store is $1.40, is not for the driver. It is to cover the insurance cost on higher risk employees - the driver. Not to mention the cost in electricity to keep your pizza nice an hot using a heat rack, and a Heat Wave bag. When you place an order for deliver, you are getting a service that is not paid for by Domino’s. If you don’t leave the driver with a sufficient tip, you are essentially steeling a service. If your order is not delivered in the quoted time, or even a reasonable amount of time, its hardly ever the drivers fault. If your order was made wrong, and another driver or even the same driver brings the corrected order, he too should be tipped sufficiently, regardless if you tipped the previously. If that doesn’t seem fair to you, remember this: Delivery is a service provided at the expense of the driver, not Domino’s. When you tip a driver, you are not paying Domino’s, your paying the driver who has responsibilities of his/her own. We have to pay bills too. If you can afford $20 for delivery, you can afford 4 or 5 bucks for the driver. Anything less than a dollar is NOT a tip. You will never get coin change back from a driver, so you might as well round up and forget about the coin. Exact change is welcome too, as long as a tip is included. If you think about it logically, who can buy anything for less than a dollar? I don’t even think you can buy a candy bar for that much any more. So when you leave coin change as a tip, you should think about that; because that is what I think of when you do.

As a closing driver I have to help clean the store late into the night after closing. This is a messy and tedious job - well not worth the minimum wage. I usually clean the makeline - which is what houses the toppings and provides a platform for which to make pizzas on. After removing all the food, and anything that can be hand washed, I shovel out all the cheese and topping that have fallen through the cracks. Its a really messy job and it stinks like curdled milk. Afterwards, I use bucket of water and sanitizer with a towel to clean the surface. This can get pretty wet, as I usually get it all over the floor and on my pants; leaving me to explain why I have a pee line down my pants. After every speck of food is removed (even cornmeal) I detail it with a dry towel and a bottle of sanitizer mixture. This usually gets the makeline blingin. After this, we put the removed items (except food) back on the makeline, clean the tables, wash dishes, sweep and mop. Its a dirty job, but someone has to do it — Mike Rowe?

–> Click here to see photos of the process to cleaning the makeline

        Don’t forget to tip your delivery drivers. We work hard for our money (Regardless if we sit on our butt most of the time while listening to music). And at the end of the night we endure a mess for about an hour, of which I get $5.50 for. I will be working here for the next month or so while I live out of my car. I plan on saving up $3000 before I take off out west. So if you live in the Jacksonville area, remember me when you order from Domino’s, and tip the driver well, because it just might very well be me.

P.S. We are open on Christmas, so give the drivers a little something extra; a large tip, or a new car. And if your a hot girl, maybe a kiss to two.

Merry Christmas!