• Delivery drivers say cold weather means more tips, despite terrible weather.
• Tips usually depend on person, not weather.
• Increase in orders during bad weather puts strain on already busy business.
As the winter advisory loomed over Muncie Sunday, some delivery drivers reluctantly welcomed it.
Zach Fowler, a delivery driver for Greek’s Pizzeria, said the snow means people sometimes tip more generously.
“The people who are going to stiff you in the crap weather are the same ones who are going to stiff you regardless,” Fowler said. “The people who tend to tip are the ones who give generously in bad weather. They’ll say, ‘Sorry you have to come out in this weather,’ and then give you a little bit more money.”
To him, a person’s propensity to tip is less about the weather and more about what type of person they are.
“I usually get my tips from families or adults, but with college students it’s 50-50,” he said. “It’s a toss up really, whether or not I get tips from them. It’s nothing personal, but they are either broke or don’t have the life experience of having this type of job.”
In Jimmy John’s driver Scott Dinius’ experiences, people who have worked with food tend to tip better.
“[They] know it sucks and will typically tip more and there are those who just don’t,” he said.
People who stiff deliveries at Jimmy John’s have gone so far as to call in to complain to management, Dinius said.
And for Dinius he had a run in with a belligerent customer after his order was lost.
“The other night we had this call-in because his order was 45 minutes late,” he said. “I showed up and he was pissed. I told him, ‘Look I’m sorry, dude, but I just deliver. We have people back at the store who make everything.’”
In retrospect, the big tips aren’t the ones you tend to remember, said Aikaterini Makridakis, a senior acting major and Jimmy John’s driver. To her, the negative experiences tend to stand out, because people sometimes go out of their way to be mean.
“You’ll go out in the snow and you’ll be absolutely covered head to toe in it; and they’ll go out of their way to write the $00.00 and sign right next to it,” she said.
The impact on deliveries from weather overall is negative for drivers, Fowler said.
“Some people have issues of getting stuck and sliding,” Fowler said. “I don’t because I have an all-wheel drive vehicle. I’ll stop and help get them out because I’m out and about.”
The weather also creates a strain on business, Fowler said.
“A lot of people call-in more deliveries in the weather we were suppose to get and that causes things to get congested,” he said. “The weather is already forcing us to drive slower and then an increase in orders just makes everything slower.”
In one instance the inclement weather made him pay on a delivery.
“I was leaving a delivery at Windermere and this guy came flying through an intersection and we t-boned,” he said. “Now I’m paying for the damages to his car.”
While winter brings a slew of problems for delivery drivers, “it’s nothing you can’t stand,” Fowler said.
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