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I worked for a time as a delivery driver for Panera Bread back when they had their own drivers and not using DoorDash or Uber Eats for deliveries as they do now.

There were a few times I got sent out to deliver extremely large orders, some that were put in at the last minute, some that really should have gone through our catering service, but catering IIRC required a 24-hour notice.

I remember one order like this, they put in an order for over $250 worth of food and bottled drinks during the lunch rush and it was all hands-on deck, including the manager and myself and another driver to hustle to get their order ready.

The manager gave the order to me to deliver because I was his most trusted driver and we both double checked the order before I left to make sure it was accurate and included things like plates that were typically only for catering, and he even threw in 2 dozen cookies at no charge as a
“thank you”.

Amazingly I got to the place within our 30-minute delivery window. But it was in the city and there was no parking, so I had to double park and it took me 4 trips up 3 flights of stairs and was made to wait. Then the office manager checked off each and every item on the receipt (not that I could blame her for that) but then she wanted me to unwrap and plate the food in the conference room like I was a server at a restaurant and wait until their people were seated and confirmed their order was to their satisfaction.

I had to very politely, and I stress very politely, explain why this was not allowed as for one thing, health department rules like having no gloves or a sink to wash up in before handling the unwrapped food, etc. and that I was a delivery person, not a server and that I had other deliveries waiting for me to make.

When I got back to the restaurant my manager assumed I got a nice tip for this large order. What did I get? Nada, zero, zilch.

There were a few other times like this when I delivered very large orders, also placed at the last minute but delivered on time and got no tip, and yes, one such was for a church run daycare center, and they were extremely rude and condescending to me, why I have no idea.

Another time a customer called in the night before, a very large breakfast order, nearly $350 worth of pastries and muffins, coffee urns, bottled juices, breakfast sandwiches for a 7 AM delivery – and our deliveries didn’t’ start until 8AM. My manager called me the night before and asked me and several others to come in early. Again, I got no tip for this very large delivery.

OTOH, I did make some large deliveries and got a decent or more than generous tip. And I had some regular customers who always tipped and some that never did. I recognized the regulars by name and address, the tippers and the non-tippers, but I always treated them the same as to doing a good job of checking their order and doing my best of getting there in time whether or not I knew I’d get a tip or not. We had some delivery drivers who would try to refuse making deliveries to customers who were known not to tip, but I wasn’t one of them.

But there were times, especially early in the morning or later in the evening or sometimes on weekends, where I was the only delivery driver on duty and suddenly several orders would come in at the same time and spread across our rather large delivery area. I always carried some cookies in case I was late to give to the customer with an apology, even texting ahead that I was going to be late, and most times the customer were good but a few times I got cursed at.

FWIW, I was earning just a bit over the hourly minimum wage and got a mileage reimbursement that was, along with tips added to the bill (not the cash tips), paid out in cash daily at the end of my shift, but the milage was paid at only at half the IRS mileage rate and the tax reform, yes passed under the Trump administration, I could no longer take a tax deduction for the difference and actually ended up owing tax that year.

And if you think I claimed my cash tips as income on my tax return, you’d be mistaken.

But we really depended on tips to cover the milage we were not reimbursed for and the wear and tear on our personal vehicles.

We also used to have a district manager occasionally come on ride-alongs. We were expected to have our vehicles well maintained and washed inside and out at our own expense.

On one such ride along with the district manager I had a delivery to a downtown customer, a regular customer, the local Bar Association office and there was no parking. I had to explain to him the reality of circling the block over and over hoping to find a spot, feed a meter or park in a parking garage for which we were not reimbursed, or parking many blocks away and being late vs. double parking for a few minutes.

We were not supposed to do things like double park or park “illegally” like in a loading zone but especially for downtown deliveries, often there wasn’t really any other choice. Fortunately, I never got a ticket. We had lighted car toppers and I’d put my lights on flash and I hustled to get in and out quickly.

I would also add that in between deliveries, I had to work the dining room, bring orders to tables, clean tables, fill the self-serve drink dispensers and stock the napkins, utensils and condiments, and sometimes help in the back kitchen with food prep. And if I worked at close, to vacuum the dining room and clean the bathrooms. I never had any down time.

But the worst shift to work in the dining room was Sunday mornings after chuch let out and especially on Easter Sunday. I don’t know why but some of the rudest people were the people who had just left chuch.

I’ve known a lot of restaurant servers who say the same.

FWIW, if you order 10 or more pizzas and expect that to be delivered in the same amount of time that you would for ordering 1 or 2 pizzas, the problem is not with the pizza place or the delivery driver.