to think tipping the delivery driver is a good thing to do

[Ohbehave1]

I have just had a debate with a friend over whether or not take away delivery drivers should be tipped or not.

She says they are paid to do a job so why should we pay them extra. She never does. I think it's worth tipping if the service has been good.

No. Only ever tip in restaurants and generally round up taxi fares.

I used to be a delivery driver pt for pizza we got no wage from the store but kept the £2.00 delivery charge and tips. It was a crap job and sometimes I never even broke even by time I added fuel.

I tip the local pizza place. The service is always good.

We have a regular dpd driver who is fantastic. We always get him a present at Christmas and his birthday.

I don't tip the Amazon delivery guys or DHL but I always tip the takeaway delivery drivers - it means I always get my food piping hot as they come to us first regardless of the most efficient route

I wish I could afford to tip more but I generally only tip in restaurants, hairdressers and the postman. I'd be a lot more generous if I had the money though.

I don't tip takeaway drivers. I'm paying £2 delivery which he gets and my house is under 5 mins from the shop. It's never affected the service I get my meal always comes a lot quicker than the Just Eat time if I use them. I phoned my order a couple of weeks ago. Time from phoning til it was being put out was a whole 12 mins

You should always tip if you can afford it, even if it's only a pound.

Salene

I used to be a delivery driver pt for pizza we got no wage from the store but kept the £2.00 delivery charge and tips. It was a crap job and sometimes I never even broke even by time I added fuel.

that sounds illegal. I always tip, but didn't realise the pay is so bad.

Redglitter

You sound insufferably smug. I hope you missed Salene's post, because if you read that post and then posted about the great service you receive and don't tip for, then I...I don't even know what.

I do cos I reckon a lot of them are basically working for tips. With DHL etc. you figure that they're less likely to get away with not paying NML.

I almost never get anything delivered. Except IKEA a couple of times, and there's no way I'd tip them as they cock everything up.

I am not keen to encourage an American tipping culture here (Australia), tbh. It's a completely different culture in that regard. Takeaway food is already a lot more expensive here than it is there, and minimum wage conditions are better.

I find if I order on just eat they hand over the food and run so can't be expecting a tip.
I never tip other deliveries. My BIL is a furniture delivery driver for a fancy oak company and they build the furniture in your house, he earns about £9 an hour hardly a shabby wage for a fairly unskilled job.

Leelu66

Not illegal nope and a lot of Chinese takeaway place pay there divers that way, no wage as such just tips and the delivery charge, the problem is you can often only be taking 1 delivery at a time and that uses a lot of fuel round towns/city etc. So £2 to drive 15/20 miles the no tip , you can see why you sometimes can work a whole night and be out of pocket or not broken even

On a good night I would maybe make £20/30 for a shift from 6pm to 12pm

Bad night a loss.

Salene, thanks for clarifying. Not illegal but still exploitative I think.

Making a loss on a night's work must be depressing. It takes out any good feeling after a few hours of hard work.

I was thinking about the Deliveroo drivers in London, I don't imagine they make that much.

KoalaDownUnder

Minimum wage conditions didn't help Salene, did they, if the restaurant can pay you £2 per delivery.

I only tip hairdressers and restaurants. I don't think dropping a box off at my door warrants a tip. Don't want it to turn into a tip for everything culture like the US.

Leelu66

Umm, no? But I'm not in the UK. As I said in my post.

I saw that Koala, but do you know whether delivery drivers make minimum wage in Oz?

Yes, they do.

They make what any other fast-food worker makes, plus mileage on their car if they drive their own.

I always tip takeaway delivery drivers usually round up and add a couple of quid I am utterly astounded by those who don't it's a very low paid job reliant on tips to make it into just a low paid job. If you can afford a takeaway you can at least round up not stand there with your hand out for change!

Then I stand corrected. We should have that here in the UK.

I had no idea the drivers were so badly paid. I've never tipped them, and I feel awful now. We don't often order takeaway, but I will be sure to tip them next time.

We do for pizza delivery, but for Supermarket delivery you're already paying a delivery charge, sometimes quite a hefty one ( though we do tip the Christmas delivery driver) .

I very rarely order takeaway deliveries, it haven't ever tipped - I usually pay online and so don't even think about money when the food arrives, but I have always assumed that drivers are employees who get at least the minimum wage. Obviously that's not true.

So are delivery drivers effectively self-employed, then? If so, I can see that they wouldn't earn much, and might consider tipping them in future after all.