Tip The Driver

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Month: December 2012

I’m working at THREE places now…. *sigh*

December 30, 2012 / / 0 Comments

So I still work at the place in Stamford on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But that’s just at night from 5 to 9. It’d hardly be worth driving 20 miles each way to work except my new car gets better gas mileage and I’ve had nights where I made $100 in 4 hours (with pay). Of, that’s another thing: I got rid of my WRX. I know a lot of you like that car, but the lack of room was killing me and I got tired of borrowing people’s Jeeps and trucks to move stuff. I traded it for a 2008 Toyota Rav4. It has 4 wheel drive, and since it has the 4 cylinder, it gets a few miles more per gallon than my WRX did. It’s slow as shit in comparison, but I’m over the racer-boy stage of my life anyway. I love how much space there is inside. It has compartments everywhere and since the tire is on the back door it has ninja storage space under the back floor that has THREE milk crates worth of gear that used to take up my hatchback in the WRX. Then there’s more space under the back seats I haven’t got used for anything. I’m thinking I’ll have a powered subwoofer installed back there when I get my new radio. I plan on keeping this one for a while, but if I had the funds I’d trade it on a 4Runner. I love the new 4Runner. I want that.
Anyway, I saw an ad for another pizza place that’s closer looking for drivers and they happened to need them Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 10. Perfect. The only thing about this place is the owner’s a little grumpy at times, which I hate. I get $6 an hour. I used to own a place. I NEVER stressed out my employees with my bullshit. Then they hate you and you make them miserable when you’re there which rubs off on customers. Don’t do it. Oh, and this place I have to sweep and mop at the end of the night, along with trash, etc which I wouldn’t mind, but I have to do the whole kitchen area, too. Usually the kitchen guys do their own shit at most places. This place is like 100 feet long. It’s a lot of work. Plus the owne wants the floor mopped twice. Why, I have no idea. I usually do it once. So last week I see place in Stamford looking for a catering driver from 10:30 to 3. Monday through Friday. Even better. So now I have three jobs. I start that one tomorrow. I hope it pays well with tips. I would really rather just work at the Stamford pizza place all day because it pays the most and the tips are the best. I might consider moving down there if that happened, but they have a full-time guy. But they pay $8 an hour and everyone is happy there. It’s a huge place, too, like 6,000 square feet (upstairs and down). They’re always closed Monday so I’d be happy to do 6 days a week open to close. That’d be $520 a week just for showing up and doing whatever side work the full-time guy has to do. To figure out what a driver gets you multiply that number by 2.5 so my weekyl GROSS pay with tips would be $1280. It’d obviously be more gas, but probably no more than $100 a week. It’d still be a nice take home amount, and all cash.
So as much as I like being employed, I’m tired of working for other people so I have two new ideas besides the book that hasn’t been written yet (I promise when I get a laptop I’ll bang it out). Idea one is to do a delivery business like Gowaiter and undercut them and take all their clients. They get 30% of the order plus $3.99 from the customer. I mean that could be like $10 a delivery plus tips. I could do that with VERY LITTLE start up cash and not even have to get insurance or incorporate or get a tax license. They pay the sales tax (the restaurants). The other idea, idea number two I like a little better but I figure would cost about $6,000 to start up: A kiosk at a mall selling cheap iPhone cases bought from China at pennies on the dollar for less than most stores sell them. I’ve seen lots of 1,000 selling for $200. That’s 20 cents a piece. I’d sell them for around $10 which is still about $20 less than places like Staples and cell phone stores sell them for. But getting into the mall costs “seed money” which usually runs $2,000 and the first month’s rent which is another $2,000, and then figure another $2,000 for supplies. And you have to dress nice and be there all day every day or have employees. Still, if I sold 30 a day, or 3 an hour, I’d gross $9,000 a month. I’m betting I can sell double that. I like that idea because I don’t have to drive and I can work on opening a second one while I’m at work. You know, planning, etc. If the kiosk is big enough I can get a helper, pay them well, bonuses, etc. Sigh. I really need to figure this out. I want to be independent in the next ten years instead of relying on pizza delivery jobs.

The Driver (Adam Smith)

© Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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100 Dollar Bills

December 18, 2012 / / 86 Comments

The other night I pull up to this house and the woman goes to hand me a $100 bill. I say, “I don’t have change for that.” I might have had enough change if they wanted to give me a $20 tip, but even in Stamford it wasn’t likely. So they wind up calling the store and giving a credit card, and, out of spite: no tip! Fuckers. I don’t get why people don’t understand it’s dangerous for driver to have change for $100 on them. If you need to break a hundred, why not just call the store and ask? I know why people do it: they know the store might say no, so they take their chances.

But that brings me to my next question: why take it in the first place? People take $100s then go to gas stations and such and use them for small purchases. Know why no one likes them? It fucks up the drawer! You have to give all your change to the idiot that took the $100 instead of $20s at the bank. Then you have to go to the bank the idiot took the $100 from and have them make change for you. It makes ZERO sense. And 99 out of 100 times people that use $100s give really shitty tips. It’s usually either nothing, or one to two dollars. It’s like they want to impress us with their possession of the hundred, but not reward us with generosity for making change of it. It’s super fucking annoying. I’ve seen hundreds before you assholes. You know when I take hundreds? For big purchases like tvs, or if i have to pay a big bill like rent. That’s it. I don’t take them so I can try to impress people and fuck up their cash registers or make the pizza guy go run down the street with it to make change.

Stop using them. Seriously. Get in the habit of using $50s if you have to use a large bill. That order was $35. I had change for that.

The Driver (Adam Smith)

© Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Is the Second Amendment “Inalienable” or not?

December 18, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Webster defines “inalienable” as: incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred.

If one commits a felony, ANY felony including writing a bad check from 30 years ago, you’re considered to dangerous to own a gun. People who torture animals in most states are not considered too dangerous, nor are drunk drivers. Go figure. Also, in-patient psychiatric care, possession of more than an ounce of weed, and domestic violence strips you of that right. Some states have that law where if your wife hits you and you call the cops you both get arrested. So you could lose your right to bear arms for being the victim of domestic abuse. Nice.

Anyway, no other Constitutional right is stripped away by the federal government for life. None. Not one. Some of you might think of voting, but that’s a state issue. You could just move and get your voting rights back. The one right that claims to be inalienable is the one right that you can lose.

So how is it inalienable? If inalienable means it can’t be stripped or given away, why do those people lose that right? Does that mean those circumstances somehow protect you from violence? If you get robbed, if you say you’re a convicted felon does the robber apologize and let you go on your way? Strangely, under that same right to bear arms you can’t have bullet-proof vests, tasers, even stun guns.

My point is the Second Amendment was supposed to be as strong as the First Amendment, but somehow with that one mistake, and after any amount of time, you appear to lose the right to defend your life or the lives of others around you. Why? How can something that can’t be taken away be taken away? And why do the gun nuts support that? The NRA is a proud supporter of stripping gun rights away from certain people, not realizing in doing so, they weaken the idea that gun ownership is a sovereign right. It really isn’t.

And some people will point out you can have those rights restored. Not really. Look it up: it can be done in THEORY, but almost never happens. There have been a handful of cases where it happened of millions who have tried. Some states make exceptions, like Texas and Colorado, and in some states if there’s no separate law the BATF still allows certain firearms to be held. Black powder, non-standard rimfire, replicas of antiques, antiques, etc, but nothing practical.

Lastly, the only one the Federal laws protect anyone from are people who made mistakes who are following the law after that. Any street criminal wont be spending years bettering themselves and obeying the laws to not own. They’d just go get one. So I don’t even see the point in the law. I just want to know what you think about “inalienable”.

The Driver (Adam Smith)

© Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Blogging is like homework

December 11, 2012 / / 54 Comments

I look at my blog and I had every intention of doing at least one story a day, but then it’s like “I also meant to read real books every day”. I used to read all the time. Ever since the internet got good, not so much. I think I’m a few chapters into like 6 different books. I just have a hard time focusing now. Well, on reading anyway. It’s like this book I want to finish writing: it’s been what, three years since I started taking notes? The notes and outline are done. All I have to do is write the thing. And i bet I could bang it out in about a month. Because the next part is even harder: getting it published. I have such lofty plans for if I do, like more books, but also moving to Manhattan. Like a good part, not Harlem or Washington Heights, like Mid-town, one of the villages, the Upper West Side, etc.
So anyway, since we last spoke I left what like two jobs? I was working at a shitty job in Wilton, but that didn’t work out. They took an old employee back and left me hanging. That’s fine, the manager is a bitch anyway. It was non-stop work from open to close for $6 an hour. Fuck that noise. I would have quit anyway. Most smart places know to not stress out the drivers with too much side work. Sweeping, mopping, folding pizza boxes, stock the coolers, and that’s it. We risk our lives for chump change, don’t make us hate you for it. We’re there for the tips, not the inside work. So after that job I wound up working at a place in Stamford. I still work there, and it’s pretty cool except the owner doesn’t let drivers take more than one at a time. Lame. Still, some nights in 4 hours I’ve made $100 with tips, so that’s not bad. Plus, he pays daily, which is nice, but the bad thing is he only needs me Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 5 to 9. It’s kinda far for not many hours and the great tips aren’t consistent. So now I added a job in the Westport area Mon-Thurs night from 5 to 10, possibly 4 to 10. I start that tonight. If it works out I’ll roll into full-time with days and be able to quit the other job. I really like the people at the other place, but I have a LOT of bills and I’m almost 40 (Dec 27th). I need to plan for something else. Like a mall kiosk selling cell phone covers! Yaaaay! I’d be able to work on my writing while I sit there and wait for customers. Those things are like $2000+ a month in rent and there are all sorts of fees and rules, but I’d be my own guy. I like that. I’m tired of this b.s.. Which was another reason I wanted to write the book. I write the book, get moderately famous, write some more books and don’t have to do this b.s. any more.

The Driver (Adam Smith)

© Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Adam Smith and drivershout.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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“Kick Rocks” Pizza Delivery Nightmares by Adam Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

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