Working at a new place. And Indian place!

I was supposed to start working at a pizza place in Westport about a month ago. For those of you who don’t know, Westport is ranked the 5th wealthiest town in the United States. CT has a few of the wealthiest including Darien, and New Canaan ranked 2, and 1, respectively. Anyway, the guy at the pizza place only had Friday and Saturday to start but mentioned the manager of the Indian place across the street kept coming over to see if any drivers wanted extra hours. So I went and applied. Right off the bat he offered me 6 nights a week. At first I had told him I couldn’t do Friday and Saturday, that I’d committed myself to the pizza place for those two nights, but the week I was supposed to start at the pizza place, they said come back next week, that it was slow due to Thanksgiving. They didn’t bother to call me, and I was there ready to work, so I figured I need to do what’s best for me, and tips were great at the Indian place, so I committed there.

I now work at Thali 6 nights a week. The tips are really good. I average 20%. Ask any pizza driver and they’ll tell you the average for delivery is about 5% sometimes lower. Even in Westport, where I’d delivered before, I’d usually only get a little better than 5% for delivering pizza. One thing that works in my favor is Indian food is expensive. One small bag of food is easily $40. A big bag is around $100. The problem is it’s slow most nights. Tonight I took 4 deliveries. My first tip was $10. My second was $12. The third tip was $5, and my last tip was $10, I think. I get paid $5.69 an hour (taxed) and worked 4 hours. Plus, I take some of the guys home every night for another $12 cash. So I was at work for 4 hours and made around $70. That’s not stellar, but it’s not too shabby either. On a Friday or Saturday I do closer to 10 deliveries, so I average $100 in tips, $10 in delivery fees, $23 in pay, and $12 to take the guys home. Which all works out to about $36 an hour. It’s a new place and I hope it gets busier, but I don’t know how they’re advertising and they have been there 9 months now.

Another thing I like is that drivers drive. That’s it. No sweeping, no mopping, just driving. I can wait in my car if I want, but I usually stay inside. I get free food if I eat there and a 25% discount if I take food home. Chicken Tikka Masala. Yummy! And they’re all super nice there. I never spent much time around Indians, so I didn’t know what to expect, and to be honest, was a little apprehensive about working for them, but it turns out I was completely wrong. I got invited to their New Year’s Eve party with the other 4 stores. I’m probably not going just because it’s going to be a long drive back if I do, and I prefer to avoid being/dodging drunk drivers. But it was a very nice offer.

And their clientele is a lot better than pizza customers. They’re a lot more appreciative. No complaints so far, and my WRX gets me there quickly so I get lots of compliments on my speed. One woman complained I was too quick, but she still tipped me $7. lol. Westport is a town I can’t afford to live in, unless I get this book published, but I really love the town. My girlfriend’s brother has a small house there. A little too small for my taste, and with no yard to speak of. I want a HUGE yard and a decent sized house, at least 1800 square feet. As long as I have room for my stuff, my cats, and guests, with a huge fenced in yard, I’ll be happy.

So far the only issue I had was a guy who tired to run me off the road the other night. I think he was from Bridgeport since the car was ghetto with black tinted windows and rims. He comes flying up behind me with his high beams on, gets about a foot from my bumper and rides my ass. It started with me on the side of the road on the phone. I saw him with his high beams on speed up and turn his car into the breakdown lane like he was going to hit me so I took off. I finally slow down enough where he has to hit me or pass me, so he passes me. We wind up at an intersection and he’s going left, I happen to be going straight, so I turn my high beams on at him. He stops in the intersection and rolls down his window, but I drive past him. Hey, he could have had a gun, and I’m not in the mood to get shot/killed over some piece of trash. I shit you not, though, if I had a Jeep Wrangler with that nice solid iron bumper, I would have slammed on the brakes and let him hit me, then called the cops.

Other than that, life’s pretty peachy right now 🙂

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.

“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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