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You are not logged in Name Password Visitors may read posts. Only registered users can post. Read the FAQ Join the board 1 2 3 next >> Author Topic: A new owner willing to put driver's lives on the line Ronnoc Delivery JediJoined: Dec 2006Posts: 10,193 10/5/09 12:49:58 AM From here: << New pizza parlor owner plans to do what others won't: offer full delivery service in East Waco By Regina Dennis Tribune-Herald staff writer Sunday, October 04, 2009 If you plan on ordering a pizza and reside in East Waco, don’t expect the delivery to arrive in 30 minutes or less. Or at all. “They don’t want to deliver over here for some reason,” said Blanca Montenegro, leasing agent for the Villages Apartments on North Sixth Street. >>Yeah, funny how some people are just crazy enough that they'd rather live. << One Waco native said it is high time a pizza parlor offers full delivery service in East Waco, and he plans to do so himself. >>By that, he means he intends to send others to do it. << Phillip Haynes is the new owner of the former Sohl's Clifton Corner convenience store at Clifton Street and Waco Drive. He is changing the name to Swift P's JKP Pizza and will deliver pizza and deli sandwiches in the area. "I talked to people who said they want this, so I'm going to give it a shot," he said. (Duane A. Laverty photo) ----- Phillip Haynes said he worked with the Waco Police Department to develop his security system, including this security monitor. (Duane A. Laverty photo) ----- Phillip Haynes opened Swift P’s JKP Pizza this weekend in a former convenience store on the corner of Clifton Street and Waco Drive. It will feature pizza and deli sandwiches and offer free delivery to East and South Waco. Haynes, 44, left Waco for Dallas in 1982, working for 20 years as a mortician and another seven as a truck driver. He was laid off from Yellow Freight Trucking in December and has been out of work since. Now, he is taking what remains of his savings — about $10,000 — to open the pizza place. “I tried to order pizza, and I called around, and one of the guys said to me ‘You’re not serious are you? You want us to deliver to East Waco?’ and I said ‘Yeah,’ and he said, ‘We don’t deliver to East Waco,’ ” Haynes said. “I said, shoot, I’ve lost my job, this is a good market, and there’s a need for this. And I talked to people who said they want this, so I’m going to give it a shot.” Dizhena Green, assistant community director at Parkside Village Apartments on North Ninth Street, said pizza deliveries are only made to the complex during daytime. Though pizza companies haven’t given a reason for the limited delivery service, she thinks it is because the complex is in a high-crime area. “It’s been like that for at least the last 10 years that I know of,” Green said. “I don’t think it’s fair in general, but at the same time it’s about their drivers’ safety, and I can’t blame them for being cautious.” >>It's not fair that people would not want to risk injury or death to deliver a luxury item??? Well gosh, I hear there's a pizza shop hiring drivers in your area. You oughta go down there and put in a few hours a night delivering to help make things "fair." << An employee at the Bellmead Pizza Hut who did not wish to be named said the company only delivers to East Waco in the daytime. Bob Mock, who is co-owner of all four Domino’s Pizzas is the Waco area, said the company will not deliver to certain complexes in East Waco and one in North Waco out of concern for drivers’ safety, though he declined to name which complexes are excluded. “That decision is mainly based on crime reports the police department puts out,” Mock said, though he added that some drivers have been robbed in the past. “We check them every six months or so to see whether or not crime has changed in those places we don’t serve.” Haynes opened for business Thursday, mainly serving customers in the convenience store, with only a banner on the front of the building advertising the pizza parlor. He began serving pizza samples to customers Friday and planned to kick off full delivery service Saturday after a day of distributing fliers to the community. “This has got to work for me — this is all I got,” Haynes said, adding that his wife’s salary as a medical technician at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center is the only other source of income for their family, which includes three children, Jasmine, Kierra, and Phillip III — the J, K, and P in the business’ name. Having grown up in East Waco, Haynes said he is well aware of the problems with poverty and crime in the area. He called the Estella Maxey projects home until he was 12 years old. “I know the stigma that goes along with that area,” Haynes said. “I’ve seen some good people come out of those projects. . . . There are some bad people in this area, but there are some good ones too.” >>Oh? Is the "stigma" that bad that they didn't want to stay in the neighborhood? << Even the convenience store where the business is located has a checkered past. Haynes is leasing the former Sohl’s Clifton Corner at 1330 E. Waco Drive. In May 2008, owner Liaquat Ali Sohl was robbed and fatally shot by an intruder. Waco police said the murder remains unsolved and is still under investigation. The murder tale doesn’t bother Haynes much (“I was a mortician,” he said). He has wanted the store for some time because he said it is situated in a high-traffic area between Waco and Bellmead. In fact, before Sohl’s purchase of the convenience store, Haynes had drafted a business plan to turn that very store into a pizza parlor in 1997, but he was denied a loan. >>Ummmm... someone should explain to him that there is a difference between working a job where you deal with dead bodies and one where you deal with people trying to kill you. << Haynes said after leasing the store from Sohl’s widow, his first step was to meet with detectives from the Waco Police Department, who guided him in setting up 12 video cameras monitoring all activity inside and outside the building. Haynes said while he is concerned about the potential for crime in the area, he is more motivated by the impact he thinks the store will have on the community. >>The cameras will help the police identify who killed you... unless they're wearing masks. Do the drivers get cameras too? What did the police say about the idea of sending your drivers to these areas? << “We will let people know up front, if you do anything to the drivers, this will never happen again,” Haynes said. “If you hurt one of the drivers, you will hurt everybody, and really, we just want to bring something to this community that it doesn’t have.” >>Oh... my bad... I was thinking he didn't have a plan for protecting his drivers when they go to these high crime areas. I take it all back. We all know that a plea for decency, directed at criminals, always works. << Sharon Langston, an East Waco resident who runs the nonprofit social services agency Restoration Haven at Estella Maxey, said the lack of sufficient delivery service in East Waco is indicative of a larger problem of few businesses willing to settle in the area. >>I wonder if that "problem" is actually just indicative of a larger problem of crime. << “When I was a child, there were all types of businesses in East Waco, from restaurants and eating places to so many different black-owned businesses, grocery stores, a dry cleaners — we even had a movie theater on Clifton,” Langston said. “Most definitely it’s due to the fact that businesses are afraid to come in the area, and also you have fewer people in this area who are able to go out to eat.” Langston said having just one person attempt to create a new business in East Waco is encouraging, and she hopes it will foster more economic development in the area. “I think that’s a good thing, and I want to support that person who is willing to take a risk to come in and start doing something to address a problem in the community,” Langston said. “That’s phenomenal, and hopefully it is a start that others can look at and say we want to do the same thing.” >>It sounds like the problem is high crime. I don't see how Phil is addressing the problem.-- << last modified on 10/5/09 12:55:47 AM >> gregster Delivery TycoonJoined: Apr 2006Posts: 9290 10/5/09 1:00:53 AM This is exactly why businesses should be held liable for drivers injuries and deaths while on delivery.--Pizza Hut AZ going tip credit in Sept LoneStar Delivery JediJoined: Dec 2003Posts: 14,525 10/5/09 1:02:17 AM I can ensure his success to the point that he would need to open up his second business, the funeral home down the street. $16 hourly, $1.00 per mile. 20% gratuity enforced on any one-time stiffer. And 25% bounty on every funeral home customer I refer to them. $10,000 annual bonus for having to live in Waco. Holla at me Phil.--http://www.incorrigible4life.blogspot.com << last modified on 10/5/09 1:02:57 AM >> gregster Delivery TycoonJoined: Apr 2006Posts: 9290 10/5/09 1:15:41 AM Once your reputation preceded you, you wouldn't last a month with that target on your back and nothing more than a phone call needed to set you up.--Pizza Hut AZ going tip credit in Sept BenKenobi Veteran PosterJoined: Jul 2008Posts: 1180 10/5/09 1:57:37 AM I love how the article details the amount of security put into the store... Drivers? "We told them 'You better not do that or you'll be in biiiig trouble!'" ... They should require the drivers to be armed and ADVERTISE that fact.--"Run for the money, two for the show , three to make wave and four to blow it out of my ass" -wander Wessex the Jobless Delivery SpecialistJoined: Jan 2009Posts: 3008 10/5/09 3:45:42 AM BenKenobi writes: << I love how the article details the amount of security put into the store... Drivers? "We told them ‘You better not do that or you‘ll be in biiiig trouble!‘" ... Yeah I noticed that too!! great if you're an INSIDER! They should require the drivers to be armed and ADVERTISE that fact. >>Second that!!!!!--You weren't cheap when you paid for the food, so there's no reason to be cheap to the driver. ~ Boma BenKenobi Veteran PosterJoined: Jul 2008Posts: 1180 10/5/09 5:03:23 AM I mean the guy has an great idea entrepreneurially speaking, but there's DEFINITELY a right and wrong ay of going about this. Hopefully he doesn't get anyone killed in the process. He'll have to be very selective of who he hires. I can see him hiring some warm bodies and getting them hurt and killed. I'd love to follow this guy's story somehow. I'm betting within a year there will be at least 3 robberies and 1 person gets killed. ... and regarding the topic title: I don't see how it's the owner putting anyone's life on the line. Of course, if he seeks out inexperienced kids who don't know any better and tells them it'll be a hoot, I can agree. As an experienced driver though, I can figure out fairly quickly if I wanted to deliver for a store.--"Run for the money, two for the show , three to make wave and four to blow it out of my ass" -wander << last modified on 10/5/09 5:05:31 AM >> DominosDriver1980 Apprentice PosterJoined: Sep 2009Posts: 120 10/5/09 7:16:58 AM This is absurd as the drivers on this site b---hing about how badly they're treated at their store, or under paid, or whatever their endless gripes are that they they have about a job that nobody's forcing them to do! And one they can leave anytime they choose! It's the same with this story! If this guy opens up they store, any drivers they hire will be applying on their own free will! I assume anybody that would apply would be familiar with East Waco and know it's bad part of town? With that known, nobody's forcing them to work at this store. It's their choice! It's ridiculous to blame the owner for risking drivers lives. How about people taking personal responsibility! Geesh! Texas is pretty liberal when it comes to carrying firearms. If it's such a bad area, and somebody chooses to delivery there, then it wouldn't be that hard to get a CCL and a handgun for their own safety! I don't work a single night delivering without that extra life insurance with me. If somebody wants to rob or harm me, I'll do my best to avoid becoming the victim, and I encourage others to do the same instead of just submitting without resistance. Just like the average robber expects to pizza guy to do! LoneStar Delivery JediJoined: Dec 2003Posts: 14,525 10/5/09 7:22:50 AM DominosDriver1980 writes: << It‘s ridiculous to blame the owner for risking drivers lives. How about people taking personal responsibility! Geesh! >>Right. Businesses should never be held responsible for safety standards for their employees in our society. --http://www.incorrigible4life.blogspot.com Ronnoc Delivery JediJoined: Dec 2006Posts: 10,193 10/5/09 3:05:09 PM DominosDriver1980 writes: << I assume anybody that would apply would be familiar with East Waco and know it‘s bad part of town? >>Yes, and that's what makes you an ass. Very few applicants understand the risk of the job, much less the increased risk of delivering in a dangerous area, much less the fact that an employer like this one doesn't have an issue with putting their lives in extreme danger. Many people believe that employers automatically take the General Duty Clause of the OSHA seriously, but this is just not the case. << It‘s ridiculous to blame the owner for risking drivers lives. How about people taking personal responsibility! Geesh! >>It isn't ridiculous. He's opening in a proven dangerous area and plans to ignore all the warning signs. Unless this owner plans on posting notices in his applications, he is the one putting their lives at risk.-- Princess Lauren Veteran PosterJoined: Jul 2005Posts: 1414 10/5/09 4:40:38 PM Hey guys, forgetting safety for just a moment here... It's not like people in areas like that are known for their tipping generousity. I dont see this working at all due to that. Who is going to deliver in an area where you get 20 deliveries and 16 DONT tip? Even when I was a driver, yes we at drivers at places I worked pushed hard for redlining due to safety, but also we wanted to get rid of the other 10-15 orders in that area that never tipped! Racket Man Loyal PosterJoined: Jan 2008Posts: 502 10/5/09 4:44:47 PM ya know, it is people like DD1980 that would still have young childern working in factories, no safety standards, no standards for toxic hazzards in the workplace, no standards for the length of the workday, and sweatshops would STILL be perfectly legal. your pay would be like 3 cents perday, you would have to live in company provided housing, shop at the company store and your life constantly monitored by the company "morals squad" such a blanket statement such as "It's is ridiculous to blame the owner for risking the drivers lives. How about people taking personal resonsibility!!!!" just shows how much power the "business owners" still wield in brainwashing the masses and customers. you want "personal responcibility"????? good luck in cleaning up that toxic waste dump with no protection or working in an environment filled with lead or othetr toxic/leathial chemicals that would be in the form of a visible AK-47, several automatic pistols in my belt, a TOW or Hellfire missle and a modern Gattling gun on the roof of my car with LOTS of spare ammo--bitch bitch bitch don't be difficult. try a little harder and be impossible slicer Veteran PosterJoined: Sep 2009Posts: 2385 10/5/09 6:38:53 PM gregster writes: << This is exactly why businesses should be held liable for drivers injuries and deaths while on delivery. >>They have been. Several years ago a driver was killed while on a delivery-bad crash. The family sued and won a huge settlement. That preceded the end of the 30 minute guarantee.--You can't take an opposing view-dman/scoper/lords LTPHTeamMember Loyal PosterJoined: Apr 2009Posts: 755 10/5/09 7:33:16 PM I have lived in this city(aka We Arent Coming Out) and can tell you only the drivers this guy is likely to attract are criminals...keep a close eye on the $ is what I would advise him, otherwise he gets robbed blind(or killed) by his own employees. << last modified on 10/5/09 7:34:09 PM >> 1 2 3 next >> return to top
