Pizza delivery q&a Do you still tip when there is a $2 delivery charge? Please do not confuse this fee with the tip. You should tip the same as you normally would. The fee is a surcharge on your bill for the store and not given to the driver. In national chains like Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa John's, the delivery charge does not go to the driver's tip. It is a disguised price increase for the store. With inflation, we're sorry to say it costs the store $2 more to produce your order. It's too bad they did not tell you in the menu price. Pizza companies like to retain the appeal of low prices. They deceitfully snuck in a surcharge and hoped you didn't notice. Drivers are tipped employees and receive minimum wage, just like in the years before 2001 when there was no delivery fee. Hourly pay for drivers did not go up when stores began the delivery charge. In fact, there has been a recent trend in national chains to drop drivers to sub-minimum wage while increasing the delivery charge. Delivery charges were in the $1-$2 range by 2007. But by 2008, they grew into the $2-$3 range. A company will pay the driver $4 an hour, have a $2.50 delivery charge, not give the fee to the driver, and expect tips to make up the difference. The fee is not called a "driver charge" but we know the phrase "delivery charge" is very misleading. The surcharge covers the rising cost of ingredients, hourly wages, the store's automobile insurance (non-owned) and all other business expenses. You are also paying to subsidize discounts for pick-up orders since they don't pay the fee. Pick-up orders still require ingredients, hourly wages, and behind the scene business expenses. It does not matter how large the fee might become in the future. If the price increase reflected in the delivery charge could expand to absorb 75% of the cost of your order, the fee will not go to the driver's tip. It will be a question of what fraction of the bill to represent with a surcharge. Customers will end up paying the same amount to the store no matter which part will be disguised as a delivery charge. Enjoy your $9.99 large pizza. Oh, and there's a $10 delivery charge. The store profits the same if the price is $17.99 and a $2 fee. In an independent store or small franchise, the delivery charge usually pays for the driver's hourly wage. They might start the driver at nothing per hour or $2 an hour and then pad it with the fee. A small store might divert it to cover the driver's mileage reimbursement. How they use the fee varies from store to store. Even a small shop might keep some of the fee for itself. It costs more for the store to have delivery service. They have to cover non-owned auto insurance. Adding a delivery charge is one way to compensate. This is a business fee. Most of the time, the driver doesn't see it. The national chains might use a small portion of the delivery charge to pay for the driver's mileage reimbursement. That is not the tip. This compensates the driver for their vehicular expenses and brings them back up to their hourly rate of minimum wage or sub-minimum wage. In the years before there was a delivery charge in the national chains, the mileage rate was 50 to 75 cents per delivery. Gas was less than $1.50 a gallon. Today the mileage rate is about $1.25 per delivery, and this is with a $2-$3 delivery charge. The difference in mileage rates is only about 50 cents. This means a store with a $2 delivery charge keeps $1.50 for itself. Only a small fraction goes to mileage reimbursement. I'm shocked the store tells you there's a delivery fee. This is an internal cost of business adjustment that customers don't need to know about. It seems the company goes out of their way to mess up the driver's tip and confuse customers. They make people think it's a gratuity. It was completely unnecessary for the order taker to mention the delivery charge. Our advice is to look past the delivery charge. It is merely a line on the bill. The tip is calculated on the bill amount after the delivery charge. Last updated: August 1, 2008 return to top