Pizza place OER (corporate inspections)

[chozoghost79]

I currently deliver pizza at a pizza place I'll call "Dice pizza" (you catch my drift?). Our inspection is called OER (operations evaluation report). A recent one we didn't do well on because of service. Their requirements for service are very high, i.e. an order made, delivered and the driver returned to the store, all within 30 mins. Our store has a large delivery area and after a certain distance this becomes a physical impossibility. Even without the large delivery area this means drivers only take singles, thus they burn more gas for a given amount of deliveries. Anybody else have had this issue?

[HYHYBT]

In a word, yes.

I worked for them very briefly recently: three weekends, and was then let go for dragging their numbers down*. Up until then, I had never been given any hint that things were not going well, or even told what times were supposed to be; in fact, I still don't know what, exactly, their expectation was. I *do* know that at least one delivery I went out on was a 20-mile round trip, out in the country, and several nearly that far were to houses not visible from the road with no mailbox or other visible number.

On the bright side, not one customer complaint on me, and not one I wouldn't gladly deal with again in some future position. They didn't all tip, but *every last one* that I dealt with in any way was polite and friendly. So in a sense it's good not to have been there longer, as that couldn't possibly last The other bright side: at less than 15 hours a week, I wasn't getting enough to buy gas and food and pay utilities, and there was essentially no chance of getting more hours. And I liked it too well to leave voluntarily.

Well, OK, there was the one guy trying to place an order for delivery who didn't know his address and didn't think we should need it either.

*alternate explanation I was given: "over-hired." Which, given how long the wait at the store usually was between runs, and the number of other drivers standing around, I believe well enough. Certainly I wasn't going to argue, as I was told this was the reason that would be given anyone who called for a reference, and it sounds a lot better than "he was too slow."

[Racket_Man]

fellow delivery driver here for the "Red Roof" pizza place.

welcome to the wonderful world of Corp driven standards and practices. most of the your OER is designed and thought up by people who have NEVER worked or managed at the store level, BUT have the corp office/"big pricture"/I'm sittin in a nice cozy office overview mentality ie. this is what WE want and expect (yeah like the 30 minute delivery is really happening anymore for the Dice pizza company) reguardless. the standards are what are "supposed" to be under ideal conditions ie. no traffic on the roads, all light are green all the time, all orders go less than 1 mile away, the weather is alway perfect, no big time traffci clogging events ever happen, the customer is ready and visible and waiting in orgasmic anticipation.

the second problem is that now most of the big pizza chains ARE overhiring so drivers (at about $4 per hour) are limited to single runs. this alledgely gets the orders out the door faster (yeah right and no one makes any money except the company) then the store gets dinged for all of that labor cost.

third the drivers (at low sub-minimum wage) are then expected to do production and prep type work while the cooks, CSRs and managers stand around doing little or nothing.

Fourth the drivers are WAY under compensated for the use of their vehicles. sometimes to the point of not even getting enough to cover thier gas costs.

fifth is that the negative stereotype of the typical delivery driver is just plain wrong but companies like to keep it going.

and lastly and most importantly "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAY RIGHT!"

[lordlundar]

The worst part is that company seems to be promoting the guarantees which in most times just isn't possible with the staff numbers they have for a given area. Do they hire more staff? Of course not, that costs a lot of money. Let's put a one question evaluation on our boxes, that's cheaper and more effective.

I like the idea that the company is being more accountable and pushing better quality, but no amount of feel good advertisements is going to work without investing in the staff which just isn't happening.

[Boozy]

I like the idea that the company is being more accountable and pushing better quality, but no amount of feel good advertisements is going to work without investing in the staff which just isn't happening.

This is a major pet peeve of mine. A company will jump all over advertising itself as something - "green", "customer-focussed", "innovative" - but refuse to actually invest in making itself so.

Just saying that someone can get a pizza in 30 minutes or less does not automatically make that happen in reality.

[chozoghost79]

Actually specifically what corporate wants is 85% of orders to be complete and the driver returned to the store within 30 mins from order taken. It's just a sky-high standard corporate wants the stores to adhere to and isn't advertised as any guarantee. Not like that silly "you got 30 minutes" thing we did a few years back. Basically corporate wants the franchisee to hire more drivers (not that they'd pay for them) or risk failing the OER. As for the store environment I consider myself very fortunate. We have specific cooks and managers, and when they are actually scheduled, CSR's. We can improve our operations in the store but there's still a cutoff to how far we can drive and still make it back on time, regardless of how well the inside operations do.

[Racket_Man]

The worst part is that company seems to be promoting the guarantees which in most times just isn't possible with the staff numbers they have for a given area. Do they hire more staff? Of course not, that costs a lot of money. Let's put a one question evaluation on our boxes, that's cheaper and more effective.

see below. yes they are hiring more drivers but they are PAYING them literally peanuts as in around $4 per hour

I like the idea that the company is being more accountable and pushing better quality, but no amount of feel good advertisements is going to work without investing in the staff which just isn't happening.

accountable????? maybe to the other corp staff in nice cushy offices, large paychecks and great bonuses but those impossibly "high" standards are rarely met in the real world.

again I will say that most of the people who concoct those "standards" have NEVER had to work under those standards. then add on top of that a moving target of sales , expenses, and labor forcasts and you just get the "fun" of managing one of those stores.

Actually specifically what corporate wants is 85% of orders to be complete and the driver returned to the store within 30 mins from order taken. It's just a sky-high standard corporate wants the stores to adhere to and isn't advertised as any guarantee. Not like that silly "you got 30 minutes" thing we did a few years back. Basically corporate wants the franchisee to hire more drivers (not that they'd pay for them) or risk failing the OER. As for the store environment I consider myself very fortunate. We have specific cooks and managers, and when they are actually scheduled, CSR's. We can improve our operations in the store but there's still a cutoff to how far we can drive and still make it back on time, regardless of how well the inside operations do.

It IS nice when you get the budget to have enough cooks and a CSR. I think all 3 of the big pizza companies have that 85% goal. that seems to be some magical number.

even though I work for another company, we still get the "fallout" from BOTH the old 30 minutes-or-its-free AND the "you got 30 minutes" thing from 2 years ago. enough people STILL believe the 30 minute guarantee was an "industry wide" thing even though it has been gone and dead for 18 years.

[HYHYBT]

I never had a chance, then: never mind finding the address and handling the transaction, at least half mine took around ten minutes or more to *get* to and the same for the return trip, and the only time I knew was the one on the monitor, which tended to be already 12-15 by the time it was ready to go.

The logical solution, then, would be to speed up production in some way...

[chozoghost79]

I never had a chance, then: never mind finding the address and handling the transaction, at least half mine took around ten minutes or more to *get* to and the same for the return trip, and the only time I knew was the one on the monitor, which tended to be already 12-15 by the time it was ready to go.

The logical solution, then, would be to speed up production in some way...

A fair bit of mine took longer than ten minutes to get to due to our large delivery area. I've heard "Dice Pizza" specifies a delivery area where everywhere in the area can be driven to in 9 minutes or less one way. Our area would be cut in about half if we actually sized our delivery area to that specification, not even taking into account improvements in production speed.

[Racket_Man]

A fair bit of mine took longer than ten minutes to get to due to our large delivery area. I've heard "Dice Pizza" specifies a delivery area where everywhere in the area can be driven to in 9 minutes or less one way. Our area would be cut in about half if we actually sized our delivery area to that specification, not even taking into account improvements in production speed.

the "9 minute" standard is the same at my pizza place. now there is the differenece in the "fantasy" world of the corp suits and the real world of our delivery area.

again the 9 minute thing is "Under perfect driving conditions" ie green lights at every corner, no stop signs, no traffic, no trucking company training semi's on the road, sunny bright day (no rain or snow or ice or wind or tornados), no events at the stadium/area, no kiddies or bikes or joggers on the road, no jerkoff drivers screwing with you just becasue you have a lighted car topper on your car, and an unlimited speed limit.

my manager just loves to expound on stores that have 30 mile (round trip) deliveries. yeah but that is mostly rural road with a MUCH higher speed limit when 99% of our area is ubran 25mph roads and streets with traffic and obsticles and stop lights/signs, jerkoff driver on the road besides you, etc.

the GM and area manager once tried to time our routes by going to the furthest reaches of our area. they quickly found out what we have been telling them all along: IT TAKES TIME TO DRIVE THROUGH the city.

[daleduke17]

There's a dice-themed pizza place in the town my mom lives in. If the delivery people were to drive to the north or east, yeah, 9 minute one-way easy. Go south or west, not so much. IIRC all of town is in their deliver span. To drive from the ambulance company on the west side of town to near where the pizza place is is almost a 5-6 minute drive....and that's with lights/sirens and being (usually) given the right-of-way.

Also, give me the pizza from the place named for the petite Roman Emperor.

As far as the OERs, we had those at the grocery stores I worked at. Such unattainable stats unless there was a perfect storm of events to make it happen. No more than three in line...ok....give us more than two cashiers (and also tell the Town government to do away with that pesky law about selling alcohol through only one checkstand). No holes on the shelves...alright...stop marking out our orders. But, hey, corporate knows best.

[EmiOfBrie]

In MN, the $4 rate wouldn't fly. MN is one of the states that does not allow a restaurant to low-ball minimum wage under the "tips will make it up" excuse. When I drove pizza at both "red roof" and "daddy jack's", I was paid minimum wage *on top* of my tips. MN is a good place to work wait staff/food delivery

[Racket_Man]

In MN, the $4 rate wouldn't fly. MN is one of the states that does not allow a restaurant to low-ball minimum wage under the "tips will make it up" excuse. When I drove pizza at both "red roof" and "daddy jack's", I was paid minimum wage *on top* of my tips. MN is a good place to work wait staff/food delivery

MN is one of only 6 states left in the US (California is another) that does not allow tip credit type sub-min wage. and considering the huge push by restaurants in those states, tip credit may be coming to MN before long.

there is one state (MN I think could be wrong) that does not allow the store to keep the delivery charge for itself. all "service charges" go directly to the employee (delivery driver or server)

[EmiOfBrie]

You're likely right. The delivery charges did go directly to me.

Also, given the PR favoring workers recently in the area, I highly doubt Dayton would sign a bill allowing tip-credit wages, and the GOP doesn't have the votes to override a veto

[insertNameHere]

Very rarely do I drive anywhere for my job, mainly because I won't get reimbursed even when required to without a lot of paperwork management hates to do, but im sorry, yes I know it only .70 cents your going to pay me for 2 miles, but it is currently .25 or .50 cents (depending on car or truck) worth of MY gas that your wanting me to use for something that isn't my job. Sure the manager is supposed to go out to the bank and also to other stores when we run out of shit but I'm pretty sure the significant pay increase along with the bonus potential is worth it.

We always tip the drivers, well especially depending on the one local place who comes out because the one that know my last name tend to double up the toppings, and get $4 tips on top of the deliverly charge for 2 pizzas.

but to continue the thread jack, the few times I did drive somewhere I got yelled at for taking too long, middle of rush hour traffic catching lights adds plenty of time. It not worth it to me to get a speeding ticket or run a red light where I get fined to the point I would have have been better calling off the whole week and not bothering to go in and actually saved money