Food Delivery Grows Up : Employment: An increasing number of workers beyond their teens are taking jobs as drivers. Changing economy is part of the reason.
At first glance, 42-year-old Gary Diamond might seem slightly out of place on the streets of Westwood in his blue and red Domino’s uniform. Delivering pizza, as portrayed in the TV ads, is strictly a young man’s game.
“I guess I don’t exactly fit the image, but most of the drivers around here don’t,” said Diamond, who signed on as a driver about six years ago after the Compton warehouse that employed him closed.
Long stereotyped as the domain of pimply-faced teen-age boys, the food delivery business is attracting a growing number of workers in their late 20s to early 50s.
“The economy has changed such that we mainly no longer hire drivers between the ages of 18 and 20 years old,” said Tim McIntyre, a spokesman for Domino’s Pizza in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Instead, we see more victims of corporate downsizing, retirees and people looking for a second or third job.”
Although few women have been drawn to its ranks, pizza delivery was one of the only jobs open to Marie Phipps, who needed to find work after her husband died in 1987. Phipps, 52, said companies wouldn’t hire her because she had worked as a homemaker for most of her life.
“I didn’t have training in anything,” Phipps said, but a Domino’s in Chino gave her a chance. Six years later, she has no plans to quit.
Phipps isn’t the only delivery driver staying with the job longer than was expected in the past. The number of drivers with five or more years behind the wheel has grown in recent years at delivery outfits nationwide, including Pizza Hut, Numero Uno and independent restaurants.
In the Southland, for example, roughly half the employees at the 13 Domino’s operated by L.A. Pizza Inc. are older than 30, and turnover has fallen by a third, the company’s president said. For every job, an average of two people will fill it this year; in the 1980s, an average of three people were hired annually for each position.
Many store owners say turnover has dropped partly because older drivers stay with the job longer than their younger counterparts.
“You tend to get a more stable employee on the whole if that person is responsible for putting bread on the table,” said Kevin Abt, founder of Takeout Taxi, a service that delivers restaurant food in 75 cities nationwide.
But why has food delivery, so often maligned as a dead-end job, lured workers in their prime?
“It’s a good change of pace from office work,” said Corey Gunnestad, a 25-year-old driver for Takeout Taxi in Santa Monica and an aspiring actor. “You get to work in the environment of your own car and get out in the fresh air, rather than just sit behind a desk.”
Delivery work is also relatively easy to get. The basic requirements typically include a car, a driver’s license, auto insurance and no more than one ticket or accident in the past two years of driving.
Base pay hovers near minimum wage, but tips and mileage reimbursement quickly add up. On a busy Friday night, drivers can earn up to $100 in an eight-hour shift.
“I’d have to say I’m pretty happy with the job,” Phipps said. “It’s nice to have the cash flow. And while you’re on the road, you’re more or less your own boss.”
The drawbacks of the job, however, are numerous.
Despite industry efforts to improve safety--the largest companies no longer hire anyone under 18 and require new hires to take a defensive driving course--food deliverers say they have been unable to shake an image of recklessness in the public’s eyes.
Criticism and lawsuits over driver safety have not died down. Recent accidents, including the deaths of two Orange County girls who were allegedly struck by a pizza delivery driver on Halloween night, have heightened worries about public perception.
“People think we all run around like madmen trying to beat a 30-minute guarantee,” said delivery man Diamond, referring to Domino’s policy of giving $3 discounts to customers whose food is late. “But I’m not going to endanger someone’s life over a pizza.”
Drivers also have a significant financial incentive to drive carefully: They carry the primary responsibility for insurance. Most large delivery companies have liability policies that pay for accident costs only above the driver’s coverage.
“Frankly, I can’t afford to have a ticket or an accident with the insurance situation,” said Allan Burks, a 28-year-old musician who works for Takeout Taxi.
Another concern is crime. The nature of the business--collecting money from strangers, often at night and in unfamiliar areas--has made drivers an obvious target for robberies.
Three months ago, police in Long Beach arrested a 17-year-old suspected of a rash of pizza delivery robberies. In each instance, a caller phoned in an order and then ambushed the driver making the delivery. Such setups have led companies to take extra precautions, such as requiring drivers to carry no more than $20 in cash. Other safety measures include calling customers back to verify orders and sending two drivers on runs to high-crime areas. But not every delivery can be checked out. And some in the business say that even the best security measures ultimately have little effect.
“You can have all the procedures to cut down on crime in place, but to be honest, there’s nothing you can do to completely counteract it,” said Ashik Mitha, manager of a Numero Uno in Hawthorne. “We will always be a target.”
