Domino's Pizza

Introduction -

I began working for Dominos after taking over my mates job who was leaving to go find full time work. I had just turned 17 and had passed my driving test so I was looking for part time work to earn some spending money.

Working hours -

Domino's delivery drivers work on a rota system which can be changed with the drivers consent every week. I used to be scheduled to work from 6PM until 11PM Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. This fitted in well with my studies. However gradually I took on more hours which is easily done at Dominos. Often during a shift your manager will on the spur ask you if you want to stay a few more hours. Also on very quiet nights where there is no work you can ask to go home early but this rarely happened.

The store stops serving customers at midnight on weekdays and 1AM on Friday and Saurday. The earning potential can be quite lucrative if you work right until the end of trading hours as many drivers go home leaving you to deliver most of the late night orders. Also many of late night customers have just got in from a night out or a nice night in and seem to be more willing to give some decent tips.

If your do choose to stay until the end then you are expected to spend an additional fully paid hour after the store has closed doing cleaning duties in preparing the store for the next day's trading. This isn't too bad but some of the cleaning chemicals they use at Domino's really dry up your hands while cleaning the kitchen is hot work as it takes many hours for the industrial sized ovens to cool down.

During summer the amount of hours available dramatically decreases as less orders are placed for pizza due to the hotter weather.

Rates of Pay and Tips -

At Domino's I was earning £5.50 per hour plus an additional 75p for each delivery drop made. Also on top of the recognised wage were tips which on certain nights could boost your day's wages by almost £10. Surprisingly a trend that I picked up on was that in the poorer areas they would be more willing to give tips than the majority of those in the more affluent areas. However alternatively there was the odd occasion when I would get a huge tip from a rich house. For example on several occasions I was given a £10 tip for one delivery and once I got a £20 tip but I think the bloke was a little tipsy!

However the wages are not brilliant as if you deliver using your own car you have to pay for wear and tear and other driving costs such as insurance etc. You can use the mopeds at Domino's and still get paid £5.50 but you will not get a delivery drop payment. However this is balanced out by the fact that Domino's pays for insurance and petrol etc. One of the guys at Domino's had been there full time for many years and always used the moped. He was allowed to take the moped home at night and use it as daily transport but this was a one off agreement and I know part time workers must leave the moped at the store after finishing their shift.

Your duties and the delivery system -

As a delivery driver your main duty is to pack the complete order, book it out, deliver in a set time and return to the store and start all over again. This system in real life is more relaxed than it sounds as I used to take my time on deliveries and was hardly ever moaned at for taking too long. Sometimes I even stopped off at the local bagel shop which was open through the night and ate some late night snacks. I'm not a lazy worker but its kind off the norm when at Domino's (just don't do it all the time otherwise it'll be obvious what you are up to)

The deliveries are tracked and organised on a computer system and when you are logged in via a 3 digit code, which you enter when you get back to base, you will take your place in the queue of driver's for the next free order. Technically a driver who returns from a drop will take the next order which is not allocated to a driver already at base.

You are not suppose to select which delivery you are to drop off as after awhile you get to know the customers who tip well or you try to choose the nearest jobs to deliver as you get a set delivery drop off fee of 75p regardless of if you travel 1 mile or 3 miles. Sometimes people would order from houses which you could walk to from the store (5 minutes distance) and still claim the 75p for delivery.

In reality many of the drivers will try to bully or hustle for the good jobs. This may be off putting for some as the only way to deal with it is to fight your corner and make it clear that they cant lumber all the rubbish delivery drops on to you. It can actually be quite a tense environment at Domino's between the driver's and on more than one occasion I saw fights between fellow workers over little things such as who gets the next delivery.

When there are no deliveries you are expected to do general back of house duties such as constructing pizza boxes and cleaning up. This was very tedious so I would often disappear for half an hour and nothing was said (but once again do not do it too much)

Experience at Domino's -

I have worked for two Domino's branches which were situated in two completely contrasting areas. The first branch was in an extremely dodgy area while the second was in a very nice area. The type of area you are delivering in makes a huge difference to the working experience.

In the dodgy area there were many estates notorious for robberies and general violence against delivery drivers so I used to make it clear to the manager that I wasn't willing to deliver there. Often management need as many drivers as they can get so they will not threaten you with any disciplinary action. Eventually if you keep reiterating the point that you will not go onto the estates they will stop asking. While at the dodgy area store I knew off two drivers who got attacked and quite badly shook up so safety is a major point to consider before getting a job at Domino's.

The great perk about working at Domino's was the fact I got to listen to my own music in the car and could take my mates along while I was working. You were also given a free small pizza at the end of the shift while you could get a 50% discount off any Domino's order. If there were any hoax orders or legitimate orders were made with the wrong toppings etc the drivers used to get them for free. You could also take as many dips as you wanted!

Negatives -

Wear and tear on your car is a major one as I used to cover many thousands of miles in my old car during the year. If you car is old and will not depreciate that much then the cost are not as major. Also the nature of delivery driving (stop and start) is generally bad for your car and will gradually affect it although as a plus side I did pick up much of my DIY mechanic skills while at Dominos.

Safety - also a big problem as your on your own if you get attacked. Just use common sense and if you see a situation is going to develop just return to base with the pizzas and tell them. They may moan but legally I do not think they could sack you and if they did sack you then it's just a bad branch.

I developed the habit of telling customers in tower blocks to come down to the car if they wanted the pizza as often the attackers would place a fake order which required you to go a certain floor in the tower and then they would block off the lifts and stairs and rob you. If the customer moans tell them your going back to base with their pizza and they will often come down.

Fraud! - Technically Domino's say that any illegal debit/credit card transactions or bounced checks will come out of your wages. This is out of order. On several occasions I had cheques given to me from the same house and they showed me the guarantee card. These cheques then bounced and Domino's tried to take the value (£120) out of my wages. I kicked up a fuss and like most things at Dominos the management will relent and give up.

Uniform - rather corny. Red shirt, khaki trousers and a khaki baseball cap plus a rather versatile bum bag for the money and receipts etc. Your mates will probably mock you but the free pizzas usually shut them up and you usually get a large amount of sympathy from girls.

Management - in my experience it ranged from managers who couldn't care less to managers who took the job too seriously and in turn isolated themselves from the workers because of their pettiness. At the end of the day managers are often not the owners of the franchise and therefore have limited powers. Its good to be friendly with the franchise owner who in my branches would often pop in as they have the true power to fire people or move them to better branches.

Getting lost - it can be surprisingly hard to find certain locations especially if the location is in an estate or the house has a name rather than a house number. In the richer area many homeowners would name their house such as for example 'The Mews'. In an entire street this has no logical order so you would have to look at the name of every single house on both sides of the road to find it. Arghh - incredibly frustrating!

Summary -

Domino's was the first part time job which I stuck at for nearly a year and a half. It was a great job while I was in my teens as it had many perks and I would recommend working there (only as a part time job) especially to students who need flexibility.