Delivery with Deck Ovens?

Hey guys,

Just wanted to see if anybody out there was doing delivery and using deck ovens. It is something I’d like to crank up but I want to hear about deck oven pitfalls…if any. I am not in a position to switch to conveyor ovens nor do I really want to. Typical business is dine in, we have Y-602 double stack ovens. Anybody out there???

Thanks,
Doug

We are a delco and do about 60% delivery with three deck ovens. what are your questions about it?

What do you need to know?My last place and all I’ve worked at had decks and delivered.The decks only take 2-3 more minutes to cook so shouldn’t affect your delivery times.
Derek

I have 2 y-600 bakers pride ovens. The market is wide open but I don’t have any experience in delivery. I do have an ex-PJ guy who is pretty fired up at the chance. Questions:
Currently we only bake to order, meaning we don’t pre-sauce our skins.
We are running about $8500 weekly with good weeks around $10k (this includes our bar).
Anyways, I am just plain scared I guess. But no guts, no glory…hugh!
Do you pre sauce your dough and stack the skins?

Thanks,
Doug

Personally, I’ve never used Baker’s Prides myself, but…

I can remember back in the day a Domino’s Pizza franchisee had 4 of those bad boys in his store. On Friday nights he’d have all 4 cranked up giving off all kinds of heat… but he did it. With the 30 minutes or $3 off guarantee. -J_r0kk

I’ve only recently opened, but I am doing delivery with Y-602’s. I like them so much, I mention my ovens in my advertising - and people are interested and curious about that.
We’re not booming in delivery YET, but it’s picking up. We don’t pre-sauce either. Hardly. Maybe a “slice pie” or two when walk in is busy, but that’s about it. You just need to have a crew and a process that gets a pizza in the oven pretty quick when it’s ordered.

I have seen quite a few shops doing big delivery business with decks. The bottle neck shouldn’t be with making your skins though, so I would not focus on pre saucing. I am just not a fan of it, but I do know a lot of operators who get out the olive oil and brush and pre sauce the heck out of pizzas.
With that many pizzas you are going to have to get better at finding the ‘sweet spots’ in the oven to get your pizzas to cook faster though.
Since you are already in business and have a guy lined up to do some deliveries, then why not start out slow? Print up a basic menu, make a few hundred copies and give deli a test run to iron out all of the bugs before going full bore deli.

Thanks for the info guys.
We have a scheduled email going out to our current customers letting them know we will start delivery. Additionally we have ordered a couple banners, I’ll let you know how it goes!

Back in the Day I ran a Domino’s Pizza with 4 deck ovens and we maxed out at about $17,000 a week. We had the 30 minute guarantee firmly in place, and we didn’t much problem getting the pizza delivered in under 30. But you need to recognize that the industry standard for delivery is 45 minutes, so anytime you average under that is a good thing. Delivery will probably double your sales, so prepare yourself. Sometimes the response in over night, sometimes it takes a couple of weeks to gain momentum. Get a good map of your area, and define your delivery area, you might find that delivering more than 4 mile in one direction, is cost prohibitive, and might hurt your overall service. Learn your map, make sure your drivers have flashlights, maps, and a cell phone.
Also if you are beginning delivery, it would be worth it for you to get a couple of lighted CARTOPPER Signs for about $140 each. These are worth there weight in gold. I can’t express that enough.
Develop a good dispatch system, either use DOOR sheets, or a computer structure, it is easy to get confused, when the cash isn’t comming directly into the till after every sale.
Get your delivery drivers a uniform, it helps improve the image of your restaurant.
Get delivery bags, keeps the pizza hot till it gets to the door.
Give your drivers plenty of menu to hand out.
Boxtop!!! Place menu’s or flyers on every delivery, and carryout box.
Print WE DELIVER in big bold print on all your print advertising, and menu.
There is so much more to delivery than most people think, you will eventually see your sales swing to primarily delivery. It will probably begin at 10 to 20%, but you may recognize that the frequency of your customers purchase will go up, cause they can have your pizza delivered, and eventually delivery will probably be 60 to 70% of your sales.