How many deliveries are your drivers averaging per hour during the rush? What have you done to make them more efficient?
I can speak for my employer’s shop…Mon-Friday there is only ONE day driver from 11am-4pm & he averages anywhere from 4 to 14 deliveries…The higher range of that is usually on thurs & friday…
Sat & Sun I’m the only day driver & one of the night drivers… I work the long shift those two days, from 11am to 10pm …Between 11am & 4pm I average anywhere between 10 to 18 deliveries…From 4pm on there are anywhere between 3 to 4 drivers on shift…Each driver has anywhere between 3 to 5 deliveries each per hour Friday, Sat & Sunday nights…Monday thriough thursday nights there are one 2 night drivers on & they average maybe between 1 & 3 deliveries each per hour on those 4 nights…
As for what my boss does to make the drivers efficient?..Nothing other than delivering in a timely & accurate manner is expected…Other than each driver is expected to fold one pack of boxes, which takes me no more than 10 minutes to do, & put the phones on hold, nothing else is expected…I make 10.79 in wages to ONLY deliver & being I pay my own gas & use my own car, I wouldn’t have it anyother way…My boss is understanding of this…Its a good shop & gig for me…
Depending on the experience of the driver 4 to 6 deliveries per hour would be where I expect my drivers to be. If you are running multiple drivers the most effective way to handle the load is to make sure the drivers are not crossing paths.
At the PJ that I worked at for a bit delivery, the best we achieved due to mismanagement was 4 deliveries an hour. If you think about it, that means my labor was $1.65 per pizza. Pricey. With our store we are hoping to consistently hit 6 an hour in order to not have to charge much more than the competition for delivery fees. We want a 6 minute max delivery area, efficient driver assignments, and the inside folks helping to get the drivers in and out quickly (even running the deliveries out to them as they pull up. Seems doable. During really heavy times, we may hit 7 or 8 an hour occasionally.
I guess I should have also asked if and how much everyone charges for delivery.
My boss has free delivery…Since he doesn’t pay mileage, thats the way he wants to keep it, free delivery…I feel its the reason I have an over 4 buck per delivery tip average…
By the way, how much delivery charge do you all charge & how much of it do your drivers get?
Our charge will be around $2.00
For our company cars, we will pay no delivery fee to the driver.
For employees that use their own cars, we will pay the standard IRS reimbursement. Mostly for short runs during the heaviest times. Calculated by POS.
Tips will be pooled among all non-supervisory employees. All employees are expected to be able to deliver if needed and will work a variety of positions. All employees provide the “service” that is being tipped.
I think you are really overestimating if you are hoping to hit 6 per hour per driver consistantly. In the really busy hours, this is definatly attainable. If you have drivers hitting this mark for a whole shift consistantly, I believe your service will suffer as you are very understaffed. Maybe it’s the 6 minute max delivery area that will help you attain this goal but in my area, at times I cannot travel 1.5 miles from my store in 6 minutes during rush hour. I would say it is reasonable to expect 3-4 deliveries an hour per driver to keep your deliver times to 30 minutes. If times are not important I can see 4-5 per hour, but to average six and hope to keep all deliveries under an hour is being a bit too ambitious, at least in my town
The city we are in is very new and the Development folks were great about making some very smart traffic decisions. Traffic is not an issue here. 6 minute radius means that many deliveries will be within 2 minutes.
I agree with what you are saying about averaging 6 an hour means you will have to hit 8 an hour at times. And that service will suffer at such high levels. There are a million little ways to trim a minute here and a minute there. We will not sacrifice service, but must strive for high productivity in order to justify high wages for our employees.