I now believe in Santa Claus

[wa_dave]

Tonight a miracle happened.

I was phoning a young 14 year old guy who approached me for a casual job to tell him we made a position for him when a nicely presented last year at high school young guy came in with his resume in hand.

He politely asked if he could leave his details for a drivers job.

After picking myself off the floor I asked him what nights he was available and he said “any”. With that I told him we needed someone for Wednesdays and Fridays to start with. He asked when he could start and I told him Friday at 5pm.

We went through the pay rates etc and he was really pleased with what we offered and that he could start straight away.

That now makes two new drivers in two weeks. The light at the end of the tunnel now dosen’t look like the one on the front of an express train.

Just when I was giving up hope on getting more drivers (been a drought for getting drivers for 6 months) I get two in two weeks.

The latest is a high school student and the other a university student so I will put them on a nice incentive if they can bring some mates along as well.

You guys have no idea how good I am feeling about this at the moment, especially after having a driver on for the first time in 4 weeks on a Wednesday night - my Manager in Training father helped us out while he was on his rostered week off from the mines.

Can you guys see me jumping for joy ?? :lol:

Dave

 

[RobT]

put a flyer up on a bulletin board in the High School or college. Thats bound to work.

 

[bodegahwy]

How on earth do you hire highschool kids as drivers? You must be going unprotected on insurance becasue nobody out there is writing hired and non-owned that allows drivers under 18. Even when they will cover an 18 year old they surcharge the policy about $1500-$2000 for doing so which makes it impractical.

Don’t kid yourself that the insurance your drivers have on thier own cars protect you in any way or that you do not need the protection.

 

[cobblestonepizzaco]

I believe he’s in australia, so there law’s could be different than ours, and my first job was a pizza delivery job at 17, yes it was a few years ago so things have changed, but when your desperate for workers and there reliable as I was back then, why not give them a chance? its too bad insurance companys are so tight on things these days.

 

[td_VP192]

Wait a second… does that mean there was a time when you didn’t believe in Santa ???

That’s awful.

 

[wa_dave]

cobblestonepizzaco:

I believe he’s in australia, so there law’s could be different than ours, and my first job was a pizza delivery job at 17, yes it was a few years ago so things have changed, but when your desperate for workers and there reliable as I was back then, why not give them a chance? its too bad insurance companys are so tight on things these days.

Yeah, that’s right in Australia ours is different.

We can hire drivers of any age. They must have their own coverage for their insurance.

Plus we can hire any other staff from 13 as long as they have parental permission for under 15 and don’t work after 10pm and are limited to certain jobs.

Dave

 

[MM1]

<<why not give them a chance?>>

here’s why not: Someone hits THEM while delivering your pizza.
The other car notices the sign on the roof, or the bag in the car.
YOU GET SUED.
The kid’s insurance will NOT cover you - and unless you have a specific policy covering that particular hired driver, neither will yours. You can lose your business and your house over having “given them a chance”.

It’s hard to find an insurable, hard-working reliable driver. But you HAVE to do the insurance thing right.

 

[NicksPizza]

MM:

<<why not give them a chance?>>

here’s why not: Someone hits THEM while delivering your pizza.
The other car notices the sign on the roof, or the bag in the car.
YOU GET SUED. <> You can lose your business and your house over having “given them a chance”.

Party-pooper Guess I gotta find adults to do that job . . . and running the oven . . . and operating the mixer . . . and running the electric slicer/grater . . . WAIT!

The same US law that tells us what hazardous jobs persons under 17 cannot do legally tells us very pointedly that persons under the age of 18 CANNOT be hired as delivery drivers where time is an issue :shock:

from http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs2.htm

on youths under 18 years old . . . Such minors are, however, prohibited from making time sensitive deliveries (such as pizza deliveries or other trips where time is of essence) and from driving at night. (See Fact Sheet No. 34 http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs34.htm.)

Know the law in your state/country. You will get sued (in the US) by God and everyone if a 17 yo driver has an accident delivering your pizzas . . . and you will lose rather flamboyantly and with much fanfare.

Dave has an excuse for hiring these people . . and it’s not because he is dumb as a bag of rabbits . . . it’s because he needs employable people willing to be loyal and work.

 

[goomba]

So is there really a ‘Santa Clause’ ?
Niccademo[/b]

 

[bodegahwy]

A few years ago the insurance carrier that we used annouced that they were dropping pizza delivery coverage alltogether; not just us, but any pizza delivery at all.

I went out and spoke to several other delivery outfits here in town to ask what company they used. (We all get along OK and trade food etc when someone runs out)

What I learned was shocking. Only the nationals had real insurance. The other shops either were kidding themselves that thier driver’s insurance protected them in some way or were lying to thier insurance companies about delivery. One shop was trying to claim that their drivers were independant contractors. (That shop got sued and lost the business about 6-7 years ago)

If you have any assets more valuable than your ovens you are nuts not to have coverage. Even if you require your drivers to carry commercial coverage, anyone suing you will look at you as the “deep pocket” in comparison to a pizza driver. As pointed out above, your dirver’s coverage will not protect you in any way. Even if you “win” a lawsuit your legal costs will be $30-50K and your general business coverage will deny legal expense for an excluded category of coverage.

We now have had coverage with the same company for about five years. We have never had a claim (knock on wood). We hire only drivers over 25 years old with good driving records and provide an MVR and driver info to the insurance company upon hire. The reason for the 25 year age is that younger drivers are surcharged if we ad them to the policy. The charge is about $1800 for an 18 year old declining to about $200 for a 24 year old.