What shouldI know? Delivery service

[system]

I am a take & bake in a town of 20,000 ppl. what do I need to know about how to start delivering baked pizzas? ie. how many phone lines, delivery area how many delivery bags will I need stuff like that, I have a deck oven that puts out 16 16" pizza an hour. Thanks for you input. Tony 8)

 

[system]

I would reccomend starting with a larger oven. 16 pies an hour really isn’t very much. Although this oven may get you through most hours a week, It’s hard to believe you won’t find yourself significantly backed up from time to time. If you are dead set in using this as your only oven, you will want no more than two phone lines and need about 5 or 6 delivery bags. I would reccomend Bag Solutions for these. Keep your delivery area to a 10 minute drive in the worst of traffic. But seriously, reconsider starting delivery with such little oven capacity.

 

[RobT]

i assume you have 1 deck oven which fits 4 pies in it at a time.

Buy another deck and stack them. you can double your output.

i have 2 marsal decks stacked… they can hold 12 18" pies at once… i can do about 72 pies in an hour…

 

[Daddio]

The questions that come to mind for me are:

What is starting a baked delivery going to do to the take-and-bake portion of your business?

Will you charge different prices for baked and unbaked?

Will you need more capacity than what your oven can handle?

Have you looked into the cost for insurance? This is not cheap.

Now to answer some of your questions:

Phone lines — I run 2 phone lines and easily handle 100 calls in a five hour period. Never have more lines than sets.

Delivery bags — I use 6 bags that can hold 4 large (these are the ones I use the most), 3 bags that can hold 2 large and 4 bags that can hold 12 large. However the only times I have used all that bags at the same time are for school orders.

Delivery area — No further away than you can drive in heavy traffic in 8 to 10 minutes.

IMHO please re-think this whole idea unless you are willing to increase capacity

 

[NicksPizza]

Another suggestion I offer is checking into municipal/county fire and building codes as pertain to pizza ovens and delivery restaurants. There could be some hidden surprises as to hood/ventilation requirements, parking requirements and such like that. A little due diligence will save some awkward surprises later.

 

[wa_dave]

Unless you can get a strong team of reliable drivers (I don’t know how many exist in real terms) then don’t touch it.

Nothing is worse than offering a service you cannot meet to the customers expectations.

If you are in an area where people want to work as drivers go for it, but some of us have trouble securing and keeping staff due to better pay offers elsewhere as Daddio and I are experiencing.

Dave

 

[Daddio]

wa dave:

Unless you can get a strong team of reliable drivers (I don’t know how many exist in real terms) then don’t touch it.

Nothing is worse than offering a service you cannot meet to the customers expectations.

If you are in an area where people want to work as drivers go for it, but some of us have trouble securing and keeping staff due to better pay offers elsewhere as Daddio and I are experiencing.

Dave

In my area ther term Reliable Driver is an oxymoron. I tell my drivers that deliveries start at 5:00 and they show up at 5:30 and still need to put gas in their car. That is if i can even find a driver. To make matters worse the delivery service just raised their rates to $8+GST per order.

 

[wa_dave]

Daddio:

In my area ther term Reliable Driver is an oxymoron. I tell my drivers that deliveries start at 5:00 and they show up at 5:30 and still need to put gas in their car.

We are so much in the same boat. I was being kind saying “reliable drivers”.

I am lucky as two are spot on, 1 is just as good but he wants every Public holiday weekend off to go away surfing, another (my longest serving driver) is a great worker but way laid back and the other is having personal problems and is turning up hit or miss.

The other turned up 2 weeks and haven’t seen him for 3 weeks.

Dave

 

[Daddio]

Got a call 15 minutes before opening today from my driver. He totaled his car DUI and is loosing his license for a year.

Will the fun ever end?

 

[royster13]

And I hear there are way more jobs in your neck of the woods than willing workers…Good luck…RCS…

 

[NicksPizza]

Daddio:

Got a call 15 minutes before opening today from my driver. He totaled his car DUI and is loosing his license for a year.

Will the fun ever end?

I’m feeling for ya’! I hope something happens for you and Dave to turn that wole labor thing around.

I don’t have exactly that problem, but fear it could happen to me. I did have a short 2 month run of hiring 2 drivers who did not show for the first shift, & the other made one shift and never reappeared for their paycheck.