Tipping the restaurant delivery guy

$4

No matter how small, never less than $2, unless it is a daily delivery of under $5 in which case 1.
On $17, you give $20 and don't be a cheap jerk about it.
Some guy brought your dinner to your door. Have some respect. And if you order on a rainy day, extra. Seriously. Don't be cheap to NYC's working class. It isn't classy and it isn't fair.

I order over www.seamlessweb.com . I tip minimum of $4.00 and sometimes $5.00 depending upon size of order and distance of delivery. The one dollar it takes to give a generous tip matters not an iota to me and makes a world of difference to the guy working his ass off running around all night. If I ordered a salad and sandwich from the diner directly across the street every night, I'd tip less, maybe $3.00.

Surely someone will now post that tipping is a joke and that they don't believe in ever tipping. So be it.

Round up and add $3. Not on a percentage basis unless the delivery is particularly heavy or burdensome.

20% is my rule of thumb. However, if they charge for delivery (eg., seamless), I will give something less.

and before anyone tells me what a jerk/cheapo i am, i assume that the delivery charge (or most of it) does in fact go directly to the delivery person. i realize that is not always that case, but i cant control that as much as i cant control whether a waiter is being paid a fair wage when i pay my bill in a sitdown restaurant.. why those who pay effectively twice the delivery charge is indirectly penalizing free delivery restaurants that go out on a limb to compete on a price point.. and guess what, the places that charge for delivery are invariably the larger restaurants.

Ideally, I would calculate some flat rate based on distance from my apartment, and then add to that a percentage based on what I ordered. Plus, I'm on the 5th floor, so I'd add something for the stair climb. In reality, it's probably more weighted towards the percentage than it would be if I had to build a calculator for it. Actually, building a calculator would be kind of fun, but then again, I'm a nerd.

Off the top of my head- .25 per block + 5% of the order + $1 for the stair climb + $1 for rain.
a $30 order from 10 blocks away gets $6. Maybe it needs some tweaking, but that's the gist.

I ordered a delivery while at work the other day. In middle of somthing, this delivery man calls me and asks me to come out to his car to pickup the food. $8.78 was the amount, gave him $10 and asked for a dollar back.

well, I'm sure he was going to use that 22 cents to buy drugs anyway.

What do you all charge the FreshDirect guys?

I usually make them pay me $10.
In seriousness, it depends on the size of the delivery. $5 is the usual, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. We get delivery twice a week. A few times we've given them $10, but that was when we called FD and told them we weren't going to be home for delivery in time, and they made the guys wait for us (not a long time, but still).

Ooops ... sorry ... I meant what do you TIP the FreshDirect guys.

I usually give them $10. It's a walk-up.

Mine is too, but since we get twice a week, it's usually just a box or two.

As an example:
A $17 food order from the immediate neighborhood.....$3 tip.
Sorry guys that's the rate. They didn't cook it, serve it or, pack it.
They walked it over along with 4 or 5 other local orders.
This is a NYC entry level job. It is simple and only requires the ability to locate an address and, make change. There is little in the was of enhanced customer service like, saying thank you. A resturant that you order from more often and have repeat deliveries from the same person with prompt service should recieve a slightly larger tip.
I love you people...your giving it away!

on a $17 order I would tip $3 mainly because I probably have a $20 but have to hunt for an additional $2.

I always hunt for the singles and makes sure I always have a surfeit to give $5 or $6 on a $16 order for example, precisely because this is an entry level job that pays crap.
I tip dispraportionately higher in diners also for similar reasons.

Actually even on a $9 order I'll give $5

kylewest: Do you think that when you pay for the tip electronically on seamless web it reaches the delivery guy? I usually add a tip on seamless web, then my BF supplements it with a cash tip on delivery because he doesn't trust that the full tip will make its way to the delivery person.

As to the original question: $4 to $5, unless the restuarant is not within a 5 block radius or so, or the weather is miserable. Then I throw in $1 or $2 more.

The Fresh Direct guys get $3-$5, depending on the size of the delivery. It's an elevator building.

seamlessweb no tip, actually it is against policy at the office to tip seamlessweb guys. you may also note that none of them expect it. i have never seen or heard of anyone doing that.

food delivery is $1 per bag from whole foods...

of course people are free to give more or less. my guess is the average delivery tip is much less than $3, but here we are on a forum for buying zillion dollar apartments.

divvie...you can now pat yourself on the back

Seamless web: I set the tip to zero online, and I always tip the delivery guys. I tip $5 on an order above $30. $3-4 below $30.

that's actually not a bad idea wrt zero tip online, so long as it's you paying and not the company.

OnTheMove: I never really thought about it. Maybe it is better to click $0 and give cash. Now, I just add the tip to the charge out of convenience on seamlessweb.

What does mucuk mean about against policy to tip seamlessweb? Why? Is there a built in markup in prices? I never really looked. Is there some statement on the site about any markup being used to compensate delivery guys?

What if the $17 already includes $2 for delivery charge - e.g dominoes. Would you give more than $20 then?

15 - 20% for the delivery guy; $5 for Fresh Direct (a few dollars more if the order is big or it's raining); I really don't believe the delivery charge goes to the delivery guy --- it defrays the cost of gas (FD) or the very minimum wage of the bike guy; in restaurants even if I pay with plastic I leave the tip in cash.

Why the heck are you eating Domino's in NEW YORK CITY????

We look at tipping as a way to spread around some sunshine to folks who work very hard and sometimes under adverse conditions. We always tip the FreshDirect guy (who happens to be really sweet to our dog, every time) at least $10, sometimes $20, and at Christmas we happily gave him $100. Our FreshDirect food is so good that we rarely order in, but after seeing the film "Take Out" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Out_(feature_film) we always way overtip, happily so, realizing these guys riding their bikes in traffic and rain need it way more than we do.

We overtip waiters in our regular spots and always receive the most excellent service, prompt seating and even some freebie drinks and dessert now and then.

I also give big tips to taxi drivers who a) play classical music on the radio, b) don't talk on their cell phones, c) drive safely, and/or d) pick me up when I have my dog (a big Lab). I always tell them why I'm giving them an extra $10 or 20., in hopes of encouraging the good service!

Otto...you're a good guy, at times tipping gets out of hand, starbucks, etc. but tipping delivery guys always a pleasure.

junkman i seem to like their thin crust pizza, and their delivery is so fast - never more than 15min in my experience.

iamlooking...thin crust, fast delivery,....this New York City! Home of some of the best pizza in the known world and you choose prefab factory fast delivery pizza? My heart hurts for you as you sit in you windowless cookie cutter studio chewing on worthless carbs when we all know that not more then a 10 minute walk from your front door is some of the tastiest pizza money can buy! I beg you from the bottom of my Italian (you are what you eat) heart to treat your mouth and you digestive tract in a manner befitting this city.

falco, be constructive and make suggestions in the chelsea area.

I read an article about a woman who travelled a lot for business & she said that she always tipped very well because she was buying people's kindness.

Somedays I prefer Dominos over brooklyn style pizzas. This is coming from someone who use to eat at grimaldi's and john's. FYI, Dominos and PapaJ uses fake cheese for their pizzas.

wow, what is fake cheese.

Thanks all it seems everyone is on the same page,sort of (with the exception of wishhouse who obvioulsy has an advanced degree in calculus :-)

I tipped $3 on a $17 order it's alsmost 20%, same as you would tip the waiter in a restaurant. I'm ALWAYS really polite to delivery guys as I know its a difficult job. Tipping in Starbucks on the other hand is ridiculous. My new favorite however--I just noticed a tip jar in my dry cleaners the other day--c'mon really???

Be concerned when you see a tip jar at your mohel.

Have any of the lowball tippers noticed an increase in subsequent unit break-ins? Why piss off the guy who's got the ideal cover job for casing your place?

kyle: seamlessweb has a line called "tip" which is supposed to go to the delivery guy. the bulk of their business is late night ibanker dinner delivery and the theory is that the seamlessweb expense includes the whole expense including tip. you're not supposed to tip them separately because it creates an expectation and then would lead to people wanting to expense that extra tip, creating an administrative hassle that sw was designed to avoid

good tipping is good karma

mucuk: got it. I thought you meant entering "zero" on the seamlessweb line and also not tipping the guy in person. You're saying you enter the tip online and don't tip in person, yes?

Ah, I order seamless web at home, so it's not expense-able anyway. I want to make sure the delivery guy gets the cash, so I always zero out online.

I agree with the round and add $3 for any full meal for 1 maybe 2 people. Once you cross into the $40-50 range, I aim for $5+.

knowing that the delivery guy got the tip is a problem no matter what when you pay with CC. it's a big problem at bars too (although, on the other side, is the cash-to-taxes-paid ratio). I've never really thought about it with seamless, although I might now. My biggest problem is never having cash though- it's part of the reason I'm ordering online in the first place!

I don't actually execute the formula I came up with earlier, but I like thinking about things that way. It's the same part of me that calculates the seconds I've saved when I'm walking the diagonal on the crosswalk.