Pizza Delivery Hypermiler
 

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased an '09 Toyota Yaris for better fuel efficiency while delivering pizza. First 3 fill-ups have been 35+ mpg (90% pizza delivery miles) with no mods to the car.

Are there any other people in this forum who try to hypermile while delivering pizza or any other delivery service? Also, how much does your fuel efficiency take a hit while delivering compared to all other times on the road? And how often do you sacrifice fuel efficiency to get more deliveries completed during a shift?

I look forward to learning more from everyone on this forum.

Ack! You bought the automatic! A manual would have helped you a lot more, assuming you're mostly doing sub/urban deliveries.

Anyone can hypermile anything. Hypermiling doesn't necessarily mean driving slower (with the exception of highway travel, where it's the biggest help).

I've often thought it would be fun to do an eco-driving clinic with a pizza driver. Too bad you're not in my neck of the woods.

Does the car have a resettable fuel economy display, including "instant" readout?

Your Yaris engine uses very little fuel when idling so coasting in neutral is your best bet.
At 40 MPH coasting in neutral your MPG will be over 200 and it can add up quickly.

Knowing the stop light timing will also help alot if you can avoid getting caught by red lights.

Avoid unnecessary idling whenever possible.

Accelerate briskly but not soquickly that you delay transmission upshifts.

regards
Mech

For your driving, cutting weight would be a huge benefit. I firmly believe in aero at any speed, from looking at the aero drag charts for my cars, but with accelerating so much, it should be a huge gain.

It COULD be worth while to pop out the passenger seat for deliveries, and only put in when needed. Then again, I am sometime considered more extreme on the mileage front. Come GGP, I am popping out the Mustangs passenger seat- she only needs to sit two :)

Wow, a nearly new car for pizza delivery? I looked into a courier job and was told by the bank I cant use the car for a business purpose or they will repo it and the insurance company said if I wrecked the car in my line of business they wont cover the accident. :eek:

MetroMPG,

I would have liked a manual, but I had been looking for a used and fairly inexpensive Yaris for a while and not many of them come up for sale around here. I didn't really want to pay more than $5k for a vehicle, and I didn't know how long it would have been before I found the "perfect" used Yaris.

Why didn't I get something else? Well, one of my criteria was a basic car - no power windows, power locks, power seats, etc. That narrows the choices quite a bit. Another criteria was something not more than 5 years old or so. I've had older vehicles with rust, worn out bushings, worn out gaskets, etc., and I got tired of feeling like I wasn't going to make it to my destination during every trip.

The car I got satisfied all my main criteria except the transmission, but I was willing to sacrifice that to finally get the car I wanted for less than $5k.

As far as a fuel economy display goes, I use a ScanGaugeII. I'm at 39 mpg average on my current tank (almost down to a quarter tank). I'm not sure if it is me getting used to the car or the slightly higher temperatures. Maybe both.
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Old Mechanic,

Having lived in my area for 25 years and having delivered pizza for nearly 2 years in the same area, I know our stop light timing very well, and I definitely try to take advantage of it with hypermiling techniques. I'm glad most of our roads are 4 lanes, so people can go around me just to hit their brakes at the light (and they do a lot).

If I have to stop at the bottom of a hill (stop sign, drop off a delivery, etc.), I use Deceleration Fuel Cut Off (DFCO) which uses no fuel. I coast or slightly accelerate downhill if I know I can coast up the next hill. Otherwise, DFCO uses the least amount of fuel.

I always cut my engine off at the restaurant and while dropping off deliveries. I also cut my engine off at stop lights if I know I will be sitting there longer than just a few seconds.
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UltArc,

I have considered removing the backseat and spare tire. I'll probably argue with myself for weeks about whether to keep them "just in case" or just get rid of them and deal with it.

I have also considered fabricating some rear wheel skirts and removing at least my passenger side view mirror. I'm not sure about other aero mods at this time.
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Cobb,

I paid cash for my car ($5k), and I have commercial auto insurance. The car being repossessed or my insurance not covering damages is not an issue.

39 is good for an automatic delivery vehicle. Sounds like you've got a decent handle on things.

If you can keep it at the pizza place, then you can drive the spare tire there, leave it in a corner or with your stuff, and enjoy the benefits while being on duty and still having the security just a few miles away.

I would probably keep my mirrors, having to navigate different drive ways and streets.

If i'm not being rude, i'm curious what the economics are of pizza delivery. I mostly see SUV's and some newer model cars being used to deliver pizza. I assume it must be a lucrative venture? I thought about doing it once as a second job but (gas, maintenance, insurance?).

Keep both mirrors. You'll need them for parking close to the curbs. Do you have a rooftop sign? Thats a good point to start for aero gains. Pumping up your tires will help too.

Sheepdog,

How much money you can make delivering pizza depends on many things - the vehicle you use in relation to your mileage reimbursement, the tips in certain delivery areas, the amount of business the store gets, the hours you work, and much more.

Some drivers will make minimum wage or worse (if they aren't reimbursed enough for their vehicle expenses). Some drivers will make $10-$15/hr. The really good drivers in certain delivery areas can make $20+/hr. These numbers are after expenses.

There are a lot of details I can go into, but I don't want to take up too much of this thread talking about the details of how to make decent money delivering pizza. If you want to know more, let me know, and I will send you a PM about it.

I do not use a car topper (rooftop sign). Not only does it create more drag, it also makes me a target for potential robberies and can damage the paint. I don't deliver in a risky area, but I don't want to take the chance. Very little business results from car topper advertisement anyway. Luckily my manager doesn't make a big deal about it, and if she did, I'd use a window sign and leave the light off and let if fall off (oops, didn't notice).

By the way, the people driving gas guzzlers probably don't make a lot of money (maybe $10/hr. on average), because most pizza companies don't reimburse their drivers enough to cover the full expenses of gas guzzlers. Also, there are some drivers who deliver as a part-time job to supplement other forms of income, so it isn't a big deal, even though if they found an inexpensive fuel efficient vehicle it would probably pay for itself.

I find the economics of delivery driving interesting too.

When you say "after expenses" do you mean after all vehicle expenses (wear & tear, maintenance, depreciation) or just fuel?

MetroMPG,

Yes, after all vehicle expenses. This is how I calculate my net earnings per hour:

(Hourly pay + average tip + deliveries per hour + mileage reimbursement per hour) - vehicles expenses per hour = net earnings per hour

Basically, vehicle expenses and reimbursement are calculated per mile. Most drivers are reimbursed a set amount per delivery, and at my store, it fluctuates based on the price of gasoline. To calculate per mile reimbursement, you multiple your mileage reimbursement per delivery times your average deliveries per hour. Then divide that number by average number of miles driven per hour.

Most drivers foolishly don't keep up with their actual vehicle expenses, so they don't know what their actual expense per mile is. Based on what most drivers are reimbursed, many are probably losing somewhere between $0.10-$0.25 per mile by driving gas guzzlers or expensive new cars that depreciate a lot and having to pay a much higher insurance premium. If drivers choose the right vehicle for the job, they can have their full vehicle expenses be covered by the per delivery mileage reimbursement.

In my Yaris, I have calculated that my full vehicle expenses (fuel, depreciation, commercial insurance, tag/taxes, and maintenance) is around $0.27 per mile based on the amount of miles I drive in a year. Though I do estimate maintenance into that, I don't know the exact cost of maintenance, because I haven't had the vehicle long enough. I do thoroughly keep up with all my expenses.

Even though the $0.27 per mile is my full vehicles expenses, for my personal use, I usually don't factor in what my insurance premium, normal depreciation, and tag/taxes would be if I didn't use it for delivering, because I will have those costs no matter what. For that reason, I actually make money off my mileage reimbursement. However, most drivers lose money off mileage reimbursement. It all depends on what vehicle you drive for the job and how much a particular store is reimbursing you.

If you're curious what you could reasonably make delivering pizza, here are some numbers that average drivers produce:

Average hourly pay: $5 (many chain pizza restaurants pay their drivers a split rate of minimum wage while inside and a lower rate while on the road because of tip credit laws)

Average tip: $3.50

Average deliveries per hour: 2.5

If using the right vehicle and having your expenses be fully reimbursed, based on these very reasonable numbers that can be much better if you're really good at the job, you can make $13.75/hr. after expenses. Not bad for driving around listening to music, eh?

The downside is that your hours can change every week based on business unless you have a lot of opening or closing shifts. That's partly why it's mostly a part-time job for people. Only a couple of drivers per restaurant get close to full-time hours.

No doubt your Yaris will serve you well, as these cars are well made and very reliable, thus cheap to keep running.
Pump up tires, do a grillblock, but not more that cooling is OK for your urban driving. Also go to low rolling restistance tires when it time to change.
The Yaris will respond well to at bellypan.
Move antenna inside.
Take out back seat and clear car for stuff that is not needed everyday, as for instance spare tire (Depends on the roads good/bad). Lower weight will help MPG in urban driving.
Seal up, or tape areound hood and headlight / bumper/fenders for better areo.
Get a set of smoot hubcaps (Pizza pans) and make covers for rear wheel wells.

Good luck. Gotta love them Yarises... :)

When I joined the Army, I had a roommate who delivered pizza. Since he always pulled tons of cash from his pocket at the end of every day, he seemed to be doing pretty well. When I looked at the jobs that I could get with the Army, nothing interested me, so I said that I would find a job delivering pizza, and then the head recruiter showed me a job with a $30,000 bonus, which paid off my credit cards and much of my student loans.

That roommate recently joined the Army. One of my current roommates delivers pizza and says that he makes $12.50 an hour after gas and he drives an Impala. I honestly think that I might do that once I graduate until I can finish my certification although I hate to think of the wear an tear on my car.

I am pretty sure that I ruined a clutch in my first car delivering newspapers, but that was way more stop-and-go.

Also, I am a terrible paperboy! :)

I appreciate people that are experts in their field.
WilliamYH09, you sure sound like an expert in the Pizza biz.
An interesting read, thanks!

Thanks! Oh, maybe an engine block heater. If you're losing heat in between deliveries, your car will be enriching the fuel mixture every time your starting from cold.

I've always questioned the logic of using a gas guzzler to deliver pizza. Might as well tell the customer to keep the tip.

Thanks for the information about delivering pizza. I've considered doing it while going to school after I get out of the Army. How big is the difference between normal insurance and the commercial insurance?

Jyden,

Thanks for all the suggestions. So far I'm loving the Yaris.
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Xist,

Delivering definitely increases wear and tear, but that's what mileage reimbursement is for. If you drive a fuel efficient vehicle that isn't brand new, mileage reimbursement will cover most of your vehicle expenses, not just gas. That is why I wanted a used Yaris. The less I spend per mile on vehicle expenses, the more money I make.

$12.50/hr. is probably close to average in most delivery areas. Making much more is very possible.
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JeffD,

Thanks for the compliment. I strive to learn and keep improving with anything I do. It's part of the fun. Stagnation is boring.
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Sheepdog,

An engine block heater may be a good idea in winter. I wonder if that in addition to a grill block would be likely to overheat things? Also, I'm located in Alabama, and it doesn't get really cold here too often.
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vskid3,

The drivers using gas guzzlers need bigger tips to make up for the gas expense! I understand your point, though. Based on my average numbers at my job, if I drove a vehicle that gets 15 mpg, my pay would be reduced by $2.50 per hour compared to using my Yaris. I'd still make decent money, but not as much as I make in my Yaris.

In my case, commercial coverage is about 37% higher than normal insurance, all other things being equal. For example, if you currently pay $75 per month for normal insurance, switching to commercial would probably bump it up to $100 per month.

Most drivers aren't even aware that it's insurance fraud to use your vehicle for commercial purposes with only normal insurance. If they get into a wreck, the insurance company is likely to not cover any damages and then drop them. Better to use a vehicle that is inexpensive to own and operate and have commercial insurance. With the right vehicle, mileage reimbursement can cover full expenses, even commercial insurance. Either way, I don't think it's worth the risk to deliver while having normal insurance. I've personally seen drivers get screwed because of this. If you choose to deliver, upgrade your insurance. If you are good at the job, the money will more than make up for it.

I had not heard about commercial insurance for pizza delivery. It makes sense and hopefully it is better known among people who actually deliver pizza.

I wonder what the math is on driving your car hard so that you can make more deliveries versus babying it to keep more of the money that you do earn.

It's not pizza delivery, but I work for a local bank and do courier runs between all our branches and various businesses. My trips vary a lot, some in town, some longer runs. Anything in town makes driving economically harder, but I definitely learned a lot from the 101+ hypermiling tips on this site...especially leave room in traffic, learn light patterns on familiar routes to avoid stopping unnecessarily, and turn the engine off at long lights.

I nominate this discussion be moved to its own thread: Driving Economics.

This is interesting. It's fascinating to see there's money to be made driving pizza, I tended to relegate it to the backwater of jobs taken on by kids with poor math skills. I didn't know how the pay scales worked.

Xist,

That's what I'm working on figuring out this first month of delivering in my Yaris. I'm going to take it slow and keep my mpg as high as I can. At the end of the month I'm going to calculate my net mileage earnings for the month and average deliveries per hour. I'll then calculate what my net mileage earnings and deliveries per hour would be based on the EPA fuel economy of the car, which I'd assume is what "driving normal" would produce (it would probably be lower based on the type of driving delivery demands). I may have to drive normal for about a week so I can calculate my average mph to determine what my deliveries per hour would be. I can also use that week to determine average mpg while driving normal. While taking it easy and hypermiling, I'm averaging 25 mph (thanks, ScanGauge!).

My preliminary calculations are showing that I will make around $1.50/hr. less by hypermiling and disregarding my deliveries per hour. This is based on losing 0.5 deliveries per hour from hypermiling. What seems to be causing the loss is that we're reimbursed for our mileage based on amount of deliveries, so even though I would be spending less on gas, I would also be earning less on reimbursement. The main factor in making the most money delivering pizza is deliveries per hour. Average tip won't change much over the long run. Therefore, hypermiling doesn't seem to be economical during pizza delivery. Though there are still hypermiling techniques that can be used that won't affect deliveries per hour (accordion-style stop lighting, turning off engine at lights and drop offs, accelerating downhill and coasting uphill, etc.)

Hopefully I will be able to still get decent mpg without sacrificing deliveries per hour. It does kind of suck when you want to get the best mpg you can get, but have to deal with making less money at your job because of it. Makes me want 2 vehicles, but that wouldn't be very economical either.
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PressEnter,

Yes, I have also learned a lot from hypermiling tips and techniques. I'm especially thankful of the ones that increase my mpg without affecting my trip times.
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elhigh,

Don't be fooled. There are still plenty of those kinds of people taking up pizza delivery jobs. In fact, most don't have great math skills, and I'm sure they don't make much money delivering because of that.

The pay scale is based on net mileage earnings (or losses) and average deliveries per hour. Good drivers can increase their average tip with certain strategies making it even better. The differences in all these numbers is why the pay can range from minimum wage to over $20/hr. I guarantee the people you're referring to aren't making anywhere near $20/hr. delivering pizza, but there are people that do - few of them.

One of the reasons I love the job (other than the decent money) is that it's a fun and eccentric environment. I'm not a "normal" type of person that wants to have a desk job (no offense to anyone that is). In fact, my passion in life is gardening and permaculture. Delivering pizza is a means to get me to where I want to be later on.

In the meantime, I love hypermiling and all the nerdy aspects that go along with it. I love numbers and challenges that deal with numbers.