Saturday, September 21, 2013

Pizza (and chicken) Time!

 

 Last May, I stopped at a place called Pastavino's and there was a sign stating "Driver Wanted". I asked and then reached an agreement that I can be on call in the afternoon and evening for deliveries since I live less than 10 minutes away.

Usually I make $5-10 per delivery (including tip) and have between 5 and 10 deliveries per week. Though it does not solve my financial situation (as someone actually thought it did as I need to leave a party to make a delivery) it helps. The only time I made significant money was during the town fair when I was delivering food to their booth all weekend.

I have discovered over the past 4 months that weather will play a part in the number of deliveries I have. When we had a storm last week, I was expecting a call but did not get one.

After the storm passed, I got a call for a delivery which was later than usual. On my way there on Irving Park Road, I notice police lights at Wood Dale Road and a three car accident. There was a traffic cop directing people going my direction to turn south as the road was blocked. Since I needed to go three blocks further east, I was considering going back around to get back on Irving but noticed police were now blocking traffic as I hear a fire truck arrive.

Knowing the streets in the residential area, I knew where to turn to avoid speed bumps and driving around fallen branches and other debris got to the point where there is a street to get back to Irving. However, construction over the railroad tracks that started that day blocked it.

I continued around a large fallen branch forcing me to drive on the curb to pass and notice the street was blocked by a fallen tree. I turned around and knew I had to head south a ways to get to a street that connects to Route 83 so I could head back north to get to Irving to head west.

What usually took a couple minutes took 15. Where was the delivery? On the same street as the closed railroad crossing. Fortunately I noticed the fallen tree was being removed as I passed it on route 83 and was able to make the delivery with a slight detour to get a $3 tip plus the $2.50 delivery fee.

Here is the map: