Virtual Dispatch

Back in the day, at home delivery was rare. It was all about pizza, if delivery was available. Unless it was the lumber yard delivering new home building supplies. Those days of no or extremely rare delivery are not part of a fiction story.

Furthermore, it wasn’t a case of the at home delivery being rare. It just simply didn’t exist. Even pizza delivery was rare and mostly only available from one of the two name brands. Additionally, it might only have been one name brand. Officially, that is.

However, there were only a handful of places willing to try keeping a delivery driver on the payroll. In cases where the drivers remained, the service began to catch on. Godfather’s pizza was one such place. In another decade just a few years before this one Godfather’s pizza was a big deal in my city.

The average courier pay

In those days deliveries were called in by telephone. The kind tethered to a wall. Speaking of walls, the GPS tracking system in those days took up most of the wall. A giant paper map, once deployed. Furthermore, it was an interactive mapping system. The courier used a pencil and piece of paper, and wrote the street names and turns, thereon.

With this in mind, once the courier left the merchant, in those days, the ways to communicate dropped to about one (payphone). Or two, if the courier went to a stranger’s house, and asked to use the phone. This was the only way to call the merchant, or the drop-off location.

Furthermore, if the customer didn’t answer that phone call, the whole delivery was a wash. Forget star sixty nine, it wasn’t invented yet. Additionally, the courier had to use every old school trick to find the address. Although in those days it was new school.

It all finished with a two dollar tip. In cash. Then the courier would return to the merchant. There might be another delivery. Similarly there might not. In the early days of delivery, merchants that did delivery, didn’t have it widely advertised. It was as much a novelty, as service. Particularly, in the nineteen eighties.

Fast forward to this day and age, and another delivery has become available in the queue. Furthermore, it is from that new place the courier has been curious about. How cool to have a delivery from an unknown merchant. This could be the start of a beneficial arrangement.

Then and now

Additionally, the courier will be able to quickly communicate with the drop-off location. Just in case there are any problems. (The pay phone is now a handheld model, and more personal) Also the differences between the timelines, are like night and day.

The only universal constant, is the tip. It still averages about the same. Which speaks to the essence of the average courier pay. That is also a lighthearted jest. Indeed, the courier of today has advantages for earning that the courier of yesteryear, only dreamed about. Stay safe out there.

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