When the weather becomes dangerous, delivery people need to take caution on the icy roads.
A blanket of snow covering campus might look nice to the students passing by, but for a delivery person, the snow-covered streets are potentially more dangerous than delightful.
“For the drivers who have cars, it’s going to be difficult because when you get back up on High Street and up there, you could literally die back there,” said John Zinno, a founder and former delivery person for OU Delivery and a junior studying specialized studies in business administration and franchising.
OU Delivery charges the same in the winter for its services, but deliverers typically receive bigger tips than they do in warmer months, Zinno said.
The weather has affected the delivery services.
Last year during a winter storm, OU Delivery got backed up and was nearly two hours late with orders, Zinno said.
An even larger problem came when OU Delivery did not have a car yet and had to do deliveries by bike and foot. Zinno said he once had to deliver Chipotle to The Summit at Coates Run Student Apartments on a bike.
“I remember grabbing that bag and I just rode one-handed all the way there,” he said. “It was so terrible. It was so cold and I had no gloves. I had a little hoodie on and I got there and the lady said, ‘Did you run here? What happened?’ ”
He got a good tip, Zinno said.
The bad weather poses a similar problem for delivery people with Jimmy John’s, 16 S. Court St. Although the drivers still go out in bad weather and typically receive larger tips, the service is not the best, said Adam Miller, a manager at Jimmy John’s.
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“Unfortunately, when the weather is bad, our service times aren’t as quick as we’d like, but that’s just because we’re taking matters of precaution of being careful and safe,” Miller said.
Although there has never been a tragic occurrence, it is common for the delivery people to get stuck, especially somewhere with a large hill, Miller said. Most of the drivers carry around salt in their cars and will call for help if they get stuck.
“Part of the issue we come into is just getting drivers to get out of the parking lot,” Miller said. “There are times when we get drivers stuck in our parking lot because there is no way to get the plow back in there.”
Jimmy John’s continues to serve during bad weather but takes its drivers off the road if an emergency vehicle instructs them to do so or if the boss considers there to be hazardous road conditions, Miller said.
Bagel Street Deli, 27 S. Court St., normally does not have a problem with the bad weather and typically does not have too many deliveries, said Max Pendell, a junior studying theater production design and technology.
“The worst part of the driving is the other drivers,” Pendell said. “A lot of people who are from out of town don’t know what to do on all the icy hills.”
Despite not having many troubles with the bad weather, the delivery people still “bundle up” and take on the icy streets, Pendell said. There is no extra charge except the regular fee of delivery.
“We go at it with a good attitude,” Pendell said. “If there is bad weather, we’ll get a few more deliveries so it’s good for business.
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