30 Minute Pizza Delivery Dangerous? A Maine Car Insurance Perspective
A few years ago it seemed like every pizza company on the planet was promising delivery in 30 minutes or less. Domino’s Pizza was perhaps the most famous company that used the catchy slogan “30 minutes or free”. For consumers, this seemed like a fantastic deal. If your pizza didn’t arrive in the prescribed time period, it was free, and of course you didn’t feel the need to tip the driver, because they didn’t do their job! Right?
On the surface, it sounded like a good way to keep the pizza restaurants accountable, but it led to some serious side-effects for Maine car insurance. When thinking about the side-effects, it’s important to remember:
- Most delivery drivers are young males around the age of 18 – hardly the most responsible kind of driver.
- Most of the vehicles used are “old beaters”.
- The delivery drivers are trying to deliver the pizza as quick as they can.
- They are often focused on the directions on a paper, cell phone, or GPS instead of being focused on the road.
All of these things spell a recipe for disaster, and that is exactly what happened. There were a number of accidents that contributed to the demise of the “30 minute delivery”, but Snopes.com reported that there was a serious accident in 1993 that sealed the deal. Jean Kindler was struck by a Domino’s Pizza Delivery Driver, and suffered injuries to her back and her head. She sued Domino’s and was awarded $750,000 in actual damages and $78 million dollars in punitive damages.
W.J. Wheeler, your trusted source for Maine car insurance, is glad that the pizza industry is now more concerned with the safety of their drivers and the safety of others on the roads. And just because there is no more “30 minutes or free” guarantee doesn’t mean that Domino’s isn’t concerned with the quality of their products and their delivery. For example, they still offer a guarantee that you will be pleased with their product, but it is a quality guarantee and not a time dependent one.
Timothy Dillmuth
www.twitter.com/timdillmuth
