Dominos Pizza has worldwide delivery driver shortage

• 26 July 2022
• Transport / Logistics Services

Delivery driver shortages continue to dog Domino’s Pizza’s operations globally as it faces increasing competition from other food delivery businesses for riders and drivers in the market.

According to the company, delivery sales at stores open at least a year fell by 11.7% year over year in the second financial quarter.

Getting and retaining delivery riders and drivers has long been a problem across the pizza delivery industry. In March, Dominos’ then CEO Ritch Allison warned that this would be a drag on the business. Rivals Pizza Hut has also seen similar issues.

The lack of delivery drivers comes in the midst of a surge in demand for pizzas to be delivered. While delivery sales fell year over year compared to the same quarter last year, they were still 8% above pre-pandemic levels.

In order to maximise store staff availability for deliveries, Dominos is increasingly using call centres to handle orders. Roughly 40% of the chain’s stores in the US were doing this. At the same time the pizza delivery company is also looking at offering more flexible shift patterns to make it more attractive to potential riders and drivers.

“One of the key issues for delivery drivers is flexibility,” said Domino’s CEO Russell Wiener on Thursday’s call. Letting drivers work shorter shifts, fewer hours per week and sign up for assignments last minute are “areas where we are continuing to evaluate and evolve our practices,” he said.