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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg I’ll have a pizza with a Prius to go please :D (cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=194418)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/16_10_Prius.jpgWayne Gerdes – CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) – Mar. 15, 2009

2010 Prius-III – Possibly a future 50 mpg Pizza delivery vehicle.

Tom Katsenos, the entrepreneur behind Pizza Fusion’s only Chicago area location, will be opening a Pizza Fusion in Naperville at 2555 W 75th St #123, Naperville, IL. Like all Pizza Fusion restaurants, the latest in Naperville, IL is designed and built to LEED certification standards and will reside next to Whole Foods in the Springbrook Prairie Pavilion - the first retail development in Du Page County to pursue LEED Silver Certification.

“Being in the restaurant business my entire life, I was attracted to Pizza Fusion’s combination of socially responsible restaurant service and delicious organic menu,” Katsenos explains. “Serving people is a joy for me. Now I can do this is while contributing the preservation of this precious planet of ours. Naperville has definitely embraced the environmental movement and Pizza Fusion will be a phenomenal partner in the city’s cause.”

Pizza Fusion, whose motto is ‘Saving the Earth, One Pizza at a Time,’ practices a world-centric approach to their entire existence, including their restaurants’ build-out, service and overall operations. Through building all of their restaurants to LEED standards, delivering their food in company owned hybrid vehicles and smart cars, and offsetting 100% of their power consumption with the purchase of renewable energy certificates (among many other things), Pizza Fusion is pioneering the sustainable restaurant movement as the most eco-friendly restaurant in America.

In the United States, restaurants are the top electricity consumer among retail businesses, accounting for 33% of the total consumption. Each restaurant produces an average of 50,000 pounds of waste per year. Pizza Fusion’s restaurants reduce water waste by 40 percent and electricity consumption by 20 percent annually. Pizza Fusion’s restaurants feature a number of unique, eco-efficient products, techniques and designs. Pizza Fusion restaurants’ eco-elements include countertops made from recycled glass, low VOC paints, USG Gypsum Board made from pre-used drywall, CFL lighting, furniture made from reclaimed wood, cabinets made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood, 100% recycled plastic chairs, and much more – all the way down to the 100 percent post consumer toilet paper in their bathrooms.

When this Naperville Pizza Fusion opens its doors in April, expect personal pizza delivery to occur via Toyota Prius hybrids.

Sounds like my kind of place. - Dale

Hi Dale:

___When I was putting this one together, you were the person I was thinking about! On a cents/mile basis, your Geo Metro opens up a can of "whoop @$$" on the Prus-II or III however :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I soo want the Prius' mileage capabilities, I've been doing routine maintenance so much lately that I haven't made any "improvements". It's getting warmer though and I've got some Basjoosian ideas. :D - Dale

shouldn't they use the FFH?

Hi Ksstathead:

___For a pizza place, the Prius would probably be the best choice.

___For a single individual with a long haul city/suburban/highway commute for comfort, the FFH makes sense.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Maybe Ksstathead thought about the FFH because of the word "Fusion" in the company's name. ;)

LOL :D

In Gainesville, FL I saw at least four drivers from different franchises using A 1st gen Prius I, Prius II, HI1, and an HCHI, can't help but to think that if they drove them even close to what we do here, that those folks were raking in some extra money, over their peers.

Yep, my post was a mere name play. Sorry.

Maybe they should stick to PHEV's. Pizza Humping Electric Vehicles.

A pizza fusion opened just south of me last year. I saw their Prius delivery cars parked close to the highway, so i checked out their website. I liked what i saw on their website. so i took my wife there and we had pizza.
Unfortunately, the pizza was not very good, and i LOVE pizza. It was edible, but it really was in the bottom 10% of pizza i have had. Shame, and it was quite expensive too. The cocept is great, but they have to deliver the goods also, and, at least for us, they didn't.

Hi Blackbelt:

___I am not at all into the Vegan Pizza and such and with great Pizza in the Chicago area, Pizza Fusion would not be one of my choices either... Still love the idea of the franchise and delivery vehicles however.

___Ksstathead, ooopppsss :rolleyes: Fusion = Fusion :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hi Blackbelt:

___I am not at all into the Vegan Pizza and such and with great Pizza in the Chicago area, Pizza Fusion would not be one of my choices either... Still love the idea of the franchise and delivery vehicles however.

___Ksstathead, ooopppsss :rolleyes: Fusion = Fusion :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hi Wayne,
There is NO comparison to Chicago pizza and this place. When i was in Chicago on business, we had some Chicago pizza and it was in the top 3 i have ever had. It's a good thing i don't live there or i would put on 100 pounds!
We actually were conservative and got a pepperoni pizza on mutigrain crust.
I haven't tried any of their other foods, but i think i might. I like the way they are doing things, and i would like to see them be successful.

Boy! I would love to work at a place like Pizza Fusion. I don't know how many pizza deliveries I've made while working at the local Pizza Hut for the past 4 years, but I know it must be a lot. I usually average 18,000 miles a year on my car. Hence, why I'm getting an Insight. Then I can sneer at all the non-tippers :). Also, I asked my RGM (the restaurant manager) if I could put up trash cans so we could start recycling. So we've been doing that for maybe a year, which is really rewarding. I flinched every time I'd have to drop a can or bottle into the trash before that :). Anyways, we have to use our own cars to deliver so the company would NEVER buy us a Prius to use...

Boy! I would love to work at a place like Pizza Fusion. I don't know how many pizza deliveries I've made while working at the local Pizza Hut for the past 4 years, but I know it must be a lot. I usually average 18,000 miles a year on my car. Hence, why I'm getting an Insight. Then I can sneer at all the non-tippers :). Also, I asked my RGM (the restaurant manager) if I could put up trash cans so we could start recycling. So we've been doing that for maybe a year, which is really rewarding. I flinched every time I'd have to drop a can or bottle into the trash before that :). Anyways, we have to use our own cars to deliver so the company would NEVER buy us a Prius to use...

Seriously, there are people who don't tip you when you deliver a pizza??? Whenever i have a pizza delivered, i tip a minimum of $5. If i order 2 pizzas, I tip at least $8.
How could someone not tip? Amazing. If you can't afford to to tip, then you can't afford to order the pizza.

I've worked at stores where 5-6 out of 25-30 deliveries were stiffs (no tips) and/or you get 3-4 tiplets (not quite a tip, less than a dollar) and the average tip for the 25-30 deliveries would be about $2.00 each.

Consider you take 30 deliveries made $60 in tips for 9-10 hours, drove 120-140 miles in town, spent $10-15 in gas, not to mention wear and tear and you really do put a lot of that on a pizza car, especially brakes and tires, have to avoid careless dangerous drivers, endure abusive customers, be safety conscious of your surroundings to prevent theft or worse and drive more in inclement weather (if it rains or snows, your busy). This is a bad night scenario. The good night scenario is exactly the same but the tips are doubled or better.

I've been attacked by a customer once (I couldn't make change for a $100 bill...he got mad and hit me in the jaw.) I called the police, my shift leader gave him free food. :eyebrow: Customer went to jail the next week.

I prevented a setup/robbery (seen the suspicious "I didn't order pizza customer" glance over my shoulder behind me as I was talking to him, I jumped off the porch as the guy hiding in the bushes was preparing to swing at my head with a board, I ran to my car and overcompensated my position while waking up the neighbors with my loud loud profane rebuttal, bush boy ran for his life, non-customer slammed the door shut, days later a girl from another company got robbed 3 houses down, similar situation;

and I forced a thief to return the stolen pizzas to my open convertible or I would kick dents down the side of his friends car as they attempted to drive off (they lifted a bag outta my car while I delivered to a convenience store, I was watching my car as the passenger stole my pizzas. I ran out of the store and caught them before they backed up.

I've seen cars follow me to a delivery, I'll stop, they stop, I won't get out, they don't get out, I'll drive off and do a U turn and high beam them, they drive off, I'll call the customer and get them to open the door before I get out of the car. Good times. :D- Dale

After counting all the costs of running a vehicle, plus income and FICA taxes on those tips, is there anything left over?

I once ordered the spouse not to go to a followup interview on a potential job that paid too little for the driving distance or bus commuting time involved. Of course, that was exactly the answer she wanted to hear. A minimum wage job within walking distance would have been a better deal.

It pays the bills. If your willing to switch to different stores you can find the good store even in tough times. I'm pulling 38 hours a week and doing better than I was a year ago.

I have every Monday and Tuesday off, I spent one summer training to be a whitewater river guide, getting off work at 2PM Friday and driving 4.5 hours to WV and coming home Sunday night. Good times. I used to get free food like.... like it was free. But understandably that is not happening now. Medical and dental is available for about $8 a week with good coverage as long as you don't get sick.:eyebrow: I think it's $20 a week for family.

I've got a "friend" who went to the beach for the summer and made $16K in 13 weeks, take home, a few years ago, he probably would do that every summer but he told the younger manager to get off her butt and get back to work. (cute girl surrounded by every non driving guy in the store, while pizzas are not getting made and phones ringing like crazy) They don't fire you for that, they just don't rehire you for the next summer, or the next... Burning bridges IS a career move, never a smart one albeit.

To make money you have to have a reliable car with good fuel economy, everything else works itself out as long as your mindful of your surrounds, can make change, not afraid of dogs and don't tell your managers how to do their jobs (:o). Certainly not the hardest job I've ever had.

Some people have been known to take home 36k a year, consistently. Just gotta move around your 25 mile radius from home to find the well managed, level labored, store in a safe area. Sometimes it's better than working for a living..... ;)