What's the best way to make money as a food-delivery driver? Work for a restaurant that delivers bagels and/or pizza. CNBC looked at data provided by online delivery service GrubHub and discovered that pizza and popular breakfast items — like bagels, egg sandwiches, and "yogurt muffins" — often predicated a larger-than-average tip for the delivery driver. When looking specifically at tips left during the colder winter months, an order containing a plain slice of pizza led to a 16.4 percent delivery tip (compared to the 13.9 percent national average year-round), one percent more than what people who orderer a sausage slice often tipped. Bagels and egg sandwiches, meanwhile, took four of the top six predictive slots, at a 15.8 or 15.8 percent tip for each. (Perhaps winter diners feel guilty over making a delivery driver bring breakfast over at 8a.m.)
The data also measured whether or not diners felt cold-weather guilt toward their delivery drivers, to varying results. The often-snowy Denver had the highest average winter tip — at 15.7 percent — but was followed by two Texas cities, where cold weather doesn't come into play. Of course, diners should try to be considerate when ordering food delivery in unbearable conditions: During an impending blizzard last month, New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio discouraged New Yorkers from forcing food-delivery drivers onto the roads, stressing that "a food delivery bicycle is not an emergency vehicle."