by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
Delivering food may not be someone’s ideal job, but after working in the newspaper business for many years, Paul Ivice took this job for various reasons, but one was to stay in Jacksonville for his son.
Ivice came to Jacksonville in 1983 and worked at The Florida Times-Union and the Daily Record, before taking a job where he is known as, “the delivery guy.” Ivice wanted to leave Jacksonville, but he decided to stay here to be with his son.
“I have a greater love for my son,” said Ivice. “I make money whatever way I can for him.”
The idea for his company, Working Lunch, came from a company just like it called, New York Minute. Both companies are outside delivery services for restaurants, but New York Minute didn’t work out. Paul Smith, owner of Larry’s Giant Subs, 100 E. Forsyth St., knew Ivice for quite a while and mentioned to him that their delivery guy from New York Minute got injured and was unable to deliver food anymore.
“I have a flexible schedule, so I decided to do this,” said Ivice.
Ivice also does free-lance writing for the Business Journal and umpires girls softball and boys baseball.
“I got sucked into this gradually. I did a little bit and you find a niche where nobody else is doing that service and I took advantage of it,” said Ivice.
Currently Ivice is delivering food for downtown restaurants such as Quizno’s Subs, Larry’s Giant Subs, Worman’s, European Street Cafe, Casa Dora, Burrito Gallery, and Ieyasu.
For a while, Ivice was only delivering for Quizno’s Subs, Larry’s Giant Subs and Worman’s. He found that he wasn’t very busy so he contacted more restaurants to see if they would be interested in having an outside delivery service.
“I am trying to do this gradually to maintain a good level of customer service,” he said. “I am comfortable with this number.”
Ivice approached all of the restaurants that he is currently delivering for and found out most of them were sending their own employees out for deliveries.
“Paul (Smith) got me started,” said Ivice. “I needed to do more to make it more worthwhile.”
It was also important for him to pick a variety of restaurants so there wasn’t any competition.
Smith said there are many benefits to using an independent contractor for a delivery service.
“It has been a real benefit for us,” he said. “It really helps our staff so they don’t have to deliver food.”
Smith also said that there isn’t a liability issue when using an independent contractor.
Felicia Kumar, manager and owner of Quizno’s Subs on Hogan Street, said Ivice has helped them tremendously.
“It is very convenient for local business and for us,” she said. “It is a win-win situation for the customer and us, too.”
Ivice has been delivering for Quizno’s for about a year and a half. Kumar said it has increased her business because she says she loses a lot of business due to not enough parking downtown.
“He comes in real handy because he has a car,” said Kumar. “I used to have to leave the store during the busy lunch hours to make deliveries and now I don’t have to.”
When any of the seven restaurants get an order that’s requested to be delivered, the restaurant calls Ivice, who does not take orders for the restaurants.
His target audience is large companies for business meetings, or if clients are coming in, but he will also deliver one sandwich, he said.
Ivice works from 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m., Monday - Friday and on Saturday he is on an on-call basis.
Ivice has door signs on his car and made up fliers to help get the word out about his business. Just last week he added a second driver because he gets busier towards the end of the week.
Ivice hired Lamont Bell who is a friend of his and is also an umpire with him. Ivice said right now Bell is only working Wednesday through Friday. He chose Bell because he is reliable and has good people skills.
Ivice said one Friday he made five deliveries from five different restaurants between 11:20 a.m. and noon.
“I’ve been in the city for a long time. I know people, I know my way around and what streets are where,” said Ivice. “I am just trying to make something real out of this.”