Domino’s Pizza is investing in a fleet of 800 electric Chevrolet Bolts painted in Domino’s livery to supplement its understaffed driving crew.
As the world’s largest pizza company, Domino’s investment in EVs represents a particularly high-profile adoption of electric transportation by the fast food industry.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but we will have the biggest fleet of electric vehicles in the pizza industry, period,” Domino’s CEO Russell Weiner said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
After receiving comments from site owners that they couldn’t hire new delivery drivers because owning a car was too high a barrier to entry, especially in this economy, Domino’s concluded that giving vehicles was the solution to help solve that problem.
The alleged lower maintenance costs of Chevy EVs were critical in their selection. While certain Domino’s outlets would need to install chargers, the pie vendors are sure that the expense will be offset by the money saved on gas and maintenance.
The approach is also a significant departure from employing gig economy apps like DoorDash and GrubHub for delivery services, on which many cost-cutting food restaurants, including direct competitors like Papa John’s and Pizza Hut, have relied, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the cutting edge of pizza delivery—and climate action
in addition to being a helpful recruitment tool, the branded Chevy Bolts will assist Domino’s meet its carbon-dioxide commitments—a huge priority in this day and age.
“Domino’s has always been on the cutting edge of pizza delivery and electric delivery cars make sense as vehicle technology continues to evolve,” Weiner said in the interview. “We’ve made a commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and this is one way we can begin reducing our environmental impact, one delivery at a time.”
Acquiring this vast fleet of EVs, which are slated to begin rolling out in the US this month, will be an intriguing test of the practicality of similar brand EV programs, as well as a potential staging ground in a push-back against gig labor.
