Plug in Pepperoni? You Won’t Hear This Montana Pizza Coming
You might not be ready to own your own electric car yet in Montana. But chances are if you order a Domino's pizza it's going to be arriving via battery power.
That's because Domino's has completed a major upgrade of its delivery vehicles, putting 30 electric cars on the road for its Western Montana stores. Franchise owner Jeremy McMillan says the new delivery cars started coming online at the end of November.
McMillan says it's all part of Domino's corporate mission statement to support clean energy and the environment. And locally, it helps his stores by improving efficiency and helping to attract new delivery drivers who like the idea of working with something new and exciting by "opening up the hiring pool.
"You know better nicer cars for delivery drivers to drive," McMillan explains. "You know, safer cars possibly, depending on what they're driving. But we can control our own fleet."
He says a lot of times drivers would have problems with their own cars, but with the electrics "that's not an issue anymore" because he tell drivers he has the vehicles ready to go.
"It's hopefully better for customers, because if we can continue to staff the stores, ee get the pizzas (out) quicker," McMillan observes.
McMillan explains he's leased the cars, so that means they will be replaced every 3-years.
And what did it take to make such a dramatic shift in Montana?
McMillan says the main thing was installing the charges in each of the local stores.
"Each one of our stores will now have more electric chargers than the rest of the city combined," he jokes.
And the performance has been good, even in the cold weather.
"The cold weather is bringing down the charge a little bit," McMillan says. "But it looks like we get about a day and 1/2 to two days out of a charge."
Half a dozen of the cars are on the road in Missoula, with 6 more of the Chevy Bolts in Butte, 2 in Bozeman, and more coming online in Polson and Hamilton.