The payoff is steep: up to $200 on a good night. The risk is rare, but when it comes to pass, you've got a gun in your face or are outnumbered with nowhere to go but down.

Food delivery drivers lead a lonesome shift and have been the victims of some heinous crimes in South Jersey. Following the armed robberies of two out-of-town drivers coming into Woodbury, drivers, bosses and police say there are ways to avoid becoming a victim, but it comes with the territory.

"That's when the risk and the reward don't pay out," Dan Galda, a delivery driver with Victory Chinese Food in Deptford, said of carrying small amounts of cash at all times.

Galda, 27, is a preschool physical education teacher in addition to the delivery driver gig, which he was doing while earning a degree from Rowan University. He's also been beaten and robbed on the job before.

For a six-hour shift, he said tips alone can stack up to between $170 and $200 a night. He's also the only driver on duty for a single shift, which can translate to 10 deliveries in an hour-and-a-half.

"It's not necessarily easy, but it's as enjoyable a job as you can get," he said last week as a five-stop tour of Deptford and nearby communities got under way -- 94.1 WIP sports talk on the radio up front and brown paper bags full of someone's dinner in the back.

"The majority of people you meet are pretty nice. A lot of (professional) athletes live in the area," he said while traveling along Delsea Drive and passing by his restaurant on the way to another delivery.

On duty, Galda rarely uses a GPS and barely needed a second glance at addresses after leaving the Deptford site. He called one of the recipients upon arrival, but that's only because the door bells at the apartment complex don't work.

It's not always this straightforward.

One of Galda's co-workers was the victim of a Feb. 3 armed robbery in Woodbury after arriving at a vacant house and being met by a lone man on the porch. Not long after, the man pulled out a handgun and two other suspects appeared.

One day later, a driver for Frankie's Pizza, in Westville, was the victim of the same crime under very similar circumstances. The bandits got the food they ordered and about $400 and $200, respectively.

Woodbury detectives were able to nail down three city minors, one who is 16 and two 17 years olds, as suspects and lodge robbery, conspiracy and weapons possession charges against them.

What's more, authorities believe an airsoft pistol was the weapon wielded during the stickups.

"It's all a guess -- you just have to go by feel," Galda said of walking into what could become a dangerous situation.

In 2013, a little more than 4,400 people in the U.S. suffered fatal work injuries; 101 of them were from New Jersey.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), delivery drivers face a slew of on-the-job risks. They include contact with the public, exchanging money, having a mobile workplace, working with potentially unstable or volatile persons, working alone, working late at night or during early morning hours and working in high crime areas.

Food delivery drivers fall into the federally-defined category of transportation and material movers, which includes occupations such as truck drivers, parking lot attendants and taxi drivers. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures from 2013, 40 New Jersey workers within the transportation and material moving field were killed on the job. Of that number, 10 were the victims of violence.

Asked what NIOSH does with the data they collect, office representatives said information is shared with the public through various means and used in documents such as peer-reviewed articles.

Woodbury police Capt. Tom Ryan said officers visited the businesses where the robbery victims worked and provided pamphlets on delivery driver safety tips.

The pamphlet suggests such business practices as credit cards being the preferred form of payment after 9 p.m., allowing drivers to wear plain clothes so they don't look like an employee or dropping off excess cash at the business between deliveries.

"Carry yourself with authority," Ryan said when asked for advice to give to delivery drivers. "Make sure you're not followed. When making a transaction, don't flash a lot of money."

"Be aware of your soundings as best you can," he said, adding that it's tough for drivers like Galda who are coming from an out-of-town business and probably aren't expecting to arrive at a vacant house.

Galda has learned a few tricks of the trade during the eight years he's been a delivery driver, but he's also been the victim.

After working an open-to-close shift, he was about to call it a night following a delivery to the Narraticon Apartments, in Deptford. That's when he was pulled down to the ground after walking around the side of his car, beaten with a stick, socked in the face and had his cellphone smashed.

His assailants took all the money he had on him, which was between $800 and $900.

"I didn't see anything. By the time I saw anything, I was on the ground and once they took the money, they were out of there," he said.

Asked if he had been in the shoes of his coworker and confronted by armed subjects, Galda said they've already won.

"At that point, I am at his mercy. There's nothing he can take from me I can't get back ... I'm not going to try to fight him if he's got a gun," he said.

Asked if he's considering arming himself, "Nobody's saying, 'Don't carry pepper spray.'"

Last month, a Papa John's driver in Atlanta, Georgia, shot a would-be robber in the face. Company policy does not allow employees to carry weapons, but the female worker will be reassigned to work inside a store rather than be fired, according to media reports.

In June 2004, a delivery driver in Millville was shot to death during a stop at Mill Village Apartments. Jian Hui Lin, 37, was robbed of $140, the food he was delivering and his life. Kyle A. Walker, who was 16 at the time, pleaded guilty in 2004 to first degree felony murder and first degree robbery following the incident that involved five other teens.

Karen Zheng, who has worked as a cashier at Victory for close to a year, said last week that money is secondary.

"We worry about him," she said of delivery drivers.

Zheng said she was at the business when Woodbury police came by to investigate the Feb. 3 incident, asking how much money was stolen, how much money the driver had with him and seeking a receipt for the order. Detectives came last Wednesday to get phone records as a way of tracking down who placed the order that led to the armed robbery.

"They're smart. They had a gun," Zheng said of the threat of armed robberies, adding that the business can't refuse orders to that area of Woodbury, but can be more careful in the future.

For Galda, who is trying to save up enough money to buy a home, the money is too good to give up on just yet.

"It's the one hazard of the work place. That, traffic tickets and car repairs."

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Greg Adomaitis may be reached at gadomaitis@southjerseymedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregAdomaitis. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.