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Should I tip my Uber or Lyft driver? [Poll]

Is your inclination to tip drivers changing? (Photo: Uber)

Is your inclination to tip drivers changing? (Photo: Uber)

Last week I received an earful of anger from an UberX driver about how recent discounting by the ridesharing app is translating to less money for its drivers.

He complained about how expensive it is to operate a car in San Francisco and that his costs are going up at a time when his revenues are going down. He said he thought that Uber “wants all its drivers to end up homeless” or “put Lyft out of business” and that he supported the various driver protests taking place in San Francisco during Super Bowl week.

Since I had accepted his ride at 1.6x surge I asked, “Well it seems I’m paying Uber surge pricing a lot more these days, don’t you guys make more when a surge is in effect? And aren’t you paying less for gas these days?”

He said something like, “Yes, we make more during surge, but it’s not enough to counteract the losses during non-surge, which is most of the time.” He did not respond to my question about lower gas prices.

His diatribe went on for nearly the length of my 20-minute ride across town. When I got out of the car, I thought to myself, “Jeez this guy needs to find another job.”

I also wondered if perhaps he was gunning for a tip.

I did not tip him, but it made me wonder… should I be tipping my Uber drivers these days?

When Uber first cranked up five years ago, one of the hallmarks of the new service was that it was cashless… there’s nothing to do at the end of the ride except to say “thanks” and “goodbye.” It was my understanding that the tip was built into the rate and that the the tip would be taken care of by Uber.

What about you? Please take our TravelSkills poll at the bottom of this post!

But that understanding and ease is starting to erode. I’ve asked around have found that, at least anecdotally,  a lot of folks are now tipping their Uber drivers with cash. I get emails from Uber drivers asking me to encourage users to start tipping more. As a matter of fact, I did a quick Twitter poll this week and found that about 30% of my followers regularly tip Uber or Lyft drivers. And with UberX saving me so much on rides these days, I wouldn’t mind tossing in a tip from time to time.

But should I?

Image: Lyft

Add a tip after riding Image: Lyft

Uber’s FAQs clearly discourage tipping, stating, “You don’t need cash when you ride with Uber. Once you arrive at your destination, your fare is automatically charged to your credit card on file — there’s no need to tip.” So if you do want to tip your driver, you have to do it with cash– which can be unwieldy and time consuming and awkward if you don’t have the right change. (Update: UberTAXI does allow users to leave tips)

On the other hand, Lyft, which I have started to use a lot more frequently, encourages tipping, but only after the ride. When you get your receipt, it asks if you’d like to tip your driver. It even offers a “how to tip your driver” page on its website. Nonetheless, when I ask my friends if they tip on Lyft…or ask my Lyft drivers how often they get tips, it sounds somewhat rare.

On FlyWheel, the taxi industry’s new mobile platform, “You can adjust the tip amount (percentage) at any point during your ride or up to 5 minutes after. The tip is automatically applied and charged to your card along with the metered fare and $1 service fee. On average, most passengers leave a 20% tip so that’s where we set the default amount.”

So, in the end, even though that Uber driver irritated me with his complaining, he made me re-assess my tipping practices when it comes to ride-sharing. So starting now, if I have a few extra bills or a $5, I’ll offer it to a good Uber driver. And I will regularly say “yes” when Lyft asks me for a tip. And as always, I’ll tip my taxi driver with cash, or via FlyWheel.

What about you? Please take our TravelSkills poll or leave your comments below. 

Do you regularly tip your Uber or Lyft driver?

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Please click the clear-looking or “vote” button

Update: Check out this online forum of Uber drivers under the headline “Gratuity”

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Comments

  2. How much do you tip your doctor? Your supermarket clerk? Your bus driver? Your car mechanic? Your dental hygienist? Your Macy*s clerk?

  4. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. Most of you do not tip because you are cheap, selfish, and could care less how much you weigh down on others as long as you get to live it up being driven around at extremely cheap rates. Tipping is now built in to Uber and Lyft apps, Lyft has always prompted customers to tip, but most of you never do. Consumers use to pay a lot more in cab rates, and tipping was and is generally the rule in cabs. So now you ride in people’s private, newer cars where the employee pays for the maintence, wear and tear, gas, car payments, insurance, mileage, cleaning, parking, etc…. and you pay them LESS and tip very rarely. Riders are no better than the corporations they complain about that take all the money for themselves and maximize the hardship on the hard workers. On top of that, a Lyft and Uber experience is almost always ten times better than a cab who is usually an angry older man on his phone the hole time and a dirty vehicle interior and a filthy dash and often smelling like cigarettes. I’m 24, liberal, and recognize This is about entitlement. Many of you feel entitled to force businesses to give you things at extremely cheap rates just so you can have and do more more more. You could not care less that your selfish desire to maximize your materialism and plush services is actually taking money from those who really need it to make their rent, phone bill(navigation and apps use tons data driving), living expenses, and then maybe hopefully decent groceries. Forget nights out, dinner with friends and family, beach bonfires, concerts, games, and all those other things we drop you guys off at. We cant afford those things these days because we are stuck paying for more than drivers ever had or would have to so you can be cheap and selfish. — but what do I really know. I’m a driver. We aren’t allowed to have opinions. When one of us dare has an opinion, we get ugly articles like this written about us with ugly comments below.

  5. If being cheap is what you think I care about, you clearly did not take the time to read or comprehend the points in my comment. Tipping is an antiquated institution for a cash based world, that can and should be replaced by information-based feedback systems to achieve the same stated goals without the negative externalities. That is: fair living wages for service industry employees, with two-way feedback mechanisms that incentivize good service interactions without supporting the abusive environments common in tipped industries. I would rather pay a higher total cost (higher than the original cost + good tip) for a service if it meant replacing tips with actionable feedback mechanisms like the star systems used by rideshare programs.

  6. You’re getting a cab on demand at less then half the price. The vehicles more times then not are clean and efficient, a buck or two isn’t going to kill you. Non tippers get 4 stars. Any experienced driver isn’t going to pick up a 4.6 or below. Have fun riding with Henry, he signed up last night and hasn’t quite figured out how to use his GPS. Hope he doesn’t take you the long way or through the bad parts of town.

  9. Sometimes my fare is 3 bucks and change one way to store and same back. Little over 2 miles each way. I tip as i don’t see how it’s worth it otherwise. Paid what ? What could you possibly be getting. Also farther rides I see hardly worth it unless people tip.

  10. I’ve been using both systems for a while, Lyft’s tipping system is much, much better. I’m still not using them regularly – because Lyft does not yet consolidate my rides into a single report every week. Accounting for all the rides individually is quite a pain when you’re doing 10+ rides a week, which has a lot to do with company expense accounting too…

  11. I agree, I feel the same way as you. Tired of drivers feeling that we are obligated to tip them. Lyft drivers get paid whethed you tip them or not.

  12. Premium price? PLEASE!! Their fares are bare bones and way underpriced as these companies try to take market share from the already established modes, plus each other. Plus, the driver doesn’t make anything swinging around and driving 10 minutes out of his way to come get you, and also, if you take him miles out of his territory, what they call “deadheading” occurs – once the fare is over, you’ll be empty getting back to your territory, earning nothing and burning fuel and mileage (vehicle maintenance).

  13. Really? Etiquette in my 55 years always stipulated you tip a cab driver, which is what Uber and Lyft are. You also tipped for your haircut stylist, the shampooer, and of course your wait staff at restaurants. How f’in cheap can you possibly be?

  17. Lyft uses a cashless system as well, the tips are incorporated into the system. Also, drivers must rate their passengers as the ride ends, and do not have the ability to check if the rider tipped before they do so.

  20. That’s fucked up. You realize waiters make two dollars an hour, right? And your punishing then because uber decided to create a tip free service? You’re bring revenge on people who make less than you. Real classy. Also “white boy”? Racist much? I bet you never tipped your servers, anyway. Most black people don’t. See, you’re not the only one who can be a racist ass.

  21. Been using Uber for 3 Years now…I tip at a minimum of $2 and 10% – 15% for longer rides…these guys drive up to 5 miles away getting to me and if my fare is $3.30, I don’t think their glad they made the trip…they’re just trying to keep their job! The $2 extra dollars puts a smile on their face each time and let’s me know I’m not a jerk!

  22. I am not going to pay you extra for you doing your job. Providing a safe & timely ride is your fucking job. You get paid fairly. Stop begging.

    Stop blaming your customers because YOU couldn’t do something better in your life and ended up poor.

  24. Not so much surge pricing is in effect. If the far has tripled, drivers are doing fine with or without a tip.

  25. This is a situation I definitely always tip. I live in an area Uber/Lyft drivers don’t hang around unless you call for one, so I always tip them for their trouble/loss.

  26. Society doesn’t even deem my job worthy of tips, you gonna bitch about that on my behalf as well? Sometimes the solution isn’t to shame people with condescending, aggressive, Portlandia satire. Uber’s policy is clear, and the drivers do know this going in; and you had a choice what to major in to improve your chances of getting a better job, you can’t just think you’ll major in whatever sounds fun or fulfilling and get a great job, that’s never been how it worked; and yeah, life is going to be tough if you come at it with an unproductive, high-and-mighty attitude. I tip, by the way, and typically overwell because my family and friends are heavy into the service industries; but your snotty, entitled attitude doesn’t encourage the practice.

  27. Uber does not give any place anywhere for somebody to tip the driver. Lift on the other hand has in their app a place at which you can tip the driver at the end of your ride. Uber does not have tipping in their fare rates, tips are supposed to go straight to the driver. Lyft does not take any part of the tip only the normal fare Uber on the other hand which has no place to tip takes their percentage out of the entire Fair which goes to prove there is no tip.

  28. Get real. You have your opinions as I do mine. Again, no one is saying it’s the riders responsibility to fix this but you clearly don’t understand common decency. Even if you don’t get reimbursed, you’re telling me you can’t spare a dollar for a ride, even if it is out of your own pocket? You don’t have to tell me how much you make but I’m willing to bet that as a person who travels every week and gets reimbursed for the trip minus cash tips, you probably do well enough to be able to absorb a $20 “loss”. So if you don’t want to tip, why not just take a cab and not tip either? Or is it that you are being the thoughtful employee and want to save your employer money by taking an Uber when there are cab drivers who are significantly more?

    “The market will resolve this”? Whatever helps you sleep at night.

  29. My first time as a UBER passenger was in March 2016. I had already set up my account for a 15% tip. The driver was very kind and respectful, didn’t pry into my business but was interested in my journey. I had no problem giving a $5.00 extra tip, in fact, I thought I should have given more, but wasn’t sure about the UBER policy.

  30. Premium fare would be taxi cabs and limos, dumbass (and boy, what a big one you are) not Lyft or Uber.

  31. My, my…spoiled? Seriously??

    I’ve hardly expected others to pick up the slack, you cheap dipshit. My giving 100 percent was me being polite and in getting pax from point A to B which I still do. Anything else I did beyond that in making conversation was more than necessary and definitely not appreciated by cheap morons like yourself.

    I hope you get a drunk Uber or Lyft driver if you ever take one, you ungrateful ingrate.

  32. Ha, I just KNEW you were a (spoiled) driver. So you made an effort to be nice in the beginning but stopped because you weren’t getting tips? No one tips me at my job but that doesn’t mean that I don’t give 100% every single day. The money that Lyft pays you is called a SALARY. You are not entitled to someone else’s money just for being “nice”. It doesn’t matter if you pick up a person who is wearing a suit made entirely of money. It is not YOUR money, you selfish little brat, so that means you have no claim to it.

    People have jobs that don’t pay enough. It’s a part of life. Being a complete jackass expecting other people to pick up the slack on your failed life choices is beyond unacceptable!

  33. Well, you’re just being a dick. We all know that waiters make LESS than minimum wage, which is why it is justifiable to tip them. Being mad because no one tipped you on your $15/hour job just makes you an entitled asshole who is probably too dumb to get a “real” job.

  34. Thank you! I’m always surprised that Americans don’t realize they are being bamboozled with the culture of tipping. But they are a bit stupid anyway…

  35. Or perhaps they are an independent thinker? You tip solely because society TELLS you to, while the companies make millions in profit since you pay the salaries of their employees. You are already paying the company premium price for a timely ride with a polite driver. This is called a fare, dumbass.

  36. I’d love to tip the drivers, but my primary reason for using Uber – is the cashless system. It so simplifies my expenses and receipt tracking. Uber’s best described as “opposition to” adding tipping to the app, will create an unfair market system with drivers having an incentive to rank people who do not tip in the same ilk as someone who was not on time, in the wrong place, or was rude.

    Seems to me that over zealous drive which Uber used to capture so much of the marketplace, is going to come back to haunt them. Reminds me of the mid 2000’s when eBay was so overly focused on Sellers, they drove away all their buyers – it essentially permanently capped their market place size even after they fixed the inequality in a couple of short years.

    Uber Hubris isn’t what we need, it’s some Uber Humility on this one…

  37. I’m a part time driver and in the beginning, I made effort to interact with my riders but after being screwed by almost never receiving tips and for going out of my way multiple times for what amounts to minimum or barely above minimum fares, I’ve ceased to make conversation and expending the energy to talk and try to focus on the driving at the same time.

    I once drove a man from Irvine t somewhere in Los Angeles sitting in traffic, knowing I’d mostly be driving back dead miles, all the while chatting all the way with him wanting to do most of the talking and when it came time for him to get out, he barely mustered a thank you and hurried away . And this was someone who was complaining about making a lot of money at his job but being unhappy about it.

    I’ve come to find that no matter how much rapport you build with most of them and you’re nice, personable and still professional , you will almost always get stiffed. I’m now careful to only accept trip requests that are no more than 6 minutes away as I find that they are just going a few blocks or miles. I once drove four miles to pick up a couple people who were going only two miles away. So I made 2.40 for a trip for six miles and that is before gas and not including the miles I must now drive back home (if I’m signing off for the day).

    Don’t be a cheapskate. Unless your driver was rude or unpleasant, there is no reason to not tip for most rides.

  38. No, you just chose it because it’s cheap and you don’t feel bad about not tipping Uber drivers. 5 stars as your tip? Gimme a break .

  39. Always one of you around…”if they don’t like their job (or they don’t make enough or fill-in-the-blank) just go find another, better one…” Yes, because there are just great paying jobs falling out of the sky for our taking and not enough people for them. Just tell that to college graduates working minimum wage at retail stores who don’t seem to know better, wonderful jobs abound out there in our wonderful economy .

    However way you want to spin it or justify not tipping, you are a self righteous cheapskate .

  40. Anyone who does not tip for a safe , timely ride with a polite driver is a fucking cheapskate .

  41. For the above reasons I try to use Lyft over Uber if Lyft drivers are available. I prefer the cashless system and Lyft allows me to tip within the app. If Lyft is not available I will use uber; hopefully I have small bills otherwise the driver will get stiffed…. Sorry.

  42. “don’t USE Uber cheapskate” – that’s genius! Less people using Uber will definitely benefit the drivers! Smart!

  43. As a former Uber driver, I can say that tips ARE appreciated. Drivers are making less today than just 6 months ago. When I first started driving, I averaged about $20/hour. Sounds good for what is “just” a service job, but when you take into account wear and tear on a vehicle (in cities with potholes and other obstructions), then take out the cost of gas, we make considerably less. Since competitive fare decreases were implemented, I averaged $13-$15 per hour (before wear and tear and expenses).

  44. Just looking again at Uber’s website, it says simply,

    “No cash, no tip, no hassle”

    I signed up for Uber based on this entire premise and I don’t tip Uber drivers based on this. Uber drives do know this coming in, right? That’s the whole point for the rider, no cash, no tipping.

    For a driver to be pissed and now put this on the rider is ridiculous. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve paid “surge pricing”. Sometimes you pay more, sometimes you pay less. I don’t know what Uber does with “surge pricing” money, but if a driver has an issue with how much they make, they should take it up with Uber.

    I thought this was a great new paradigm, a new service that is cheaper for the consumer and advances the industry to new, modern levels. I don’t want to go back to cash/tipping. If a driver feels like they don’t make enough money from Uber, let them find a company that suits them better.

  45. Uber’s marketing to customers is that the entire cost is included, and it’s done seamlessly with your card on file. The efficiency and ease of the service is the main draw for consumers like me. I don’t want to deal with cash. I don’t want to wonder if the next car I get into is going to have vomit on the floor and a homicidal maniac cutting people off in cross walks at the wheel like I do when hailing cabs. And no cab driver likes the risk of picking up passengers that end up vomiting on the floor, being abusive, ditching on fares, etc. Or worse, when cash is involved.

    Tipping is an antiquated way of providing feedback from the consumer to the service industry from a time when we didn’t have actual persistent rating of interactions. Once it became the de-facto standard, industries started dropping wages since it was offset by tips, undermining the whole point of tipping in the first place. It’s not fair to a waiter to skip a tip, because it’s a significant and relied upon part of the waiter’s paycheck. At that point the whole concept of tipping as a way to reward and encourage good service dissolves, since most people will tip about the same amount regardless of quality of service, and the default tipping rate from consumer to consumer is different enough that it doesn’t actually provide meaningful feedback. It’s turned from something useful to simply being a portion of the cost of services.

    With the star rating concept made possible through automation and big data of apps like Uber and Lyft, the original purpose of tipping is now completely superfluous, superseded by a better system which provides feedback in both directions instead of one! We don’t need to rely on antiquated and mostly pointless systems of feedback like tipping when we now have systems that are so much more useful, and even provide actual constructive comments to improve service. Cab drivers are slightly incented to provide good service since the consumer might tip a tiny bit more or less depending on service. Uber drivers are very incented to provide good service since the all-important 5 star rating actually matters for continuing to work with the service. Customers are, for the first time, incented to be good passengers since their rating determines whether or not they’ll be able to use the service too!

    This is a huge improvement for everyone (except for bad drivers/customers who were able to get away with bad behavior before) so long as the driver is still getting a fair total wage. A lot of drivers argue that they don’t get a fair wage… but that’s a complaint they need to take up with Uber itself. The idea of evolving our service economy into a post-tipping stage is a very good one, and this is one of the first areas of the economy where it’s imminently feasible.

    But realistically this is all going to be irrelevant soon anyway. In a few years when I can hail autonomous taxis I’ll do it without hesitation every time. Robot cars will never try to guilt trip you into tipping. It will just cost what it costs, and that’s that.

  46. Of course I tip uber. I’m not unaware of how the service has put the screws to the drivers. And if a service comes along that works as good and is fairer to the drivers I’d switch and avoid the hassle of tipping. Then uber can go unter for all I care.

  47. Uber was designed to be efficient and tip free. That is why I choose it over taxis. I’ve been using Uber since it was started and I have never tipped a driver. I give them all a five star review unless they did something offensive. That is my tip. By the way, my customer rating is 4.9. I’ve been told that it is very rare for a long-term, frequent user to have that high of a rating.

  48. Also when someone drives 5 miles or 10+ minutes just to get you the fare isn’t fair. Unlwas you’re going 20+ miles.

  50. Uber lost 1,000,000,000+ (yeah 1 Billion+) in the first 6 months of 2015 and even more than the second 1/2 year. Bye bye Kalanick…

  51. Lyft is much fairer to drivers. They’ve had to meet Uber cuts but never initiated them. And if someone asks I always tell them if you can afford to tip do so and if you can’t no one would want you to. Either Lyft or Uber get to your house in minutes not an hour+. Tip included, what kind of frickin moron thinks a tip gets squeezed out $4 fare, no one, just cheap asses. I hate the ass wipes “don’t like it don’t drive for Uber” screw you don’t USE Uber cheapskate. Uber is trying to put Lyft out of business and they are bleeding the drivers dry to do it.

  53. That’s why it’s getting harder to find an Uber and when you do you pray they aren’t thinking 9/11 and driving you off a bridge into a concrete abutment. Uber investors will soon cease the business from Kalanick.

  54. And since you dont want to hear the reality of the drivers of whose car you are getting in and out of don’t USE uber. Use Lyft and tip or a cab.

  55. Take a cab then and pay 50% more or higher to start AND a tip. Drivers should rate all the non-tippers 1star.

  56. Thanks for the clarification, I thought when I added my tip in the settings it was for all Uber rides.

  63. What is wrong with you people? Of course you tip any time you receive a personal service from someone. Dump Uber and use Lyft if you don’t want to deal with cash.

  64. I started using Lyft more so that I could tip. I’d rather not deal with cash, but considering how much more convenient and cheaper lyft and uber are then cabs, I don’t mind tipping the drivers at all. I prefer to.

  65. Hopefully, the American posters here will one day realise that the hidden fees, concealed pricing and general price obfuscation that is prevalent throughout US goods and services is not only anti-competitive but also inhumane. As the US transitions ever so slowly to being a developed economy, such outrageous customs as “tipping to bring someone up to minimum wage” will be consigned to the wastebasket of social evolution.

  66. There are no tips in uber maybe taxi has tip option Uber does not. I find the people that seem like they can afford it the least tip the most.We do not get tip money from Uber period . Just customers

  67. No one cares what customers think anymore. They just want “the metrics.” We are just data points now…

  68. Take a taxi from now on. I will make sure that I forward this post and your name on all the driver forums I can find. Since we already know you are too cheap to tip hopefully you will continuously get low ratings. Then drivers won’t pick you up.

  69. When people take a taxi, they always tip even if it was a horrible experience and probably never think of not tipping. With Uber, you get a clean newer car and a friendly driver at a lower price. Why would you not tip? In your article you said that you always tip a taxi and if you get a “good Uber driver” and you have some bills, you’ll throw some their way but you’ll always tip on Lyft. Why are you degrading the Uber driver? Uber gives you more value for your money and a safer ride. Why do you have to think twice about tipping them? You’re saying you’ll always tip a taxi driver probably with a dirty smelly cab held together with duct tape but will maybe tip an Uber driver with a clean new car if you have a few extra bills? Can you be any more insulting? Or are you just cheap?

  72. I have stopped tipping waiters and bar tenders since I am an uber driver “there is no need to tip” just last night this hipster doofus white boy waiter followed me and my wife all the way to the door and asked me if everything was ok.i said yes 5 starts and walked out.

  74. When we started, the pay was good enough that I didn’t miss tips. But fares are down 53%, so the deal has changed. It’s bait and switch, after we’ve put money into new cars.

  76. I think most people would, esp. if they had a good driver. (not like the one described above who decides to rant the entire time.) I don’t understand why they don’t add this to their app.

  77. that’s one of the benefits of Lyft. I can tip right on the App and it shows up on my receipt, which is easy for expense reporting time.

  82. I’m not trying to be a jerk (though my last post was harsh), it’s just that the main convenience of Uber is that they have your card on file and you don’t need to worry about cash or tipping….I rarely have cash on me anymore. If I have to start manually tipping, then I may as well go with a cab….I of course blame Uber for all of this, they really need to get it together….

  83. Does you all know any product that have lower the price in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lyft and Uber did … they are 35% less than a year ago. Do you realize that half of the drivers (good ones) have stopped driving or reduced the hous in more than 70%. Do you know that some drivers are making less than $15 an hour (regular hours w/ no surge or prime-time). Do you know that tip are of course optional but it is a way to say thank you to some one that is taking you from point A to B safely. Yes, I do understang we leave in a new generation, a very selfish generation. A generation that only thinks about thenselves. Yes I do tip, so does my whole family and guess what “i am very well received in every place I go”. You might have at one day of your lives this “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” I live by this and so all my family.

  84. Please try and understand the drivers DON’T WORK FOR UBER. They are not employees, and as contractors Uber shifts all the costs on on to the driver. No matter how you slice it, after expenses it’s not even a minimum wage job. Why do they drive then? Because many of them have no choice – Older people that no one will hire even though they have great experience as they are “overqualified.”

    You might want to think of other peoples situation sometime.

  85. What kind of a thoughtless asshole doesn’t tip their drivers?

    The fact that the driver had to school you about it shows that Uber is designed by and for entitled jerks.

  86. What the author has failed to mention here is that Uber originally advertised that the “Tip was included in the fare”. It was meant to be a cashless system, easy in and easy out, and all of the passengers were lead to believe that the tip was included. Uber specifically included an “electronic tip option” for UBERTAXI & if you look at your Uber Account via computer dashboard, you will see that Uber allows you to pre-select a percentage for UberTaxi). See below.

    Gratuity for TAXI

    Your preferred gratuity will be applied to any future TAXI trips that you request through Uber. This will apply to TAXI fares only (not Black, SUV, or uberX) and be paid to your driver. Gratuity only applies in certain countries.

    Unfortunately, somebody screwed up, and although they provided the tip option for Taxi’s, the software application never provided the same “electronic” gratuity system for its regular (non-taxi) drivers. (NO BLACK NO SUV, NO UBER X)

    Well, that system did not go over well with the drivers at all. Uber was sued by a coalition of drivers because they never included the tip in the fare. Instead of giving the “gratuity option” to all of their drivers, Uber implemented a quick fix and changed their marketing terms to read “no need to tip”(The drivers never received a portion of those early fares, and the litigation is still in the courts although is has been reported that Uber has admitted to the marketing faux pas. )

    This was a huge screw up by Uber and that conversation you had with the driver is just one of thousands that goes on every day while folks are traveling in an Uber. Drivers understandably want to at least have the option of receiving a tip but Travis has said no way – no how, ever.

    This unfortunate situation is of Uber’s design. They had the right idea, but dropped the ball. When Uber got caught NOT providing the tips to the drivers, they dug their heels in and vowed never to extend the “electronic” gratuity system to the regular Uber drivers. They could have made this right as soon as it was uncovered but Uber’s “king and it’s minions” mentality really hurt them here.

    This is just another manifestation of Uber’s failure to manage its labor practices. They have really botched their relationship with their drivers and their egos are so big that they can’t see that extending the electronic tipping system (JUST LIKE LYFT DOES) to the regular drivers would be a tremendous gesture of goodwill and may inspire some gratitude.

    Oh, and by the way, if you would tip your cab driver you should tip your uber driver, your fare is on average 50% less than a taxi fare would have been and the driver only gets 60% of that. ***

    ***(After commission paid to Uber, the safe ride fee and any service fees are deducted.)

  87. If my Uber driver complained to me about the company he works for like that he’d get zero stars. Sorry, suck it up or work somewhere else. Don’t drag me into when I’m just trying to get to my destination. And no, I will not tip you as that’s the whole basis of uber.

  89. what a stupid poll. you combine Uber and Lyft into one poll. How are you supposed to glean info from this – what if (*shocking*) people tip their Lyft drivers but not their Uber drivers?

  91. I’m an Uber driver that never expects a tip and am genuinely surprised when I do receive one.
    Last night took an uber from ATL to the airport hotel and tipped the driver because he helped with the bags. I typically do not tip.

  92. “there’s no need to tip” seems like a pretty unambiguous policy. It’s one of the things I love about Uber. You shouldn’t have to bribe the driver to get a ride.

  93. I tip every now and then, but mostly on trips within the neighborhood and only if I happen to have change already. When Uber was new they actually had a tipping choice of 10-30% on the website, when UberX started they took it away. Now it has returned, but only for Taxi trips. We actually complained to Uber when they removed the tip option. At the time they claimed they had reduced their cut of the fares to compensate. I’m sure on a $6.75 fare the driver would disagree with that. I would be fine with leaving a little extra if I was able to online again… but having to have cash defeats the purpose.

  94. Cheap skate. I hope you don’t work in the service industry cause if you get me as a uber driver then you wait on me you would just get 4-5 stars on the tip line

  95. The only time not tipping should be permitted is when you live in a van down by the river.

  96. Don’t be a cheap skate. You should tip. They work in the service industry and rely of tips to supplement the low wages.

  97. Yes to Lyft, because it’s in the app. No to Uber, because I’m not dealing with cash in an otherwise cashless app transaction (the poll should have separated the two). If Uber caves and adds a tip to the app, I would tip there.

  98. If Uber had intended for their drivers to be a tipped position, they would have made a method for tipping within the app. I almost never tip, unless I have a very friendly driver that initiates a good rapport, and then maybe a dollar or two, at most. More and more, though, I find Uber drivers that don’t want to interact, and most often they’ve driven in from the suburbs and don’t know the area at all. I don’t know how they manage to get lost almost always when trying to find my place, even though they have GPS and my building is right at a major intersection. It’s mystifying. And definitely not deserving of a tip, which Uber is not set up to do anyway.

  99. I sometimes tip them on (shorter) uberx trips with no surge pricing, especially if they drove far to pick me up. But with surge pricing, I never tip.

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