https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...ch-you-should-tip-your-uber-driver-2017-04-18
Uber allows tipping in 121 cities — here’s how much you should tip your driver
Published: July 8, 2017 7:22 a.m. ET
The company will now allow in-app tipping for drivers
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Should you tip your Uber driver the same as your yellow cab driver?
By
KARIPAUL
REPORTER
Does your Uber driver deserve a dollar or two (or more) for a job well done? Most people think so.
The company is releasing a tipping option in the app in 121 cities across North America
starting Thursday. The majority of riders — 79% of Uber users — said allowing tips is a “great idea” or a “good idea,” according to a survey released Tuesday by market research firm MFour Mobile Research. Just 13% of the 1,112 users surveyed felt negatively about adding a tipping option. As of today, it’s available in Seattle, Minneapolis and Houston, and in-app tipping will be available to all drivers by the end of July,
the company said in an email earlier this month.
Uber started allowing drivers to
encourage passengers to tip following a class-action lawsuit last year about whether it can call its drivers contractors. However, it had never had a feature that allows tipping within its app, the company says, “because we felt it would be better for riders and drivers to know for sure what they would pay or earn on each trip — without the uncertainty of tipping.” (After a rocky time at the helm of the company, Uber’s co-founder Travis Kalanick
resigned as CEO last week.)
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The working conditions of Uber drivers and their pay remain a focus for the public. Constance Hoffman, the owner of St. Louis Missouri-based etiquette firm
Social and Business Graces and author of booklet “Tips on Tipping” encourages passengers to tip their drivers, but said it should not be based on how much commission the driver pays to Uber. “It isn’t something we should think about—you don’t know if a restaurant is paying minimum wage or higher, or if its tips are pooled when you decide on a tip,” she said. “Your tip should be based on individual experience and services provided.”
She suggested a base tip of $1 to $2 per passenger for short rides in an Uber and similar services, with additional tips added for traffic, road construction or other inconveniences, distance, and if the driver helped with packages or luggage. “Tipping is never a requirement, but a good art to provide,” she said.
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Experts say you shouldn’t tip an Uber driver any less than any other taxi driver. Yellow cabs in New York City allow riders to add a tip to their fare at the end of the ride of 20%, 25%, or 30%. As of 2013
the average tip for yellow cabs was 19%. Some studies have shown that people choose the middle option, so as not to appear cheap, even though 20% is often shown to be the standard percentage to tip in New York. (The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission didn’t respond to request for comment).
But there’s more pressure on Uber customers to tip well. There is a rating system where both drivers and customers rate each other. When drivers rate customers, other drivers can see that rating when they pick that person up for their next ride-share. “More things concern me about this than are positive,” said Paul Reynolds, content editor at
personal finance website ValuePenguin. “Presumably now ratings are based on how courteous the rider was, but in the future the tipping habits of the rider would become part of that rating.”
Reynolds also worries differing labor practices across the ride-sharing landscape will lead to the rise of
guilt tipping in place of fair wages for drivers. Lyft reportedly takes around 25% in commission from drivers. Uber also
takes around 25% and has
experimented with taking 30% in the past. Juno, a new Uber competitor which also offers a tip option,
takes only 10% and offers drivers a stake in the company. A spokesman told MarketWatch the average amount riders tip drivers on Juno is $3.30.
Uber competitor Lyft has allowed riders to tip with the app since 2012, and surpassed $200 million in total tips since then, a spokesperson told MarketWatch. The company doesn’t disclose how much the average customer tips, but offers an option at the ride’s end to tip the driver $1, $2, $5, as well as a custom tip. “We’ve always known that offering in-app tipping is the right thing to do, which is why we’ve done so since our earliest days,” he said.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, the Boston-based attorney behind last year’s class action labor dispute against Uber said allowing a tipping option will provide “at least some relief” for drivers who are paid “very little” and are required to pay for their own cars, gas, and maintenance. “Uber does not have any justification for not putting a tip function on its app,” she said. “It continues to refuse to add a tip function so that it will make its services seem even cheaper to customers than its competitors.”
This story was updated on July 6, 2017.
I guess anyone who died horribly yesterday weren't good tippers
