Uber may have to add tipping feature in NYC
businessinsider.com
businessinsider.com
Ratings already replace tips as an incentive for good service, in a far more transparent and actionable way.
And if drivers start getting tips regularly, you can guarantee their overall earnings won't go up -- Uber will simply pay them even less, because they can. Whether payment is technically part of a base fare or tip doesn't do a thing to change the law of supply and demand.
(Example -- how restaurants pay waiters far less than minimum wage, and are legally allowed to, because the tips make up for it.)
Moving back to tips is a huge step backwards -- especially when forward-thinking restaurants in NYC are moving away from them as well.
Being able to easily tip a driver for exceptional service is great, makes me feel better as a customer, and provides an incentive for drivers beyond stars. What's the harm in making it easy if your base rate is the same? As long as it's not an expectation I think it works quite well.
Other people have pointed out potential and real problems with tipping, but I think that a direct counter argument against what you said is that it will become an expectation.
I think the issue is the opposite outcome of your scenario: "As long as it's not an expectation"
It will become an expectation. Many people find tipping a hassle and they don't want drivers using a new social standard to guilt them into it.
Also, any discretionary tip amounts become another datapoint for drivers to give bad ratings to riders. ("Oh she only gave me a 15% tip instead of a 30% tip so I rate her 1 star!")
The combination of driver/rider ratings _and_ tipping leads to little social games of petty blackmail.
1. send tip 2. driver sends rating 3. tip and rating available.
To generalize, if people disagree with an app's user interface (e.g. tips), both sides perform little acts of rebellion against it.
If Uber app does not have tips, some Uber drivers rebel by hassling riders for not using Lyft which has a tipping option or asking for cash tips on the side. This annoys the passengers.
If the apps does have tips, some riders rebel by paying $0 because they think the whole idea is stupid. This annoys the drivers.
Because it's now non-optional or I'm a terrible person.
Just fucking pay people enough.
- I expect that I should never get bad enough service that a driver deserves to be paid less. If something really bad happens, I expect Lyft to refund me entirely. As such, I want Lyft to be factoring a reasonable wage into the fare price.
- A car ride isn't really a service, it's a commodity. I'm paying for someone to pick me up, drive along a predetermined route (whatever Google Maps/Apple Maps/Waze says) and drop me off. This isn't like a restaurant where the server can get your order wrong, ignore you the whole night or forget to top up your drinks, this is more like a supermarket where you're going through a checkout. Items go in, items go out. Passengers go in, passengers go out. A better comparison actually is a flight or bus. You don't tip your flight attendants or bus drivers.
- I don't want to think about how to compensate my driver. I'm not an employer, I have no idea how much this person's time is worth, I don't know how much of a tip is "good" and how much is an insult. I want Lyft to factor all that into my fare price so I don't have to think about it.
Service or entertainment type jobs where you interact with the person for most, if not all, of the time usually get tipped and you're tipping for good service/entertainment. Although some restaurants have this nasty practice of including the tip in the bill...
In the US, most pizza drivers pay for their own gas and the tip covers the gas. Tipping them is a courtesy for delivering your food to you out of their own pocket. They choose to deliver because more often than not the tips pay more than enough to cover gas expenses.
The "interaction" is why you might not tip your plumber but you will tip your hairdresser. You probably aren't making small talk with your plumber the entire time they are working even though they are providing you a service.
Never in my life have I done that. Not once. I tip because otherwise I'm an awful person who took money away the poor hardworking waiter.
It's amazing that the US has managed to become so brainwashed that the idea of mandatory tipping is completely ingrained meanwhile having people in a union (so they can fight to just actually get paid a decent wage) is abhorrent.
There are some places where people tip merely because there is a tip jar available... usually you just dump small change into there (the coins you get back or maybe a dollar). Starbucks comes to mind: there's no reason to tip at Starbucks other than the fact that there is a tip jar sitting out. If you're not used to tipping culture, ignore it. Same thing with ice cream shops or take-out windows. Absolutely no reason for there to be a tip jar there other than they're trying to guilt you into paying more than the advertised price.
There are certain situations where you might tip for extraordinary service rendered. You don't tip a doorman for opening a door, but you can tip if he calls a taxi for you. You don't have to tip at Starbucks, but if you ordered an extraordinarily complicated drink and they got the order right, a tip is called for. I usually tip even at take-out restaurants if I'm picking up an order late at night while they're getting ready to close the restaurant, or if it's a holiday and I feel bad that they're stuck working.
Some people get really mad if you don't tip a waiter. People rarely get mad if you forget to tip anyone else. So if you're confused, just tip your waiter 10% or 20% of the bill if they brought the food to you and forget any other tipping. If someone complains, just say you're European and aren't clear on the rules.
If in fact they did everything by the book, especially that crucial "check in after 3 minutes / 3 bites following food delivery," and still got less than 15%, then "really mad" is probably warranted given the current situation of a sub-minimum-wage base.
I typically map it out as follows:
Less than 15% = You were nowhere to be found while my food was getting cold and I needed something for the food.
15% = Nothing terrible happened, but maybe we sat there for a loooooong time with menus closed or empty plates.
18% = Normal / everything as expected.
Greater than 18% = You rock. I asked for suggestions and you had great ones, you comped something not related to a bad screwup, etc.
Notice that all of the variation is in a pretty tight range. We could easily normalize it down about 10 points (and reinstate minimum wage) and remap the 4 levels above to <5%, 5%, 8%, >8%.
Do people really say "you suck so I'm going to give you 15% more than the list price"?
So not bad at all. It's in no way my responsibility to cover their wages. If the bar wants to raise prices a bit compensate then fine, but tipping is a ridiculous practice.
That's where it gets super confusing though, so a European can pretty safely ignore those and play ignorant.
If you need to pay your employees more, they should get paid more. Tips is a bad way of handling employee compensation. Tips should be reserved for extraordinary service rendered, not the main way of paying your employees.
Why does it exist?
When I call an Uber, I have to wait N minutes for the car to come. If I want a cab, I step outside my apartment and flag one down. Granted, I live in downtown, so that wouldn't work as well in the other boroughs.
Uber also surges. Yellow cabs are always the same price. It's usually cheaper than Uber.
They could almost certainly comply with any law like this by adding a tiny little "Tip your driver" link in your receipt, which would be seen and used by .001% of riders...