After I switched to Lyft in the wake of the Susan Fowler thing, I discovered that they give you the option to tip. It made me realize that the pain point of tipping is actually feeling pressured to tip the moment the service ends. With the Lyft app I can tip (or not) later on, and I almost always do. It's not tipping that I don't like; in fact I really like tipping. With their strict no-tipping policy, it turns out that Uber missed the mark here, at least for me.
With optional after-the-fact tipping, I'd still be concerned whether or not the fact you tipped is tracked. When you tip, is the driver individually informed? The next time you get the same driver, are they in a position to remember that you were a bad tipper on the last trip? Even if the driver isn't made aware of your individual tipping history, surely the company as a whole is tracking this information and building a (negative) profile for you. Do they charge you more on subsequent rides to compensate for your perceived poor history?
This is the problem with tipping - there is ALWAYS room for abuse. I don't understand why you'd be at ease for not being "put on the spot" to tip, when the driver or company still knows afterwards. The facts haven't changed; they still know whether you tip, and any "consequences" for not tipping will still be in play. You're playing a mind game with yourself if you think that adding a few hours of buffer between service and tip is any different than tipping on the spot.
This is why, all employees - regardless of the company and its industry - should not be tipped. Pay your staff a proper wage, and fire people who do not provide good service. The very concept of tipping is ridiculous. It serves no other reason than to satisfy employers' lowballing of wage, while inducing anxiety to their customers.
Some answers (specifically, addressing the situation with Lyft):
> When you tip, is the driver individually informed?
No, not directly. Yes, indirectly. You get a ride summary at the end of the day. Backtracking who tipped what takes effort. Even so, sometimes people tip when they open their app back up (or through the email) which can present a lag... I've gotten "x tip from day y" additions to my ride summary days or even weeks later.
Bottom line: If you have 15-20 rides a day you're not going to check unless it was memorable. Over the course of a year and half I checked maybe five times. Once, when I drove the guy who owned the world's second tallest yacht. Another time, when I drove a group of stanford students from north beach back to campus. One of the passengers threw up in the car four times (but I was super prepared with emesis bags), so I saved the guy who ordered the lyft the $150 cleanup fee. He tipped me $20.
Honestly, a perceptive driver will be able to tell if you tip within the first few moments of your entering the car. There are socioeconomic trends. I once picked up a valet at a fancy restaurant in San Diego. We chatted about who tips and who doesn't. Soccer moms in their minivans tip. Tesla and Porche drivers almost never tip. Are you picking up someone working in the service industry? They're almost guaranteed tippers. Is someone a lyft/uber driver? Almost guaranteed to tip too.
> The next time you get the same driver, are they in a position to remember that you were a bad tipper on the last trip?
Yes, but it's unrealistic. Over the course of a year and a half approximately 10,000 distinct people rode in my car. Only about 10-15% of my rides had a tip. Do you think I knew exactly which 10% were tippers?
> Even if the driver isn't made aware of your individual tipping history, surely the company as a whole is tracking this information and building a (negative) profile for you. Do they charge you more on subsequent rides to compensate for your perceived poor history?
or it could be a means to communally help each other. not applicable in the case of lyft, but for cash tips, it has the added benefit for being stealthily tax free (except for waitstaff). Each dollar that goes horizontally between the "lower class" gets to work one step harder within the "lower class" to go before being sucked away by the wealthy.
> Each dollar that goes horizontally between the "lower class" gets to work one step harder within the "lower class" to go before being sucked away by the wealthy
This is an interesting point, and reminds me in a way of the Bristol Pound (and other "community currencies") which are essentially the same as regular Pounds Sterling, but are only accepted by locally-owned businesses within a local geographical area (more specifically: anyone can accept them, but only locals can ever exchange them back to Pounds Sterling, at a pegged 1:1 rate). Local branches of mutli-national corporations, and public (listed) companies, cannot participate.
Local residents can open an account in Bristol Pounds, and pay their local taxes in them. Some locals can be paid their salary in them.
The stated goal (and this has apparently worked quite well) is a localised economic stimulus, by encouraging residents to spend at local small businesses, and those businesses in turn to seek local suppliers, etc. This sees the money doing a few more rounds locally before being sucked away to a multinational.
Your comment is underrated. When rich people are not tipping, and only poor people who are in a position to understand what living off of tips means does such, something is wrong. The process of tipping is practically equivalent to playing the lottery - a huge majority of people who buy lottery tickets are poor or part of the lowest segment of the middle class.
Frankly, I just don't understand tipping. I still tip better than most people (20-30%) because I can afford it and know that their employer is fucking them over big time. Were I a millionaire, I'd probably stop tipping altogether as a sign of protest. It's strange how we justify either side of the coin.
You're on to something here. Consequently, it seems to be in the best interest of the affluent class to maintain the status quo, as it supports and furthers the divide.
Though I disagree with the basic premise of your argument--I've never once gotten the same driver, and doubt that Lyft is building a tipping profile of me for the purpose of sharing it with them--I totally, completely agree that tipping should be replaced by living wages for service workers. But that's just not the world in which we currently live. Until such time as it is, I'm more than happy to spend a little extra since the marginal utility of my $5 Lyft tip is, presumably, way higher for the driver than it is for me.
I'd assume Lyft has the information as to who you tipped and how much. However, my understanding is that the driver does not know which individual tipped them (and rates the passenger lacking this information). The driver's tips are summed up in a daily report making it difficult to know who tipped and how much
That's exactly how it should be designed in my opinion. If the driver is doing a good job, his total tips will go up. No point in haggling with individual customers.
Agreed. Used Uber for what? 2 years now? Just tried Lyft after all the crap about Uber and I liked it. I normally do tip the Uber driver for a long ride (I live in NorCal an my house is a pain to get to). Moving on to Lyft. I like the fact I can tip in the app.
Hmm, I'm normally against tipping, but now I'm wondering if this might be a solution to the problems with 5-star rating systems.
I've often thought that it would be better to have a simple thumb up/down for quality control and then a separate above-and-beyond option for recognising exceptional service, but that requires friction on the latter option to make it work properly. Initially I was thinking just requiring a minimum comment length would work, but having to tip e.g. $1 might be a good alternative to that.
I often thought that the system should be "thumbs down"/"neutral"/"thumbs up" and if you give a thumbs up it prompts to tip, if you give a "thumbs down" it doesn't let you clear out unless you give at least one reason.
On the other hand even with the uneven distribution of ratings, now median driver is of lower quality, you can really tell the difference between a 5.0 (really 4.95+ driver) and 4.8 driver; and a 4.8 driver and a 4.5-4.6 driver. I was a perfect 5.0 (100 consecutive perfect ratings) only twice during my career as a driver, but damn it felt good. Usually I hovered around 4.92-4.97, which can look like a 5.0 to the passenger.
There is an interesting feedback effect that a lot of drivers don't understand. If a passenger sees that your rating is lower, then they will be more in tuned to the defects in the experience you deliver; If they see that your rating is higher, they will overlook some of the problems. Moreover, if you see that your rating is low, you're more likely to have a generally negative disposition and project an attitude that is going to make it harder to get back up there. Psychological management is a key part of the driver experience. I once counseled a young driver who was distraught that he was a 4.6 average driver, leading to a generally negative attitude to his passengers (and probably some good passengers saw his score and cancelled on him too) and I told him that he needed to either break out of a negative cycle or quit driving.
