r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Hasch_wald • 2d ago
Overdone Uber wants me to tip to find a driver
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u/Educational-Stage-56 2d ago edited 2d ago
When you request a ride and accept a fare, Uber puts out a bid for drivers to accept. If none of them accept it and you get stuck waiting around, Uber ends up increasing the payout to the driver, essentially giving up some of their cut to the driver (to some extent - at some point they start passing the costs to you). So while the driver does get all of the tip, you're mostly subsidizing Uber itself.
Or in short, Uber is doing this so they can keep more of their cut of the fare to themselves.
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u/Zukataso 1d ago
Former driver, can confirm this is true. Uber also cut distance/time rates by 25% just before the pandemic and forced drivers to accept it or, essentially, fire them by not letting them accept rides. Imagine your job telling you your salary is going from 60,000 to 45,000 TODAY and to pack up your things if you disagree.
Fuck Uber
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u/Zob_Rombie_88 2d ago
Isn't this essentially a bribe?
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u/Honest_Let2872 2d ago
From a functional standpoint it's a bid.
If they called it what it actually is, it would probably be less irritating to people.
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u/Buddy-Matt 2d ago
I believe the technical term is "facilitation payment"
Which I don't think quite counts as a bribe, but absolutely counts as a form of corruption.
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u/HandleAccomplished11 2d ago
No, Uber drivers are independent contractors, they aren't paid to sit around. If your location or destination isn't worth it, you might have to pay more.
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u/phatrogue 2d ago
Isn't that automatically handled by the Uber pricing system? If there are lots of riders and no drivers picking up (accepting the bid) for the ride the price goes up. Of it there are lots of riders there is surge pricing. I thought it was supply and demand for the price the ride was going to be in the app. I am not smart enough to figure out how this would be better or worse for Uber or the drivers to pay it as a tip or part of the base cost of the ride.
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u/Corey307 1d ago
What you’re describing is surge pricing. Search pricing usually happens when there’s significantly more passenger demand than vehicles. In this case, it’s possible that OP has been struggling to get a ride and that the app notices this because they aren’t tipping.
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u/HawkwardGames 2d ago
Absolutely wild, I'm from the UK and how the tipping culture that's from the US has come over here on everything, particularly uber etc is infuriating.
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u/Leptonshavenocolor 2d ago
This is America, you're welcome
s/
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u/OptionalQuality789 2d ago
You just totally missed the “SLR” part didn’t ya bud?
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u/No_Independent8195 1d ago
I mean, the point still stands though. I live in Hong Kong where people are already salaried and now people just expect tips.
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u/Correct-Mail-1942 2d ago
My 1 hard and fast tipping rule is: no tip before service.
This includes situations like this. Or most fast casual restaurants where I pay before I get my food. I have NO idea if the service or food will be any good, why would I tip before I get said food or service?
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u/quuerdude 1d ago
Most driving-based tipping systems will suggest or require that the driver be tipped first.
If you’re asking me to drive, say, 10 miles, and you intend on tipping <$10, I will lose money by being tipped $0-9. Hence, tipping ahead of time, ensuring me that I’ll actually make money from taking your order.
Tips are 90% of Doordash/Uber driver’s pay (full transparency: I only ever did Uber Eats and Doordash, uberdriving itself may be slightly different)
Think of it as less of a tip and more “paying for the service”
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u/Omar_G_666 1d ago
Think of it as less of a tip and more “paying for the service”
You already paying for the service and the tip should be an optional amount that you decide at the end for the service, not an extra required payment to get said service.
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u/quuerdude 1d ago
Okay. And it’d be cool if rainbows were in the sky 24/7, but as it stands, these companies barely pay these people, so the majority of the payment they receive for an order is coming from the tip.
By not tipping, you are paying Uber, and barely paying your driver. It’d be nice if it were an optional “nice service” bonus, but that simply is not how tip-based services work in the States.
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u/Omar_G_666 1d ago
these companies barely pay these people
unionize or don't work for companies that don't pay you enough
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u/joesb 1d ago
Why would I think of it less as a tip when it is said to be a tip?
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u/quuerdude 1d ago
Because people rely on “tips” to make a living. It is technically optional, but the driver will be losing money by taking an order with zero tip attached. Try putting yourself in the shoes of someone outside of you for a moment.
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u/joesb 1d ago
Why don’t YOU put yourself in other people’s shoes and stop lying about what something is.
If it’s not a tip, admit that it’s not a tip. Don’t lie.
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u/quuerdude 1d ago
I just??? Said that it wasn’t a tip??? Do you think I’m Uber’s CEO or something?? What do you expect ME to do?????
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u/Lumb3rCrack 2d ago
They upped the price while searching for a car.. I declined.. still got a trip and the driver said they were getting that increase anyways.. seems like a way for uber to test shit out.. guess we'll need some competition now apart from lyft!
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u/AzulaThorne 2d ago
Don’t go to the uber sub and say this or they’ll call how you’re a brokie and shouldn’t be ordering!
Seriously, these companies need to die.
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u/redclawx 2d ago
The tip comes AFTER the service. If I give extra money before the service is rendered, that’s not a tip, that’s a fee. If the service is good, I’ll tip good; if the service is bad, I’ll tip less; if the service is crap, no tip.
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u/Revolutionary_Tap954 2d ago
Try not tipping on DoorDash and see how fast you get your food
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u/SunnyShoretide Sometimes Confusing 2d ago
ha.. I’ve waited 3 hours before and received absolutely nothing except a refund and a few tears shed.. 🥲
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u/Safe-Thanks6114 2d ago
Short rides usually pay the driver about $3 for a trip that might be 15-20 minutes. In California that’s less than minimum wage, not to mention vehicle costs. The driver used to get 80% of the fare now they get 40-50% so yeah it would be better if Uber just paid the drivers better but it’s a race to the bottom to maximize profits. A lot of drivers rely on tips to make it worth while but only about 25% of riders tip. For those saying this is tipping culture out of control a ride share driver usually works harder than a server and actually has your life in their hands. If you get a good driver tip them if you get a shitty one, don’t and rate them poorly.
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u/FairAd4115 1d ago
Then go get another job?!?! Who cares what minimum wage is. People think they should be making $200k a year for driving a car. This isn’t an airline and pilots. It’s a fing car and any barely competent driver taking you from point a to b.
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u/Safe-Thanks6114 1d ago
Then don’t take a rideshare if you can’t afford to tip. Nobody’s making 200k a year doing rideshare.
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u/buttholelaserfist 2d ago
This means that delivering your order is a waste of time for drivers.
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u/Fun_Acanthisitta_206 2d ago
OP is requesting a ride, not a delivery.
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u/Vorstar92 2d ago
It’s the same idea. We get a base pay plus tip on all gig work apps. Base pay is usually insanely low and we pretty much 100% rely on tips.
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u/Vorstar92 2d ago
So, as someone who has done gig work I feel I should explain a little bit…
The reason for this is because from the drivers end what we see is an offer with a $ amount. Now, I don’t drive for Uber but I do Uber Eats and DoorDash on the side as well as instacart and Spark. The base pay for DD and Uber is about $2. So, it pops up on our end, we see an order for $2 that someone wants delivered (or driven from X location to X location 10 miles away). Say that takes us around 30mins. We just made $2 in a 30min window. If we take two of those, we just made $4 an hour lol.
I’m sure I don’t need to explain how unsustainable taking orders like that would be. I’m not defending it or tipping culture. I wish they paid us as drivers way more then leave it up to the customer to decide to tip for good service but the way these apps work has fostered a system where yes, you will wait longer and get cold food or be late to your destination if you don’t tip up front because we have no way of knowing you plan to tip afterwards. We just see what we deem a shitty order, decline, move on to the next one.
You should see some of the ridiculous orders we see on our end. People want their shit delivered that live 17 miles away from the location for like $5. That’s 17 miles out into the middle of nowhere (I’m referring to a specific location I often get orders to and have only taken when it was around $40 for the order payout) and then 17miles back into town to start getting orders again.
Tipping culture sucks but if you plan to use these apps, you just have to eat it and tip up front or expect to wait because as we decline your order the base pay slowly goes up until someone finally does take it.
It’s shit on both ends trust me. Shit for the driver since they have to rely on your tip to decide if they can afford to take it and shit for your end to have to tip up front for a service you’re not even sure is going to be good.
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u/DavidBrooker 2d ago
I've never used Uber or any other rideshare service and this only convinces me more that I made the right choice.
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u/Ok_Newspaper_4180 1d ago
Maybe it’s so that drivers know what they will make before accepting the job?! Idk… sounds crazy
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u/frsty___ 2d ago
Basically we don’t pay our drivers as well, so when they don’t accept your expensive uber, you can tip to so they accept your ride
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u/ChefWithASword 1d ago
You are paying for premium service.
Why the hell do you think delivery drivers don’t deserve a measly dollar more for faster delivery? (which we don’t even get the whole frickin dollar)
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u/pinpalsapu 2d ago
You can add a tip to find a driver faster. Drivers are more likely to select you if they know it's worth their time.
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u/Pz38tA 2d ago
You are not supposed to lure drivers with a pre-set tip. A tip is meant to be a "thank you" for good service, and any kind of tip that comes before the service is wrong.
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u/Silent-North-4668 2d ago
The wording is annoying but the principle is sound. If the supply is less than the demand the fairer mechanism is to let people "tip" (read: pay an additional fee) the drivers.
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2d ago
Can’t buy tip or donate your way to heaven. But the more money you have this life can and does feel like heaven 😉
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u/PatrickGSR94 2d ago
fuck that. I DL both the Uber and Lyft apps when we were in Key West FL last month. This was actually the first time I had used any ride sharing services. Ended up using only Lyft. Had no issues, and it did not mention tipping until after the ride had already started.
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u/PacquiaoFreeHousing DUDE THIS SUB HAS CUSTOM FLAIRS THAT'S AWESOME 2d ago
Translation: Our service is generally shit so at least with this you can blame yourself for it being shit.