The old answer for Should You tip Your Uber Driver was a very powerful “HELL NO” But since Uber has cut the rates all over the world to meet Lyft’s cuts, there is a new answer. HELL YES! The new rates that Uber is now charging is almost cheaper than You can drive Your own car so be very happy to use Uber and very happy to tip the driver. The driver’s in most Cities were happy to make money at the old rates, but the new rates have been cut to almost exactly where the break even point is. Now expect driver’s not to accept every call, that means slower service to the rider. In the past most driver’s would have a tolerance of 8 minutes away to accept a requested ride, now most driver’s are cutting that in half to 4 or maybe 5 minutes because they cannot break even otherwise. Notice a big difference in the quality of the driver’s lately? EXACTLY! They are taxi drivers or they look exactly like them, the main reason that everyone hated taxis is now infiltrating Uber. Uber has an unlimited supply of drivers, no matter what the rates are. The lower the rates the less quality the driver but there is unlimited amount of freshly arriving drivers, new to America, wanting any job they can get. How do You run a background check on Someone that has been in America for 3 weeks? You can only find out what they did for the last three weeks, there is no record of what they did from where they came from. How are they getting their cars? That is a mystery. Many drivers have very good vehicles even though they are brand new to America. Some think that Someone is buying the cars and paying low wages for drivers that cannot find minimum wage jobs because of their lack of skills.
Now Uber driver’s are depending on Tips, the very thing that none of us wanted. The cashless system is now requiring cash to be carried for tips.
Reading through the Uber driver forums, it is clear that most driver’s would like the minimum fare to be 8 dollars at least if not 10 then they would not expect tips. If You take longer trips with Uber, tipping is not as necessary as it is for short trips. The short trips that cost 4,5 or 6 dollars should be tipped a couple dollars at least.
There have been mentions of not rating riders with the top rating if they do not tip. How many will actually do that is yet to be known.