You want tips? Go the extra mile

Ok guys I gotta say something. I’m sure I’m gonna get a lot of hate for this but I don’t give a crap. I’m seeing a lot of people that complain about what is and isn’t their job. I have only been driving a couple weeks and already learned a lot. But I see a lot of veteran drivers complaining about everything. So far I’ve had nothing but great passengers. I’ve made about an equivalent of 50% of my fare payouts in tips. You guys complain about never getting tips. One thing I’ve learned is that the more you go out of your way for your passengers, and treat them like people and not just business, you will get a lot more in tips. One of the biggest complaints I see is “It’s not my responsibility to provide water and snacks, or listen to your stories”. No wonder you don’t get tips. I have gone out of my way to get tons of extras to offer my passengers. I make any stops they need. I provide bottles of water. I provide chips and cracker packs. I have all types of charging cables and even a charging pack with 4 USB ports that I keep fully charged at all times to offer my passengers if they need it. I always send a text message to all my passengers before picking them up to inform them of everything I offer. And almost every single passenger tips me. It’s not that hard to keep a cooler in your trunk full of water bottles. They don’t even need to be iced, just keep them in a cooler so they don’t get hot. Is it really that big of a deal to spend $2.50 on a 30 pack of water bottles? $2 on a 10 pack of cracker snack packs or bag of snack size bags of chips? Most of the time passengers don’t want snacks so it might cost you a bit, but they won’t get used usually but at least they are always there to offer. They love the water bottles. I don’t even talk about them anymore, I just inform them in a text beforehand and they always help themselves and tell me how much nicer I am than most other drivers. Usually I get $5 bill tips. I get a lot of $10 or $20 bills. I’ve even had a few $50 and a couple $100 bill tips. I’ve made $650 in tips alone in 10 days. You can bet your ass I’m gonna continue doing what I’m doing. You want 5 star ratings and tips? Earn them. Go the extra mile. People are going to be more inclined to give you a high rating and tips if you stay ahead of the game. Stay positive. Talk to your pax. Make them happy. The happier they are the better they will treat you. I’ve had passengers tell me how terrible their day was and then it turned around from my simple gestures and happy attitude and they left me a $20 tip for a simple $5 fare. Change your attitude, be happy, and go the extra mile to make your passengers happier, and I guarantee you’ll get much better results from your job. It’s like when you go to dinner. Nobody likes a crappy waitress. Well I don’t know about you but don’t like moron drivers either. Stand out from everyone else. Don’t be a moron and you’ll get tips.

I’ve been doing this for about 8 months now. I provide water, aux cord and chargers, I even have signs made up so people know. It took me 5 months to go through my first case of water, in actuality my kids and myself drank more of it than passengers did. I don’t always open doors for people, not that it isn’t my job, I just don’t have the area or time to make the customers wait for me to get out and run around the car to open them. Always helpful with luggage and big bags.

I rarely get tipped. Off the 8 rides on Lyft I did this week, 6 tipped, that’s AMAZING for me, even if it’s just a $2. I’m usually around about 20%. Bad example this week lol! For uber I have gotten maybe 3 tips out of 14 rides.

I have found that during the late summer and holiday times people are one of two ways; either will tip well or nothing at all. Halloween I did a ride that costed them around $45 for maybe 10 miles got a $28 tip. Thanksgiving week I killed it in tips. 2 weeks later with a snowstorm and high surge rates: Lyft at 500%, Uber at 6.5-8.5x I got no tips. Christmas week was about a 75% tip rate.

Plus, I hate saying it but the people you pick up can also determine tips. I get most my tips off soccer moms and dads. Business people will tip but not as good. Surprisingly when I do get tipped by people in the more impoverished areas of my market, they tip WELL!

Let’s just say it old people and poor people tip usually rich people and young people don’t IJS in my experience

Rich people never tip! I pick those assholes up from their million dollar mansions and listen to them talk about their expensive shit and they not ever once have tipped me. Rich people tip…hahahahahahahahahaha

I had a person once tip me 3 bucks. She was really poor. I gave it back and she insisted on I accept it. I got a hug hat day.

True believer of karma here. Used to play poker for a living during the boom, would always tip the dealer 2x the average person. On good nights I would give the security guard $20 to walk me to my car. Wasn’t worried about getting jumped, but this elderly security guard had to sit there for 12 hours 10 feet away from people pissing away thousands of dollars. Anyway got off track. Respect the little man.

To much to read
Here’s how i get tip every day that i drive i tell my pax it my birthday then there like awww workin on your bday im like its cool then they hand me cash

I got to the fifth line of your post, likewise bro. Just like you I felt the same at the beginning​:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: I will patently wait for your post stating the contrary ones your momentum gets taken away by an @$$ pax that will rate you just one star just because they want it a free ride at the moment! :joy::joy::joy::joy:

I average one of those every 2 months. Usually college kids out on a weekend pissed they didn’t see the surge.

Kudos!!! Keep it real, n treat them like humans vs a number!! Most ppl just don’t get that!!

I had a gal that I took her to see her friend that had just gotten raped and beat the hell out of by her boyfriend. She was in a terrible mood. I calmed her down, and helped her cheer up a bit, and it helped her cheer her friend up and make her friend feel better. I picked her up after and she said that my advice helped her a lot. She handed me a $50 bill when I took her home. People have feelings and it always helps to try to be their friend rather than just their driver.

I keep the water bottles in a net I throw over the head rest. Most people don’t want the water but it shows hospitality. I have the charging cables, as well. I don’t get the door for everyone but if they are struggling to walk or have packages I get out to help. My only bitch has been not enough riders. This is part-time for me. I’m not expecting a lot.

I’ve been driving about a year Lyft & Uber I have done all of what you suggested! I gave up on the chips ( too messy and then I have to stop and Vacuum ) candy got stale but i most recently made up a new smaller Tupperware as to water yes yes yes!! I have lots of bottles in my doors I offer hand wipes and a trash can finally I have apple charger cables ( only 1 rider asked for Samsun ) I have a 10 foot aux cable I offer Spotify subscription and can play music thu my JBL speaker system I can transport up to 6 pax I have had minimal tips!!! Uber poisoned this process most clients think we are “tipped” too many conversations with PAXs that think thus way! I transport some very rich and I mean very rich Newport Beach,CA these clients are the cheapest entitled clients I’ve driven! Oh the most egregious non tippers are the LAX & JWA airport runs I have a Toyota Highlander so I need to open my cargo area to have luggage into the car and exit my vehicle ( I display my disability placard I have all 4 joints replaced which 2 of them are not stable no more surgeries can fix this problems also I have a rotator cuff tear ) but I get out put luggage in and out and not even a thank you or tip!! So drive a little time or maybe you live in paradise!! Oh you’re near the ski area wait until snow season and my clients will treat you to their entitled behaviors!!!

I have a lot of respect for you making the statement I almost said something the last time I was on this page and saw how many people were complaining about the job and it is really bothersome because out of 1000 rides I’ve honestly had maybe two seriously negative experiences but those negative experiences did not ever make me think about changing my daughter complaining about it on Facebook to everyone else. Every single job no matter if you are a ER doctor or you are a yoga instructor you will encounter mean angry customers no matter what but that is part of any job. Constantly hearing such negative comments about passengers and how they hate this or they hate that is really frustrating. I won hundred percent stand behind a company treating their employees with dignity and respect and I think we should all always fight for that no matter where we work or who we work for but as far as being an actual driver and whether you choose left or Uber or both to drive for our job is literally to provide customer service and drive people from point a to point B. So I’ve experienced making an amazing amount of money for one week and I’ve also experienced making a ridiculously low amount of money for one week but I can honestly say that that had to do with my working habits that week and what I chose to do and the kind of attitude I chose to put out. Just like any other job as I mentioned You have to pay attention to peoples cues you have to be willing to listen to people and maybe they have completely opposite views than you do but you’re in the car with them for maybe an hour at most so unless they’re being verbally abused live or completely racist or inhumane towards you just deal with it. There is no reason to make sure that they know that you have the completely opposite opinion of them yes it is healthy to have conversations where are you debate certain issues but just like family reunions it should be a general rule that politics and or religion is not brought up via the driver. And if the passenger brings it up then just keep a neutral stance I constantly see comments about people bitching about their passengers and how dare they say there so I believe this and it Is maddening. Yes we have to work hard to be able to make a living at this job and sustain a certain way of living but it also is an amazing job in regards to the benefits of creating our own schedule whenever we want the fact that there are rental cars that we can use and all maintenance is provided and the fact that you can constantly network yourself if you have other skills or hobbies. So considering that 95% of the newsfeed is filled with negative comments or negative experiences we should try and see the positive in certain things such as the fact that we even have a job. Again as I mentioned before I am all about employees being treated with respect and dignity he and appreciation from any company they work for but we also have to realize that there are always bad apples in each and every workplace and if we try and seek out the positive I just personally think it would make all of our lives a lot easier in just about every aspect

Great post. I’m just trying to do my job and keep grinding as best as I can. I am in a low demand market, I get about 1-2 requests an hour at best. But it’s a high paying market. Bar rush I do really well tho. My average fare is about $8-9 a fare. But most of my fares are 5+ miles. I love meeting new people tho so it’s nice.

Good ideas for tips, but 10 days is not enough experience to entitle such a negative tone. You will have up and down weeks, and will appreciate the opportunity to vent in a space with people who’ve been there.

50 and 100 dollar tips in ten days.lol.
Uber does pay people to write positive stories. Maybe you are telling the truth.

I think it depends on where you drive at, cause I am a 5 star driver and I don’t get tips often, I get more on lyft than uber of course, but I still don’t complain and I try to have the best night possible with or without tips.

I’ve been doing this for a year now and the results are the same. They’ve actually improved as my interaction with my customers has improved as well.

“The ONLY true disability in life is a BAD ATTITUDE!”

Wow. A lot of assumptions. I don’t complain in here, so you shouldn’t assume if a bunch complain they’re all the same. I provide water, snacks, gum, AND EVEN DOUGHNUTS to my pax. You know what I get for tips?? SHIT. Your the greatest Uber EVER, they say. You’re so awesome, they say. I’ve never had a driver as nice as you, they say. I make the extra stops and go so far as helping to carry their groceries in. I make conversation with them, listen to them, and let them dump their crappy day on me…I don’t mind, I like meeting others and hoping I can make their day better. Im glad you can make the extra money in tips, but please don’t assume if we’re not getting tips, then we must be doing something wrong. My apologies if I sounded rude, I guess maybe this hit me the wrong way.