As an Uber driver, you can expect your passengers to rate you on your driving, customer service, and vehicle cleanliness, but what you shouldn't expect is a tip.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, only 16% of Uber rides result in a tip. That's because around 60 percent of riders never tip. And those who sometimes tip only do so a quarter of the time. Far fewer riders make a point of always tipping their driver: only one passenger out of every 100 tips on every ride.
Lilly Kenyon, the head of operations at RideGuru, a rideshare-focused website, says automated pay methods allow passengers to take a different approach to Uber drivers than taxi drivers. "If you're handing over cash, you have to hear the driver grumble, or mumble that you didn't tip," she said. "This way [with rideshares], you literally leave the car and they don't even know if you're tipping or not."
Experts say that part of the reason for a dearth of tips can be traced to Uber's origins. Until June 2017, Uber enforced a rule against tipping, which alleviated the responsibility for passengers. Uber now allows passengers to tip through the Uber app, but the wording is rather non-committal, stating that tips are not expected or required.
Some tipping tidbits:
- Tipping is not expected in certain countries, like China and Switzerland, and might even be considered insulting in some nations, such as Japan.
- A 2017 survey found that 59 percent of Republicans usually tip more than 15 percent, compared with 46 percent of Democrats.
- On average, women tip 4 percent more than men (20 percent vs. 16 percent), according to a 2018 survey.