When Uber started, the cost of the ride included the tip. The idea was to create a seamless experience. There’s no payment at the end of the ride. You request the ride, you get out of the car, you’re billed for it automatically.
Drivers wanted tipping because they thought they’d earn more from riders choosing voluntarily to give them money. But that’s not how tipping works, exactly. Uber pays drivers less because riders might pay them more.
Uber sets driver pay based on their ability to attract drivers. If they have enough drivers, that means they’re paying enough. The more customers tip (or drivers think they’ll tip), the less Uber has to pay to have a sufficient supply of drivers. And driver pay has fallen significantly since tipping was introduced.
The fall in driver pay isn’t all because of tipping. In fact, relatively few riders tip. People tip on food orders far more than rides.
It’s no wonder drivers play games with the rides. When Uber began, the algorithm was supposed to be a solution to redlining. The driver didn’t know where they were headed until the rider was in the car. No more taxis demanding to know your destination and then refusing to pick you up. That anti-discrimination measure is gone, too.
Now in Istanbul it appears that if you want an Uber airport pickup, you’re going to have to pay for that.
Add a tip for faster pickup A driver may be more likely to accept this ride if you add a tip. Your driver receives 100% of the tip. If you add a tip now, you can’t change it later.
Huh. @Uber is asking for an upfront tip to get a ride at Istanbul airport
Don't want to tip before your ride? You'll have to wait for Uber to send out the request. pic.twitter.com/CIOvmiMsRn
— JT Genter (@JTGenter) October 23, 2024
I’m not certain that bidding for a driver is a tip, exactly, since tips does not actually stand for ‘to insure prompt service’. But it’s just another way that Uber has lost the plot since picking Expedia’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to run the business.
There are 3 categories of Uber rides.
1. Excellent. 5 star plus about 10% tip.
2. Average. 5 star plus no tip.
3. Below Average. 4 star.
I learned from an American Uber driver that any rating below 5 star is considered poor. In Canada, I would rate something excellent as 4/5, but because Uber is an American company, I use the American scale.
Tips are insane. Ice cream shops ask for them then give you attitude when you do no tip.
I pick up a pizza and they want we to tip them for me picking it up
3% for the kitchen staff.
When given only the option to tip 25%. I force no tip.
Do not bite the hand that pays you
I have abandoned Uber for rides since over a year; now I use Amex Uber credit for food pickup.
Make arrangements prior to arrival with your destination. I usually find my own drivers from personal contacts. I prefer getting kissed before I’m being screwed
Peoples should not be forced to tip for share rides at all because I honestly think the tip thing has been majorly abused
Call them for what they are…..bribes.
You are bribing drivers to provide you a service.
My adult daughter works and lives in Istanbul. She speaks Turkish and she looks Turkish. We visit her frequently. Uber in Istanbul is not at all the same as Uber in the US. Basically, it is used like a taxi hailing service, and even if you order an Uber driver/car, the vehicle that arrives is taxi, and the driver says “Uber doesn’t work” and uses the meter. There is a massive problem with lack of taxis in Istanbul because the tax service is a monopoly (Erdogan cronies) and competition, ie, Uber, isn’t tolerated.
You don’t know how many times we’ve been riding in an “Uber” taxi with the meter going and the meter rates are 3x, 5x, 10X an estimated Uber rate. When we ride with her in a taxi she keeps a close eye on the meter, and if she sees some funny business going on she will open the door at a red light, move us all out of the taxi, and toss a wad of Turkish lira at the driver.
We’ve traveled all over the world and never seen anything like this. In most places you can get the numbers or cards of a few favorite/recommended drivers and keep them as contacts on your cellphone. Not Istanbul; the drivers don’t work that way.
It’s not a tip, it’s a bid to get a car sooner than the next traveler
You want a taxi during rush hour and don’t want to “tip”, well just take the city bus then
@Jon: Obviously you haven’t been to IST or SAW.
Go to Istanbul and try to get an Uber. The Uber app works, but what will arrive will be a taxi that uses a (rigged) meter. So the passengers are screwed from the start.
Best method we’ve found is to contact the hotel in advance and prearrange for their driver to pickup. Flat rate, no hassle, no quasi Uber-taxi game.