To Tip or Not to Tip

Since the creation of Uber it has been the belief of many users that there is no need to tip the drivers. However, this is not completely accurate. Many people believed that the tip was built into the bill, but this it not the case. When you examine an Uber receipt you can plainly see the fare and the booking fee are the only charges.

Uber’s policy says that drivers are allowed to receive tips and that they are allowed to post signs encouraging tips. But if these signs or the asking for tips by the drivers has an affect on their reviews then they could possibly be deactivated.

The Uber app itself does not have a feature that enables users to tip when they pay, and it never has. Other rides companies apps, such as Lyft, do and always have had the ability to tip the driver when you pay the fare. Uber also has no intention to add this feature. Because of this if a rider does want to tip their driver they either have to be carrying cash or the driver has to have some form of card scanner.

Because of the fact that some riders may want to tip, but don’t want to carry cash they may go for other ride services. Other ride services that have a built in tip feature that doesn’t require to carry anything extra.

I feel like Uber’s policy of not encouraging tips goes against a common hegemonic ideology that we have in the United States. There are countries that it would be weird to give a tip, sometimes it’s even frowned upon. However, here in the United States if you were to not give your waiter or waitress any tip at all you would be considered rude.

With Uber not even considering including a tip feature they are attempting to appeal to people that feel tipping is unnecessary. When in reality they are causing the Uber drivers to make less than they claim and taking away potential income of those same drivers.