I did for the tow guy who found me in New Orleans, when I was reading the nearest cross streets from my phone map, had no power in my car, so no hazards when it was after dark. He also towed me to the firestone closest to my hotel AND the convention center, so I could manage to get it fixed and still do the conference stuff I had to do.
For jump starts, generally not.
This argument sort of falls apart on it’s own weight. If a person has a one person company and charges what the job is worth for the labor contracted for, there is no room in that for a tip.
Where this falls on that spectrum I don’t know.
I’m not all that consistent on this. It more depends on how poor I am feeling due to whatever caused me to call in the first place. So if my car is going to need major work I don’t feel as generous. If I locked my keys in my car and they solve the problem quickly I’m likely to tip 5 bucks.
Of the two truck drivers I know their opinion is more along the lines 'it’s cool when I get a tip, but I don’t hold it against people that don’t. Their opinion changes a bit when they get called out in a blizzard, put exceptional effort into helping the person and don’t get a tip.
Where did I mention a one person company? I was simply stating that assuming someone is already being paid enough for what they’re doing isn’t really being fair.
Just this last weekend, my car broke down on a busy US Highway Saturday afternoon. AAA sent a local truck in 15 minutes, he loaded my AWD VW on a flatbed and drove to the dealer 3 miles away. It wasn’t a huge task for him, but I did tip him $10 at the end.
Why? Because it’s he provided a much-appreciated service in a timely and efficient manner, satisfying a need that I had at that time. I appreciated that and showed that appreciation with a tip.
Wait…people don’t tip the guy who comes when you call AAA? I always do, and I will continue to do so.
Oh please, it’s not that hard.
Way back in the day, I worked for a wrecking yard and went on about 1/2 of the calls. I was pleasantly surprised when I got a tip. Most of the calls I went on involved a major traffic accident with the drivers and passengers either going to the hospital or the morgue. On the few occasions that someone was still around when I towed the rig, they were so upset that I was lucky if they could remember where I was supposed to tow the rig to. When I was their ride back into town, by the time we got back to town, they usually had their acts together enough to tell me where they wanted to go. Most of these gave me a tip. I really did not care about the tip. I was just happy that they were OK enough to ride with me and not the other guys.
Our yard was way out of town, so we got very few minor calls. Minor calls being flat tires, dead batteries, or they locked themselves out of their cars. We did get some tips from them. We did not do repo work.
I usually do not tip, but if the person fixing my car is a hot blonde chick, then I might… tip. 
If they turn up especially quickly, if the weather is especially foul, if the tow involves something especially challenging, if they give me a ride into town, if they are especially pleasant to deal with, I might tip them.
On a sunny day, just a jumpstart, takes them 35mins to turn up, refuses me a lift into town, or is surly or rude? I’m not going to tip.
I don’t feel obligated to tip a tow truck driver. But I would if I got especially good service.
I recently called AAA because of a flat tire combined with an injury that temporarily left me unable to use my left arm (sling). Feeling helpless, I figured I could still get the spare out. Successful with that, I got out the lug wrench and got the nuts loosened a bit. Then jacked up the car. And got the flat off.
It was actually embarrassing when he showed up. He tightened down the wheel, chatted a bit, and stowed the flat and tools. In two minutes I was ready to roll. I didn’t tip.
Sure it is. Seems every so often I come across the mention of some tipping situation that I never dreamed would be one. You can’t keep track of the ‘unknown unknowns.’
ETA: And you really can’t keep track of how to tip in situations you only encounter once every 5-10 years, usually without warning. Most tipping situations fall into this category. And all of a sudden you’re thinking, “I should tip this person. How much? How the hell do I know? When was I last in this situation? Oh yeah, New Orleans, 2007. I had no idea what to do then, either.”
But how do you define what a job is “worth”?
Value is, to a considerable extent, a subjective thing. I think, for example, that people who work as house cleaners should be paid a fair wage for the work they do. What would be a fair wage for a house cleaner, however, is more than i am willing to pay, so i don’t have a house cleaner.
What is the value of the labor contracted for, in a case like this? How do you determine this? Is it simply your own sense of what is fair, or is there some objective calculation that we can do in order to determine what constitutes the “worth” of any particular task?
But, at the same time, why is it up the the customer to determine, by guessing, what might or might not be a fair payment?
I think, for example, that it would be fair if the minimum wage were raised for people working at supermarket checkouts. Does that mean that i should tip those people every time i go to Safeway? Why should i be forced to engage in on-the-spot speculation about a person’s income, especially in an industry where i really have no prior knowledge at all about pay and conditions? For all i know, the guy i just gave a $20 tip might own is own business and be making a six-figure income; or he might be on minimum wage.
Hell, even if i move away from minimum-wage work and look at my own area of employment, i could see an argument for tipping. There are literally thousands of highly-educated college instructors in this nation working as adjunct professors, without any security of employment or benefits. In some cases, those people (many of whom hold PhDs, and almost all of whom have at least a Masters) are paid as little as $2000 to teach a semester-length class of 40 or 50 students. And all this happens in a context of constantly rising student fees, where the universities and colleges ask their “customers” to pay more and more every year.
Should students be required to tip their underpaid adjunct professors? If not, why not? The professors are providing a service in pretty much the same way that a tow-truck driver, or a waiter, or a hairdresser is providing a service.