Tipping a cabbie: what would you have done?

In My Humble Opinion
1

As my location says, I’m in “Calgary and Edmonton.” Which means I divide my time between the two cities. My wife and I own a house in Calgary, but I keep a pied a terre in Edmonton, since I am a student at the university there. Anyway, what this means is that I’m back in Calgary many weekends and in Edmonton during the weeks. The only public transit that runs between the two cities is a bus. Well, airlines do too, but those are geared (and priced) for the business traveller. So when I go between Calgary and Edmonton, it’s on the bus.

My house is in the northern part of Calgary, and fortunately, the bus has a north Calgary stop, so I don’t have to travel into downtown before I can get home. I can hail a cab at the north Calgary stop and go home from there. But here’s where things get interesting. How much is the cab fare from the north Calgary bus stop to my house?

Well, typically, it’s about $17 or $18, depending on traffic and such. I usually give the driver a $20 bill and say, “Thanks very much.” But a couple of incidents lately have given me reason to ponder that.

The first (the Bad Incident): I got a cab, loaded my gear in the trunk which the driver had thoughtfully popped for me while he remained in the driver’s seat, and told the driver where I wanted to go. He circled the block a few times, consulted his map while we were waiting at a red light, didn’t understand my directions when I offered them, took a few wrong turns in spite of my protestations, and finally admitted he had only been in the city a week and didn’t know his way around. Meter fare: $19.60. He wasn’t happy when I gave him a $20 and told him to keep the change.

The second (the Good Incident): I got a cab and the first thing the driver did was to take my bag (“Sir, let me take that for you”) and load it in the trunk. Then when I told him where we were going, he knew immediately how to get there. He did need a few directions when we got in my suburban neighbourhood of winding streets, but I didn’t mind, and he turned where I indicated. He gave me the local weather report, told me how the Calgary Flames were doing in their game (which he had on the car radio), and offered a few local news events as well. (“Just to bring you up to date, sir.”) He took my bag from the trunk when we arrived too. Fare on the meter was $16.60; I gave him $20 and said, “Thanks very much.” He was more than pleased; he was surprised. (And I hope I can get him as a driver again someday, to tell the truth.)

Dopers, how would you have tipped the Bad Incident driver, and how would you have tipped the Good Incident driver? I’m not out to screw anybody, but I wonder about the Bad Incident driver–if he really didn’t know his way around town, did he deserve much? And what of the Good Incident driver–perhaps he deserved more? What would you have done?

2

I would have done the exact same thing. Tips are based on service, obviously. Bad service means a bad tip, good service means a good tip.

3

This might sound silly, but next time you get a GREAT cabbie, ask for their cell phone number. Next time you need to go somewhere, give them a call and see if they’re in the area. If you tip well, I’m sure they’ll be more then happy to come get you. And if he knows that you’ll always give him a twenty, I’m sure he’ll do what he can to keep the fare low knowing he’ll get the rest for himself.

When my dad goes to a basketball game he does something like this. He starts at a bar a few miles away, calls a cab company. When they drop him off at the arena he tips well and get’s the guy’s cell phone. Then instead of trying to get one afterwords he just calls the cabbie back tells the guy where to meet him and he’s back at the bar before most people have even made it to their cars.

4

Maybe it’s just me, but I generally don’t tip cabbies. I can’t afford to take them, so when I do it’s rare or necessary (like when I took my son home from the hospital a couple weeks ago, not quite with it and sore from minor surgery).

I would have tipped the second guy though. That was good service.

I also totally agree with getting their cell numbers. I have a couple of numbers from when I went out more (and thus took more cabs home) and in this city it can be invaluable to have a direct number for a driver rather than trying to get through on the main line and praying.

5

With the bad driver, the first thing i would have done, once he started circling the block, was to tell him to turn the fucking meter off if he didn’t know where he was going.

I then would have said, “Look, tell me right now: do you know how to get to the address i gave you?”

When the answer was “No,” i would then have said, "OK, you need to listen to me and follow my instructions. "

I generally don’t care too much if a taxi driver isn’t familiar with the best way to get to the address i give, because if i know the city then i’m happy to give directions. But i really get pissed off when they make wrong turns or sit there consulting a map while the meter is running.

6

I have done the same thing in SF. Many cabbies think they can get away with padding the meter.

Can’t you get another bus home? Or a shuttle?

7

With your bad cabbie, I’d have asked for my change from $20. If he’d been half-way decent, he’d either have turned them meter of while he was lost, or offered you a discount.

8

I’m 68 years old and this scam is much older than me. Some 40+ years ago I used to regularly take a flight into NYC and change airports for a connecting flight, I knew the fare and when cabbies tried to scam me, I would hand them the appropriate fare (including tip), if they objected I would tell them tho “call a cop”. The never did. You know the route and the approximate fare, anything over that is BS. Gratuities are for good service, not an obligation.

9

You did the right thing (or at least the same thing I do). The trip is worth $20 to you and their efficiency becomes their gain as more of that money is a tip.

It is also how I handle drinks on the house and price corrections on restaurants. I pay what the drinks would have cost, only that it is all tip for the server (who is often the one who bothered to get you the courtesy).

10

I’m curious which company this was with - when I lived in Calgary I dealt exclusively with Checker because of the crap I’d had from other companies. And I second that you should get the cabbie’s cell number and call him exclusively if you can. Most service people are quite happy to have repeat customers.

11

Ah, I had a similar incident last night. I take a short cab ride home from work on Friday nights. It’s not far, but it’s very unlit and kind of late, so I don’t like to walk it.

My usual cabbie picks me up, takes the short route to my house, is nice and the ride is $6. Always $6.

Last night this guy picked me up, was a total asshole, took a crazy convoluted route that had me actually ask “Do you know how to get there?” because it was way out of the way (IMHO) and he tersely told me “YES”. Um, OK because you’re going south and I live East.

We got to my house and the fare was $7.25. I gave him the $10 I already had out and left. It’s not a lot, but I agree with this completely:

I’m paying $10 for a cab ride. If you get me there and it costs $8, you get a $2 tip. If you get me there and it’s $6, you get a $4 tip. Plain and simple. I was seriously irate that he did that, frankly.

12

It was an Associated Cab. I’d like to be able to deal more often with Checker (always clean cars and polite drivers who wear jackets and ties–more like a limo service than a cab company), but Associated Cabs seem to be much more numerous. If an Associated Cab comes by, which is usually the case due to their numbers, I’ll hail it rather than wait for a Checker. I just want to get home!

Looks like I did the right thing, and Sapo summed it up well: it’s a $20 ride to me, so if the driver wants to run the meter up, he’s only cutting into his tip. If he keeps the meter as low as he can, he gets whatever is left over from $20. Thanks, folks!

13

I have no idea if other cities’ taxi services work like the ones around here, but in Roanoke, the cabbies rent the taxi and dispatch radio from the cab company for a pre-set daily, weekly or monthly fee. All the money they take in is theirs to keep, be it fare or tip.

Thus, when I used to take a cab to work every day, the fare would vary between $13 and $19. Just like the OP, I would pay with a $20 bill regardless of what the fare ended up being, with no fear of cutting into the driver’s profits.

As you might expect, as more of the city’s cab drivers got to know me and my daily commute, the fares on the higher end of the spectrum started becoming less and less frequent, since the cabbies realized meandering about to inflate the fare was a waste of their time.

14

But given that you tipped him almost 33%, I’m not sure if he learned a lesson. He doesn’t know that you generally tip even better than that, so he probably thinks he made out pretty well (unless you told him that he could have had a $4 tip if he’d taken the correct route).

15

I think you did the right thing in both situations.

I’ve never understood tipping cabbies for nothing other that knowing how to stop to let you in (pop the trunk open if necessary), steer you to your destination and stop again.

However, anything above that will get a tip from me, i.e., knowing exactly where we’re going or listening to explicit directions from me, helping me with packages/luggage, or even just being particularly pleasant. I also love a cabbie who responds to whether I want to be conversational – or not – or even asks about my comfort (air conditioner too cold, radio station okay). One driver for the livery cab service my company sends me home from work with, even automatically changed from NPR to a rap station (I’m Black). I asked him to change it back to NPR, but at least he tried.

My most recent cabbie problem was a gypsy cab driver who, in the middle of the afternoon had no change for a $20.00. I went to a sidewalk food vendor to get change and gave him exact fare. He had the nerve to give me his card, which landed on the sidewalk immediately.

16

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of Associated, and I’m sorta ambivalent towards Checker (had good and bad drivers there). The one I usually call is Mayfair, but I have a couple of direct numbers so I’m usually riding with them.

17

From my experience as a cab driver (which was in total about 4 days) and my husband’s experience (which was several years) I can assure the OP that his actions were correct. You don’t drive around aimlessly when you don’t know the way (although Denver cabbies were allowed to run the live meter while looking up the directions in their city guide). And it’s not the kind of job where you make your money in tips, either–although they are appreciated. My husband wouldn’t have expected a tip unless he’d done something outside the scope of mere driving, although he did get tips and didn’t turn them down.

Ronald Orzabel is also correct that, at least back when we did it, the difference between a $16 fare and a $4 tip and a 19.50 fare and a .50 tip was no difference at all. In those days payoff was cab rental + gas–usually about $50 a shift. Anything above payoff the driver could keep. I believe at some point the cab company started keeping track of mileage on the meter (but not time on the live meter) and my recollection is that this was a tax thing, as drivers did pay for the gas. (So, in theory, a cabbie could cheat on his taxes by claiming a really high mileage expense.)