This happened to me today. My question is whether you would tip the driver, and if so, how much.
Key details:
[ul]
[li]We were driving when our vehicle died on the road. Totally. Clearly something electrical.[/li][li]We were about 20 miles from home, on the shoulder of a two-lane road.[/li][li]Called AAA for a tow. The truck arrived almost an hour later. The driver did call when he was 10 minutes away to update us.[/li][li]Driver got right to work loading the vehicle on his flatbed. He told us to wait in his cab where it was cool (it was about 90 degrees out).[/li][li]He drove us 20 miles to a shop within walking distance of our home. He was very friendly and engaging conversationally.[/li][li]After unloading the vehicle in the lot of the (closed) repair shop, he notice the driver’s window was down. He offered to jump start the battery to give me enough juice to roll it up, which he did.[/li][li]He then drove us to our nearby home.[/li][/ul]
Would you have tipped him? How much?
I’ll keep quiet on whether I did until I get some feedback. No motive for this poll other than curiosity.
mmm
I recently had to have my car towed, thankfully covered by my car warranty and I tipped the driver $10 for a short 3 mile trip to the dealership. If the trip was longer or he had to deal with adverse conditions (e.g. rain, mud, tight space), I would have tipped him $20.
This exemplifies what I hate about tipping. I have no problem with tipping my waitperson. Hell, I’ll tip $10 on a $20 check at Denny’s if the waitress is doing a decent job, because there’s a lot of work to be done on that $20 check.
No, what I hate about tipping is the surprise situations. What - you’re supposed to tip your freakin’ tow truck driver? Who knew? And what are the rules? What’s a good/medium/poor tip, and how the hell would I know?
And yeah, I can learn the rules for one more situation, and that’ll hold things until the next surprise tipping situation comes along, and gotta go through the same shit all over again.
I don’t believe this to be accurate, and I’ve been a AAA member my entire adult life. I’m not aware of any AAA obligation to deliver a customer to their house separate from dropping off their vehicle.
The ride home and the jump to close the window were things he did not have to do. I’d give him $20.
The last time I had a AAA tow I had no cash on me, but a cooler full of beer. When I got out I offered him one, figuring he could enjoy it after he got back to the garage. Nope, he thanked me profusely, opened the bottle (with an opener he had on his dash) and chugged it!
I wouldn’t tip him anything. First off, when I do small favors for people, nobody tips me. Second, tipping, as a practice in general, is stupid and needs to die a quick death. If I can help kill the practice, one tow truck driver at a time, I will.
$20 sounds like a good tip. I put “over $20” because I used to know a tow driver who refused to take AAA calls - getting paid was always a hassle for him.
He has a AAA membership so there wouldn’t be a bill for the tow, “X” amount of tows per year within “X” distances are covered depending on the level of paid membership dues (“Gold” versus “Premium”, etc).
Do tow truck drivers really make that much money? A quick google shows the average salary for them nationally is in the $25-40k range…not what I would call a “shit ton of money” for sure. Obviously busier drivers in more urban areas likely make more than rural ones, but cost of living so YMMV?
OP: this may be a stupid question, but when the driver jumped your car to close the window, did anyone think of trying to start it? I am sure you probably did, but I was just curious.