I’m picking up my new car in a neighboring town. I’m not trading my current car in (going to try to sell it privately), so I’m taking a taxi. Rides to this town are a flat $40. What is an appropriate tip? I’ve never used a taxi before so I have no idea what to tip.
Any advice would be apperciated.
Brian
I’d give between $6 and $8. Just like in a restaurant. If he gets lost or something, I’d go as low as $5.
I generally over tip, but I’d give him a $50 and tell him to keep the change.
I’d say $5.
$5 is too cheap.
$8 sounds about right.
But here’s the thing. Do you really wanna be the guy that gives him $50 and asks for $2 back? (don’t be that guy!) What are you gonna do with the $2?
Do you really want to go through the effort of putting together a 5 and 3 ones for a more appropriate tip but looking like a goofball?
Give the guy $50 bucks, tell him to keep it. You’ll feel like a champ and he’ll think you’re a champ and you’ll never miss the $2.
I agree with Tank, except most cab drivers I’ve encountered are such pricks, I really hate to over-tip them. I only do it if I’m in a hurry.
5 bucks.
I don’t subscribe to the fact that cabbies should get the “normal”, “sociably acceptable” 15% that other “servers” get.
Just my opinion.
Then again, I probably would have given 5 bucks for a $20 ride. It just seems easier to throw 5 bucks at the guy than to try to figure shit out.
I knew I should have started an “ask the taxi driver” thread back when I was driving the cab.
Short version: Trunk is 100% right.
Long version:
The general principles invoved in taxi tipping are twofold:
If a 15% tip comes out to say, $31, I’d just as soon have you give me $30 and go than give me $35 and ask me for $4 back (obviously, I’d really rather you give me $35…).
So then, with $40, a $6-8 tip is fair. If you don’t have exact change, you’re kinda in no-mans land. $5 isn’t horrible – a $40 run isn’t that bad to start off with (at least where I worked, Orlando), so I’m not going to hate you. $10 would not be overtipping though, and we’ll both walk away feeling good.
Another rule of thumb: overtip taxis on short runs, and you can undertip a little on long runs. If I get a $75 fare, I ain’t gonna bitch about only getting a $10 tip. If it’s a $8 run, less than $10 is an insult to both of us. This is especially true if you get a cab off of a stand (like at the airport or some hotels). Nothing sucks worse than waiting an hour in line, just to get a down-the-street for $3 + $1. I’d rather not take you at all.
I always round up and add a buck under $10 and proportionately after that. Unless the guy is helping me with baggage, waiting for me somewhere, or is otherwise beyond the call of duty he’ll get a buck and the change until we get into the $20 range.
Personally, I feel like tipping on a short ride should be LOWER, b/c the driver got the flag pull from me and got right back in the action. But I’ll never leave less than a buck unless the total is, like 4.10.
On a $40 ride I’d probably leave $5. Maybe that would make me look bad. Whatever.
Hey furt or other cabbies- does anyone ever actually make you guys dig out actual change? Or give it to you? I’ve never encountered metal money in a cab.
I tipped $6
Brian
I tend to round up, then tip $1 on every $5 (applying the ceiling function).
So, $3.25 gets rounded to $4, add a $1 since it’s in the first $5. That comes out to a $1.75 tip on $3.25, which is a crazy 53% tip. But that was a super-short ride, and I figure it’s annoying.
On something like $8.15, that gets rounded to $9, plus $2 (since it’s greater than $5, but less than $10), for a total of $11. That comes out to a tip of $2.85 for an $8.15 fare, or about 35%.
So in general, with the rounding and stuff I tend to overtip. A fare that stops at $10 even will get 2 bucks, or 20 percent. The rest of the time I would rather overtip than undertip, and this is the only method I’ve found to figure out a tip super-quick. In Chicago, cabs are kind of a “luxury” (if you want to save money, get your butt on the bus!), and I don’t own a car, so I figure it’s all good.
I agree with the $5 contingent. They would only get a higher tip for exemplary service and NO TIP if they’re dicks. A tip isn’t a given, it must be earned.
Depends on the level of political crap I have to listen to and the amount of air ‘freshener’ I have to ingest (mixed with the smoke and BO, it makes such a lovely potpourri). Also depends on whether or not he has to call a friend and scream in Urdu for ten minutes to figure out what the address is that I just handed to him. Hey, I’m never going to see this guy again, so what do I care if he’s pissed about the tip or making change?
Actually what furt said was right. In my last job I worked with a lot of taxi drivers and their line of thinking is like furt’s. You pulled them out of line for a short trip, then they have to go “back in line” for another paying customer. Many of them DO NOT “go right back into action.” Some wait for hours for a fare.
I usually tip 10 % automatically, and just consider it a act of good will and not a tip. Then I am free to tip on what I feel the service is worth. If I don’t feel I was served properly I will not tip (they the person gets 10%), If I feel like sertvice was good I will go for 10% (giving the person a total of 20%).
Something I never did, but wondering if I can do it, since I do consider the 10% really a good will contrubution, and just like a charatable contrubuition, can I claim it legit on my taxes?
Wait, I don’t get it - if someone gives you shitty service you show them that you didn’t appreciate by still giving them a tip? 
If you were a flag-down in a very busy downtown or something, maybe. But unless I am dropping you in a spot where I can make make another pickup soon, it will take me time to get from your place back to where I want to be to make my next pickup. Even if it’s only ten minutes, that’s dead time, and the name of the game is avoiding dead time. If I’ve been waiting on a stand for an hour and I get a $5 fare, that means my whole wait was dead time.
Where I was driving, anything under $7 or 8 was a waste of my time. In a place like NYC or Chicago, I guess you can make a living on ten-block runs if you get a lot of 'em, but it’d be hard. You gotta take 'em and be courteous, just like the restaurant has to serve you when you sit there for 2 hours doing nothing but taking up space while you drink free refills of coffee. But I think you tip that server a little more than 15%.
If they give it to me, I’ll take it. I worked the umm… “adventurous” parts of town occasionally, and this would happen. Crack junkie wants a $4 run and pays me in dimes kinda stuff. Also old ladies.
If they ask for change I’ll say something along the lines of “Keep the dollar, you must need it.” Except once I had a whole bunch of nickels and pennies from a previous fare (see above), so just gave him that. 
$50 and “keep the change”. If he sucks, then it’s $40 and “screw you”.
Of course, I was brought up in New York.