No. They are likely being paid union wages, which is certainly enough to live on. I have no need to take taxis any longer, so I tip servers and room cleaning personnel, and that’s it.
I suspect that many are not union members, nor earning union wages. Regardless, I’m happy to throw them an extra $10 or $20. I don’t fault people who don’t, I don’t think it’s “expected” or that someone should feel obligated.
That’s your choice. As I said, this is a totally voluntary system. It’s not like restaurants that don’t pay their staff enough, these guys don’t live off the tips.
I usually tip, but when Larry, Curly, and Moe showed up with our new washer/dryer, it was so painful I couldn’t watch them. If they’d had a ladder, someone would have lost an eye. It took them over an hour to install the unit. They were replacing one my BIL and I installed in 20 minutes, and we didn’t have a cool dolly like they did. And trust me, I’m more like Tim Allen than Mike Holmes, so if I can do a better, quicker job, no tip.
I always assumed delivery men/women were getting paid for their time, some sort of legitimate hourly wage. It literally never occurred to me to tip them, nor have any of them ever seemed to be expecting one.
When my daughter was born (1990) our obstetrician was a friend I’d done undergrad with. We met that evening so I could buy him a drink or three.
So I guess I tipped that delivery man, although it was a very easy delivery.
I tip regularly.
Remember to “size up” your service personnel as they arrive. It’s not easy, but I usually get a good read on delivery/service guys.
I tip BEFORE any work gets done. This past Summer I had my driveway sealcoated. I tipped each of the three guys $10 each before they even started. They were astounded and worked on my driveway as if they were painting the Sistine Chapel !
$30 dollars that was well spent IMO.
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household mover here and my company has decided it would be a swell idea to contract with a local appliance supplier to help out with their deliveries. I have a delivery route now! Generally speaking, tips being expected depends on the people. Some do expect to be tipped, some don’t.
Far as I know delivery fees do NOT go to the driver and crew directly. Those fees are to cover overhead of truck operation and maintenance, wages, higher workman’s comp rates etc.
Union wages? SNERK, yeah maybe, if you don’t live in a right-to-work state like I do.
Tips are greatly appreciated, heck a bottle of water is greatly appreciated, even a sincere thank you is appreciated. Lots of people out there are total jerks.
I don’t expect tips, or depend on them and I give the best service I can, very often going beyond what is explicitly expected and as far as legal liability will allow (that is a real issue with delivery and installation of appliances and I am strictly delivery not install) but when I get them I make certain to let the customer know how much it is appreciated.
yeah I tip delivery people.
Had some new furniture delivered a few weeks ago. The two delivery guys took their shoes off before walking on the carpet, and spent some time assembling things and making sure they worked properly. I tipped them $10 each.
I think this is the rationale I use, are they courteous? Did they save me from stress instead of causing more? If so, $10 a piece is certainly appropriate.
I’ve never tipped an appliance delivery guy. I don’t think they expect it, I assume they aren’t getting paid $3/hr, delivery service is almost always an extra charge and they aren’t driving their own car like a pizza delivery guy. Seems unnecessary to me to tip everyone who was courteous to me while on the job.
I generally haven’t tipped appliance delivery people, but that’s because I haven’t asked them to do anything extraordinary either. They’re not paid like restaurant wait staff, where there’s a portion of their actual wages composed of tips, so I don’t feel the same compulsion to tip them out of fear that not doing so may materially affect their livelihood.
Now if I asked them to do something out of the ordinary or extremely strenuous, then yeah, I’d probably tip them. But having them wheel the dryer into the house, plug it in and connect the dryer vent duct? Nope.
All that said, I did give the delivery guys some sodas because it was a hot day, but I don’t think that’s really a tip.
I delivered appliances for about 8 months, got 3 tips. $50, $7 and a customer said “here is your tip” and took off her shirt.
That last tip could go down …
I tip, but I’ve had some pretty tough jobs, and there are a lot of jerks out there. I stopped driving a guy in our lunch group home. He can’t drive anymore, but he can easy afford to tip, but never does. He said they get paid, and other people tip, so why should he? I told him other people can cart his ass home, why should I?. The tipped wage here is $2.15 per hour. He’s a jerk.
The website of the place I bought a washer from in May said no tips. So I didn’t give a tip but sent them on their way with cold sodas and a bag of candy. They seemed to appreciate it.
When you are told not to tip by the person/company you are purchasing from, that is a sure sign that you should tip. My experience is that the person doing the work is “paid adequately” and “doesn’t need” the tip. The reality is, even though it might not be a job that counts tips as income officially, the wages are probably low enough that the tip might be the difference between paying the rent on time or paying something else that’s also vital on time.
(Yeah, the owner of the company where I work does this, and yeah, his adequate wages frequently aren’t, quite, enough, for a single Dad with full custody of a child under the age of 10)
As others have said, it depends on the situation. Off the truck and into the garage, no, off the truck and into the house on the top floor, yes, hand carried up a longish icy driveway because it’s too slippery for the truck to drive up and into the home, those guys ate well that night 
A zombie I was actually in 
I still go with this and it still pays off sometimes. This summer I had to arrange two deliveries basically on my own. The guys I got were great and I put an extra $30 on the $90 delivery fee. When I called about the second item ------ “Sure, we can work it in Tuesday for sure. Same address?”
My spouse desires to be perceived as wealthy, so performative tipping is one way they roll (always picking up the tab at dinner is another). Everybody gets tips!
But, aside from that, we’ve lived in a couple of places where the only way in or out was a flight of stairs. So, I have no problem tipping appliance delivery folks in those cases.
The first one(s) to succeed in delivering something to my house without damaging (a) the thing or (b) my house gets a tip.