On the topic of driving for tips: 

"Desu-San-Desu" (Desu-San-Desu) 05/01/2016 at 15:32 • Filed to: None

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(TL;DR warning: This started out as a short post, but didn’t finish that way.)

You know what I’ve learned after being a delivery driver for a while?

Wealthy neighborhoods do not in any way guarantee a good tip. You’ll pretty much always get a tip, which is something to be thankful for, but more often than not, it’s just a dollar or two.

I recently delivered to a very wealthy customer. Pretty large order, but nothing that wouldn’t fit in a single bag. While at the door, they signed the credit slip and I could hear them thinking through the tip out loud, along the lines of “Hrmmm...when I delivered pizzas back in high school, $2 was a pretty amazing tip...”, so they wrote in a $2.00 tip and I could visibly see their personal sense of altruism swell with self-congratulatory pride.

I was thankful for the tip. Any tip is always better than none. I will never, ever, ever look that gift horse in the mouth. However, it initiated a line of thought that made me realize something: many wealthy individuals can no longer comprehend what it is like to live and subsist along the lower income scale. It’s as though they cannot grasp that end of the financial spectrum anymore after so much time of working with numbers and figures involving many more zeroes.

It’s as though they try and see that side of the fence and just can’t, so instead they revert to placing it within the context of their own memories of when they themselves once worked the lower-end spectrum of menial jobs, assuming they ever did (I can’t know upon a delivery transaction if they worked for their wealth or inherited it). However, when viewing the current transaction within the context of their past ones, it’s as though they fail to account for 20, 30, or even 40+ years of inflation and rising costs of living versus a significantly slower increase in wage compensation.

Again, the fact that they tip at all is a blessing and not something I take for granted. It’s just that I am the type of person who notices and observes trends and patterns over time and can’t help but internally analyze them. I’ve heard similar stories from other people working in tip-based occupations, such as bellhops or servers. The low-income and middle-class customers often understand the value of a dollar in 2016, because it’s something they still interact with on a regular basis. The wealthy? Appear to have often lost their sense of scale on our end of the financial spectrum. They do not know if $1 or $100 is a fair tip, because they so rarely deal with numbers that small themselves anymore.

I don’t view this in terms of being generous or miserly. I view it in terms of unwillful ignorance due to mental neglect- of forgetting. If a wealthy person tips you a dollar and puffs their personal mental feathers, it’s not because they think your services are only worth a dollar; it’s because they don’t realize how little a dollar is worth anymore.

They think they’re being legitimately generous (because in the context of their own pre-wealth experiences, they ARE), and because we, the employees in question, are socially conditioned to just politely grin and bear it in order to not seem ungrateful or entitled, they receive no indication that, let’s be honest, a dollar just doesn’t really do much anymore. So, seeing your forced smile and hearing your reflexive thanks, they go on about their way, feeling altruistic and still thinking the single dollar has remained all-mighty. After they’ve turned the corner, you look down at the dollar in your hand and think to yourself, “Well...it’s better than nothing.”

You know where the best tips often come from? 20-somethings; especially those who also work in the service industry. They understand how inadequately current wages cover the increased cost of living in this day and age and how significant tips are in overcoming that gap. I recently delivered to a couple of late-20-somethings who ordered a pair of pizzas. They tipped me $9. I was legitimately floored and immediately let them know it was $9, in case they counted wrong. They assured me the tip amount was intentional and I expressed my very sincere gratitude, letting them know it was well and truly appreciated. $9 is an actual usable amount. It is a meal. It’s a third of a tank of gas. It’s enough to actually do something with outside of hope it combines with other smaller tips to finally become useful, like a crumpled green paper Voltron.

When I told them how much I appreciated it, they told me that they were both in the service industry as well. He was a server at a high-end restaurant and she was a server as a local bar eatery. They told me they understand how important tips are when you make such a paltry hourly amount (generally anywhere from $2.00 to $7.25 per hour). The guy was especially enthusiastic, saying “People don’t realize that those tips account for the majority of our income. After working in the service industry for a while, I swore to myself that I would never, ever, be one of those people that doesn’t leave a worthwhile tip if I’m able to.”

That last part is very important, by the way. While a $9 tip is great, I don’t expect a tip like that on every delivery. I realize that, outside of the very wealthy, most of our customers are also dealing with the same ‘wages-vs-cost of living’ gap that we are. Not everyone has $9 to spend for a tip. Some people only tip a couple bucks because that’s legitimately all they can spare.

Just because they can’t afford a larger tip, does that mean that they don’t deserve to enjoy a pizza on occasion? No, not at all. For all I know, they suffered through 6 days of ramen noodles so they could pinch their pennies to celebrate Friday night with a pizza to reward themselves. In fact, I’ve done exactly that in the past. The fact that they thought to tip me at all is something to be grateful for. Expecting otherwise would be the exact sense of entitlement so many of my generational peers resent being accused of.

Let’s remember that a $5 tip may be a significantly larger chunk of one person’s available income than another person’s. $5 may seem like a paltry, insignificant amount to one person, but to another person it could be the only thing they have left to their name after the bills are paid.

And what about being stiffed? What about those people who don’t give you a tip at all? Yes, it sucks. Yes, it can make you angry and resentful towards them. But I guarantee you that, in their own personal cosmos, they have their reasons. They could be reasons of finance, reasons of attitude, reasons of principles, reasons of philosophy, or reasons that can’t be easily categorized, but they’re reasons all the same and those people are free to have them.

There’s no legitimate point to this. It’s just something that’s been on my mind lately. If I had to think of a point? It would be this: if you’re partaking of a service that traditionally involves tipping, please try and consider the state of the current economy when calculating their tip. And if you’re the one working for those tips, please try and remember that some people legitimately don’t know how important those tips are to you, some people legitimately don’t understand the value of a dollar anymore, and some people really are tipping the best they can and probably wish they could tip more.

(P.S. - If you order a pizza and see a ‘delivery fee’ on the receipt, that is NOT the driver’s tip. It is generally split between helping with compensation for the lower on-road hourly rate and paying the company’s liability insurance while the driver is on the clock.)

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 15:36

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“Back in my day, $2 was a good tip...”

Good lord, these people are so wealthy that they don’t even know or care about inflation.

Desu-San-Desu > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 05/01/2016 at 15:36

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A good portion of my post deals with exactly that, haha.

jimz > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 15:40

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I’m definitely not 20-something anymore, but I have worked retail and food service in the distant past. I usually duke about 20% at least. I think the cheap fucks are usually ones who were born/raised in a well-to-do family and have never had to do much in the way of work.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 15:40

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Working for tips is hard, you need the right state of mind, which you seem to have. It’s like, you’re technically not entitled to anything, even if you gave excellent service or whatever. However, the customer is paying for the convenience of delivery, and the “unspoken rules” of such a service do imply that one should tip. I’ve worked enough service and labor jobs; I always tip, especially my pizza guy, because he’s like 2o and drives a Fiesta ST. Gotta help out with those payments.

Berang > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 15:41

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People don’t get rich by being generous. Every “rich” person I have known (excepting a guy who inherited his father’s business) has been a total tightwad.

On the subject of tipping, I don’t know why we deal with something that usually just leads to awkwardness and disappointment. Employers should just pay their employees and not put all of the weirdness of tipping onto the customer. It is incredibly awkward to give a small tip to somebody you know is taking in more tips that weekend than you make during the week, particularly if they act like you’re cheating them.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 15:42

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indb4 gawker commenters flying into a fury about how they don’t tip because it’s a rigged systems and why should basic food service workers get a tip when they have a salary and nobody else gets a tip and blah blah blah whatever else they say in between their deep angry breaths of righteous indignation

Desu-San-Desu > jimz 05/01/2016 at 15:49

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I always appreciate those who calculate tips based off percentages. It’s nicely objective and takes a lot of the concern for social etiquette out of it. :-)

Also, in my experience? Most of the times that I get stiffed or grossly under-tipped (‘coin changers’), it’s either younger black males or older black females. Inversely, younger black females often tip a few bucks and older black males are generally fairly generous with their tips. I have no idea why this is, but it’s consistent enough that I’ve picked up on the pattern. White customers seem to have a less directly noticeable pattern outside of {age+visible equity}. Gender doesn’t seem to play a part in their tipping habits. In South Carolina, we don’t have enough other ethnicities to really pick out a definite pattern or trend. Still, the fact that there are noticeable differences in tipping behavior along racial and generational lines at all is both troubling and fascinating.

Desu-San-Desu > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 05/01/2016 at 15:52

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Those people exist, have always existed, and will always exist. You just have to take deep breaths and trust that the law of averages will eventually do their thing.

shop-teacher > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 15:54

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This is not a new phenomenon. It’s been nearly 20 years since I delivered pizza in high school, in a fairly wealthy area. A Mercedes in the driveway was a nearly guaranteed bad tip. In the year and a half I did it, a Mercedes in the driveway netted me one decent tip (but that was the babysitter, so it didn’t count), and one good tip. Interestingly, Ferrari owners were usually very good tippers. Lower/middle class were always my best tippers as well, while teenage girls were as a group the worst tippers.

I remember discussing the phenomenon with my dad. He put it very succinctly, “Well, rich people don’t get that way by spending money.”

The Klien family, owners of Klien tools, we’re all terrible tippers. I can also can firm that Scotty Pippen earned his, “No tippin’ Pippen” nickname.

Desu-San-Desu > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 05/01/2016 at 15:54

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Lol, I’m 29 and drive a Cooper S, which I’m still paying off, so you’re not too far off. Plus the whole ‘family of 4' thing makes every little bit count. It’s very humbling when you realize that your income is no longer just for yourself.

Desu-San-Desu > Berang 05/01/2016 at 16:04

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I made $26 in tips Friday night and $28 in tips last night. I’ll make less tonight. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday almost don’t even count, since we get so few deliveries on those nights. Thursdays are hit and miss. Still, I generally clear about $100 a week in tips, which is on the low end of the tips spectrum.

I personally agree that hourly wages should be increased considerably to compensate for the higher cost of living, but I also don’t enjoy this concept that tip-workers are all raking in huge amounts of money every weekend. Especially delivery drivers- they have to content with wear and tear on their vehicles, which absolutely none of the current crop of companies helps pay for.

Yes, some tip-workers make bank. Some, like me, don’t. However, a lot of that is subject to region, season, and just blind luck. Right now? Our business is down versus what is was during the colder months. We’re hoping summer will increase business, but there’s no guarantee. I just have to adapt as best I can to the fluctuating income that comes with the territory and make sure that I budget my hourly pay as responsibly as possible.

Also, “It is incredibly awkward to give a small tip to somebody you know is taking in more tips that weekend than you make during the week, particularly if they act like you’re cheating them” comes across as an ironically ‘tightwad’ sentiment in contrast to your first statement. :-P

smobgirl > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 16:04

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Just wanted to note how tip-immune people are getting because of the inundation of tip jars (etc.) everywhere. I usually tip even on take-out, because I waited tables for forever. I don’t tip on a drip coffee, unless it’s a special pour over. I SERIOUSLY don’t click the “tip” button at the bottom of blog/opinion articles...and I wish I was joking, but I saw one the other day.

(On an unrelated note, I teach part-time for very good wages, unless you count all of the unpaid hours. But I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it. The parents usually chip in for an “end of season” gift that goes way above and beyond all expectations, and I am completely humbled every time they do.)

David Baker > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 16:04

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I cannot grasp how people don’t know or care about the etiquette of tipping 20% for adequate service. I’ll tip an extra 5-10% for good service. For example with a delivery driver if it’s pouring rain or snowing, I’ve tipped over 50%. Also if I’m having dinner or a drink at the bar and I get comped a free drink or food I add half of the value straight to the tip. I feel part of the problem is people think they’re doing you a favor, when really the thought process should be the tip (20% minimum) is part of the price of the experience.

Desu-San-Desu > David Baker 05/01/2016 at 16:08

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I really wish you were in my delivery area, haha. That’s a great way to look at it. Tipping is one of those areas where simple math = easy fix for social uncertainty.

Klaus Schmoll > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 16:11

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I made the same observation while delivering pizzas in the late 90s. When I pulled up to some fancy estate I immediately knew that the tip would suck. I got the best tips in the tower blocks. I always thought that rich people don’t get rich for no reason and that those who have to make do with less understand that tips make or break your night.

But most of all I hated the people who even tried to cheat me. “Here’s 50, no wait I have two 20s as well, now give me.....” Money going back and forth so quickly that you really had to keep a sharp mind to not pay for a part of their meal. A-holes.

Klaus Schmoll > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 16:15

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You have to drive your own car?

David Baker > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 16:17

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The best fix would be for employers to start paying people in the service industry a fair wage. Adjust prices accordingly and eliminate tipping. But that’s a whole other issue.

Desu-San-Desu > Klaus Schmoll 05/01/2016 at 16:25

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My method for everyone who pays cash is to take whatever they hand me, pause as I organize it, and say “Ok, just a moment, please. I have to confirm the amount before I get the food out,” and then once I count the cash, I say “Alright, that’s $xx.xx. How much change do you need back?”

This implies the opportunity for a tip, but doesn’t directly request one. It also slows down the process to my personal comfort level and lets them know that I’m still in control of the overall process, as I still have the product, all without being rude or unprofessional. It is company policy that we receive and confirm payment in full before handing over their food, so I’m literally just doing my job.

For those who pay with credit card, once I’ve recapped their order than the total, I just hand them the slips and a pen and say “Alright. If you could just fill one of these out for me and give it back, please. You can keep your copy for your records if you would like.” Saying ‘fill out’ instead of ‘sign it’ once again provides opportunity for them to write in a tip in the labeled space without directly asking them to. It also influences them to look at more than just the signature line, upping the chances of them seeing the ‘tip’ line and indirectly planting the concept of a tip into their thought process.

As long as I see them write a signature, I don’t care what else they write on the slip and I don’t look at it until I back at my car. I consider it very rude to look at the slip and check for a tip while still within view of the customer. I just thank them, tuck the slip and pen somewhere convenient, and hand them their food while maintaining polite banter.

Desu-San-Desu > Klaus Schmoll 05/01/2016 at 16:27

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Yes sir, that’s my personal car in the picture. I took the shot as I was walking back from a delivery to an office building.

Desu-San-Desu > David Baker 05/01/2016 at 16:28

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I agree wholeheartedly. Right now, I probably average $10-$11 an hour on a typical week. Good weeks I average $12-$13 an hour. If they’d just pay me $12 or so an hour as a flat rate, with maybe some mileage compensation, I’d be fine with removing tips from the equation entirely.

Klaus Schmoll > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 16:46

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Do you get some form of mileage compensation?

When I was delivering we had a fleet of yellow Fiat Cinquecento Sportings with huge decals. Terrible little cars but good for business, since everybody knew them. They were like the brown UPS vans. I would pull up to a house and some kid would ask me where the yellow car was. When business was slow the boss sent us to cruise the town for 20 minutes so maybe people would get hungry.

On very busy nights (pretty much all Sundays) some drivers had to bring their own cars as well. We got something like 25 cents a mile.

Orange Exige > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 16:49

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1. Nice R53! I wish mine was that nice red instead of boring silver. The black handle is actually a neat touch - pretty unique but subtle.

2.Tipping is such an odd subject. Very different among different cultures and I can’t say that we have it best in the U.S. where tips are expected to make up for low wages. In fact, it even begs the question sometimes whether a tip is expected or not depending on the business/service. Restaurants and food delivery are pretty standard, but once you get outside the normal spectrum, it’s easy for people to simply not know.

I completely hear you on the part about service-industry folks themselves tipping the best. It takes one to be on the receiving end to realize how valuable tips actually are, whether it be the dollar amount, the percentage, or even just the sheer fact that you tipped in the first place. My girlfriend works (partly) off tips so I’ve heard this from her numerous times. I’ve always just done 20% which is about normal (or should be normal) and is super easy to figure out in your head regardless of the total.

Berang > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 22:52

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I don’t see how it is a tightwad sentiment at all if somebody is an awkward position of deciding whether to look like a tighwad or have money for the bus tomorrow.

Desu-San-Desu > Berang 05/01/2016 at 23:20

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If that’s the decision you have to make, then tip what you can, if anything at all. Like I said, those who don’t tip well or at all invariably have their reasons.

Desu-San-Desu > Klaus Schmoll 05/01/2016 at 23:30

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We get $1.25 per delivery. For out-of-town catering orders, we get $5.00, plus a percentage-based gratuity or minimum-percentage customer-decided tip.

And yeah, Sundays are oddly busy for our store. I worked 5-close tonight and had 11 deliveries. Yesterday? I had 4.

Berang > Desu-San-Desu 05/01/2016 at 23:30

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It’s all really beside the original point though, which is why should a customer be put in that position by a business int he first place? It’s pretty stupid. I’m glad there are countries where it’s just not a thing.

Desu-San-Desu > Orange Exige 05/01/2016 at 23:43

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1: Thanks. Me and plastidip have a strong relationship, haha.

2: I love percentage-based tippers. It just makes the whole process so much easier and takes so much awkwardness out of it. :-)