Appreciate the feedback, Charlene! It’s accepted that you tip according to level of service, but you still tip the waiter/waitress that gives bad service. So if a driver gives bad service, in the cab industry, you would give a smaller tip than you normally would, not no tip. Ridesharing companies have flipped that upon the head and just made Uber/Lyft incredibly accessible in getting people around, so that’s where my opinion differs.

How Uber and Lyft have turned the equation on tipping etiquette, and made rides a lot cheaper for riders means they have succeeded substantially as corporations. But that’s what they are at heart: corporations. The only time the interests and well-being of the rider or driver is when it aligns with the company’s interests.

I have heard the counter argument that “I don’t tip the cashier at Walmart” since people equate riding in an Uber or Lyft as a similar pure business transaction as going through the cash register. But driving for Uber or Lyft doesn’t carry the same safety net for its employees as even companies like Walmart. It offers no health insurance or workers compensation. It treats its employees as contractors, not workers. And you have much more service from an Uber/Lyft driver than a cashier.

An easy solution that’s to the benefit of both rider and driver: bypass the app so they don’t take money out of the transaction, cut out the middleman. Rider pays less, driver earns more…