Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not tip the Ocado driver?

86 replies

Sayhellotothelittlefella · 31/05/2017 13:15

Just as a bit of background - I am usually the type of person who will leave a tip. I always tip my beautician, my hairdresser and the girl who washes my hair, in restaurants and the usual people at Christmas ( postman, bin men). However I have never thought to tip the Ocado driver, until my last delivery when there was that awkward 'deliberate pause' moment - exactly like on films - when it was obvious that I was meant to be tipping the guy. I've never noticed it on any other occasion but I'm panicking now as I've got a delivery due later and I don't know if I'm expected to tip them?

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 31/05/2017 14:34

Sick of all this tipping bollocks. YANBU.

limitedperiodonly · 31/05/2017 14:34

We don't tip Ocado drivers generally, but we do give a fiver for a Christmas drink for whoever delivers at Christmas.

YoloSwaggins · 31/05/2017 14:35

Same. No-one tips me every time I send a client a spreadsheet.

mostlysinging · 31/05/2017 14:35

I tried to tip an Ocado driver who had gone out of his way to be helpful when we got a delivery for a weekend away. We were delayed by dreadful traffic, missed our slot and he came back to us when he could have been on his way home.

He refused the money as said it wasn't allowed and could be disciplined if he took it.

indigox · 31/05/2017 14:36

I've never tipped, Ocado, deliveroo or otherwise.

squoosh · 31/05/2017 14:43

Oh I always tip the Deliveroo guys. They really do depend on the tips/

mollyminniemo · 31/05/2017 14:45

I see difference in tipping Ocado drivers and takeaway drivers, as they have gone that extra way, on a special mission for me especially.

With staff on a checkout -they type my items in and within minutes I'm gone (but again if I receive lovely service in a supermarket, I'll ask their name/their hand me card and I try to leave a positive feedback). With drivers its a 1-1 service often having driven maybe 30 mins from their previous drop off to get to you, in your own house in traffic. Its also pretty physical. They are also always lovely. It saves me nearly two hours of trekking out in car with screaming kids and dragging them through the supermarket, so I'm very grateful for their service. Each to their own, but I like to.

YoloSwaggins · 31/05/2017 14:47

I see difference in tipping Ocado drivers and takeaway drivers, as they have gone that extra way, on a special mission for me especially.

But that's their job.

Also, I'd rather drive for half an hour alone to someone's house, rather than serve 25 people at a noisy checkout.

EssentialHummus · 31/05/2017 14:52

From looking at Indeed/GlassDoor reviews, they average £9.48 an hour link and actually the Ocado website has the following for a London driver:

Monday to Saturday up to 6pm: £9.39 per hour
Monday to Saturday after 6pm: £10.59 per hour
Sunday up to 6pm: £11.74 per hour
Sunday after 6pm: £13.24 per hour

All of our delivery drivers receive a few extras for working at Ocado:

Award winning training and development
93% of our managers within Service Delivery were promoted internally
15% staff discount, with free deliveries on certain days of the week
Private medical insurance
Ocado group personal pension plan
Your van will be preloaded and your route on each shift will be pre-planned

Somehow in my mind they are different from the bloke on a moped doing takeaway deliveries - I've never checked but assume they're at or near minimum wage (or even below if cash in hand/incompetent management).

mollyminniemo · 31/05/2017 14:53

yolo not quite sure why you seem to be so anti anyone, in any job receiving a bit extra (sorry, other than waiters). Whats the issue of me giving someone a few quid to just show they are appreciated?

Original poster
Sayhellotothelittlefella · 31/05/2017 14:53

summer it hadn't occurred to me either. billy Grin limited I often do that as well (we go through a lot of food in this house and milk. Oh! The milk! )
So I think from now on I maybe won't tip but will have a spare £2 just in case I get 'grumpy where's my tip driver'.
yolo I definitely do like to tip waiting staff as they do still rely on tips to make up their wages. Eldest DS worked in a swanky pub restaurant in a very affluent area and didn't get the full minimum wage as he was too young ( I think it's £5.60 below 25) and the manager actually told him they paid less than other pubs as the tips were so good

OP posts:
YoloSwaggins · 31/05/2017 15:13

yolo not quite sure why you seem to be so anti anyone, in any job receiving a bit extra (sorry, other than waiters). Whats the issue of me giving someone a few quid to just show they are appreciated?

I'm not, I just think it should be fair - either all minimum wage jobs or none of them. Definitely not "just waiters". Why pick and choose which people to tip? Why is it just a very few select public service jobs? Ocado drivers get paid pretty well, as I noticed above.

Also, it sets an expectation to do it and it becomes rude not to - which isn't really fair on people that can't afford to tip.

If I like the hairdressers/whoevers work, I say thank you. I don't see why I should be topping up their (very decent) salary - £40 for a haircut is already a lot of money.

squoosh · 31/05/2017 15:21

I don't care if other people tip or not but I hate being told that tippers are being unfair by creating an expectation. Tip if you want, don't tip if you don't want. I doubt your hairdresser is going to be pinning you down saying 'where's my £3?'

limitedperiodonly · 31/05/2017 15:22

People always justify not tipping anyone by saying that not everyone gets a tip so it's not fair to single out a favoured few. They invariably also say: 'but no one tips me for my job'.

limitedperiodonly · 31/05/2017 15:27

I know squoosh. I can't help thanking people for holding the door open for me or other small kindnesses. But I am always stricken with guilt in case I am creating an expectation. What about the people who barge through without a word? For all I know they might be surgeons on their way to save lives and be too busy. I'd hate for people to think badly of them because of me.

ALittleMop · 31/05/2017 15:36

One of the Ocado guys told me they were not allowed to accept tips

PollyPerky · 31/05/2017 15:43

Tipping a delivery driver? Never.

FWIW I think tipping is patronising. It's like saying 'I know you earn peanuts, so here from me, a higher earner, is a little something for doing your job as your Big Boss doesn't pay you enough'.

I think- going back years- I gave a Waitrose delivery driver a box of chocs at Xmas ( same driver came all year) to share at work and he was very grateful but fairly sure he said they were not supposed to accept gratuities.

squoosh · 31/05/2017 15:46

It's like saying 'I know you earn peanuts, so here from me, a higher earner, is a little something for doing your job as your Big Boss doesn't pay you enough'.

Yeah, underpaid workers just hate being patronised with extra money...

YoloSwaggins · 31/05/2017 15:48

FWIW I think tipping is patronising.

This is exactly why they don't tip in Japan.

And why I love Japanese restaurants (one I went to had a whole page on the back of the menu saying "please don't tip")....

limitedperiodonly · 31/05/2017 15:54

tipping is patronising

That's No 2 in the non-tippers' handbook.

limitedperiodonly · 31/05/2017 15:57

See also: 'in Japan they are so mortally offended by being offered a tip that room service staff quite often commit hara-kiri when confronted by clueless Westerners. This creates a dilemma when the maid comes to clear up the mess in the room.'

squoosh · 31/05/2017 16:00
Grin
bexy229 · 31/05/2017 16:03

Hahaha.... Middle class problems eh? Wink

bbcessex · 31/05/2017 16:08

Just had to post to say it's YEARS since I heard the word 'negligee'... how brilliant. Good work squoosh!

Reminds me of Carry On & Robins Nest!

limitedperiodonly · 31/05/2017 16:14

My husband still talks about the time in 1983 he went to a Saudi princeling's London hotel room to tie his bow tie for the dinner suit he'd bought that morning from the shop where my husband worked.

He thanked my husband and gestured to his underling who peeled off two £50s and said dinner in the hotel was comped for him and his girlfriend - sadly, not me.

That was about £200 35 years ago. DH still feels dirty.