AIBU Not to tip Just Eat driver?

[DukeofEarlGrey]

I’m open to whether or not AIBU here.

During lockdown I started using Deliveroo and Just Eat a bit, usually for the occasional lunch or dinner at about £10-£15. On Deliveroo there is a delivery charge and then an additional option to add a driver’s tip and I would always add an extra 10-15% to the initial delivery fee.

I then broke the Deliveroo app (don’t ask me how) and switched to Just Eat. Just Eat doesn’t have an option to add the delivery tip and I’ve never been sure of the etiquette for cash tipping the driver. I occasionally do it but more often than not either forget or don’t have cash at home. It’s never seemed to offend the driver and I’ve never given it much thought.

Anyway, I just ordered lunch from Just Eat and when I thanked the driver, I think he said ‘thanks for the tip’. I didn’t give him a cash tip so assume this was sarcasm and now wonder if I am being really harsh in not tipping.

I get that it is technically optional, but am curious to know what others do and whether there is an established etiquette, so...

YABU - They should be tipped, bad form not to
YANBU - It’s a nice-to-have

I am in the UK, by the way.

3ismylot Not all delivery drivers are earning as well as your husband though. My partner does it and earns nowhere near that amount and it’s not because of rejecting orders it’s because there are less jobs and certainly less of the well paying ones in this area. Tips do make a massive difference to the take home and while not mandatory they are very much appreciated.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe slight irony that in your post you call people dunderheads and sheepies, but then castigate people for being judgemental .

@Peoniesandpeaches

3ismylot Not all delivery drivers are earning as well as your husband though. My partner does it and earns nowhere near that amount and it’s not because of rejecting orders it’s because there are less jobs and certainly less of the well paying ones in this area. Tips do make a massive difference to the take home and while not mandatory they are very much appreciated.

Yes, I totally accept that some areas are more saturated with riders, so not all areas are as big earners. However, they still pay a decent fee for each drop. £4-5 for a job that takes no more than 15 mins is more than fair. The tips are definitely appreciated but no one should be made to feel they have to tip is my point. Does your partner work across different apps? It certainly helps to have more than one active to increase the number of jobs they get (along as they don't accept jobs for more than one app at a time obviously!)

It wouldn’t cross my mind to tip. I don’t tip the postman or the Amazon delivery guy, or the Tesco delivery guy, so why would I tip the Just Eat/Deliveroo person? That doesn’t even make sense. Maybe if he served the meal and did the dishes and poured the wine, but the service involved in getting a pizza isn’t any different to getting a new pair of trousers delivered.

I took up a delivery job as a second income during lockdown. I didn't expect tips but I very much appreciated them. It's not the best paid job and the hours are long but that's not a customers problem. As a result I usually tip £1/£2 when I get a delivery.

We live too far away for any food delivery service (nearest place is over 20 miles away) but I would definitely tip a food delivery person. If you can afford £10-£15 just for a lunch then you can afford to tip. Here they use their own cars and fuel. I’ve not lived in the UK for a whole - does every takeaway place there have its own fleet of delivery vehicles? Considering the outrageous price of fuel in the UK I’m surprised they can afford to deliver even for a £5 delivery fee.

We get FedEx, Amazon and UPS deliveries here on a regular basis as I order most of our dry goods and pet supplies in bulk. I always leave drinks and snacks on the porch for the delivery folks. That’s quite a normal thing to do here. One of the drivers told me he appreciates a nice cold bottle of water or Gatorade from the cooler on the porch when he’s delivering all day in the hot weather far more than he would appreciate a cash tip.

YABU

I don't get why you'd tip Deliveroo drivers but not just eat drivers? They're literally doing exactly the same job and often for the same restaurants / takeaway places.

Either do it for all or not at all surely?

@BritWifeInUSA

We live too far away for any food delivery service (nearest place is over 20 miles away) but I would definitely tip a food delivery person. If you can afford £10-£15 just for a lunch then you can afford to tip. Here they use their own cars and fuel. I’ve not lived in the UK for a whole - does every takeaway place there have its own fleet of delivery vehicles? Considering the outrageous price of fuel in the UK I’m surprised they can afford to deliver even for a £5 delivery fee.

We get FedEx, Amazon and UPS deliveries here on a regular basis as I order most of our dry goods and pet supplies in bulk. I always leave drinks and snacks on the porch for the delivery folks. That’s quite a normal thing to do here. One of the drivers told me he appreciates a nice cold bottle of water or Gatorade from the cooler on the porch when he’s delivering all day in the hot weather far more than he would appreciate a cash tip.

That's very nice of you.

At the start of the pandemic when delivery was everything, my sister happened to have a large stockpile of individually wrapped rolls of toilet paper.

She left those out for Amazon/Fedex/food drivers along with a cooler of water & box of energy bars, and they were very grateful for the toilet rolls. She has cancer & lives alone 500 miles from us so delivery has been her lifeline.

@BritWifeInUSA

We live too far away for any food delivery service (nearest place is over 20 miles away) but I would definitely tip a food delivery person. If you can afford £10-£15 just for a lunch then you can afford to tip. Here they use their own cars and fuel. I’ve not lived in the UK for a whole - does every takeaway place there have its own fleet of delivery vehicles? Considering the outrageous price of fuel in the UK I’m surprised they can afford to deliver even for a £5 delivery fee.

We get FedEx, Amazon and UPS deliveries here on a regular basis as I order most of our dry goods and pet supplies in bulk. I always leave drinks and snacks on the porch for the delivery folks. That’s quite a normal thing to do here. One of the drivers told me he appreciates a nice cold bottle of water or Gatorade from the cooler on the porch when he’s delivering all day in the hot weather far more than he would appreciate a cash tip.

They can claim fuel back as expenses as they're self employed....

@Wiredforsound

It wouldn’t cross my mind to tip. I don’t tip the postman or the Amazon delivery guy, or the Tesco delivery guy, so why would I tip the Just Eat/Deliveroo person? That doesn’t even make sense. Maybe if he served the meal and did the dishes and poured the wine, but the service involved in getting a pizza isn’t any different to getting a new pair of trousers delivered.

I tip the postal carrier at Christmas but they are well paid. Amazon and grocery delivery are not. I was tipping grocery people $35-40 on a $200 order pre vaccine, and try to have $5 or $10 handy for Amazon.

These people are/were assuming a major health risk on my behalf. Why wouldn't I thank them for it?

Irony fully intentional, Rookiemere, in response to the very adult '... but they do this on other threads?' child-logic.

I don't have an issue with robust posting about tipping/not tipping (I'm on the 'tip for excellence' side myself but do tip well), it's the insidious MN theme of 'if you can't afford to tip then you can't have it'. It smacks of the benefit thread nastiness and I can't post past that. Some posters (in a privileged position) don't want others not in that same fortunate position, to have what they themselves enjoy. There's a lot of that about.

It wouldn't even occur to me to tip a delivery driver. I pay a fee for delivery 🤷

@3ismylot 15 minutes per job?! Even in city centre with a local restaurant that doesn’t count for traffic, travel to the restaurant from wherever you’ve just been, travel to the likely flat.

Toss in more rural setting and it’s all the above plus longer.

[quote Whyo]@3ismylot 15 minutes per job?! Even in city centre with a local restaurant that doesn’t count for traffic, travel to the restaurant from wherever you’ve just been, travel to the likely flat.

Toss in more rural setting and it’s all the above plus longer.[/quote]
The destination is rarely more than 2 miles away though!
Trying to do it in a busy city by car is probably not a good idea, which is why you get more cycle couriers in the city centres.
You have to weigh up your area and work out the best way to do it.

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

Tipping culture is different in the U.K.

Erm... only if you're tight. I always tip 10%.

I tip 10% in restaurants too. Why would you not?

Only 10%? That would be considered 'tight' in the US ;-) You may have someone ask if there was anything wrong with the service to reflect such a tip!

Thankfully the US tipping culture is indeed different to to the UK.

Thankfully the US tipping culture is indeed different to to the UK

That's because service staff are paid so poorly in the US. It's nothing to be proud of.

Rarely order takeaway for delivery. When I do i always tip. Keep coins for the purpose.

I always imagine the drivers (certainly the ones near me- they aren't students on bikes) aren't doing it as first choice job, probably a top up income. I consider it part of the cost of the meal.

I try and keep some coins anyway for school things, parking etc. Usually get £20 then do self checkout to get some back in change. Also stuck 20 note into machine in carpark the other day. Got 17£back in coins 😃

@ZaraW

Thankfully the US tipping culture is indeed different to to the UK

That's because service staff are paid so poorly in the US. It's nothing to be proud of.

I'm American and am appalled by our economic inequality.

But railing against the "system " does help the poor food delivery person who needs $$ now. Their work provides me with a valued service and I am happy to augment their wages a bit.

I only use just eat when I've no cash in the house, therefore no tip. We have a local chinese takeaway that doesn't use just eat and I always tip them as we've used them for year and obviously i have the cash there as I'm paying them cash. DH was a delivery driver years ago and tips made a big difference but that guy sounds like a dick

Never even occurred to me to tip the driver. They drive two minutes down the road to deliver overpriced food. Why would I give them even more money?

I'm surprised by how little people think the delivery drivers earn. A friend of mine delivers for a chippy two nights a week, cash in hand, to supplement her income. She gets £100-140 a night depending how busy they are. That's for around 5 hours work. There's a lot of coming and going obviously but that's not a bad hourly wage!

It definitely depends on what kind of area you work in. I live in a small town where shops have to have a large delivery radius. Sometimes you make decent money if you have several deliveries in the same place. Sometimes you're driving 5/6 miles each way for £4.50. Tips can be brilliant but again, not expected.

@HunterHearstHelmsley because that experience isn’t universal. I delivered at uni (not that long ago) for a local Italian and I on average made less than a tenner an hour (inc tips) sometimes less. Without tips I would have made minimum wage some nights - legal we were treated as “self-employed”.

My cousin does Uber and absolutely can make what you indicate on a busy night, but that in amongst several nights of sitting for up to an hour unpaid waiting on an order notification coming in. That’s major city centre centre too. Busier during covid but also increased competing drivers due to so many job losses.

Always have done, pre Covid would phone the take away, order and pay cash on delivery. I would always just say keep the change or make sure I I had a few pounds extra. Since Covid most takeaways have been reluctant to take cash so we have used just eat. Like you say no option to tip on there, and I've not been able to give them cash as we never seem to have any in the house these days with everything being contactless payment.

Wow, a real range of responses here. I think it all brings me back to where I started, which is that it’s a nice gesture to tip but clearly am not alone in not always doing it.

To the PP who asked why I tip Deliveroo and not Just Eat, I explained in my original post that it’s because the Deliveroo app enables it and the Just Eat app doesn’t. It’s the cash tip at the door that I’ve neglected because I either don’t think of it or don’t have cash in the flat.

To those who say if you can afford food delivery you can afford to tip, I agree - it’s the actual etiquette I was unsure of.

It’s been interesting to hear the different insights into the realities of being a delivery driver, too - I live in an urban area and the food outlets are about a 5-10 mins drive away, but I guess total distance will depend on where the driver is located. I hope it does represent a decent flexible job for some. Interestingly, the driver that made the comment today was delivering for Just Eat but using a Deliveroo bag, so presumably working for both.