# Single best tipping demographic



## GuidoTKP (May 7, 2020)

White middle aged & senior women.
Ages 45+.
Especially the homemaker type!
Ok, that's actually two 😁


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## Classical Telecaster (Dec 12, 2019)

As I posted elsewhere, you never know. 

When I get one from someone who is lower income, and I see these every week, they mean a lot. The one ride I refuse, this white a$$hole who runs a chain restaurant in town.


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## waldowainthrop (Oct 25, 2019)

Best tipping demographic is conscientious people.


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## M62 (Sep 6, 2019)

waldowainthrop said:


> Best tipping demographic is conscientious people.


I agree to a point. But I think economic class has some bearing on that.

IMHO working and middle class are generally better tippers than either welfare or rich people. I believe it has to do with lower sense of entitlement, and more connection to the working person (in this case the driver). Not that I'd over generalize or claim there aren't exceptions.


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## Uber's Guber (Oct 22, 2017)

Classical Telecaster said:


> The one ride I refuse, this white a$$hole who runs a chain restaurant in town.


I don't know about chain restaurant owners, but the franchise restaurant owners I've driven are generous with monetary tipping and providing complimentary meals as well.


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## GuidoTKP (May 7, 2020)

Classical Telecaster said:


> When I get one from someone who is lower income, and I see these every week, they mean a lot. The one ride I refuse, this white a$$hole who runs a chain restaurant in town.


As I posted elsewhere, you never know. 
True, but I'll stick with playing the odds of life, er....uh......rideshare!


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Business traveler
Drunk convention goer at a professional trade show.
(more specific than my original answer)


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## Denver Dick (Nov 2, 2019)

over 60 male/female doesn’t matter ....mostly tip in cash


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## Uberguyken (May 10, 2020)

The best tipping Demographic is the passenger you had an evolved conversation with and actually inspired their day with a good experience.... My $60 cash tip from 4 - 20 something black girls the other day proves that. We had an amazingly fun trip, jamming their tunes on my system...smiling and cutting up the whole trip. Don't judge a book by its cover... Poor service? You should expect a poor tip... Stop blaming the problem and work the solutions....

Try going above and beyond your TIP % will Thank you.


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## Classical Telecaster (Dec 12, 2019)

Uber's Guber said:


> I don't know about chain restaurant owners, but the franchise restaurant owners I've driven are generous with monetary tipping and providing complimentary meals as well.


In this town there are lots of owners and managers. Great folks, but there is one exception.


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## Illini (Mar 14, 2019)

GuidoTKP said:


> White middle aged & senior women.
> Ages 45+.
> Especially the homemaker type!
> Ok, that's actually two &#128513;


Still trying to convince us that you're not a racist?


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## waldowainthrop (Oct 25, 2019)

M62 said:


> I agree to a point. But I think economic class has some bearing on that.
> 
> IMHO working and middle class are generally better tippers than either welfare or rich people. I believe it has to do with lower sense of entitlement, and more connection to the working person (in this case the driver). Not that I'd over generalize or claim there aren't exceptions.


Yeah, some people can better afford to be conscientious than others.

My best tips didn't all come from wealthy or even middle class people, though. The working and middle classes have some conscientious members, even when they don't have significant means to do so.

I can remember a lot of the individual people by their faces and stories who were probably struggling significantly and still gave generous tips of 30%+ or $4+.


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## NotYetADriver (Oct 28, 2014)

Uberguyken said:


> The best tipping Demographic is the passenger you had an evolved conversation with and actually inspired their day with a good experience.... My $60 cash tip from 4 - 20 something black girls the other day proves that. We had an amazingly fun trip, jamming their tunes on my system...smiling and cutting up the whole trip. Don't judge a book by its cover... Poor service? You should expect a poor tip... Stop blaming the problem and work the solutions....
> 
> Try going above and beyond your TIP % will Thank you.


People are either tippers, or not. The level of service usually makes little difference.
When I was a new waiter, the host would always be sure to give their friends the big tipper tables because they knew who tipped regularly and who never did. Sometimes, your entire night depended on wooing the host to get decent patrons.
The fairest tipping occurred where patrons chose their own seating without a host or hostess.
But among those that are tippers, quality of service often does matter.


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## YellowLM (Jun 6, 2020)

GuidoTKP said:


> White middle aged & senior women.
> Ages 45+.
> Especially the homemaker type!
> Ok, that's actually two &#128513;


Only real Americans pay tips all the time.


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## Bob Reynolds (Dec 20, 2014)

I've gotten my highest tips from middle age black women on the higher income scale. The ones married to doctors, lawyers, athletes.


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## GuidoTKP (May 7, 2020)

Illini said:


> Still trying to convince us that you're not a racist?


No, because I couldn't care less what, or what not, your convinced of!



YellowLM said:


> Only real Americans pay tips all the time.


Perhaps?


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## Cvillegordo (Oct 30, 2019)

Local bar and restaurant employees, after they learn I am local, and have a daughter working locally in a restaurant. (Not at the moment, but she will return after those fat unemployment benefits end.) In my experience here in Virginia, bartenders and servers almost always tip. Followed by military, if we get around to talking about my service, I don't blurt it out unless there is a reason. Some can be snobs, the military here are usually lawyers (mostly Majors) attending the JAG school at UVA Law. The worst, by far, are groups of sorority girls. But, I forgive them as they can be great fun to have in the car if they're talkative and friendly.


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## SleelWheels (Jun 25, 2019)

GuidoTKP said:


> White middle aged & senior women.
> Ages 45+.
> Especially the homemaker type!
> Ok, that's actually two &#128513;


Older females 70+ and anyone who works in the tip industry.


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

Need to look into the income to tipping proportion. Without any question , the restaurant/bar workers tip the highest.


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## GuidoTKP (May 7, 2020)

SleelWheels said:


> Older females 70+ and anyone who works in the tip industry.


You are 50% correct. In regards to the other 50%, you are 100% wrong!


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Mexican Pizza customers ALWAYS TIP.

ALWAYS !


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

I quit trying to guess who will or won't tip. I provide everyone the same great friendly service. Some tip, some don't. Some rate well, some rate poorly. 

I have watched people tip the concierge at hotels on their way out, tip the guy loading their luggage in my car, and tip the bag handler at the airport that I have given the bags to and not tip me as their driver.

On the reverse I have picked up people that are obviously struggling, going from one fast food job to another (they changed uniforms in my car) barely working 30 hours between multiple jobs and they leave me a decent tip.

You just never know.

I don't ever expect a tip and consider any I get a bonus.


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## PaysTheLightBill (Mar 18, 2020)

Illini said:


> Still trying to convince us that you're not a racist?


Why would he care? Only virtue signaling assholes call people racists anyway.


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## mch (Nov 22, 2018)

Uberguyken said:


> The best tipping Demographic is the passenger you had an evolved conversation with and actually inspired their day with a good experience.... My $60 cash tip from 4 - 20 something black girls the other day proves that. We had an amazingly fun trip, jamming their tunes on my system...smiling and cutting up the whole trip. Don't judge a book by its cover... Poor service? You should expect a poor tip... Stop blaming the problem and work the solutions....
> 
> Try going above and beyond your TIP % will Thank you.


Ahhh you dont know shit&#128514;&#128516;


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## Uberguyken (May 10, 2020)

mch said:


> Ahhh you dont know shit&#128514;&#128516;


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## dryverjohn (Jun 3, 2018)

You are all wrong. I have delivered to multi millionaires in gigantic houses, celebrities, poor, and all ethnic regions in my various delivery jobs. As a general rule, Chinese and Indians don't tip, if they do it's very small. My favorite group of people where I get the biggest consistent tips is a single wide trailer home community, and I am not kidding. The chance of a large or generous tip is much more consistent in a trailer park or to a single wide than any other demographic that I have seen. Sure there are some big tips, occasionally in wealthy neighborhoods, but not nearly as consistent as my trailer peeps.


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## Roadmasta (Aug 4, 2017)

Older generation and blue collar workers that have a good job. I'm disappointed with restaurant workers, think they should tip better. Overall Uber/Lyft customers are cheapskates. Millennials and minorites are the worse tippers in my market.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

You are all wrong. There is no guaranteed pattern to tipping. Period.


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## Johnny Mnemonic (Sep 24, 2019)

FLKeys said:


> I quit trying to guess who will or won't tip. I provide everyone the same great friendly service. Some tip, some don't. Some rate well, some rate poorly.
> 
> I have watched people tip the concierge at hotels on their way out, tip the guy loading their luggage in my car, and tip the bag handler at the airport that I have given the bags to and not tip me as their driver.
> 
> ...


^^^ This

Even if you had an ironclad system for predicting who tips better or worse, how would you implement it?

What little control you have over gigs is determined in five seconds before you click accept. And frankly, I'd rather screen based on my safety rather than how much I may or may not get on a tip.

Better to just go with the flow and not beat yourself up. Pick the app/gig that's most appropriate at the moment and give reliable, quality service.

I used to be a limo driver and I can tell you my tips ALWAYS averaged between 15%-17% in the long run. Didn't matter who the clients were, it ALWAYS averaged out in the end. I only got a fraction of that when I did Uber, but again, in the long run it always regressed to the mean.


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## Uberguyken (May 10, 2020)

SHalester said:


> You are all wrong. There is no guaranteed pattern to tipping. Period.


And here I thought I had made progress with you....sigh.....


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

A guy who is in the car with a girl with whom he is about to get lucky. What I find really funny about this, though, is that the guy spends the whole trip talking to ME, instead of the nice young lady who is about to put a BIG SMILE on his face.


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## Cdub2k (Nov 22, 2017)

People over 30 who worked in the service industry at one point in their lives.


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## goneubering (Aug 17, 2017)

GuidoTKP said:


> White middle aged & senior women.
> Ages 45+.
> Especially the homemaker type!
> Ok, that's actually two &#128513;


White middle aged males.


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## z_z_z_ (Aug 17, 2019)

SleelWheels said:


> Older females 70+ and anyone who works in the tip industry.


Young waitresses aren't great tippers usually, but everyone else is good.


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## DriverMark (Jan 22, 2018)

After many years delivering pizza in different areas, I think tipping is more economic demographics than race and/or ethnicity.

White trash as unlikely to tip as ghetto black folk.

Middle class whites/blacks likely to tip equally.

Blue collar typically good tippers, because they have been there.

College kids, mixed bag but don't expect much.

Middle/Upper class vacationers (regardless of race/ethnicity), typically ring the register.


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## SleelWheels (Jun 25, 2019)

Picked up black guy and his young kid from Walmart. Cart full of bags. He loads up the bags and we’re on our way. Short drive, $4 fare or so. Get to the house, he’s got his hands full with the kid, maybe she’s 3, so I help him with the bags. Dude gives me a $5 tip in the app. You can do what you want, but I’m not going to watch someone struggle while I sit on my ass. I’ve found out more often than not if I lend a hand I get a tip, and the demographic is hard to guess.


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## TBone (Jan 19, 2015)

I pick up a lot of wealthy riders and most of them never tip. The best tippers, for me, are the friday and saturday night people going out. Class or status doesn't seem to be a part of it. Just give riders some conversation, feign interest, and have a good time.


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

tohunt4me said:


> Mexican Pizza customers ALWAYS TIP.
> 
> ALWAYS !


Taco Bell Mexican Pizza is the Karen of the Mexican food. I don't know what I meant by that , but I am going to stick with that statement.:smiles:


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

mbd said:


> Taco Bell Mexican Pizza is the Karen of the Mexican food. I don't know what I meant by that , but I am going to stick with that statement.:smiles:


No i mean Mexicans are the best tippers.
Cash
Every time.


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## melusine3 (Jun 20, 2016)

tohunt4me said:


> No i mean Mexicans are the best tippers.
> Cash
> Every time.


Not in my town! Mine have been white millennial males. Women hardly ever.


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## rkozy (Apr 5, 2019)

There are groups more likely to tip than others, but it really comes down to the individual's mindset. Some of the most generous tips I've received have been from black passengers, despite the fact that group as a whole has a lower participation rate than most others.

In terms of participation rate, whites over 40 are probably the most likely...but not necessarily the most generous. In fact, some older white people (60+ years of age) tend to be rather stingy. The best overall demographic for tipping I've found has nothing to do with race or age. It has to do with what industry they are employed in at the moment.

I absolutely love getting passengers who work in the bar/restaurant/hospitality/beauty/tattoo industry. Those people live off tips and generally understand that rideshare drivers are in the exact same boat. In that demographic, the tipping participation rate is usually 75% and the average tip amount is greater.

I always pray for waitstaff and hair stylists to pop into my queue.


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## Monkeyman4394 (Jun 27, 2020)

My best tips thus far have come from a white, Oregonian, millennial nuclear engineer, a 70+ black lady who cleans houses and caters to make ends meet, and a pissy little jack hole army dude who got bent out of shape about him and his chick being asked to wear masks. That’s all over the scatter plot.


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## mch (Nov 22, 2018)

Based off my personal experience, Ive found its guys who have huge bags of weed on them. Hands down.


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## LyftUberFuwabolewa (Feb 7, 2019)

Latino day workers. Welcome them with warmth and put on one of the Latin music channels. They know the value of money and the importance of a tip.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

Older drunk rich men with some eye candy at their side, they try to impress, I'm guessing in hopes of scoring.


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## Mkang14 (Jun 29, 2019)

Early 30s to late 40s. More comfortable middle class. Any ethnicity.


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## M62 (Sep 6, 2019)

Mkang14 said:


> Early 30s to late 40s. More comfortable middle class. Any ethnicity.


I read your post without seeing the title and thought this was a dating thread. &#128516;


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## Mkang14 (Jun 29, 2019)

M62 said:


> I read your post without seeing the title and thought this was a dating thread. &#128516;


&#128514; it does!

Just add in that I'm straight and writes itself &#129325;.


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## mrpjfresh (Aug 16, 2016)

Mainly a tourist market here, so that definitely helps with tip percentages. In my experience, the best tippers during my few years driving was always gay men. It was always that way and it wasn't even close. Also, middle aged to elderly pax, especially ones who just started using Uber, tip out of habit or right out and ask me how tipping works. As an aside, that's how you know you've "made" it as a tech company (or jumped the shark maybe?) when older, typically more conservative people are using your app in large numbers.

As far as service industry people, many do tip but you must account for the cost of using Uber every shift to get to/from work. That really adds up despite how cheap Uber is, and it's not like many of them are rolling in money to begin with. Not excusing it but rather explaining it. Driving in my market, I would usually 1 star unmatch these after 1 or 2 rides. They ride almost everyday so one low rating is hardly going to hurt. It is kind of a cruddy thing to do but I aim to maximize earnings and tourists are simply better tippers. If you were a fisherman, would you keep going back to the spot in the lake where you never caught a fish or one where you almost always did?

(If Uber payed better, I would certainly reevaluate)


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## Big Lou (Dec 11, 2019)

It's not easy to establish the best tippers on U/L. 
What is easy, though, it to identify the WORST tippers. 
In order from worst to even worst are.....

Indians (from India)
Young adults of all colors
Black males
and on and on and on......

The people I would least expect to tip ..would.


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## JPaiva (Apr 21, 2019)

Strippers @ end of shift


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## The Jax (Apr 17, 2018)

I wanted to chime in here. As someone who has not only been an active driver over 20 years, I also develop delivery systems and have worked in multiple markets all over the country and Canada.

So, in my free and professional opinion, I cannot tell you the best but I can tell you the worst. The worst tipping demographic by far are lower middle class areas. Poor urban city areas, you do get a higher chance of not tipping, but a larger percentage of people, who typically are hard working blue people, tip more often then better areas that are lower middle class neighborhoods. If that makes sense. These are typically cities or towns that border a much poorer area of a major city or local city center. They are close to crime so their land values are lower and their taxes are lower then say, two to three towns away from the city center, where the homes are nicer and more expensive and higher taxes, but their taxes are higher than the adjacent city's poorer areas and have better schools.

In my experience, these areas, no matter where you are in the country, have some of the worst percentages of successful tipping then the safest areas and the worst dangerous ghetto areas. I don't know what exactly the science is on that but in my understanding, many of these lower middle class areas have a lot of people that moved from the city but make the same income so they have less money due to the cost being higher than the city. Another understanding is that there is a lot of rental housing. This would also be why most people who live in those lower cost apartments in the nicer areas (because the government is mandating they have low cost housing in their town) also rarely tip.

I will typically be more motivated to take a delivery to the worst and most dangerous area of my delivery market versus these communities or apartment complexes, which I either typically reject or I will cancel before leaving with the food then returning it once I see where its going because they waste my time.

The only scenario where I am working in these areas after I have identified them is if I am working for a client and either delivering on the apps or for a client's restaurant to collect market data for drawing up their deliver maps and areas. In those cases, I always advise the client to make that area a "No-Go Zone" or "Black hole" and not deliver there. A lot of times, they will ask me why deliver to the worst areas but not here. Easy, driver retention. Less *****ing and complaining from drivers saying, "Aww Dammit I have to go there??" and better driver retention. No deliver driver likes to deliver orders to areas that don't tip. I also ask them to keep a log from drivers that haven't been tipped and we reassess every three months. If we close off another section of the map due a habitual area of non-tipping customers, that is just an opportunity to open an area of the map we can newly market and deliver to that will benefit the business and the drivers.

I love it when customers call and ask why we no longer deliver there. You really want to say, "Well due to your customer file, you ordered 17 times and never tipped our delivery driver" haha!! What we really say is, "Oh I am sorry. I understand how this can be an inconvenience. However, you are welcome to come in and place a pickup/carryout order". In most but not all cases, customers from a recently closed delivery area are not allowed to place orders on the phone to pick up unless they are pre-paid as customers in the past in this scenario have placed their order then never showed.

If you have any questions for me in regards to this, just ask.


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