Did you ever wonder how much you should tip your taxi driver? Most of us who regularly ride taxi cabs have developed a kind of checklist to make the whole process a little easier. Our tips below will help you alleviate the anxiety and avoid embarrassment when tipping your taxi cab driver in the future.
A taxi driver should be tipped based on a variety of factors, such as: Was the ride smooth? Did the driver arrive on time at your destination? Did they treat you well? Your tip to your taxi driver will depend on all of these factors.
How Much To Tip a Taxi Driver in the UK?
When it comes to tipping taxi drivers in the UK, there is no such hard rule to do so, unlike in some western countries. Each country has its own community rules and regulations developed by common people regarding taxi tips. However, some social rules should be considered when leaving a tip for a taxi driver in the UK. For example, taxis normally round up their fares to the nearest pound.
If the fare is £6.70, tell the driver, “here’s £7.” You might not tip if you take a pre-booked taxi to or from the airport. If the driver goes the extra mile to help you with your bags, you might give him a few pounds.
Do Taxi Drivers Expect to be Tipped?
Let’s start with this. Although tipping taxi drivers is perfectly normal, it certainly isn’t a requirement in the UK. Indeed, no one should ever pressure the passenger by giving a tip. However, tips are a big perk of a taxi driver’s work so it’s important to understand your passenger to increase your decent tip. Hopefully, if you’ve provided excellent taxi service, they’ll be sure to give you that little bit of a high tip at the end of the journey.
How Much to Tip for Excellent Service?
The proper amount to tip servers depends on your service. If the taxi cab driver goes faster and out of their way to make your ride as comfortable as possible, tip 20% or higher if you received excellent service. If the driver helped with luggage and was friendly and cheery throughout, and got you to your destination on time, that’s good service deserving a tip.
Don’t Ask for Change
When you’re tipping, don’t ask for change because it’s so awkward. For example, Don’t tip £11.53 especially if you’re paying in cash. Tip £12 and call it a day. You don’t want to be fumbling around looking for spare change, and most taxi drivers don’t even carry change on hand if you ask them to break your pound. So avoid humiliation and just round to the nearest whole pound.
Pay Attention to the Route
Did the driver take the quickest possible route to get to your destination? Did the driver pay attention to traffic and take shortcuts from traffic or crowded areas? If your driver doesn’t seem to be adapting the route based on rush hour traffic, then you can avoid the tip because good taxi drivers have knowledge of the surrounding area. If your driver doesn’t seem to have a good understanding of your area, then take this into consideration when deciding how much to tip.
Conclusion
Whether you are in the UK, US, or any other part of the world, you have to deal with taxi driver tipping. You should feel free to tip above 20% if you get excellent service from the drivers. If you received poor service from the drivers, it is better to talk to the manager and then skip on the tip or you can give a low tip. You have to tip the driver depending on the service he provides. And taxi drivers have low income so giving tips to them will boost their income and your driver will be very grateful.