Tipping with big delivery charges?

[wasCB14]

Background: Platinum gives a use-it-or-lose-it $15/mo allowance on Uber. I don't get a ride every month, so twice I've used it for Uber Eats. Before this, I rarely ordered delivery so wasn't familiar with just how widespread delivery charges had become. My local Uber Eats places charge either $4.99 or $7.49 delivery charges. If I don't have use for an Uber trip one month, I'm willing to order $15 or $20 of food and pay another $4.99 (and maybe even $7.49) as a cost of not losing the $15 entirely.

But then there's the question of the tip. I'm not a general fan of our culture's attitude about tipping. I think restaurant workers should just get a good wage paid by their employers. But I tip (and reasonably well) because it's in the rules we play by. I've given cash tips on the two occasions I've used Uber Eats. I'd happily continue to tip if the delivery fee was only $3.

But if a restaurant wants to charge $4.99 or $7.49 as a local (as in a mile or two of light traffic) delivery fee, are we still really expected to tip? As a consumer, I feel like I'm already paying enough of a premium for delivery. I understand the delivery fee usually doesn't go entirely to the driver. At some point, though, I feel it ceases to be the consumer's responsibility, even under our current system. If $7.49 (in addition to the restaurant's profit on the food) can't cover the driver's wages, the expenses of driving a mile or two, profit for the restaurant, and any payments to a corporate office...then I think the driver really needs to just negotiate with the employer, or the employer with corporate.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I see in the drivers' choice of routes, they make several deliveries on each trip out. So that's $4.99 or $7.49 from each of several customers.

[Anonymous]

Many of those delivery guys get paid like dirt. I think $3 to $5 extra  is fair.(cash)  I also agree some of these delivery charges are for the birds. Once dw for a "special event"  did not want to cook. She called one place and did not ask about the fee just did they delivery.  For a 1.5 mile delivery they tacked on $20. We now never eat there or order over phone. 

[wasCB14]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Many of those delivery guys get paid like dirt. I think $3 to $5 extra  is fair.(cash)  I also agree some of these delivery charges are for the birds. Once dw for a "special event"  did not want to cook. She called one place and did not ask about the fee just did they delivery.  For a 1.5 mile delivery they tacked on $20. We now never eat there or order over phone. 

---

There's also the corporate vs. family-owned restaurant question. Let's say you know, or can reasonably guess, that the driver is the owner/manager's relative. The $7.49 isn't going to some corporate exec's bonus, but rather to the family's well-being. The driver may be well-paid in that case.

Does the same expectation to tip apply then? That's harder to justify.

[Anonymous]

Here we don't have that issue as very few "corporation" owned  but we have "family business" that may own upto 15 dining places.  The places operate under different names but 1 owner. These owners do very very well and frequently earn 1.5 to 2.0 million dollars a year NET.  I have seen  the owners treat the help like dirt while the owner is trying to decide what BMW Roadster to buy his 16 year old daughter.  When I was doing foreclosure/short sale counseling I saw people being treated like " we cut out health insurance since it would cost us an extra $100K and we only made $3 million last year and by the way we cut out meal discounts for employees on duty"   I spent  a lot of time trying to keep these people in their houses or finding them apartments they coul afford.   Well enough of my soap box.  DW   and I have made good money and have a very solid net worth but not by using modern day sweat shop/slave labor. We pay the hired help very well. 

[MakingProgress]

The delivery drive gets little of the the delivery charge if he is lucky.  If he is like most he gets none of it.   Many delivery drivers work strictly for tips and recieve no other pay for their work.   I personally think tipping is out of hand and service workers sould be paid a wage they can live on unfortunatly that is not the reality in the US so I do tip and I tip generously when I recive truely good service. 

[gdale6]

My take on it is if I have to pay delivery fees there is no tip. Its one or the other.

[wasCB14]

What are the lowest and highest delivery fees people have seen within UberEats? Do any places (not near me) waive the fee for an order over a certain amount?

[Anonymous]

I thought it was just me who had an issue with the high delivery fee + mandatory tip requirement. With Seamless or Grubhub I have had to pay an $8 delivery fee in addition to a 15% tip for food from a restaurant less than half a mile away. I find that ridiculous, considering how low gas prices are. I wish they would pay their drivers a decent wage, instead of overcharging people with their delivery fees and passing the responsibility of paying the delivery drivers onto consumers. If such a high delivery fee does not include a percentage for the driver, then what is it for?

[medicgrrl]

I'm not familiar with Uber Eats but I've used similar services. The thing to remember in cases like this is that you're actually using a third party company that is independent of the restaurant. If you order food for delivery directly from a restaurant, it's typically around $3. Once you switch to a third-party service is when the price goes up.