Most every taxi firm in the uk has a piece of plastic water pipe and a bunch of ping-pong balls. As each driver comes back they take their number from the basket and drop it into the far end of the tube. The next call that comes in, and the despatcher takes the ball out the "near" end.
It is an almost foolproof FIFO pipe (literally), simplemfor everyone to understand and very cheap to run.
I had a driver tell me he’d get his friends to call in fake rides if things were slow, which meant that he got to the front faster. He was convinced everyone else was doing it too.
It must be completely dependent on where you're from. Over here you tip neither waiters or cabbies. I have no idea why you'd tip the taxi driver at all. I'm glad that with Uber you can just pay through the app and that removes the stupid "just keep the change" attitude. Most other taxi companies are implementing their own apps with online payment nowadays so fortunately this habit is dying out(one can hope).
Wait... car mechanics too? If you’re already billed for human labor cost on your invoice, what percentage do you tip on top of that? How is it shared between employees of the shop?
Assuming you go to the same garage, and that the mechs are not the owners... Your car is one of many at the garage. You may have particular expectations on time or how you like your settings (specific wheel alignment, etc) A bit of extra "appreciation" means your car may get fixed earlier, and come back with a few extra things adjusted without being on the bill, along with extra care to meet your specific asks.
Or so I was told. I saw it more when I was younger than I do today.
I've never tipped a car mechanic. They bill their labor rates anyways, tipping in such circumstance should never be expected.
Generally, most tipping is at restaurants and bars/pubs. Hairdresses/barbers/salons is also very common because of the close personal interaction with the worker.
Most of the time you tip at businesses that would be expected to employ low-education, or poorer or immigrant workers (and by extension, more easily abused workers.) Restaurants, salons, car washes, etc, all tend to employ poorer, less educated people, and also tend to be highly tip-based businesses. So for the most part you're expected to tip at businesses that traditionally abuse and underpay their employees.
Yeah. Like why can I get a draft beer anywhere in Amsterdam for 3 euros MAX 4. At the top of the 5 star Okura hotel, beers are 4/5 euro. Of course, fancy beers can be 6 euros.
But in the USA, it is not uncommon to see Budlight selling for 8 dollars or more. (don't forget to tip!)
Yes I noticed the same thing, but only in the cities. Cost of living there is generally higher and income is as well. If you go to a small town in the US a beer can be 3 dollars and a coffee 1.50 or so.
If they weren't using the same currency there would probably be difference in inflation due to very different economics between let's say New York and some tiny rural village.
Wait, deliverymen? I don't tip the UPS, FedEx, or USPS guys. The only type of person that comes to my house that I tip is the garbage guy, and only when I have a particularly large garbage pile to take out. They send out cards around Xmas with the official tipping procedure, but I do it whenever I have an onerous load, not at a certain time of year.
People I regularly tip:
- wait staff
- barber
- delivery service (for oversized packages/furniture delivered into my home, not general UPS/FedEx deliveries that are left on the doorstep)
- taxi driver
It's a side effect of a low minimum wage. Most of the rest of the western world has the minimum set closer to a living wage.
But why? I somewhat get the argument with waiters - they are paid shit wages, so somehow it became a cultural norm that customers have to subsidise waiters since their employers are too cheap to pay properly. Like, ok, I don't agree with it, but that's the system you build for yourself so that's the one you have to deal with.
But why taxi drivers? Why delivery drivers? Are those groups also poorly paid because they rely on tips? Why other social groups haven't adopted this? Are your electricians also charging $1 an hour of work and then expect that you leave a tip that saves them from poverty?
At German train station the taxis form a line. You are expected to take the first car in the line. If you try to take another one most drivers will tell you to go to the first car.
And it is how taxi lines work or worked in the US. App-based hailing changed this, since there is no longer a designated physical place where the line would exist. Building a virtual-line, makes plenty of sense, and in hind-sight was something overlooked.
This happens in Norway as well. Unfortunately different companies charge different rates, so I refuse if the first in line is one that charges more than others.
I love solutions like this. Had I been called on to solve their problems, I probably would have built a "simple" app. I try to remember solutions like this when I am tempted to over complicate a problem.
Though I'm already thinking about how maybe the balls need some sensors or we codes so we can have data and a dashboard.
This way I both struggle myself (as I never want to go there that early) and harm the others' comfort and convenience by occupying the place, making the queue longer. People also tend to conflict, fighting for their place in the queue (I had to witness and to participate in too many queues in my life, people become nasty there).
If I know it's random I come whenever I'm comfortable.
If you think people fight in a FILO queue you wait till you see what happens when the one guy who’s been randomly waiting all day sees you randomly get randomly served first 5 times in a row.
you do understand that the only difference is a fixed waiting time vs. a randomized one.
Meaning you still wait the same amount of time on average, just have a bunch of "that was quick" and "wtf. I'm waiting for 4 hours" thrown in there. Not an improvement if you ask me.
It worked for marketing yellow "champagne" diamonds. I joke that the next trend is "chocolate" and "dark chocolate" for selling brown and black-ish industrial diamonds on the retail market.
It is an almost foolproof FIFO pipe (literally), simplemfor everyone to understand and very cheap to run.