I regularly get a taxi home from the shops on Saturday morning because although I only live about a ten minute walk away (which I always walk to the shops), coming home that way with heavy shopping bags makes it see a lot longer than ten minutes.
But I recognise it’s a short trip for a taxi driver who has been waiting, possibly for a while, for their next fare at the taxi rank. So I always get in and say, after giving the address, that I will give them a good tip given it is a short trip. And they usually say don’t worry but I insist because I do feel for them trying to get a decent income when they have little control over how many fares, let alone how good the fares are, that come along for them each day.
I should note for readers who don’t live in Australia that culturally in this country tipping is not an expected, or required, practice, but I was brought up to think about the value that people who provide such services to us have and how some appreciation for that is more than warranted.
Now when I say I give a good tip for this journey, I mean I give basically double the cost of the actual trip because it is so short, thereby making it more like the average type of fare in my city.
So today I got in the cab and said my usual spiel, and the taxi driver scowled at me and said: ‘It IS a short trip madam’
To which I replied ‘Yes, hence why I said I’d give a good tip, which by the way, I don’t have to do.’
He then drove me to my address – interestingly, having to ask me for directions for even this simple, short trip – and I gave him the customary 100% tip. And he didn’t even acknowledge this, let alone say thank you.
Now I don’t know, but this seemed very rude to me. After his first rude statement I could have been justified in no giving no tip at all but I kept to my word. But he didn’t even have the decency to acknowledge it in any form.
What do you think? Am I right to feel offended or am I being too precious about a small thing? I have been a bit out of sorts today anyway, so is this just a case of me having my grumpy-pants on or is my rant justified?
helenvalentina 
justified, rudeness negates compensation 🙂
Thank you!!! I don’t want to be a precious little petal about things but this did seem very rude to me! Thank you for your thoughts and support! 🙂
He works for you, not the other way around. If not for you and all his other passengers, he wouldn’t have a job. I vote yes to the rant! 😉
Thanks Roxi!! 🙂
anytime my friend 😉
Yup justified. Manners cost nothing and are worth everything.
Thank you!!! 🙂 I agree – and I was trying to be thoughtful and polite in the first place, and he just used that as a reason to attack.
it’s possible he was embarrassed? i’m not sure, taxis in my home town are expensive and charge from a minimum of three miles if i remember rightly, so i would never tip 🙂
Actually you know that’s very possible I suppose….I didn’t realy see his expression as I was sitting in the back seat. I hope you are right about that, it would be less disappointing. 🙂 And as you say, tipping ‘rules’ are different in different countries ad even, I daresay, different places in the same country, but where I am many don’t tip at all no matter what – I always thought, though, that one should in my country because apart fom flagfall costs there are no minimums and often drivers have been waiting a long time for their fare…so it’s different everywhere really. 🙂
🙂
you have all the right to feel offended, I mean he had to appreciate. but then again, imagine how great it would be if we could go so high that little people like him couldn’t affect our happiness.
xx
True on both points, though the suggestion above that he may have been embarrassed may well have been the real cause. I guess I’ll never know, and I woke up less grumpy today..perhaps the rant was therapeutic!! 🙂
I tip cabbies well most of the time. I don’t really expect anything back. Sometimes they are thankful, sometimes not. I have had cabbies in Boston tell me that the tip is “a minimum of 20%”. That was probably 8 years ago.
Yes, I don’t really expect anything back when I do either, even though it isn’t customary here, but in this case it was because he was so rude in the beginning I would have thought he might acknowedge that I was thinking of him rather than inconveniencing him – as his manner seemed to imply. He seemed to be saying at the beginning he resented me getting in his cab for such a short trip – but as another commenter said above he might have been embarrassed (and me too grumpy to realise that! 🙂 )
Yeah. Some people do have a hard time saying “sorry” or “thank you”.
Yes he was rude and deserves quite a spanking which I’m sure Karma will be quite glad to give him. Here in the states employers in the Food Service Industry abuse the tradition of tiping by paying their employees less by the hour – instead of the current minimum wage – forcing their employees to make up the difference in tips. Many years ago – 1977 – when I worked at Pizza Hut their policy – changed since then – was to pay their wait staff minimum wage then deduct any tips made from their paycheck instead of just taking out the taxes. This meant that an employee who worked enough hours to bring home say $300.00 after taxes yet made $100.00 in tips had their paycheck reduced to $200.00. This is why I refused to tip whenever I ate at a Pizza Hut years after until I was informed that the corporate office had changed the policy.
In my view a tip should always be what the customer can afford to pay for good service and not a source of income that allows a cheapskate employer to cheat his employee’s out of a reasonable paycheck for the services they have rendered.
Thanks – yes I had heard about tipping in the US being because ot service industry employees are paid below minimum wage…here in Australia that’s theoretically not the case though I still think they aren’t paid well given what they have to put up with and do each day and the importance of their sevice to making our lives run smoothly. That Pizza Hut practice was outrageous!! Just shows how complicated the whole issue is!
Maybe the point above about him being embarrassed is true – I’d prefer to think that on reflection. I don’t have a car so rely on taxi drivers a lot so I very much value their service and for the most part they are lovely – probably why this was such a shock! 🙂
We never know what happened to him just before you got the ride, but he had no right to scold, and I would not have given him the usual 100%. However, we are not supposed to receive gratitude for everything we give. If you keep this in mind, you feel better after any such experience. But you sure have a right to rant about it 🙂
Thanks, that’s all very true…I don’t think i really wanted gratitude so much as just an acknowledgement that I had thought of it from his perspective, that I understood that a small fare after a long wait is disappointing, but instead I basically got told off for getting in the cab…anyway, its just one of those things I suppose. 🙂
You are completely right to feel the way you do. I live in Canada, so tipping is something we do. Customarily, if I get standard service at a restaurant, I’ll give 15%, which is the going rate for service. However, if the server is incredibly helpful and tries their best to make my family and I feel at home (helpful recommendations, letting us order off the menu), I’ll generally tip between 20-25%. When I take cabs from the big city to my town, it’s about an hour’s drive, I’ll tip 15%. When the fare is about $120 average, the driver gets a decent chunk of change. I haven’t been in your situation, but I’ll tell you what I’d do: I wouldn’t even mention the tip. When the ride’s over, the driver would be shocked with your generosity. Guaranteed it would make their day. It’s also a great way to gauge the driver’s attitude instead of committing to a tip for someone who wouldn’t appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Thanks – that’s a good idea. I generally tell the driver because I want him/her not to be disappointed when they hear the brevity of the trip, but perhaps saying nothing then giving the tip is a better way – a pleasant surprise for them at the end as you say. What struck me in this case was, however, that I told him I’d make up for the brevity and he still had a go at me. Anyway, takes all types I suppose… 🙂
aloha helenvalentia – i know i’m out of the blue on this, and i have not read other comments so this may have been said in some form already.
for me, yeah, i’d feel annoyed. but the truth is we can not control what others do or how they are. if you have a mechanism for letting this kind of thing go, i’d just employ it and maybe consider altering your approach.
for instance you dont have to start out saying what you intend to do. you dont even have to speak of it as a tip. just hand the money over and say “no change, thank you”. which leaves you open to decide how much you do want to give the driver.
if they start when you give the address by saying that’s a short ride, you can just agree with them, “yes it is and i have more than i’d like to cary” (you dont have to add that carry part either. just “yes, it is” works. if they make you uncomfortable you can decide how my tip you want to give. if they are pleasant you can decide that tip again too.
just my thoughts. which are easier to type than to do when you are the one doing it.
best all around is just to move on. you and your time is much more valuable than spending it annoyed on the behavior of someone else (again imo). okay. spiel done.
fun on now. aloha.
Aloha! Thanks, very wise suggestions. Particularly re moving on LOL…just was in the mood to vent as I said and I suspect it made more of a negative impression on me because of my mood. I struggle with how best to handle this going forward…I do appreciate why a taxi driver is disappointed with a short trip, so part of me still wants to let them know I understand and will make up for that, but then, as you say, it is still open for me to do that at the end of the trip too. 🙂
yeah, i suspect sometimes all we need to do is rant it off a bit. yet still sometimes I find myself trying to think up clever ways to deal with it. sometimes positive ways and yes sometimes not so much positive ways.. . . .
you,—or now let’s just say—someone—could, when the grumpy comment comes about the short ride, get out and walk to the next taxi allowing that first taxi to get back in line and wait a full round again with having had no fare at all.
or. one might say before getting into the lead taxi ask, if they want to give you a short ride or would rather you went to the next taxi back. one could do this down the line until you found the one who was willing. a short ride means they can also get back in line quicker too, and that means they may get an extra fare that day. if there is that good tip they get that extra bonus too. and, toward the end of the line a taxi will not have waited long so another fare plus getting back in line quick could be a good bonus whether they can figure that out or not.
if the cabbie was embarrassed by the offer and responded poorly, that can be eliminated by not speaking of the tip until the drive is completed and then just handing money over and saying, “no change, thank you” if you are giving extra. then turn and walk off before anything can be said. that saves face, so to speak, for the cabbie and they can still get back in line quickly.
again as you may not know the circumstances of the cabbie, they may perceive the act of a tip as an insult. this would be true in some cultures. it would be like saying, being a cabbie is not a job that is important or worth enough to earn a sufficient living so they have to depend on charity. some cultures see an integrity in “earning” what you get and a tip as saying they are not good enough to earn their way.
yeah, every culture and even within a culture is different. thinking it over I’d probably opt for the say nothing give extra if appropriate in my estimation and walk away before anything can be said.
Thanks – that cultural point is really interesting – hadn’t thought of that. But I would hope that saying I am giving the tip because of the shortness of the trip might alleviate any potential to offend – eg its not about them but about the trip itself? Wow, how complex it is to navigate all of this, even with the best of intentions!:)