Tipping on the road.

Oh...such kind of tips. I see them not so much as tips as bribes. Yeah I do it too, especially in those days when I was hauling produce, offer that guy $50 and he will wait 2 hours after the cooler closes, give him 20, he will restock or reshuffle all the pallets, even though the sign inside the warehouse says "We don't touch other's freight". To me, tips are 100% voluntary and given after the service not before, resulting from my gratitude.

 

I'm of two minds on tipping. One the one hand I tip really well. Seriously I tip 15% for carryout. I've been known to tip 50% for good service at a cheaper restaurant. I, like a lot of other people who are making a good living and grew up poor, feel downright awkward about my new financial status. It makes me feel less awkward to pay it forward and make someone's shift not suck. My average tip at a sit down place is probably 10 bucks and my average tip for a carryout order is probably 5 bucks. I tip delivery people really well too.

None of the above means that I think the way that we do things in America is right. Tipping creates a weird relationship between the customer and the employees of a business. It basically exists because at some point someone said 'I'll work for tips' because a job was generating a lot of extra tip income... and nobody in that position has been paid by their employer ever since. I think that tipping probably shouldn't be allowed, and businesses should pay their employees directly based on what the market will bear.

Those of you who have worked in the food industry know that servers make more money than kitchen staff. Isn't that incredibly ### backwards? Why do you go to restaurants? Because they have great food or because they have good service? Personally I've gone to lots of restaurants with great food and slightly crap service KNOWING that was what I was in for. I've never in my life gone to a restaurant with blah food and great service knowing that's what I was in for lol. It seems pretty obvious to me that the restaurant business would be better off spending more on kitchen staff and less on servers. Obviously we can't expect restaurants to unilaterally start paying their servers so this fix pretty much requires government intervention.

I'd feel worse about asking for government help if the whole situation wasn't caused by the governments policy of having a separate minimum wage for tipped positions.

 

I tip the guys who wash my truck. I tip them before they start. When I leave my truck is always much cleaner then before I started tipping them.

 

Sure, here's a tip. Always start out on the right foot.

 

Also I don't receive as many tips as I used to. I have 5 or 6 stops that still tip. Usually $20 for whole trailer. One stop tips $40.

 

Why the heck would that mean you need to tip more?

Keep that extra cash in your pocket for when you blow a steer a couple hundred miles from nowhere and any of the other unexpected expenses that you'll be encountering.

 

I have to omit as a tow truck drive I received alot of tips. Normally from the people that you didnt expect. Family that didnt seem to have a lot of money. Some owner ops when you took great care of there equipment amd them. But I alllways went out of my way. Had one direct customer latter years when I would call and let him know a eta, if it was around lunch time, he allways bought me lunch. Nice guy. Then a few months ago, showed up to a location with a floor load of appliances, The manager came out and said his forklift driver was mia. He was the only guy there. Every appliance had to be spun around by hand. I told him to drive the fork truck and Ill spin them. It was this or come back next day. Had it unloaded in 50 minutes. I went to the restroom and when I came back. Guy thanked me and handed me a 100 bill. That was very nice of him.

 

Have to agree with you here. We decided to stop giving so much to those begging for it and pay more to those cleaning showers and waitresses.