[dnautics]

>And probably can under-report tips

I drive for both Lyft and Uber: Most passengers don't tip, and even when they do they usually use the app, so there's very little under-reporting. In my experience: The most cash tip I've ever recieved was $20 for returning an iPhone to a user, and the most cash tip I've ever gotten in a night from just rides is on the order of $10, and I'd say about 80% of my nights net $0 cash tip.

You do, however, get a really nice tax advantage if you drive a fuel efficient car, the federal deduction is $.55/mile, and I estimate my operating costs (fuel, maintenance, but not depreciation since my car already has 115k), to be about $.20/mile.

It might be neat for priceomics to do a report on this. Hey, priceomics, want to interview me?

[nemothekid]

I remember my first few rides with Uber when I tried to tip, and they told me that they don't accept tips

[dnautics]

presumably the driver meant 'cash tips' because the app very much allows tipping, although it's also possible the driver was not entirely knowledgeable of the process.

It's more important among lyft drivers to not accept cash tips because it's a safety issue; as a community, accepting cash tips can lead to danger if pink mustaches become a target for crime. Usually I refuse cash tips and relent only if they insist (this mostly happens with service industry clients).

In San Diego, there is a driver that donates 50% of tips to charities; she has a blog where she posts her tallied earnings for transparency on the process.

[jonknee]

I've used Uber quite a bit and never seen how I could tip. Apparently that option is only available on uberTAXI:

http://support.uber.com/hc/en-us/articles/202290128-Do-I-hav...

[twoodfin]

UberX (the subject of the article) deliberately does not support tipping, and drivers are instructed not to accept tips. There's an automatic tip on rides booked through "Taxi" requests on Uber, but that's not the same thing.