The solution is to pay them better and forbid them from taking tips. Make it clear to customers that it's not even allowed, let alone expected.
Unfortunately, I don't think tipping culture is going away any time soon.
Unfortunately, I don't think tipping culture is going away any time soon.
I'm pretty sure they are just doing it to bait Americans.
That's basically what Uber did (except for "you have to refuse once"). They tried to make it a tip-not-required zone and make everyone understand this going in. And yet still, you hear the refrain,
"What, I'm basically a cabbie. Don't you tip cabbies? Shouldn't I be getting tips?"[2] [3]
Even the media coverage comes with that implicit assumption. To paraphrase: "under the ruling, Uber drivers can solicit tips -- you know, like cabbies, duh".[1]
It's like people think that tipping cabbies is some fundamental invariant of reality rather than a default custom that can be overridden by explicit agreement. [2]
My uncle still thinks I'm a bad person because I didn't visibly tip the Lyft driver. "No, it's through the app" 'sure, sure...'.
[1] warning: browser-abusive site even with blockers: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-22/tipping-i...
[2] Characteristic example: https://www.quora.com/Should-you-tip-your-Uber-or-Lyft-drive...
[3] And in fairness, a lot of what drives the attitude is that the pay dropped so low that it effectively only works as a tipped job