Partner with an upcoming grad.

Typical fear of success. Or they’re content with less and just don’t strive to be at the top.

Why aren’t you starting a new company if there’s so much untapped potential in a huge market?

Are you already selling? What price ranges will this be in? Have you sold them online yet?

Completely depends on the car, but I wouldn’t drive mine if that was the compensation.

So our process from start to finish, in a nutshell is we receive a call/text/email/DM asking for a quote, we probe for details and give a quote without mentioning gratuity unless the client brings it up, then we’re completely honest and say that our drivers receive an average between 20-25%. Once scheduled, we connect them directly to the driver who will reach out via text as additional confirmation and so that if the client has any specific needs they can discuss them. Payment is accepted in any form after the ride, half the time it’s cash or venmo, or paid with credit card using Square on our phone or we email them an invoice that they can pay later (this is for regular clients).

Personally, when someone pulls out cash I simply ask if they need any change, and I never count it in front of them, say thanks and goodbye. And if they ask how much it is, I always say “The fare is $X.” hoping they’ll get the implication. With credit cards, the app will require them to make a selection for tip, I’ve set up my Square account to have 5 preset options: 20%, 25%, 30%, Custom Tip, No Tip. Most customers will hit 20 or 25, some will do a custom amount like $10 or $20, I’ve never had anyone hit No Tip and not give me cash on top, usually they hand me the card and a cash tip together, then I just hit the No Tip for them so they can sign and get a receipt.

I guess it would be nice if we always just did a card swipe after each ride, putting them on the spot so to speak. I certainly don’t care about a $3 card processing fee if it nearly guarantees me 20+%, but there are plenty of “cash is king” kind of people.

Thanks for the input, we have done an auto-grat when services require multiple vehicles, as sometimes those drivers are working for different companies, but together to provide the service. Like a restaurant handling a big table with 2 servers.

As for driver pay, all of our drivers are independent contractors and set their own rates. Our company just takes a booking fee.

Our drivers are all independent contractors who set their own pricing, the only thing our company collects is a $7 or $7/hr booking fee. This isn’t a complaint about pay, it’s more about retaining a customer by getting them to tip so that drivers are more inclined to except their future trip requests. It’s probably 5% of customers who don’t tip. We do sometimes just increase that customers next quote to make up for it, however when that customer is part of a group of customers who are friends, we’re concerned that word might get out that one of them is being charged differently. We’d rather not rock that boat, but this can be explained through the use of affiliates that set their own pricing.

Here’s a breakdown of what this looks like for a driver, here’s my year so far. The average trip is 58 miles from garage to garage in a vehicle that costs $0.70/mile to operate, so my expenses are $39. My average rate for the year is $83 with a 23% gratuity, making the total revenue per trip $102. Deduct the $39 operating expenses and the $7 booking fee and I’m left with a net of $56 ($19 of which is gratuity). In terms of time, customers are in the vehicle for 30-40 minutes, but there’s obviously additional commute and wait time, I’d say my average trip is 1.5 hours, putting me around $37/hour net.

To breakdown another driver: 64 mile round trip, $0.60/mile operating costs, average rate of $80 + 21% grat is $97 - $38 -$7 = $51 net

So overall, that small portion of non-tipping customers wouldn’t change my life in the slightest, we’re talking maybe $1,500/yr. But it is kind of crappy when you do one ride and make $20-25 less than the next. I’ll make a note of that, and the next time that person needs a ride, I may decide it’s not worth my time, even though it would still be profitable and roughly $25/hour. So rather than take it myself, I’ll kick it over to one of our affiliates, give them the heads up, and let them quote it how they’d want.

There are professional victims everywhere. Block them so they don’t continue to show up on any ad you post.