Fraud in the sense of tax evasion; see p. 119 of this article. Discrimination is elaborated upon in this Washington Post column.

That passenger said the driver verbally groveled for tips, which is a far worse transgression than a sign alone.

If I have to tip, I have to make sure I have cash in local currency and in appropriate denominations. That's a physical hassle. I have to ponder how much I will tip, and that's a mental hassle. One of the joys of Uber, as a passenger, is freedom from worrying about any of this.

Posts on your home turf indicate otherwise.
http://uberpeople.net/threads/a-remo...-rating.62789/
http://uberpeople.net/threads/can-a-...se-help.11583/

Of course, Uber policy could change any moment. Regardless, I said Uber could, not that they do, calculate "average" ratings by methods other than arithmetic mean. I bet Uber will think carefully about this if they notice a large number of passengers getting ride requests denied.

I have no qualms about Square. I use it all the time. My concern is that Uber will be helpless if anything goes wrong. Although you, denFAC, are honest and upstanding, some of your fellow drivers are not. You yourself said you could have set up electronic tip collections to record extra data. An unscrupulous person could profit from harvesting credit card swipes or email addresses. That's why I discourage the proliferation of unsanctioned electronic methods of collecting tips, and it's why I believe Uber is justified in providing drivers only the passenger's first name, a scrambled/temporary phone number, and zero details about method of payment.

Your requirements are not just reasonable but expected. I don't see why you would say it's harder for a driver to be a 5* based on your criteria. Indeed I agree with everything you say. But understand these points:
We do our best to arrive at the destination on time. There are often factors outside our control like accidents or construction. I do not disagree that drivers should know their city and rely completely on GPS. GPS fails like all technology. I drove one night recently and it was snowing in Denver. All my gps failed, Apple maps, Google, uber maps, and Waze. That's not the pax fault and the driver should know the town well enough to get pax from A to B (or even get to the pax). I know Denver inside out. I'm 4th generation native.

But I'll tell you a new GPS app WAZE is amazing and recommend it to all my pax and friends. You can only know a city so well. Waze will detect when traffic is bad and automatically reroute you before you hit bad traffic. Humans don't have that skill. And there are times your just stuck in bad traffic. Trust me drivers hate it too. We only make between $0.10-$0.20 min sitting in traffic.

Also agree about music. The only music played in my car is what the pax wants. I've suffered through some miserable trips listening to death metal.

A clean car that doesn't smell is a given. That's one of the things that's supposed to separate uber/Lyft from cabs.

I have no idea the NYC market. But I'll agree with you again about taking a private car service. I used to be a road warrior traveling every week. Car service is typical cheaper here than a cab. My service kept my business card on file so I didn't have to worry about payment- and by default had him charge 20% tip). I could reserve it unlike uber and be sure someone was there right on time to take me to the airport.

Most of the requirements for an ideal passenger can be met with simple courtesy and respect for the driver's time and possessions. I believe that a similarly-rated driver also needs to have enough knowledge of the local area and know alternate routes when there are traffic issues. Because of ratings inflation, I have been defaulting to giving drivers a 5*.

I am also a fan of Waze.

I was told last week by a CSR from uber (yes actually got to speak to human) after recent critical incident report I filed that Uber will not change either pax or drivers ratings. But uber changes their rules all the time. Hard to keep up.

Thank you for acknowledging my honesty. I am an honest person who really goes out of her way to help people. I posted on this forum to provide passengers a drivers perspective. I also appreciate reading the passengers opinions. This allows for each party to have a little more understanding where the other person is coming from. For example, I now understand the extra effort for a traveler in a foreign country trying to tip in the right currency.

I'm not here to instigate a war between pax and drivers. But to share information and learn from you.

And yes unfortunately there are some scumbags who are not honest on both sides. Drivers that may try to rip off a pax. But there are many pax who are also dishonest try to get out of paying their fare. Just google how to ride uber for free. You'll find page after page of getting your ride for free. Uber doesn't eat that cost. The drivers do. So we end up wasting valuable time, wear on our car, and gas when pax fraudulently reports to uber.

Why passengers ratings are important
 

Here is a funny satire (that's pretty much true) about the importance of passenger ratings.

One of the most important factors in determining how much to tip is the value of the ride. Considering there's no running meter, I don't know the amount of the trip until some time after I leave the car*. Consequently, I'd have no idea of the relative value of the cash tip versus the ride. I could be leaving 5% just as I could be leaving 25%.

*I generally find that if I go rate a driver immediately after getting out of the car, i.e. as I'm walking away from it, the value of the ride in the app is $0. I can leave a rating at that time, but will only know the value of the ride once I receive the receipt email.

(Apologies if I missed a similar point earlier in the thread)

Wow...now I've been quoted on another forum with the suggestion that I'm an Uber shill. :D

Ironic thing there is that Uber's recent change on tipping has converted me into a fairly consistent Lyft user wherever they are a strong option. Just spent 3 days in Vegas...used Lyft about 10 times, tipping $2 per ride. (All of the rides were in the $7-10 range.) All of the rides were excellent...I think I had one 4-minute wait. The rest were 1-3 minute waits.

As much as I enjoy these long philosophical Internet discussions about tipping, and as much as I continue to despise this aspect of American culture, the offline reality is I just don't want to deal with the potential conflict in expectations that now exists with some Uber drivers. I still feel like the original Uber model was the most pure: clearly stated no tips, an effective minimum rate, and surge pricing to enable the laws of supply and demand to efficiently function. Since that simple model is now less simple, I will take Lyft's model instead. It's not my preferred option, but I know it's conflict-free.

One could reasonably ask the question: did Uber really change? Is there really this new expectation among most drivers? Is this overblown on the Internet? I don't know, but the posts on that Uber forum make me a lot less likely to use Uber.

^ This. Agree very much.

Wait, you're not an employee of Uber? :rolleyes:

The Internet is a place for people to moan and complain about what ails them. In this case, a bunch of angry drivers now have a forum for their pent up rage.

Ignore them.

Tell them to meet you in Surabaya for some Nasi Rawon :D
(back streets, location, time) :D

Yes well apparently she must. That's awfully generous of you Rockefeller. Here you go little lady. Need new tires? Here's some stars. I learned an economic theory as a freshman and I'll believe in my interpretation of this theory until the day I die. And my interpretation always results in my cash staying in pocket. Sure glad your brakes didn't go out on this ride. Hope the next passenger checks them. Buyer beware you know, free market gurgggglebrgdlguflugd.

Dude. You're cheap. That's all. You've got this excuse to not tip and you love not tipping more than anything else. So don't tip. Be cheap and hoard and be proud but do it honestly and stop hiding behind some BS college course you probably didn't even understand. And don't worry, she's not ever going to make as much as you.

(duplicate)

False, from what I can tell of his comments.
- If the "tip" amount were built into Uber automatically...that'd be great!
- If "tips" across the board were done away with and the people who set the prices set them high enough to live off of and respectful to labor (cf. Australia minimum wage discussions)...that'd be great!

tipping is an annoying stop-gap, apparently for both parties. You gotta ask for it, and you don't always get good tips. And riders gotta have cash. PITA for both sides, while the owner/bosses chuckle to the bank.

:p maybe some soto madura as well! I don't use Uber that much in Surabaya, only occasionally. I doubt i'll be seeing any tipping signs there anytime soon. ^

He's just trying to shame/guilt you into tipping. That's the reason why tipping in America still exists.

The best thing we can do is rate Uber drivers who demand a tip 1 star. If we rate lower than a 3 star we will never get matched up again.