<i>&gt;Tipping is an awful and awkward practice that shouldn&#x27;t ever be encouraged.</i><p>It seems like there&#x27;s an easy free-market solution to this.<p>Since Uber was on the losing side of eliminating tips from a policy standpoint, just let customers en masse accomplish the same goal:  Simply add another field to the screen explicitly showing if the driver expects tips or not.<p>Some example screenshots from Uber showing a driver profile to modify:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;therivardreport.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;uber_screenshot.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;therivardreport.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2015&#x2F;10&#x2F;uber_s...</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.moneycrashers.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2014&#x2F;08&#x2F;uber-screenshot.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn.moneycrashers.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2014&#x2F;08&#x2F;uber...</a><p><pre><code>  * Add a column stating &quot;Tips: Yes&#x2F;No&quot;
  * Add a filter option of &quot;Tips=No&quot; for customers to eliminate drivers who want gratuity
  * Rank&#x2F;bias the list of available drivers such that &quot;Tips=No&quot; are shown first
</code></pre>
This concept would be similar to filtering ebay sellers that offer free shipping (aka built into the final selling price) or expect extra shipping charges.  Another point of seller differentiation is allowing &quot;returns&#x2F;refunds&quot; or &quot;all sales final.&quot;  Instead of ebay dictating a rigid policy, the ebay bidders can use filters to avoid sellers with undesirable attributes.<p>The Uber drivers would learn very quickly whether &quot;expecting tips&quot; is a smart business strategy to maximize income.<p>For curiosity&#x27;s sake, I went to Lyft to see their policy on tipping:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.lyft.com&#x2F;hc&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;articles&#x2F;213583978-How-to-Tip-Your-Driver" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.lyft.com&#x2F;hc&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;articles&#x2F;213583978-How-to-Tip...</a><p>Since Lyft seems to encourage tipping, I&#x27;m guessing this is one of the reasons why many consider their platform more &quot;driver friendly.&quot;  It would be interesting to see what % of passengers tip Lyft drivers.  That might be predictive of how Uber passengers would choose the &quot;tipping=No&quot; drivers.