Tipping the mechanic

[ihamner]

Do you tip the mechanic who changes your oil? Or the mechanic who works on your engine or tires? It seems they are doing a great service with a good attitude so should they be tipped at the end of the service? What about the girl who cleans the shower? Do you leave a tip for her?

India Hamner
FedEx CC
D Unit
The reason so many people know the solution is that they created the problem!

 

[terryandrene]

I can't imagime anyone tipping a mechanic; a good one is well paid. I occasionally leave a dollar in the shower for an exceptionaly clean shower; not often

 

[TeamCaffee]

In most situations you have described if we feel they have gone above and beyond their duties. We feel if we get exceptional service we should should reward them.

 

[sixwheeler]

showers...if it free (on the card because of fuel) I always put a couple dollars in the card holder thing they ve got on the mirror. If they look like they re working hard the same. If the shower cleaner is a goof off no tip.
Can you imagine a more distasteful occupation? You know some of those people have to have families and thats how they re supporting them. Hats off to them. I can only imagine the messes some drivers have to leave.

 

[RichM]

90% of th time I leave a dollar for the shower attendant unless it's in bad shape. Those attendants have to be desperate to be doing that for a living. As far as a mechanic goes I have never tipped a individual one but one time when it was close to the Xmas holidays I had $50.00 worth of Pizzas delivered to my local F/Liner dealer and it paid of. After that I was always put to the head of the line and had a top notch experienced mechanic work on the truck.

 

[davekc]

I am with Rich on this one. We had to go to Jacksonville all the time for service. It is amazing how fast they jump on your truck when you have a six pack waiting.










Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[Mudflap]

I can say this first hand- a mechanic would be offended by a personal cash tip. Grab the shop lunch or ? and they will be ecstatic! Mudflap

 

[mrgoodtude]

Gonna get my nose bit off but....
It depends on the level of service, in the grand scheme of things it makes sense.
Showers clean and no pubes in the sink deserves a 5 in my book but Cyn and I always do the team shower thingy, 2 showers clean at 2fiddy apiece is a bargain for 20 min of quality time alone.
Blue beacon guys get a workout when I come around and if they willingly submit 5 a piece is the rule for giving me the best wash job they can muster (liftgate scrubbed, undercarriage scrubbed, interior mats sprayed etc).
Have to admit I never tipped the mechanic but ordering a couple of pizza's seems like an awesome idea for motivating jojo oil guy to treat my ride like he would his own, afterall truck service is the lifeblood of the truck but peace of mind is priceless.
It is so hard to find customer service mentality in the transportation sector and when I do encounter same I don't hesitate to reward, so make the blue Volvo guy a raving fan by just doing what your paid to do... go the extra mile and I will show you I appreciate your effort.
No job is thankless (is that a word).

Mike and Cyn

 

[TJ959]

I almost always leave a dollar in the shower. If the place is a mess...no buck. As far as the mechanic goes, I seldom tip someone that's making more than me. When they go out of the way to give good service the six pack or pizza idea seems more in line. I can't imagine tipping at the Blue Beacon. There's like an army of those guys to tip and all I have is a Little old Sprinter. It won't fit in a regular car wash but it's hardly worth what they charge to wash it. Besides I rarely got a really good wash there even in my FL70. Generally they'd knock a lense or two off my chicken lights and wash them down the drain.

 

[Broompilot]

I ask in return the same thing. Have you ever been tipped for delivering all night in the fog, rain, sleet, than snow? I have not and have had customers say (I cannot believe you made it here on time or if late at all). Any more compensation for me? Never.

Shower attendents always a dollar, unless it was just unsatisfactory.

Tipping shows you have Class. Wish some of those Dock people would read this.

And for the record if was offered, I would accept....

 

[RichM]

I had a customer in Montana once who was so pleased that we made it in ahead of schedule they bought us a hotel room and dinner.

Another time IBM was holding a conference in Glenwood Springs Colorado at a resort hotel and we brought out some equipment from Chicago that they forgot to ship and the IBM rep was so pleased she said they had booked and paid for about 60 rooms and they had some cancellations so if we wanted to stay at the resort for a couple of days we could have a room at their expense. We stayed for 2 days and also had a lot of freebies with the room. It was below zero outside but the hotel let us keep the truck in an enclosed receivng area in the basement.

 

[highway star]

Wait staff are the only people I know of that have an income based in part on tipping. Other than that, it takes someone going above and beyond to get a tip from me, and there have been a few times. I just won't tip someone who showed up and did their job. We are in a job that frequently saves someones behind when we show up on time. I've never been offered anything. On a trip thats red hot, and I've exceeded the speed limit for 3 or 4 hundred miles because the customer's desperate, a couple of bucks would be nice. But, it's my choice to run that way so I guess there should be no expectation.

 

[MSinger]

I actually did slip a $5 to the guy at the local quick lube just before Christmas. He made an extra effort and seemed to actually care about his job instead of just going through the motions.

 

[TJ959]

I think maybe someone thanked me once for being early but that was it.

 

[sixwheeler]

We got a crisp hundred dollar bill a while back out in L.A. @ the shipper as an incentive to haul --- ...we did.

 

[Dreamer]

In some situations it would be awkward to tip with cash, but gift cards are alway appreciated. For Christmas, my wife bought several $5.00 McDonalds gift cards expressly for this purpose. We handed them out, 1 or 2 at a time to people who gave us service for a couple days.

Examples, our regular tire shop guys, flower shop, mail man, paper boy, trash guys, etc.

Every person reacted with huge smiles, and a couple were extremely amazed that we would think of them. I doubt slipping a $5.00 bill to those folks would have gotten the same reaction.

I would think a few of those kept on hand would be great to hand to someone who's done a great job.

Just make sure it's a restaurant that's in their area!


Dreamer
Forums Administrator


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"You cannot tailor make the situations in life, but you can tailor make the attitudes to fit those situations before they arise"


Zig Ziglar

 

[TeamCaffee]

That is a good idea Dreamer. Last year we bought 100.00 worth of 2.00 bills and handed them out at Christmas time. We also feel someone has to go above and beyond their duty before we will give a tip. We have been thanked at several places we have unloaded at and it sure makes you feel good. Other we where told would be a plant shut down and we bust our butts and no one really cares. Just best to always think the freight is not and get it there.

 

[cheri1122]

Nobody has ever tipped me, with cash or goodies - but I've been thanked for doing a good job sometimes, and that's enough for me. Not that I'd turn down any freebies, lol

 

[Deville]

I tip if the guy had a good attitude and does everything thats expected in the course of a regular PM and if he does everything I ask him to do witrh out a dirty look or doing it likes hes doing me a favor. HOWEVER, the mechcanic could do all the above but, if he doest have enough brains, or is just too ##### lazy to have to be reminded to take the oil pump nozzle out of the motor before he asks you to start it than hes done. No tip! not even a thank you from me.

 

[greg334]

As habit, I do not tip mechanics, write up people or service managers, it is their job to make me happy with their work and beside most make more than I do. They really have to go out of their way to do something for me, and most of the time I sit down and write a letter to the company where I went for service - this seems to be better than a tip in the long run.

Also I don't normally tip on carry outs at resturants unless there is something extra, Yep I want free stuff. Like yesterday, I just didn't want to cook and went to Applebees. The waitress not only sugested a good entre but also I got a non-alcholic drink for free and she topped up my iced tea before I left with my order - which she gave the tea to me at a big discount like 50 cents. So she got a tip. A few times I wont get charged for an item, like cheese sticks so I usually increase my tip by 50 to 75% of the item to be fair.

On the other hand I have had people expect a tip, at logans my wife's favorite place to grab food, the waiter was just horrible and he stood over me while I was counting out my money watching me to see what tip he was getting - he didn't get a dime and he complained to the other waiter that he didn't get a tip, so I complained to the manager and called the district manager to tell him what happened. This is not the first time I had to deal with resturaunt staff who think that just because they work there, they deserve. Oh by the way, I can't stand the automatic gratuity for x people in a party, I think that this is in very poor taste, shows that the managment does not care about the quality of service and should be made illegal. If the service is bad, why should we pay for it, we didn't receive anything for the money.

TeamCaffee said; "Last year we bought 100.00 worth of 2.00 bills and handed them out at Christmas time."

Have you ever seen the look on someone when they see a two dollar bill for the first time - it is funny. Well I suggest if you get a stack of them, get some padding cement and make a pad out of them so next time you can pull the pad out and peel one off - I bet you that a few people will say that they are counterfeit.