- An Uber and Lyft driver revealed the strategies he’s used to get more passengers to tip.
- His ukulele and electric vehicle have sparked conversations with riders, which can lead to tips.
- Drivers said inconsistent tipping makes a difficult earnings environment even harder.
Gabe Ets-Hokin was struggling to get his rideshare customers to leave tips. Then he bought a ukulele.
“It sparks lots of questions, conversations, and connections,” the 56-year-old told Business Insider, adding, “Sometimes I’ll play it for people, or better yet, I’ll give it to a passenger to play.”
In January 2023, Ets-Hokin brought his ukulele when he drove for Uber and Lyft part-time in Oakland, California. That year, his average tip amount increased to $1.19 from $1.05 in 2022, per his calculations. And it ticked up to $1.24 in 2024. Tips accounted for about 19% of his rideshare earnings in 2024, up from 12% in 2022.
Ets-Hokin said every little boost to his income is valuable. And while various factors impact customer tipping, he said he’s confident his ukulele has helped him win over riders.
Over the past two years, more than a dozen Uber and Lyft drivers shared the strategies they’ve used to secure tips — including focusing on airport trips and directly asking for tips — often without much success. They also said that inconsistent customer tipping makes a difficult earnings environment even harder. Data provided to Business Insider by Gridwise, a data analytics company that helps gig drivers track their earnings, showed that last year, Americans were much less likely to tip their Uber and Lyft drivers than drivers for platforms such as DoorDash, Instacart, UberEats, and Grubhub. Gridwise analyzed 171 million trips to compile its findings.
Uber did not respond to a request for comment from BI. Lyft pointed BI to statements made by CEO David Risher in the company’s latest earnings call, in which he said drivers collectively earned nearly $9 billion in 2024, more than any prior year in the company’s history.
Having conversations with riders can lead to tips
Having a ukulele in his car isn’t the only thing helping Ets-Hokin. He said having conversations with passengers can also increase the chances a rider will leave a tip.
“If somebody gets in your car and treats you like a robot, there’s almost no chance that they’re going to tip you,” he said, adding, “The surest way to get higher tips is to interact with passengers.”
After buying a Tesla in 2021, he said riders began regularly asking him whether he likes it and where he charges the electric vehicle.
“This frequently leads to a ‘connection’ type of conversation, which often results in a tip,” he said.
After selling his Tesla in 2022, Ets-Hokin bought a different EV last year — a Hyundai IONIQ 5. Ets-Hokin said this vehicle has sparked even more questions from riders than the Tesla did, which he thinks is because people are less familiar with this type of EV.
Despite his best efforts, Ets-Hokin said not every passenger is open to a conversation. And even when a good conversation happens, some riders forget to tip.
Driving is only profitable during certain periods
Ets-Hokin drives for Uber and Lyft about 15 hours a week and, in 2024, earned about $24,000 after accounting for platform commissions and fees — which don’t include driving expenses like gas and vehicle maintenance. He drives part-time because his wife has a full-time job and gig driving is only financially worthwhile during certain time periods.
In 2020, California passed Proposition 22, which classified Uber and Lyft drivers as independent contractors rather than employees and established a wage floor of 120% of the minimum wage in the areas where drivers complete trips. For Ets-Hokin, that’s about $20 an hour — which isn’t enough to entice him to drive more than 15 hours a week.
When he does drive, he prefers two specific three-hour stretches on the weekends — between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. — that he believes are the most profitable. Per his calculations, he can earn as much as $40 an hour during these periods, after driving expenses.
This is in part because the weekends also tend to produce more conversations — and better tips.
“Unfortunately, most a.m. or p.m. commuters are uninterested in interacting with their drivers,” he said, adding, “The best hourly pay is during busy weekend evenings.”
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Correction: March 8, 2025 — An earlier version of this story misspelled Ets-Hokin’s name in one instance. It is Gabe Ets-Hokin, not Gabe Est-Hokin.
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