Forked Tongue

The Unspoken Burden: Why Are We Tipping Delivery Riders and Ride-Hailing Drivers?

In recent years, tipping has crept into areas of daily life where it was once virtually unheard of. A growing number of ride-hailing and food delivery platforms now prompt users—sometimes rather insistently—to tip their drivers and riders. This practice, which began as a gesture of appreciation, is now bordering on the compulsory, raising a number of uncomfortable questions.

Let’s start with the basics. Why are we being asked to tip for services that were once understood to be fully covered by the fare or fee we already pay? When you take a bus or a train, no one nudges you to hand a few extra ringgit to the driver. Teachers, nurses, civil servants, and countless others in the service industry aren’t expecting a little envelope at the end of the day. So why are gig workers treated differently?

The short answer: because the system is designed that way.

The long answer: tipping, in this context, has become a tool for shifting the burden of fair wages away from employers—and onto consumers. Companies that run ride-hailing and delivery platforms often treat their workers as “independent contractors” rather than employees. This means they’re not bound to provide them with stable salaries, paid leave, insurance, or other basic benefits that regular employees enjoy.

In other words, these companies have engineered a system where they can scale rapidly, keep overheads low, and report healthy profits—while workers shoulder the uncertainty. Tipping, then, becomes not just a show of gratitude, but a lifeline for the people doing the actual work.

But it doesn’t end there. The act of tipping, once voluntary and spontaneous, is now algorithmically baked into apps. Before your order even arrives or your ride ends, you’re prodded with suggestions: “Add a tip?” “Support your driver?” “Show appreciation?” You’re made to feel guilty for declining. Some apps even default to a tip amount unless you manually opt out.

This is where things get murky. Should consumers feel responsible for topping up a worker’s income because the platform won’t pay them enough in the first place? Is it fair to call it appreciation if the tip is given under social pressure?

We don’t tip the chef at our favourite restaurant, or the cashier at the supermarket. Why? Because we assume their wages are handled by their employers. If tipping becomes a crutch for poor pay, then it is no longer about generosity—it’s about filling a gap that shouldn’t exist.

To be fair, many customers do tip out of genuine kindness. Many riders and drivers go above and beyond, and they deserve recognition. But appreciation shouldn’t be a substitute for a fair wage.

Tipping culture, as it stands, is dangerously close to becoming a cover for corporate cost-cutting. When companies rely on tips to supplement income, they quietly nudge consumers into subsidising their business model. It’s clever. It’s profitable. But is it ethical?

At its worst, this trend normalises a two-tier system where some workers are paid properly, while others must depend on the whims of strangers for their survival.

It’s worth asking: Is this the kind of society we want to support? One where kindness is manipulated into obligation, and decency is outsourced to the customer?

Surely, workers deserve better than that.