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Ender
Lv 4

What do you tip a cab driver in the DC area?

Specifically, Bethesda/Chevy Chase. A "best answer" will acknowledge the strange fare system (or explain it to me), then offer a percentage.

When I get off the Metro, its a 30 min walk to my place. When I come home late from the bars, the buses are not running, and I take a cab. I think the fare is between $7-10. I never know what to tip! Please help, thanks! (At restaurants, I usually leave 20+%, if that helps..)

7 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    This is the way I have always done it... I start out with a flat 2 dollar tip for any ride... if it goes over 7 minutes, add another dollar... fourteen minutes, add another dollar...For every 7 minutes you are in the cab... add a dollar !

    So a 20 minute ride would net a 4 or 5 dollar tip, depending on if you round up or not !!!

  • 1 decade ago

    Around 15 percent is usually right on point, though it's trickier with cabs, because you have to do the math really quickly, while the driver is waiting for you! It's a little easier in a restaurant, where you've actually got the time to look the bill over, and then you just have to add an amount to the credit card receipt, rather than fumbling for the correct change!

    That said, since you take the journey fairly often, you only have to figure it out once or twice to get a pretty good handle on it. When you're tipping in a taxi, it's usually pretty common to round up to the next whole dollar amount; that way you can hand the driver a bigger bill and just say "give me X amount back."

    You say the journey is usually between $7 and $10. So that means -- mathematically at least -- you'd usually be giving a tip of around $1.05 (15% of $7) and $1.50 (15% of $10.) If you were feeling more generous and wanted to go with 20%, you'd be looking at a $1.40 to $2 range. That said, it might just be easier to go with two bucks all the time -- it's 20% of the top end of the fare range you gave, so it's always going to be about right. Since it's an easy amount to have on you, as well -- or to subtract from whatever bill you're handing the driver -- it should be pretty easy. And then you can round up around that -- so if the fare is $9.75, you can figure $2 onto that for a tip, making it $11.75, and then hand the driver a $20, and just ask for $8 back (rounding it up to 12.)

    Does that make sense? I hope so! Good luck with it all -- tipping is difficult to navigate sometimes. I just gave some tips for tipping in foreign countries, actually: good timing! http://windowseat.travelocity.com/2008/02/tips_for...

    Source(s): I'm an editor with Travelocity and a frequent traveler.
  • ?
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    Washington Dc Cab Fares

  • doyan
    Lv 4
    4 years ago

    Taxi Fare Finder Dc

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  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Hey! Someone in my twitter feed shared this page so I came to take a look. I'm definitely enjoying the information. I am book-marking and will be tweeting it to my followers!

  • 1 decade ago

    what you have shared, i think a good tip would be at least 3-5 dollars, if that, considering the short distance from the origin destination to your final destination.

    go to the website listed below.....

    i just did it for myself from one destination to another and it was accurate. try it......this is a great tool to refer to when traveling in dc via ca

    i hope this helps!

    Source(s): Taxicab Fare Calculator Calculates taxi fares between any two addresses or points of interest. citizenatlas.dc.gov/atlasapps/taxifare.aspx - 4k
  • 5 years ago

    Maybe so

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