Do You Tip Postmates Drivers? How Much? [Tipping Etiquette]

Do I Need to Tip My Postmates Courier?

Tipping your Postmates courier is strongly encouraged for each delivery. In the U.S., tipping is a customary way to show appreciation for service workers, similar to tipping waiters or hairstylists.

Beyond courtesy, these tips are crucial for couriers’ income, as they often earn around $12 per hour, which can be below the minimum wage in cities like New York City and San Francisco.

Given that couriers are independent contractors without guaranteed wages, tips significantly impact their ability to earn a livable income, especially during times of low demand.

Although Postmates’ official policy doesn’t mandate tipping, the entirety of the tip you leave directly benefits the courier, without any deductions by Postmates.

This makes tipping a direct way to support couriers for their service from the moment they accept your order to when they deliver it to your doorstep.

How Much Should You Tip Postmates Drivers?

Most Postmates customers will tip at least 15% of the total price for their orders, just as they would at any standard restaurant. This is the standard for an average delivery service that is completed with no issues.

However, if your Postmates driver provides particularly great service, we recommend increasing your tip to 20% — or even higher, if you’re generous.

Some situations that may warrant a 20% tip may include:

• If you had a particularly large order
• If the courier is exceptionally friendly
• If your driver drove and delivered in heavy rain or poor road conditions

When you come across a courier who doesn’t provide good service at all, you may be tempted to leave no tip. However, we recommend leaving no less than 10% in most situations, unless your delivery driver is downright rude or inappropriate with you.

Your courier still depends on customer tips to make a living wage, and at the end of the day, a slightly tossed up meal or a missing napkin doesn’t actually ruin the delivery experience.

We also recommend considering whether or not an issue is actually your driver’s fault before docking their tips.

For example, your driver may be late because of traffic, and your meal may be somewhat incorrect because of the restaurant.

Instead of tipping less in these scenarios, you can report an issue to Postmates customer service (you’ll be prompted when rating your experience), which may actually get you a refund.

How To Tip Using the Postmates App

The Postmates app makes it easy to tip your courier — and hard to forget to do so — once each food delivery request is complete.

To start the tipping process, all you need to do is open your app back up once your order is marked as delivered.

Once open, you’ll actually notice that you won’t be able to do anything else on the app until you’ve rated the restaurant and selected a tip amount.

After giving the restaurant a thumbs up or thumbs down, you can select a preset tipping option ($1, $2, or $3) or customize your tip amount based off of your order total.

We recommend adding a custom tip if you have a larger request, as a $3 tip is really only good for orders of $20 or less.

Once you’ve followed the prompts to submit your tip and are back on the Postmates home screen, you will have successfully submitted your tip. Your driver will receive the tip after about a day.

Do Postmates Drivers See Tips?

Unless you’re tipping in cash, your driver won’t know exactly how much you tipped them.

The Postmates Fleet app won’t display tips until at least 24 hours after your order has occurred, and your name won’t be attached to the tip.

While drivers may be able to deduce who left which tip if they aren’t making many deliveries, this shouldn’t affect you in any way, especially since Postmates doesn’t have a driver or customer rating system.

Frequently Asked Questions