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Uber has announced that finally, they will allow users to tip their drivers through the App. The change was announced in an email titled 180 days of change which set out a series of policies the company will be bringing in over the next six months.
In-app tipping has been implemented immediately in Houston, Minneapolis, and Seattle. The tipping facility will be rolled out across the rest of Uber’s US cities by the end of 2017. Update: it looks like as of July 6, 2017, Uber has expanded in-app tipping to 120+ markets.
Uber U-Turn
The change is a U-turn from the Uber policy since as recent as April 2017 Uber was set against including tipping in its App, mainly because at the time Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was against allowing in-app tipping. The change comes only a few days after Mr. Kalanick was forced to step down from his role, after pressure from 5 major institutional investors.
Positive Change
The new policy has some positive changes for drivers including a reduction in time for the fee-free cancellation window from 5 minutes to 2 minutes. Another change is the elimination of unpaid waiting times for drivers. The changes represent some positive news for Uber which in the past few months has seen its reputation tarnished by a series of damaging revelations. Including that it was using technology to foil regulators and was using your phone’s location services to track your movement after the ride was over.
Overall
The coming changes and the departure of Kalanick should represent a new chapter in Uber's history, which has lost ground to some of its main competitors including Lyft. Remember if you are an Uber user, sync your Chase Sapphire Reserve® card with your Uber account to earn 3X the points per ride.
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