Tipping Delivery Captain?

ylwjacket

New Member
Dec 15, 2006
513
Tampa Bay
I take delivery on Friday.

Part of the sale is orientation by the delivery captain, who also has offered to ride along on my 3 hour trip home (about 10 mile sby land, but about 60-70 by water).

If I agree to let him come, do I tip the guy at the end?

I've never had a captain come along, and I'm not sure I will now either. Just wondering about etiquette here.....
 
ylwjacket said:
I take delivery on Friday.

Part of the sale is orientation by the delivery captain, who also has offered to ride along on my 3 hour trip home (about 10 mile sby land, but about 60-70 by water).

If I agree to let him come, do I tip the guy at the end?

I've never had a captain come along, and I'm not sure I will now either. Just wondering about etiquette here.....

If I was the delivery captain fortunate to be taken for a 60mile boatride.......I'd bring you a bottle to enjoy after we tie her up at her new port o' call and hose her down. :smt001
 
If I understand the circumstances correctly, he is a MM employee and is paid a salary to do what he's going to do Friday. If that is the case, I would think buying lunch, dinner or a beer after the trip and then running him back to his home should be sufficient.

If he is a hired gun and either you or MM is paying him for the job, then a tip is appropriate............a paid captain in our area gets $200-$250/day, so a tip of 15 20% is adequate.
 
I took delivery of my new 30 WEr when our river was high from spring run off on a very windy day. It was hard getting out of the slip. The delivery guy spent about 2 hours teaching me how to handle a twin in very poor conditions. It was a trial by fire, but he explained that this is what he was paid to do. I did not feel he expected a tip and I didn't think to offer one. Going the extra mile or 70 in this case is a little different and probably warrants some extra conderation.
 
Hey Mike...I'm glad you brought this up...I take delivery from MM the end of March and they have a captain spending some time with me also. I generally tip the yard folks doing any work on my boat, but didn't give any thought to this one.....right now, my gut is telling me to tip. I will try and give my salesman a call and ask his opinion, and, as Frank pointed out, ask if my local MM uses salaried or contracted captains. If I get in touch today, I'll repost and/or email you directly.

Good luck tomorrow..... :thumbsup:
 
I'll ask my sales guy today about it.

The Captain is a MM employed Captain. They have 3 or 4 at this store that do deliveries, pick up boats for service, lead getaways, etc.

For each of the boats that I have bought, they spent some time with me showing me the ships' systems, going over pre-delivery checklist to make sure everything was done right, helping me learn to dock, etc.

In the previous cases, it was less than 2 hours, and we shoved off. In this case, I don't think it will take that long to orient to the boat itself, because it's not that different than what I had.

I will ask some questions that you diesel guys already know, just to make sure I know what I need to about spare parts, and some maintenance kinds of things. Then, we'll practice pulling out and parking until I'm comfortable with it.

In the previous cases, I had my family with me, and away we went. In this case, I am flying solo, so everyone at the dealership seems to think I need the Captain to go with me.

I feel quite comfortable going it alone, especially since the slip I'm going to is 19 feet wide, and the boat's only 15 (last slip was only 1 foot wider than the boat - and with 6 inches on each side, I was fine). I have taken out the 380 by my lonesome plenty of times, and I suspect I will take this boat by myself as well.

So, I'm not sure that I need anyone to go with me in the first place, but they are kind of leaning on me to take the guy along. On the other hand, never hurts to have someone a little more experienced along, I guess.

I figured I would have to ride him back to MM after, which is fine. I figured I'd offer him something, but I wasn't sure if this was like tipping the mechanic, and considered poor form. :huh:
 
I just spoke to my salesman about this. I told him I just wanted to make sure I had the etiquette down right.

He said most people don't tip them on deliveries, and they don't expect it at all. In his words "that should be the last thing on your mind. He's there to help you learn the boat".

That said, certainly they'd probably appreciate anything.
 
Well if it Bob Zagers told him Don said hello(the guy looking for a 260 or 280) and congrats on the new boat. If you don't mind me asking what boat are you getting?
 
I am getting a 2000 450EB. It was not on their website inventory.

I had inquired about a 410EC, but then decided I really wanted a bridge boat, so I would just wait.

About 2 hours later I got a call saying they had just gotten a bridge boat in trade. I put a deposit down right then, and have spent the last month going through financing, surveys, etc.

There have been a lot of ups and downs, mostly related to the fact that I wasn't entirely prepared financially to do this at this time.

Tomorrow, that's all behind us!
 
Mike
Just looked up your new boat at Sea Ray Archives.
Beautiful!!
There is one near mine at the storage barn.
Have fun!
 

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