Taxi - tipping - Italy?

hey hey pj
we never know what will happen with taxi and his "out of order" machine. wait for the next one that has one that works. i have ordered 200E here in the states at my banks just to cover me incase. itold the bank i wanted 5's, 10's, 20's. since the others are coins.
when at an ATM asked for odd number "95R or 75E" so as not to push 100 and get 100E bill. many shops didn't accept so used it to pay for dinner/lunch, not worth getting upset and learned my lesson, just some tips to help others.
one more lesson, waiting to get euros at airport ATM after flight, there were 2 with one out of order ha ha, three flights landed about same time and hundreds all wanting to do same thing. long lines, how much $$$ is in an ATM with people getting "X" amount of 300E for instance. now they have travelex machines that charge fees with people upset. i borrowed from my traveling friend, rode taxi into city center, went staight to ATM to pay her back, we laughed so much (took this lesson to never happen again then go get a gelato or slice of tiramisu.
just curious, what do you mean by "will have large denominations of 20+"? larger than a 20 or over 15 to 20 bills.
whatever you do enjoy your time and have fun. "stressed spelled backwards is desserts" taste all of them
aloha

In 99.9999999% of the cases you won’t be able to add the tip to the credit card slip. I’ve never seen it except for once at the Rome Hilton hotel, which caters primarily to Americans. In any case tipping a taxi driver in Italy is equivalent to tipping your dentist when you go for a dental visit, or leaving a tip to your lawyer or accountant. By law, taxi medallions in Italy can only be given to individuals (Italian citizens only), not companies. So every taxi driver is an Italian entrepreneur who owns his taxicab and the medallion. You need quite a bit of money to obtain one. The City of Bari just released 18 taxi licenses (medallions) for a starting price of €60,000. To obtain a license from an existing licensee the average price exceed €100,000. So, when you tip a taxi driver in Italy, you are not tipping a poor recent immigrant from Pakistan or India like you are likely to do in America, you are tipping an Italian entrepreneur who (operating in a monopoly business) may not be a multimillionaire but, you can be guaranteed, is quite comfortable financially (I have many friends in that business, and it is so lucrative that it is passed from generation to generation like any family run small company). It is possible that many Americans leave even 20% to taxi drivers in Italy, but taxi drivers are hated by Italians more than lawyers are hated in America, primarily because they know that they are the biggest tax cheaters entrepreneurs (and thanks to the monopoly, more expensive than in many countries where Uber is not banned). As a result Italians leave zero tips to taxi drives. I occasionally might leave the change if it’s less than 1 euro, but when I tell my Italian friends they get mad at me as they ask taxi drivers for change even if it’s one cent.

You have two choices. One is to ask the driver if their POS is functional, and tell him you have zero cash otherwise. The other choice is to change your big bills at the airport bar or shop when you disembark, and have the required exact amount for the flat fare. Don’t be surprised if the taxi driver tries to take advantage of your being a foreigner and tell you that there are additional fees for luggage or whatever to earn some extra cash (obviously to be unreported to his tax return).

The flat rate actually varies depending on where in the city you plan to go. Check here. For the city center is 23€ for most locations.
https://www.bariairport.net/transport/transfers.shtml

Pincess - when I ordered €200 Euros from my bank in 2019 the teller asked if I wanted large or small denominations. I asked for small and received 2 - 50's and 5- 20's.
In Oaxaca Mexico the airport ATM lines were endless. I was fortunate to have a bank next to my hotel to access Pesos. I was traveling with someone who arrived with pesos and paid the fare. We were told that it is common to round up the fare to tip a little in Mexico.

Roberto - good to know that things have not changed since 2015 when a forum poster stated what you are saying is still current practice... no tipping taxis. The hotel concierge in Bari had replied to an email that the rate is €25 from the airport to my hotel. I trust he is correct.
I will no longer think about paying the taxi fare.... I'll focus on the pasta and seafood in my future.

After you disembark stop for an espresso (1.20€) at the airport coffee bar, pay with your 20€ bill, and you will have the 5€ for the exact 25€ taxi fare, in case the POS machine is (wink, wink) “broken”.

Good tip Roberto - and I'll also have a tip for a possible hotel porter assisting me.
Thank you!

Do not tip taxi drivers. When taxi drivers pay eur 60000 for a license and report on average 12000/15000 euro per year income, near the survival limit, it is obvious they are cheating; but the blackmail politicians and are a very powerful lobby (remember this when you are stuck under the rain and you cannot find a taxi because new licenses were not issued to protect the value of old ones). While you are at it, ask for a receipt (ricevuta), usually scribbed on a piece of paper. It will not work, but it may happen that they not want to leave a trace of an extra surcharge, and they cannot help giving you a receipt as you need it for your employer, don't you?