Drivers and Passengers: The trip experience - Uber Driver Guide

Once the driver has received a request, they will start periods 2 and 3. These are the main features of the Uber experience that passengers will always associate with their ride. The overall experience and perception of passengers are based on these periods.

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Contacting a Passenger

Once you have received a request and are on the way to your next pickup, if there are any issues or questions, a driver is urged to contact the passenger. The Uber app allows this feature and is also enabled for riders wishing to contact drivers.

Since the app keeps the customers in their databanks and all information is anonymous, which is used to maintain privacy issues, the app will present the customer number or the invited passenger's number differently, this way drivers and passengers cannot store the number for future uses.

To contact a customer press "contact" and then pick which contact option you prefer to use, phone, text or e-mail. Make sure that your phone number is the same one registered to Uber when opening the account or you will not be able to contact or be contacted by customers.

Only call customers when:

  1. You cannot find the pick-up location, or it is in a bad place
  2. Your waiting time is over one minute
  3. You cannot find the passenger

Once the ride is over, there is no need to be in contact with a passenger, and please ensure that the passenger leaves the car with all their belongings.

There is now return lost items fee set, so if you do find an item left in your car after a ride is over:

  1. Press "trip."
  2. Choose "fare adjustment."
  3. Press "I found an item."
  4. Uber will connect you with the passenger

Picking up a Passenger

Uber pick-ups start when the request has been accepted. You should note the exact location of the pick-up, and if there are no issues, you can drive to the location for pick-up.

Passengers are prompted by their app when you are one minute away from the designated pick-up location. If you cannot find each other after one minute, call or text the passenger.

This is one of the critical issues facing both passengers and drivers. Pick up points can be trivial or critical. For instance, a pick up from a suburban home will be trivial since there are plenty of pick up locations to choose from including the driveway of a private residence. City pickups are more complicated; some can be in thoroughly congested areas with no parking zones. There are also lots of no-unloading zones and in areas that are patrolled by cameras, police and traffic wardens. In other instances, it can be during peak driving times when there is a lot of traffic and no place to stand at all. Make sure the pickup point is good for smooth and efficient pick-ups, if there is an issue, contact the passenger and change the location.

When approaching a pickup point always try to be facing the direction of your destination and be on the side of the road that your passenger is entering the car. You do not want a passenger to have to cross a busy road or intersection to get to you. Always prefer to be as close to the passenger over the direction of the destination.

If a passenger does not come to your car after two to five minutes and that is after you have tried to contact them, but with no success, you may cancel the ride. The passenger will be charged a cancellation fee. If, however, you have been in contact with them, then you decide to stay longer than five minutes.

Before letting the passenger in, ask their name, sometimes more than one Uber passenger is waiting at the same location. You have to match the passenger that requested the ride. The customer will also try to match your car or name to their request.

In-App Rider Location

The Uber app enables accurate GPS coordination, so drivers can see where a passenger is since it is tracking their phone and riders can see where their driver's car is in the same way. This helps to track each other easier.

You should always navigate to the location presented in the request, and you can see the pickup point since it is presented as a green square on the map. The passenger's location is displayed as a blue circle, so, you can see if the passenger is at the destination point or not.

Passengers may decide not to share their GPS location and will have closed this option or have not turned location sharing on; you can ask them when they enter the car if that is a decision or a mistake.

How to select a Navigation app

Uber provides a navigation app built into its system. While this feature is available, many drivers prefer to supplement the ride with a third-party app such as Waze, Google Maps and more.

Adding a third party app:

  1. Select the app on your mobile device.
  2. Go to Uber
  3. Select "account."
  4. Press "settings."
  5. Press "navigation" to make any changes
  6. Select the third-party app.

Uber will transfer the app to the third party app once a trip starts if you want to see the Uber app screen, huts tap the banner at the top of your screen, this will toggle you back and forth between the apps.

Using Navigation features

Uber has some features in the navigation system, they include sound, which can be turned on and off when tapping the speaker icon. You can adjust the volume by changing your mobile device's volume level.

Other features include:

Auto-Navigate

This feature enables the system to navigate you constantly, "turn-by-turn." You can turn this feature on and off:

  1. Choose "account" in the Uber app
  2. Press "settings."
  3. Press "navigation."
  4. Choose "auto-navigate."
  5. Toggle between on and off.

Route Preview

This feature gives the driver a view of the route of the next trip, estimated by the pickup and destination entered into it and offering the quickest route.

Night Mode

This feature changes the appearance of the app, some like it others don't. It switches the background to a dark color (black or dark blue) and the text and graphics to a light color.

Turning off Night Mode:

  1. Choose "account" in the Uber app
  2. Press "settings."
  3. Press "navigation."
  4. Choose "Night Mode"
  5. Toggle between on and off.

Lane Guidance

This feature suggests which lane is the best one for the driver. If a lane change causes any issues, just contact Uber and let them know.

On Route Traffic

This feature shades the traffic status in the map with a color, for instance, red is congestion (very heavy traffic), yellow is medium to heavy traffic.

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How accurate is this hand book? I noticed a couple mistakes? IRS mileage only recorded when a passenger is in the car? I thought it was when ever the app was on