Driving almost 5 miles to a rider would not work for me

Drivers Advice, Experiences
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#1

Unless it’s straight on and off the freeway here (houston) my experience is that most riders will cancel. And I honestly couldn’t make any money driving that far for $8. It’s not just the mileage it’s the time involved. If I get any trips over 1 mile I call the customer to let them know where I am and get an idea of if they will wait. But then unless it’s surging I don’t take trips unless I’m working a guarantee. Then I take anything but still call IF I don’t have minimum # of rides.

Maybe folks are less impatient in your town?

Obviously some exceptions. I’ll take non surge from a few miles away to get me towards houston from where I live. That way I’m paid to go where I’m going anyway. But I do call and ask destination. In true rideshare fashion I tell them I’m heading toward houston and can only take rides that direction. I have so far not had anyone get upset.

#2

So let me ask you a question, select is new here so I’m trying to figure it out. Have you gotten any bad ratings that seemed uncalled for? i.e. a pax ordered select accidentally and was pissed when they got the receipt.

#3

I’m not saying I don’t believe them, but I can only recall two times that it ever happened to me. I drive a 2013 Acura TL, so maybe it has something to do with the kind of car they’ve been matched with. I don’t really know. I’m just speculating. But again, I very rarely ever get cancelled on.

#4

Yeah I actually have. Out of all my trips I’ve only gotten a hand full that were not 5 star, most of those were people who were upset with the fare. Either they did not realize they chose select, never had to ride during a surge, or were first time riders. I need to add that to the information I provide on the back of the headrest"UBER DECIDES ALL PRICING!" I’ve had a few pax call me afterwords asking me why I charged them so much.

#5

At the current slave labor rates, 19 min dead miles doesn’t cut it. My limit is 5 min for X and 8 min for XL. If I’m in a slow area, will extend it a couple min but will always call pax and to get word that the numbnuts doesn’t cancel on me. If its a short ride, it will be a money looser for sure.

#6

Keep in mind, I will drive most the night and then go offline between 1am-1:15am and go back online once all other drivers are taken up by 1:30 there’s usually a nice surge with a fat ride at the end of it. I’ve had high 100s and even 200s doing this. That’s what works for me though, I’m sure it’s different for every market.

#7

Depends on the area. No way in hell I’m driving more than 6 minutes for a downtown pickup because those people are just bar hopping or headed back to their home close by. Now I will sometimes do a 10 minute pickup 30 minutes north of the city because a good chunk of those rides are coming back into the city or even better, Kentucky or Indiana. The only time I would take ride that far is if someone fked me already and dropped me in a dead zone and I have to drive back to civilization and its on the way anyway. On the plus side those middle of nowhere rides pay well getting there.

#8

I’m well over 2000 rides and was running 4.85, last 3 weeks I got hammered by surprised riders who accidentally selected select so my rating fell below the 4.6 for the last 100 rides so I got the deactivation notice. You are probably in smaller driver market than I am, they have plenty of drivers here now so they could care less, if I don’t get my average over 4.6 for the next 50 rides they pull the plug on me. I’m about 25 rides in with a 5.0 average so I’ll probably be fine but I feel like a valued partner, … NOT!

#9

19 minutes away?? …what does it say when you type the same address into GOOGLE MAPS.
Uber navigation time estimate is NOT even close to accurate.
every time I retype into GOOGLE MAPS the time estimate is much lower…

#10

i get at least one cancel every day. I don’t think its based on the car because I’m in a 14’ Lexus GS. I assume its mostly distance/time or they accidentally chose select.

#11

And what I find so truly sad about your comment is that you’re trying desperately to earn you rating back in a known-flawed, statistically invalid rating system. I have explained the flaws to Uber several times and I have offered to consult to help them repair the useless system but they have explained that they’re happy with the invalid data they use to rate drivers. It’s like they have no clue about the difference between an interval scale and an ordinal scale.

#12

Not to change course but has anyone ever told a pax they couldn’t take them to their destination because it was too far? I had a pax the other day who lived about 40 minutes away where would never get a ride back. I took it, luckily it was over 2x surge. The trip was highway miles and ended up being over $80. And the best part was it was kinda of in a circle so only took me about 25 minutes to go home. So after fees I made over $60 for about an hour which was great with the better gas mileage. Another time though , a pax called after I accepted and told me his destination which was about an hour away, again with no chance of a return fare.

#13

Hell yes! I’ve told paxs I’m not willing to go to their destination. If the destination is an area I don’t like or will result in dead miles on the return, I tell the pax I’m not interested. The good news is there’s always another shmuck driver just down the road who doesn’t know better.