Study of a simulated city. Study assumed 3 types of drivers: 1) those who drove around looking for riders, 2) those who stayed parked until they found a driver, and 3) those who kept driving back to high-demand areas. Drivers in the first category did the least well. Drivers in the second and third did better
You are no more likely to get pinged by driving around than sitting in a parking lot. With that in mind, save your gas not to mention unnecessary wear and tear on your car.
As a plus driver, you may need to go fishing… I cruise slowly in ECO Mode to burn the minimum fuel. I have found places that ping plus and have had some success staking out in those neighborhoods.
For safety reasons I do no park and wait alone for too long while online. There are some highly motivated people out there that hate us, and are trolling the app to locate isolated drivers. I can not find the article right now, but there was a driver in LA that was victimized this way.
If I’m know I’m in a busy area, I will wait until I get a ping Otherwise if area is slow or I’m not sure how busy the area is I will wait like 10-15 mins before driving to busier area
Never sit for more than, say, 20 minutes. Also, keep an eye on the pax app to see how many other Ubes are in the area. If after sitting in the Target parking lot for 20 minutes with no pings, move to the mall or a crowded sports bar.
No I don’t and I never go above 2 GB anyways. also I require wifi for my phone calls. I use video relay since I am deaf and that alone can really kill my limits real quick.
Well done! I have to use an unlimited data plan. Between my businesses and all the family members I have on my plan, we use over 100GB per month. Goddamn teenagers!
It depends, back in the day i didn’t have to sit around because pings were non-stop, nowadays i’ll sit around for a while after a ride as long as i’m not in a obscure sh*thole neighborhood/city.
I do all of the above. If I drop in a busy area, I’ll remain there, unless it is flooded with drivers. A lot of variables, though. Time of day being one. If it’s 8-10 at night, I’ll go back to neighborhood areas where people will be heading out for the night.
If it’s more midnight to two, I’ll hang out around the bars more. After 2-230, I’ll start cruising back towards home, try to get a hit from someone heading home from someones house, after sobering up a bit.
Totally agree. 20 minutes is my “move” time. I’m always watching where the other Ubes are and make sure I’m in an area where there is no more than one other car nearby.
I use a combination. I usually start by driving to an area close to me and park and wait for the first ride. From there, I’ll either park again if it is a hot area or I’ll drive towards a hit area. My best nights have been when I took pings driving after a pick up towards a hot area, it just kept repeating itself. But when it’s slow I think it’s better to just park and not waste money on gas
I make bank Sunday night! all back to back pings all over town. my favorite night to work. but this is LA and only amateurs party Friday and Saturday, by Sunday the real drug addicts and freaks have rested for 2 days and now are ready to party again now that all the weekend warriors are gone.
I actually have done pretty well on Sunday nights, too. I’ve only been driving about a month, and on a couple of those Sundays, 80% of my fares were going/coming to company Christmas parties, so we’ll see how it is other times of the year. I always debate about driving Sunday night, or getting up at 400 Monday to try and snag a couple rides before I go to work. So far, I’ve driven Sunday nights.
I’m driving in a new market, just one month old. One thing driving me crazy so far are the drivers that go online from inside their house. I’m parked at hot spots downtown but they are picking up rides in the burbs just sitting on the couch. My hope is that people notice the wait time is longer for these guys and they rate lower, but so far the honeymoon is over for me. Also I’ve heard I’m one of the only guys in town with an uber sticker in the window.
I am a firm believer in Ubering from the couch. It works well for me when I’m ready to go at moment’s notice and not out yet trolling the late night crowd. Sometimes I’ll get a fare to downtown Seattle from my area, then I’ll just ride the wave of constant fares there.