Think about if you owned a restaurant franchise and kept it spotless and provided good service, but all the other franchises of your company in town were filthy. Everyone would come to assume “Oh, restaurant X is dirty”.
If the few with unkempt cars were weeded out it would help all of us. Easier said than done though.
Uber drivers now have to do 3 times the rides to make the same money that they used to. After the 3rd passenger the car loses that " fresh vaccumed" look.
Since Uber doesn’t pay enough,and no one ever tips,drivers can’t afford to vaccum every 3 rides !
Tell them to order lux if they feel are needy next time.
Oh wait, they want their 2016 car spotless with a servant for half the cost of a taxi.
Just last night I had a single PAX order XL (my car is a Kia Sorento with 3rd row seating) because he was dressed nicely for an evening out and wanted a nicer car, more space and no “small, trashy Prius with cups and paper napkins” (his words).
Even though what he had on his body cost more than my whole wardrobe, still a cheap wad with no tip :-/
This is a wrong attitude that will hurt you in the long run. Treat everyone kindly and with respect, and give your best to every customer. Not everyone will appreciate it, but a lot will, and sometimes you will really make someone’s day, and that is an experience that is worth more than any tip.
I was a 5.00 for a long time, and then a 4.98 for a while and in one week I had some drunk passengers knock my rating down to 4.92 through no fault of my own. I didn’t enjoy it, but I made a choice to not let it bother me, and I kept doing my best, my rating has gone back up to 4.95, and I get quite a few tips as well.
Pax don’t tip. (That is a capitol period) It isn’t your attitude. Not your car. Some very cool pax do tip, they are like flowers in the desert. They only want the basics, top rated limo, service above and beyond, safe rides, entertaining conversations, and of course water and appetizers. If you can juggle bowling pins while you drive they might consider tipping.
It’s interesting that when uber was new it was marketed as all these new, clean cars with smart drivers who will bend over backwards for you. It was like that because Uber managed to fool everyone that you weren’t a taxi service but something special.
Exactly, There are so many reasons why uber service is going down. It’s all about pay, Drivers don’t really care because at uber cheap rates who can afford to constantly keep there cars immaculately clean? In my market driver saturation is ridiculous, There are 8 to 9 uber drivers on every corner and the majority of the drivers are new so they are willing to pick up fares that are 20 minutes away and only make a $3.20 fare all day.
Uber is just a side gig if even that these days, I use to drive part time but now as the rates has gotten so low I rarely Drive. I’m not tearing my personal car up for the mile, minute, minimum fare rates and uber high commission fees…I can’t do it.
PAX don’t give a damn about a Uber drivers cars. Makes me wonder what their house or car looks like. My policy… NO FOOD or DRINKS! and especially NO amenities! Stopped that long time ago. Around here, if you allow it, the majority still don’t tip.
After 13k trips,I lost heart.It was fun at first but the pax look down on you and fuber feeds new drivers while you sit in some parking lot.
We had a guy on the Washington Boards post a topic about how he can no longer afford to wash his car due to the princely sums that Uber and Lyft pay us.
About one third of the Uber and Lyft cars that I see are dirty, raggedy hoopties. That is enough to make many people assume that all of them are like that.
Uber drivers actually have a slight advantage over cab drivers in terms. The problem that cab drivers usually have is with licensing authorities, because virtually all of us are self employed and sole traders, it’s very hard to get together and challenge authorities.
Do be aware that while I drive a cab, and do have Uber Taxi, as it is available here, I do drive UberX/Lyft as well. I have a different car that I use to drive UberX and Lyft.
Where I work we are 95% owner drivers. I don’t work for Uber but a small firm of around 30 cars. We can work for Uber as well as the company but the rates aren’t as good as our firms.
Basically we undercut Uber yet because we don’t pay 25-28% commission and are a well established company then we are still far better off. We also have a 30 car limit at our firm so it doesn’t get saturated.