The alternative, of just letting the driver search go for another 15-30 seconds would seem preferable. The last ride I skipped I had just got onto an onramp. The ping was behind me. So, I was looking at a 5+ minute delay to go to the next exit and return = rider will cancel or low rate me for the delay. Accept first and cancel later I guess is the better way.
I accept and cancel all the time, since 15 sec is sometimes not enough to map out the address, and sometimes the address is totally unacceptable. I had no idea I was profiting from this quirk.
To clarify, I’m not going to drive twenty minutes to pick up a 4.4 into a horrible neighborhood at the end of the night. If she were a few blocks away, I’d give her a ride since she probably needs one and it’s my job. But the app obscures the facts, so I have to cancel.
I believe with uber that not accepting would obviously hurt your acceptance rate. I wonder if cancelling after accepting might not have the same effect on your acceptance rate. It seems that the acceptance rate only really comes into play during guarantee periods.
If your acceptance rate drops too low, you could be waitlisted or even deactivated. If you must, accept the trip and then cancel – this covers your butt, basically. Of course, it’d be even better to acept the trip and take the fare.
I would think Uber would want to be very careful about deactivating for low acceptance rates. That would make them look very much like an employer in a legal sense.
It is, however hopefully you’re neither cancelling nor not accepting fares often enough for it to matter. While we can overlook the occasional cancel, if your acceptance rate drops too low, it’s harder to ignore.
I would think not accepting the call would be better, because if you pick up a call and cancel just makes you look bad, for one the rider gets a text uber is on the way and than receive a text Opps your uber has been canceled…
I drive in SF and just lately i’ve been accepting rides and then canceling them within 20 secs if i know they are too far. With all the drivers out there, my philosophy is someone closer can get them. I’ve also noticed lately i get requests from opposite sides of the city during commute times.
Wouldn’t the customer be better off if you had not accepted the ride in the first place since he would be assigned a driver more quickly?
Perhaps part of the reason for a minimal focus on driver cancellations is the difficulty in separating the reasons beyond driver control (no-show, wrong address, unreasonably far, etc.) from simple driver preference - but that seems like only a partial complication that can be mostly filtered out. Of course rider cancellations should be filtered out of the question.
I believe if you accept every ride and cancel within 20 secs, you will retain higher acceptance rate. We drivers have to find ways of keeping our ratings high and if manipulating the system is the way to go, so be it.
Especially with Uber manipulating us by changing the rules and making us pay a $10/wk access fee. By the way, off this topic what did some of you think of the new contract we were forced to sign a month ago where we can’t sue the company?
I live in a fairly slow new market. Sometimes I’ve been the only driver on at times. There is NO way I’m driving 20 min to pick up a rider for a $6 ride only to have to drive back. 50 mins for $4.00 ($6-$1x.80)minus costs to operate my car = ~$2 to me. WAKE up people (and uber).
If the ride is more than 10 min away, I accept and communicate with the rider. Very short ride = no go. Uber and investors are Rich because of fools. Stop the foolishness. Uber could use better technology to take care of issues like this, but they likely won’t if drivers continue to transfer their assets (time, liability, wear on car, etc) to Uber with very little in return…
If Uber would provide a phone number to use in case of an accident and include this on some kind of insurance card, then I would be OK for the $1 safe rider fee going towards the insurance.
If they decide their customers will not tolerate a fare hike, ever, then watch as our $40 phone fee becomes a $200 as costs of inflation and regulation are laid one by one at the driver’s feet. Not that I disagree with regulation, UberX drivers are underinsured, unequivocally.