This would have been worth it to take their 1 star and send in my dashcam clip of their ride to Uber support

This happen with me Saturday night. This all happened around 12:30 shortly before the entire city Surged. First request comes in from Downtown, I’m in Midtown a few miles away (7minutes by the app). I start to get turned around, CANCELED. I’m like, “great, this **** again!” Few seconds later, another request, same location. So I start heading that way. CANCELED. I keep heading that way, knowing that obviously all other Downtown drivers are engaged and I’m the only one close by, figure I’ll get something if I keep going. Few second later, another request, same location. I keep driving. CANCELED! Few seconds later, you get the idea. Once again, same group. This one finally sticks with it. I get down there, call and verify the bar they’re at, pull up. one girl comes down and hops right in. I ask if it’s just her, she says she has a couple more coming. 4 more come, and as I am trying to insist I can only take 4, they cram their way in. We go back and forth a few times, I insist that it’s against Uber policy to take more than 4, which means Uber Contingent Insurance won’t cover for more than 4, and MDOT won’t allow more than I have seats. They go on and on. We’ll give you a big tip, can’t you flex the rules for us, we do this all the time with other drivers. They finally get out, and THREATEN TO FLIP MY CAR! So I drive on leaving them in the slow drizzle. I take a few short fares, and then start getting request/cancels, same location, different name. They were trying for two cars, and didn’t want me back. I laugh to myself as I keep accepting their rides, until finally I get a ride elsewhere, and get out of Downtown.

My last request of Sat. night/Sun. morning was a ride with a 2.25x surge after 2:30 am, so I knew the surge would peter out. I showed up, and the usual situation occurred. Two get in and then three more appear. The lady emphasizes how small she is, someone else is willing to pay extra. I would have loved a surge ride to end the night, and it would have been a decent distance and in the direction of my house. That part of it would have been great. But when you analyze it, do I really want to risk damage to my shocks, tires or other parts of the car just to earn $20-30? How would their extra tip compare to the cost of a say … a tire? And then there is the legal risk, the against Uber policy risk, and the possible creation of an insurance gap. They got out grumbling and I heard one guy telling his significant other to make sure they didn’t get charged. Yeah, and they are too cheap to request two cars or to pay up for an UberXL. I reported the incident and got the usual canned response. What Uber should do is charge at least the cancellation fee. At least next time they wouldn’t waste a driver’s time and/or try to defraud Uber itself on a 5 passenger UberX ride.

Seems to be a simple enough fix… Why doesn’t the passenger app ask how many passengers when someone requests a ride, and then either suggest ordering two X’s or one XL? That way the app is the bad guy and not the driver?

Most passengers would just lie. Especially the drunk ones.

Congrats to all of you that allowed common sense to prevail over greed!!!

It tells you right on the screen that the max capacity is 4 when you order a ride. So, yeah, they would just enter 4 and then think they could get away with it anyway.

because I rather drive 5 drunks home than let 5 drunks drive home. no ones been a dick about it to me. I explain it that its not legal for us to do it, but I am making this one exception so don’t ***** if another driver wont. that’s what I say. then again im sure many don’t care.

You’re wrong…I care. I care that your passengers weren’t covered by insurance if some other drunk on the road hits you. I care that the next driver that has these ash*les has to hear about how YOU allowed it. I care that you have so little regard for your fellow drivers and your passengers that you would take this risk. But I don’t care that you justify your greed by saying that there were no other UberX or XLs, Lyfts or cabs around. What you did was wrong. You don’t have to care about my opinion…there are plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t have taken 5 people in an UberX car…but of course you already know that don’t you.

I only did it once and it was for min fare. As they say, most accidents happen within 5 mins of your place… greed? oh my, that $8 fare I think it was, is so greedy. I care because if **** hits then fan and they figure out I denied them a ride, what then? I didn’t even care about the fare at that point. I knew the driver was a risk to drive. if it makes you feel good, know that I even offered to cancel the trip so that it wasn’t on ubers dime.

and yes, I even told them about grabbing a cab instead but they refuse. Please don’t tell me about my market and how I don’t know about the drivers. you don’t know jack about it. I don’t sit here belittling your **** even if I disagree many many times

believe it or not, some of us aren’t evil soulless pieces of ****. you know, kind of want to do something good in exchange for nothing. at that point in the night they weren’t *******s to me, just couldn’t think of a way to get home safely. the guy who was paying for the ride had no cash and DC cabs here literally refuse credit cards. its something relatively new and they always say CC machine down.

as for the accidents thing, that’s some stats they always say

There are studies that show that most accidents happen close to home, but it’s really a misnomer as most people DRIVE relatively close to home, therefore accidents would naturally happen close by.

There have been cases where taxi drivers were charged when a passenger they refused was injured while finding alternate transport.

I had one call in a remote part of town that normally doesn’t see a lot of Uber drivers. 6 passengers, they were going a few miles away. I took them in two trips, keeping the meter running on the return leg to get the second group. In a minimal fare situation, that can often be cheaper for the rider than two individual rides, and safer for everyone

Yep you are quite the selfless humanitarian. Probably not what the victims and their lawyers would call you if you had an accident. And certainly not what your fellow drivers will call you when we pick these assh*les up in the future and have to hear “That it’s OK…the last driver did it”

They say that because it’s true. It’s true because you spend far more time driving close to your home than anywhere else so naturally most accidents will occur there. There is no additional risk driving closer to home and no additional need to take someone home that’s within 5 minutes of their house.

I would agree, however a situation made it that I wasn’t going back into this part of DC. hell I was getting **** by dcpd for stopping there and the area was being closed off. fight,stabbing or something, no idea, but I wanted out, they wanted out and oh well. the last thing im worried about is having 5, not 4 pax in my car given ubers lack of insurance.

As long as you have a seat belt for each passenger…7 passengers isn’t going to affect Uber’s insurance coverage. That’s just my opinion…send an email to Uber and ask them.

This idea should be email to uber support or put someplace they notice it.
Easy fix that would improve service and prevent potentially dangerous situations.
It gives drivers something to fall back on and for the people that lie, …they should know better after being left with no ride.
Their problem, not ours other than wasted time and gas.

You know what? I agree. I see lots of people complaining about this when it comes to uber being greedy but it’s not just uber, it’s everybody. I don’t see this as an uber thing but a people thing in general so whatcha gonna do?

I only have three passenger seatbelts. The middle in the back of my car doesn’t have one. Does that mean I’m supposed to max out at 3? Also, Florida law doesn’t require people in the back to wear a seatbelt.

You should ask Uber if their insurance will cover more passengers than you have seat belts. I’m actually surprised that Uber approved a car with only 3 passenger seat belts. Hopefully they won’t say “Ooooops…our mistake” and toss you off the system when you email them

Since when are you responsible for how your town’s drunks get home? If the f**ckers are too cheap to pony up for two cars after spending who knows how much on booze then let them stay where they are to sleep on the street; who cares?

They’ll spend out to get wasted but not so that they can get legal rides and not have to ask the driver face big risks which could cost him/her thousands? Screw 'em!