Uber does zero to protect drivers from anything

Drivers Advice, Experiences
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#1

They probably told you your personal insurance policy was just fine too.

The drivers probably cancelled not for the length of the call so much as the length of the call in relation to the driver there. That is a real issue. Accepting then bailing on them isn’t so cool either, but many drivers are just scraping by.

They aren’t “poaching long trips” that is not what is happening, many rideshare drivers avoid long fares because relatively speaking, the rates/mile are low and again: they fear the dead miles.

#2

Best thing to do is apologize to the pax saying something like “not sure why the other driver didn’t show up; but, I’m happy to take you to your destination”.

#3

I have cancelled under two scenarios: you accept a ping that says 10 minutes away then it instantly changes to over 20. Do you really want to go that far and find that your 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back will only be a minimum fare paying you $2.40 (less in some markets).

#4

You will burn up more in gas than $2.40 in that scenario. Other times are when the Uber system has been glitchy. You get a ping request that says it’s close by and you realize you were matched based on where you were 20-30 minutes ago.

#5

One thing to watch out for is traveling to a ping from a decent distance that is say on the edge of the service area for your locale. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the pax have placed their pin where they are not in order to lure a car to where they are, which happens to be beyond the service area.

#6

A few drivers do, but probably not that large of a number. Uber does keep track of your cancellation rate and will get on you about it if it is abnormal.

#7

Usually if I cancel after accepting it’s because I realize that the particular pick up is just too long. I know my city well, but that little zoom in map during the ping doesn’t always tell me where it’s at…and sometimes I pick up up the phone to take a closer look an accidentally accept.

#8

This is where Uber has to be very careful, they can not tell you have to pick up someone, to do so I think would break in to that gray area of employer/employee vs Independent Contractor.

#9

I don’t even call. When I see a request that’s more than 5 minutes away (which does not make any sense financially in most cases), I still accept, then simply send a generic message “Sorry, too far” and cancel.

#10

That is understandable, but man is that not good for the greater cause. In taxi land, several things happen. For one, if it is slow, the office will send someone from the office to run the call if it is a short, money losing call.

#11

That kind of depends on where the call is. Another way to do it is to send a driver out to the call who is getting done or who has finished and thus already made his money for the day. The idea is a driver has a grace hour where they aren’t charged.

#12

If a driver from town needs to run far just to run a call, the office might give an estimate based on a reservation coming up heading that way. They might give a long estimate just with the hope that a call that way will come in.

#13

We have a handful of semi regulars in the next town over who use us. A good dispatcher is aware of that. Worse come to worse, you run the call as a favor and the dispatcher remembers.

#14

If I am sent to the next town over, the dispatch will say either it is worth my time or ask me if I want to help them out. They will tell me if the call is backed up with another out that way, or maybe bringing me back in.

#15

Uber has no accountability. They have so much work to do in my opinion. We have a local taxi company using an app. I have talked to their drivers who have shown me how it works.

#16

I gotta tell you, it is way better than the actual Uber app, much better and it has a human behind it who can keep an eye on things. It can go by distance, time of last drop or manual dispatch. They can make adjustments and re-dispatch calls.