Please share screenshots if you have been scammed by Uber in a similar way:
If you don’t think Uber (and Lyft) is ripping you and the passenger off with this new flat fee surge then here is proof. Charged the customer 4x the rate and offered the driver $3.50 extra. Crooks. Share this on your social network. It’s up to us to educate people. Do not chase these low surges or accept them until they are actually profitable. This driver should have earned around $80 for this ride.
Oh yes, your discovery is fantastic but what can you do about it? I am not just asking you but all other rideshare drivers because you and all others are the ones who are doing it and by accepting the job, you are letting this platforms to act as they want. There is absolutely no reason to complain.
What do you call “a real job”? Would you say that to a bartender whose livelihood is determined by 99% tips? Most service industry jobs in America don’t have an hourly wage and benefits. But they’re absolutely necessary. Restaurants, bars, and transportation would not exist without the people who enjoy working in the service industry. Only in America are service industry jobs seen as “not a real job”. It’s an elitist point of view and it’s total bullshit. Maybe I don’t want to go sit at a desk 40 hours a week and work for someone else? Maybe I did that for years and I hated the office politics and having to kiss executives asses? Maybe I just want to be able to work when it makes sense for me and everything else I have going on in my life? Maybe I believe that if a platform is going to require my time, money, investment, and vehicle, I want to be sure They are offering me a fair deal and if I see they are ripping me off and scamming me, I’m going to let them know I’m not pleased and will not play their shady ass game. Maybe I’ll go to my local media and share the details with them and hope to inform the public. Maybe with that it will send a message to these companies that we (the independent contractors they need) are not going to let them take advantage of us. Not everyone who does Rideshare is at the end of a rope. Is it the best job I have ever had? No. Have I been making $40,000 a year for the past two years as a driver? Yes. Was I making $40,000 a year before that in a management job for abusive owners and a toxic work environment? Yes. Am I happier as a driver? Some days. I’m thankful for the opportunity to seek ways to make money for myself instead of working for abusers. But I do NOT work for Uber or Lyft. I am not on their payroll. If I see them scamming me I will get loud about it. Sharing information among our group is how we can be a step ahead of them and know what to look for so we aren’t taken advantage of. This isn’t about complaining. This is about organizing and getting on the same page so we know how to make these apps work for us!
Did my first long trip and also my last. Almost took 40% of the trip earnings. These people are shameless crooks. Uber and lyft are same in deceiving drivers and riders.
Was driving for two years, got out of this scam by getting a full-time job, even if it’s minimum wage. Then just do postmasters on the side or on days off for a little extra cash. I’m not looking down on anyone doing full time uber as I said I used to do it for two years. Just saying if you want to stop them from ripping you off, you have to do something about it.
P.S. we have our own rideshare company in Austin. It’s called RideAustin. They pay drivers 100% of the passengers fare. They never charge outrageous surges like this. The passenger pays the booking fee and processing fee. We pay them 99 cents for every ride. They make more than enough to be able to operate and provide a platform for drivers. Do NOT be fooled by this jargon that Uber should be making more than the driver. That’s utter nonsense. Uber is the booking platform drivers, and passengers use to connect. The driver is the one providing the service, NOT Uber. Uber takes a slice to cover their costs, fine, but no way should they be making 4-5 times more than a driver on a ride.
I actually agree. I don’t need to be paid $100 to take someone home. Of course, I would like to be, but some of those super high surges really do seem like a bit much. I’d much rather the riders pay a normal, decent rate, slightly inflated for busy times and us keep a little bit more. I’d be hesitant to use uber again if I had to pay that much to get home from a bar. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep the surges reasonable and keep all the customers.
I don’t chase surge those things are a scam. I see a surge; I click to go online it disappears, or I will get a request that’s not a surge even though I’m right in the middle of the surge. If I try driving to a surge, then it starts disappearing until it’s gone when I’m almost there.
That’s because the map doesn’t always refresh in real time when you’re not online. When you go online the map refreshes. If it disappears, it’s because the surge you are seeing was from earlier and is no longer surging. And if the passenger starts a request before it starts surging, they will get that quoted price; even if they submit the request at the time, it is surging. I believe the quoted price expires after like 15-20 min if they don’t submit the request. Sometime a passenger will start a request just to see how much it costs but won’t submit the request until like 10mim later when they are ready.
If it doesn’t refresh in real time then why at times I’m online, and minutes later a surge starts growing where I am, and then it just disappears when I was there the entire time the surge started and stopped? At times the surge will be bloody red all over for a good 30 minutes when I’m right in the middle of it and guess what? Still getting requests that aren’t surge. And if us drivers keep ignoring request to many times or only accept surge rides then Uber will put us on a timeout or close our accounts so they can force us only to do runs that we only keep 40% while Uber takes 60% I don’t see the Uber CEO going out there and risk his life with crazy passengers like we do and yet they are screwing us over when all Uber did was to make an app and answer emails and calls while us driver’s do the 90% of the work. US DRIVER’S ARE THE FOUNDATION OF Rideshare. Without us, driver’s Uber and Lyft would be nothing.
Telling people not to accept these surges is pointless. We don’t have the new surge in Houston yet, but we do have fools that will pick up the pings as soon as an event lets out with no surge at all, killing it for the rest of us smart enough to keep our apps off til it’s profitable. We had two concerts recently that didn’t even surge.
Uber can take advantage of us because they know there are tons of desperate drivers out there that will take any crumb they’re thrown. The fact that people will battle event traffic for a base fare is proof of that. I almost can’t blame uber for all this. Drivers are stupid enough to piss their profit away and uber is smart enough to take it
So those dumb drivers take surge away for 10 minutes. It always surges higher when you wait a little bit. Never the first round. The point of these groups is to educate and learn the business that would be in drivers best interest. Let’s help everyone get on the same page.