RIDEGURU
Leonard Girsh (LG-PA)
Ride Apprentice from Southampton, PA
810 DriverActivity
Posts by LG-PA
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How low is too low (Passenger rating)
Had a Lyft request last night for a long ride. As I was pulling up to the train station in … -
Rideshare Insurance for Drivers
In time for the Thanksgiving I want to share with all of you my Rideshare Accident Checklist.I put this … -
Lyft’s scheduled ride passenger no show cancellation fee or lacke thereof
Second time in 2 weeks I scooped up a scheduled ride, was sent the ride. I arrived 5 minutes prior … -
Do lower ratings for drivers come predominantly from Pool/Shared rides vs. regular or spread is about the same
Any drivers able to pinpoint a trend of which type of rides hit drivers with lower ratings? i suspect pool/shared … -
Is anyone experiencing and issue wuth Uber not reimbursing drivers for all tolls?
Hi, Three times in the past three weeks I had to call Uber to complain that I was not reimbursed … -
Never ending Phone Mounts
Hi, Not sure if other drivers are blowing through phone mounts as frequently as I did, so I decided to … -
Driver survival Kit
What essential items do drivers have in the cars to help make rideshare driving easier?
Featured Answers by LG-PA
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On Uber platform Drivers have to rate passenger right away when ending the trip, so no way for the driver to know if passenger tipped or will tip, thus no ral way to penalize passneger for not tipping. On Lyft passenger can be rated up to 24 hours after the trip. If passnger did not tip on a long ride I usually go in and rate them 4 stars or less if they did something crazy like brough a child and did not bother buckling them in or bit their nails and left clippings on my floor
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Also, many students from Rider University go home on Fridays, so if you hang out by campus right off 295 you will most likley be shuttling them to Hamilton Train Station and that is not a bad ride on the highway,
even if you have to run right back to the university to grab more.
After Rider runs dry up, after your last drop off at Hamilton, head over to Love's Travel Stop in Bordentown, Friday is when long distance truck drivers go there (because of new regulations where they can only drive so many hours), park their rigs and often need rides home which could be miles away, and Bordentown in General has some riders. Hope this helps for Friday planning
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on Lyft there is a Scheduled Ride section (sort of like a job board) it displays avaialble scheduled rides probably with pickup somewhere within 10 mile radius of where you are at the moment of looking at that screen. On this screen you will see pickup and drop off locations and approximate fare, so that is an instance where drivers can see destination :) and of course in Destination filter mode, while you can't see destination exactly you do have an idea of general direction since ou are the one who entered the destination filter :)
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I decided to read up on this a bit.
So it looks like The FCC is aware of such problems and even set up a "Jammer Tip Line" for people to let the bureau know about people who may be selling or using a jammers.
Found here:
https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement
There is an app to help identify if a jammer is being used, here
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microcadsystems.serge.jammerdetector&hl=en_US
It appears to only work on Android
A quick search on line also revealed that there are Jammer detectors out there, such as on this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmXsKCEeP4o
Nipping in the ass a few of the assholes using them and reporting to FCC will hopefully help.
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When requesting pool one has to specify number of riders, driver confirms that at pick up on the screen. This enables the system to plan as to whether driver can pick up another couple or only a single passenger.
I had the happen to me. Rider requested pool for 1, but there were two of them at pick up.
I tried changing to two (system told me to make the rider add the second passenger (their friend)
it is $0.11 more for their friend, so I see why rider stated 1 initially vs. 2. (a lot of money - understandable), eventually she changed to 2, and almost immediately got an add-on passenger for a couple, since system figured I should have 2 more seats available. But for example if the same cheap passenger #1 requested pool for 2 but showed up with 3, and I did not force her to change, my next stop for the couple would not enable me to pick them up. SO it is driver's responsibility to ensure number of riders getting in matches the number Uber was told will get in the car. the screen to change number of riders is right in front during pick up.
Occasionally I may have 2 separate passengers already in the car, pool up to my next pool pick up, to find party of 4 who requested a pool, I roll down window and tell them basically I can't fit 10 pounds of passengers into my 5 pound car. I also ask them if they selected pool? knowing already they did and tried to cheat system. I ask them how many passengers they put in during request? (knowing they put in for 2 as system wuld not even let you pool as an option if you have 4 passengers in the single party. (because it would no longe be a pool if you r party of 4 took up all seats) of course the passenger claims they put in 2. Anyway I ask them to cancel, they do not want to cancel because they do not want to get hit with $3.75.
The point for me talking to them is not only to educate them, but to also milk time, so if they do not want to cancel themselves, by time I am done talking to them 2 minutes are up and I just hit NO SHOW and cancell myself, so I can collect my fee. Last thing I need is to drive to them for 5-10 minutes and not even get the NO SHOW fee, because the cheap asses were to cheap to book regular pool.
I do not do many pool rides anymore because of this hassle and dealing too much with cheap asses who request pool, do not tip (for most part), drag my ratings down (I bet the other two passengers in my car already would leave a lower rating because it too longer) and then cheapskates try to beat the system even further by trying to save $0.11 by not declaring all people in their party, find another driver :)
Oh yes all that on top of Uber paying drivers less per mile and minute for doing a pool ride vs. regular. So more work (more hassle) = less pay - makes total sense :)
Pay attention where your last drop off is - for example if I am a Philadelphia registered driver and drop someone outside my zone (say NY or Baltimore) I can sit and wait for next ping until I am blue in the face, and the pings will not come in:) this is where taking the bullet and getting back to a more populated area (which is in your zone) is your best bet. If you are already in your zone but somewhere in the burbs, put your destination filter on and head towards more populated areas
Yup, had a lady of the night (I just put two and two together based on her phone conversation with her next potential client) that I drove to her home base during the day once.
Once had some shady carachters in the car, who 1 minute before destination decided to light up a cigaret, got 2 stars from me. Passenger rating drops = smart drivers will pas up on them in the future. On Uber I see the passenger rating at fare request time and after acceptance. On Lyft, however it is only visible during the ping stage (so I am training my eyes to look at the bottom of the screen as to what the passenegre is rated so I decide whether to agree to a ride). Strangely though I can't see passenegre rating after I accept the request on Lyft.
I use to have my dashcam screen on recording through windshield and through the interior. This was often a conversation piece in itself, later however I enabled a screensaver so now 99% of passengers do not even notice the camera, however if anyone asked me to stop recording I too would offer them to get out and look for alternate method to contiune their journey
San Francisco has Right Hand drive vehicles? :)
Hi, I drive primarily in PA and it is a two party consent state. Some say make a lael and place it on the inside of the sunvisor next to airbag warning. However, if your DashCam is in plain view you are not secretly recording. Actually found this article here:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a32124/the-surprising-legal-ramifications-of-having-a-dash-cam-in-your-car/
Where it states:
While most people get their dash cams so they record the view through their windshield, dash cams often record audio from inside the passenger compartment as well. In Michigan [Two-Party Consent State], courts have ruled that a person can record a conversation to which they are a party regardless of the other parties to the conversation knowing or giving consent in advance. So, if you have a dash cam in your own car and it is recording while you drive, you have no problem since you are a "party" to any conversation going on in your car.
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If you say "hello" to the passenger, you are a party to the conversation:)
I gave a ride to a passenger the other night.
I use two phones (one for ride share and one personal). At red lights I occasionally check emails and texts (never when the wheels of my car are in motion). Actually when my personal phone rings during a ride I will silence it. Hopefully it give passenegr a feel that I am a safe driver and take the job seriously, by not talking and driving. Sometimes red lights are the only time we have to take care of our personal business, for example if I am expected home at 9:00pm and at 8:30pm I get sucked into a 1.5 hour ride, I will text family from next red light when to expect me. By the way, strongly suggest useing an app such as Life360 so family can track you real time through app instead of calling and texting every hour :)
So at the red light, which I knew was a long one, I checked on a few emails and all of a sudden I get "Are you going to be on your phone the entire ride?" from the passenger. -Yes I said while at the red lights I plan to, not while we are actually driving". I was certain that the passenger will invent some story to Lyft that I was unprofessional and unsafe, though she simply failed to realize I was only looking at my phone while we were stopped at red lights. Luckily she did not ding me and gave me a small tip through the app, which only came through a day after the ride. Riders like that are definitely getting 3 stars from me.
Call Uber and ask to be safe
As a part itme driver I stick to people shuttling (Lyft and Uber)
My logis is: If someone is dressed up and have a beautiul makeup and perfume on going to a party, but comes out of your car smelling like chicken wings, fries and cury, I doubt there will be a tip for that ride and a negative feedback, all because car smells from a recent food delivery and maybe has stains all over from spilled drinks that are usually not packed well. also parking to deliver food may be tricky, plus insurance - who will cover you when you get into an accident with Mr. Eggroll?
Vehicles with timinig chain rather than timing belt do not typically need a chain replaced, so it would be nice to shove a page from the owner's manaul into mechanic's face:)
cancellation rate will get you not acceptance rate, at least it has not yet
cancellation is when you accept a ride then cancell it, I just do not accept:)
we (Uber drivers) can't transport anyone under 18 without adult supervision
Much of this Mechanic BS goes away when one knows how to perform basic maintenace on their car by themselves. Like front and rear brakes, air and cabin air filter, wipers, topping off fluids.
I buy tires off craigslist :)
Of course more complicated isseus requiring diagnosis and special equipment are to be done by professional, so a recommendation is the way to go.
For example the only thing I trust Firestone with is Oil changes and alignment. But they always make it a ppint to recommend a bunch of services I do not need :). Check this out: I went to Autozone and put new set of wiper blades, then drove across the street to Firestone to get oil changed. 1 hour later I get a call from Firestone with a recommendation to put on new wiper blades. I laughed at them.
Did not Uber also tweak the long rides to pay more for minutes and less per mile - which again shafts the driver?
I thought about something like that, not as extreme, but then had a few questions to myself and decided not to bother
1. What happens when the car is parked for extended periods of time in 95F weather, some food items may get spoiled.
2. In the event of an accident where rear passenger is not buckled, where will the head of that passenger end up - in the metal shelf in the back of the headrest?
3. Some of the food items bought in the car will end up being opened and consumed in the car and trash will be all over the back
I find giving long rides, the one that have a banner 45 min plus are the ones that make the most sense.
occasioannly that means you will have to ignore a bunch of rides coming your way in order to get the long one. My weekly acceptance rate is 31% because I do not do shared rides. For example last night around 8:00pm I got a ping from an airport on regular Lyft and since it was only 8 min away I accepted it. I thought to myself (strange to get a ping at this time from this small airport at this time as according to FlightStat app the last plane landed at 6:00 pm and nothing was scheduled to fly in until 9:00 that night) must have been a straggler who lost baggage etc). When I accept a ride on one app, I keep other app open in case a 45 minutes ride comes in on the other app. As I was pulling into airport my Uber app pinged from the same very airport but with a 45 minute banner. I quickly cancelled Lyft ride and swapped the Lyft placard for Uber;) arrived and saw a bunch of people on curb.
when passenger couple met me they asked if I had plenty of gas as the ride was about to take me 2.5 hours into Long Island, apparently their flight got cancelled and they wanted to go to another small airport in LI so they could fly out next morning.
So this strategy of not closing the other app after accepting the request on he first app may be helpful for you
I do not chase long pickups unless I am on destination filter and the pickup will help me fund my travel home or wherever I have my destination set. What I do is on slow night I may occasionally hit agree to go 10-15 min to scoop up a passenger but while on way to get them I keep the other rideshare app open and if that other app gets a ping that is not a pool/shared and is less time to passenger I will cancel the initial request and go get the closer one on the other app
Try Lyft
Uber does the same thing to the passengers
the more loyal you are the more you will start to be charged. I wonder if their algorithm looks at what zip code passenger lives and maybe what phone they have and adjust prices accordingly
so if the ride yountake every day is 5.00$ during regular time and all of a sudden the same ride is slowly creeping up to 5.80 you know what is going on
I work in Philly, I do not accept pool rides. Why do more work for less pay? Occasionally I will do a Pool when on destination filter and when need to complete certain amount of rides. I am pretty sure each pool passenger is counted as a ride. It would be stupid for Uber to not count each passenger as a separate trip as it will only alienate more drivers from doing pools. Lyft pays same fare for Lyft Shared as regular Lyft so I am more open to do a few Lyft SHared rides when trying to get to to the number of rides needed for a bone.
My rule is to open the passenger Uber and Lyft app when I am waiting for a fare (Besides the drier apps of course) and get the heck out of any area where there are already large concentrations of other Uber and Lyft drivers. The more drivers the longer the time I will have to wait for my fare:)