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 :)
In the couple of thousand rides I gave a 1-star only once so far.
Request came through with an already marginally rated passenger, but I took it anyway
Car packed of millenials, one (who set in the front) put left leg over the right with the tip of his dirty shoe rubbing on the interior of passenger door panel, making it dirty. Then he started playing with my A/C settings which I immediately (without saying a word) changed back to what I had it set to (hopefullt sent him a message). Then he reached for my personal tin can of mints and opened it up, I only had a couple mints in there so he put it back without taking any (I actually wold be happy if he gulped all the remaining mints I had left to take care of his dragon breath) and I would actually open up my reserve tin can for him too, I certainly do not remove starts from dragon breath passengers. He obviously deserved the one star.
If his rating drops low enough, good luck getting picked up by drivers who review passenger rating prior to accepting the ride.
what's a good non-lethal weapon?
A smart driver should have a Dash Cam in the car looking both: to the back (through the passenger compartment), not just a rear facing camera mounted on back glass, and should have the camera look forward. I have this one
"Pruveeo C2 Dual Dash Cam 1920x1080P Front and Rear Car Dashboard Camera" but I would be even happier if it had infrared built-in to see better images when it is dark, like my old "Falcon Zero F360" had.
No reason to hide the dash cam, it should be in plain view. Being in plain view in itself serves as a deterrent :)
Yes, indeed, in fact, it is saying No to 93 ride requests out of 100 they send my way :)
I am a part time driver, no way I will ever hit any of the large trip counts driving 2 days per week to qualify for any of the bonuses.
So, I decline all Pool and all Shared ride requests as those often result in no tip and low ratings from passengers due to events outside my control. I also do not pick up anyone up that requires more then 10 minutes to get.
And lastly, I do not pick up anyone rated under 4.75 :) That does not leave a lot to accept in the suburbs :)
The sad thing is, my thumb developed such a muscle memory for declining rides that occasionally it automatically hits the decline button even on the rides I actually wanted to accept :)
I do scan for scheduled rides and the ones that make sense I will add to my que (on Lyft) and when they send it to me I hope my thumb does not auto hit the decline button:)
I often have both apps on and am doing things around the home (live in suburbs), Of course I know that if a ping comes in I am to leave home within 2 minutes and head over
30 min is no accident, driver would be wondering how come no new pings are coming in and should check.
I also had once an issue in poor reception where I dropped off passenger and could not end the ride, no matter what I did, close out app, reopen, etc. Basically that was my last ride of the night. So poor passenger got charged for me driving with my family to a restaurant to eat, etc. Surely (I hope passenger noticed and called uber to get charge taken off) I also called Uber same night to tell them of their app glitch, such when this happens especially if you want to be driving passengers for the day and system does not let you end current ride, basically taking you out of comission.
I once had had two different passengers request a pool at the same time from a train station, they happened to be going similar way so I ended up getting both of them, thus I had two separate parties enter car at same moment, each as under their own account.
Yes, I had at least 3 different parties once (nurses ended shift in a hospital) all three were going home, I picked one up first, then as I was making my way out of the hospital, got add-on ping from the same hospital on other side of the hospital building, and then the 3rd one. Pool will keep adding passengers until system sees no free seats are left, so you could have 4 separate single passengers in the car at the same time
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 :)
Happens sometimes to us drivers when dropping off passengers in areas with poor reception. Though we are tapping "Drop off" passenger, the system is not recognizing it due to poor reception, so we drive off a bit to relocate to a better area while keep trying to end the ride, and it continues until we finally are able to end it. As a driver we actually want to end the ride so we can start getting additional requests :) While in your situation it may have been a case of driver trying to make a few buck extra (illegally), there is a chance he was not trying to scam you.
If driver did not start the trip - he would not have ability to rate you 1 star
I would not like to carry food items in the car, leaving them there overnight on hot day/night can make the food go bad, lawsuit coming :)
also would not want to attract attention of some idiot who will break my window in search of some snacks in the open
My elbow has a designated spot on the arm wrest console so I absolutely need that area to be free of stuff :)
How is this different from picking up a person from airport with 3 luggage bags. Exactly same thing, so pack your stuff and a driver will have no issues taking you. If you have too much stuff for regular uber x sedan, order XL
I wonder if it has to do with what payment method customer has set up. For example does not paypal charges a higher fee than Credit Card, thus Uber is charging a bit more to cover that difference?
On Uber when a prescheduled ride is sent to driver, they add a banner (Scheduled ride), but otherwise it is just a regular ride.
On lyft drivers can add the prescheduled rides to theur que, so if a ride is a lucrative one drivers will grab them and will most likley be ready to perform it once it is pushed our way
To the right of “WHERE TO” should be an icon of a car with a clock, tap on that
Hi,
I use Erie
Few months back I wrote a post on a similar subject and also included in that post a link to accident checklist which may be very useful in a stressful moment
If you want to read it, just click on my name in this post, which should take you to my profile page where you will find a my post titled “
Rideshare Insurance for Drivers”
Maybe if uber and Lyft did the homework and distributed it for free to drivers at their green light hubs, along with the water bottles and mints that they suggest we carry I would consider. My issue is (while not as much worried about the process of spraying it up someone’s nose) as touching them in the process and getting overdosed like paramedics often do by hand contact. If I overdose while trying to help the one who overdosed who will help me?
Sometimes I stop to help ladies in freeway with flat tires, but if I feel the stretch of road is not safe (not enough room to change the tire due to shoulder being too narrow, especially on driver side) I will pass. This situation is safer to assess but whether a drug user will infect me through hand contact is harder to predict. Calling 911 would be my first option, dropping them in ER if I am close to hospital is second.
Cash tip is a quick way to bring up lower passenger ratings for sure, specifically on Uber, as on Uber drivers have to rate passenger immediately.
On Lyft we have until next day, so I always check if passenger tipped on a long ride and if not will leave them a 4. If tipped (even a small amount) I will rate them 5 even if their behavior during a ride warranted a 4. Very rarely would I rate a passenger less than 4.
Good formula is $1.00 tip for every 5 minutes in the car - so 1 hour ride you would tip $12.00 - I think it is reasonable, I use this formula when I ride as the minimum guideline, though I always round up to nearest 5 or 0
If you are good passenger your rating should already be in upper 4's, of course not taking into account rouge drivers.
As a driver, I actually do not care if a tip is cash or through app.
For the passengers who intend to tip but are low on cash, they can hand driver a small cash tip and say "I will also add a tip trough the app"
I would imagine this will establish trust and driver will most likley leave you a 5 star rating (if you did not actually deserve a much lower one during the ride), but ensure you do tip through the app:)
when we hear I will tip you through the app - this means no tip is coming, and some drivers may automatically fire off a 4 star despite you actually tipping through app later as you said while leaving the car:)
Cash tip will help you bring up ratings quicker:)
For instance if a passenger was 4 star rider during the trip and I am inclined to rate him as such, but passenger hands me a cash tip vs. leaving it in the app (which may take 24 hours to apper on my screen), I would rate them 5 :)
If you do all the things you listed, I agree 100% no reason for drivers to be rating you lower than 5, at least that is what I would rate you.
Probably some idiot drivers out there are using the rating system to express their anger with the employer, and that is absolutely wrong to do.
If a driver is unhappy with Uber, they should just find another part time gig.