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 :)
Good that you figured out to stay away from pools and shared ;)
Uber actually called you? Wow I did not think they call, usually only see them communicate via text and email
Glad they reactivated you
Of course you can give uber rides to your family. Uber makes money from every ride ;)
As long as your family member orders Uber just like any passenger would.
What you are referring to probably is that you may not have your family just joyriding as a passenger in car while you have app on and accept a ride. No passenger who orders Uber X wants a driver to pull up to get them and there is someone else in car besides the driver.
Here is some more relevant info from my recent exchange with Lyft (Lyft's response below), but am sure it works similarly with Uber
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"Thank you for getting back to us and providing extra information about why you want to know your cancellation rate.
Even though when you cancel a ride this will affect you, this is not the way we measure the statistics for canceled rides.
If in case you have received a warning, strike, suspension or deactivation, this is not because of a high cancellation rate,
this is measured as a "low acceptance rate".
We do not have an exact metric that establish how many canceled rides you need to have to be penalized, this will depend on how much and how often you cancel rides, by example, if you have received 100 rides and you cancel 20 of them, you may receive a warning to stop doing it, or if you received 10 requests and you canceled 5 for several weeks you may receive a strike, the system will detect your behavior regarding canceling rides and proceed depending on how often or how many rides you cancel"
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Anyway - cancellation is when you first accept a ride, then go in and cancel it (passenger no show is not considered a cancelled ride)
I sent an email to Lyft that many times I have to cancel is because when my Lyft app is on, and I am messing around on the scheduled rides screen and my finger is on the screen, when all of a sudden Lyft sends a ride request which I had no intention of accepting, but because my finger happened to be down on the screen when the ride splashed up underneath it the system assumes I accepted it. So I go in and cancell it (passenger too far) as the reason. Al they need to do is make a separate button somewhere in top right of the (scheduled rides screen) so I can click it to refresh. This way when a random ride requests splash up on screen it will not be auto accepted as my finger is on top right not in the middle.
Or when lyft auto adds a passenger to my que (when I forget to activate Last Ride feature), I will also go in and cancel it once drop off first passenger. Lyft needs to offer to add next passenger like Uber does, not just add them in.
There will be legitimate times you will have to cancel, I had so me idiot call me 1 minute after I accepted the ride to ask me where the heck I was as I was pulling in to get her, she sounded drunk and stupid, so I cancelled, I do not want to risk getting a low rating from someone like that.
Or when I cancelled on a passenger with a minor and no car seat. I cancel and Lyft asks why (I say other reason) but it never asks me to provide detail as to why, where I actually would have wanted to provide details
These rideshare companies need to educate riders Nobody under 18 by themselves, No accompanied minors without car seats
If only they sent out those reminders every time they send us notices about service animals it would be sufficient :)
Note: Cancellation is not the same as Acceptance
Acceptance rate [Lyft]
Your acceptance rate is the percent of ride requests you accept and complete.
We use acceptance rates to determine driver eligibility for certain incentives and help keep passenger wait times short.
When giving Lyft rides, you have the right to accept or ignore any ride request. You're always free to decline ride requests you don't want, but declined requests will still count toward your total ride requests when we calculate your acceptance rate.
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OK good luck with all the new info :)
So definitely stop starting the trips until they are in the car and ready to go - that is a first!
You may get a warning from Uber by having to many cancelled trips in short time and a bunch of 1's in a row.
If you fall below 4.6, say 4.3 like my uncle did they can kick you off the platform (he was a newbee and made some errors), if it is your first time being kicked off, you will be give opportunity to take a $50.00 class and then you are back on line.
I do not bother with water, etc - do not try too hard (why spend your own money on all these things when nothing comes back to you in a way of increased tips), I would not like to have a driver stick their tongue up my butt in terms of trying too hard:)
Passengers just want a safe ride point A to point B. No need to ask for special ride, just follow GPS (Waze) and take toll road when it makes sense.
In Southampton (where I live) it is typically slow during regular weekends, though I see it lit up occasionally at night (Friday and Saturday night bar hours), I avoid driving at that time of the night.
While you may get a few short bar hops in this area and in or around Warminster (by Walmart) these rides tend to be short and generally unprofitable, again unless you are chasing surges at crazy hours of the night.
These towns are not heavily populated so rides are further spaced.
By your 2nd or 3rd ride you will see you are gravitating further and further soutts (first towards Willow Grove, then Cheltenham, then you are back in the area of Broad and eventually Center City), I certainly would not make it a point to rush empty back from Center City to Warminster/Southampton in hopes of scoring your next big ride :)
I created a temporary email address where you can email your telephone number if you want, will be glad to chat with you, as I am a very slow typer
[email protected]
Great!
Thank you
She did
You see that shiny coin on the right side under the seat rail ( a dime or a nickel from what I can tell)
Was she taking Uber to or from Jail?
I bet those few pennies were not on the seat rail when she left ;)
What is the staging lot address at PHL?
I do not think uber will send requests to drivers if parked in cell phone lot
Unless the Uber driver makes a single long ride and quits for the day, then Uber driver can say "I just made $30.00 per hour) :), Real average is probably somewhere between $14.00 - $22.00 (on good days)
Here is another secret:) - Stop Doing Pool and Shared rides :)
You can email a friend who can schedule a ride for you on their phone, then that friend can email you and tell you what kind of car is picking you up and when and of course now you own some money to your friend :)
Best to get a cell phone though
Airports do seem to charge fees, however they do not appear to be very large and also appear to be different depending on the airport
On Lyft for example the Ride receipt will have a section called (Others Received) - which they describe as: Third-party fees are amounts that we're required to pay to someone else, like sales taxes and airport fees.
For example I dropped a passenger off at Philadelphia Airport on Friday night
Others Received Section listed $3.48,
Immediately after drop-off re-match feature sent me around to baggage claim to grab a passenger from the same airport
Others Received Section from the pick up listed $3.69
Then on Sunday I dropped a passenger off at Newark Airport
Others Received Section listed $0.50
Immediately after drop-off re-match feature sent me around to baggage claim to grab a passenger from the same airport
Others Received Section from the pick up listed $0.50
$0.50 appears in the Others Receive section of every (Airport and non airport ride I picked up in NJ) - perhaps Lyft and Uber paid a large sum of money to Newark Airport to operate there and the airport does not collect separate fees?
In PA it clearly looks like the Others Received Section charges much more for airport pickups and drop offs, as regular Philadelphia non-airport ride charges something like $0.18 in taxes per ride
I am registered in Philadelphia and according to Uber I can pick up in all of PA, NJ and DE
So it is best to call Uber to see if your desired pick up location is covered.
I do a lot of my driving in NJ and even though it pays less, there is also less traffic and headaches than in center city Phila.
At one point I was even considering to switch my registration zone to NJ but Uber told me it will take 3 weeks and will have to take me completely off line while they re run background check. Why not run my background check in the background and just do an overnight switch bs taking me off line completely does not make sense lol
Anyway, they told me if I register in NJ I can only pick up in NJ - is that right?
I imagine any NJ registered driver could log in to their account on Uber website and see the pick up locations available Uner Fares.
Seems strange that NJ drivwrs can only pick up in NJ so I stayed on Philly registration
I drove, many people travel to see family
I did not think it was anything special as far as earnings as many more drivers flood the roads because many of these part time drivers have off from their regular jobs so it offsets the increased demand
However usage of rideshare also went up from what it was a year ago so it may be better than last year, combined with some drivers going off line to visit family it may turn out better this year ;)
Which 5?
I drive a Mazda sedan, drove in snow, demand is huge but driving is tougher and you can only maybe do two rides per hour as it is a lot slower. I did not feel it was worth it due to difficult driving conditions. Took a guy from Southampton PA to Newark airport, was probably the only car on the road, driving 15 miles per hour on NJ turnpike, asked him to see if flight was still on midway through trip, it was indeed cancelled so I drive him back home;)
AWD Is definitely a plus. I never received such Snow emails but that is because I drive a regular sedan ;)
I was never able to get an airport request in PHL other than being in the staging lot (I never go to the airport on purpose to just sit and wait for the rides), seems like there are always large number of cars sitting there, waste of time in my opinion
I would experiment with Amtrak Station in Paoli
Amtrak has two services that both stop at Paoli (more than Exton)
Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian
So download Amtrak App, use their Status button - pick Don't know your train number option ->
Put Harrisburg for the From and Paoli in the To, then click Check Status (write down the arrival times)
repeat the same only now use Philadelphia 30th street station as the From.
Having all these times you can show up at the station in correct time - and see if you can get some rides.
If Paoli comes up dry try Exton
Definitely use Uber and Lyft not just one platform, while waiting for rides keep checking for Scheduled rides on Lyft sometimes something good may come up - so scoop that up
If Lyft is available I would immediately schedule (not request, but schedule a ride) provided requesting did not land any drivers. Being that it is a 35 miles a driver even if they are 10 miles away will be happy to grab that passenger once they notice this ride in the ride board. How did that passenger get to the Walmart in the first place?
No, I rarely go out driving on Saturdays, kids are usually busy with swimming, soccer then have friends come over, etc.
My main driving days are Friday after work 4:30pm to about 2:00am and then on Sunday all day (when no kids activities)
When you say 5.00 surge you are referring to $5.00 extra Uber will add to the next ride since you drove through the surging zone - right?
I bet the actual rider did not get charged this fee and Uber just ate it. At the time rider who was in non surge zone ordered the ride Uber probably has no idea you would be the one accepting the ride, so I bet they just ate it.
Flat fee surge is a joke. Imagine this ride carried a % multiplier of 2.00% vs a $5.00 flat fee. Then this ride guessing about 15 miles would have earned you $15.00 extra instead of just $5.00. In NJ though % multiplier still applies ;)
So that is another example how Uber came up with yet another innovative, self benefiting way to reach into our pockets for our money ;)