RIDEGURU
Angela Taylor (RedANT)
Ride Scholar from Seattle
1072 Rider DriverActivity
Posts by RedANT
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The Uber driver app in the Google Play store has a rating of 4.4/5 stars. I posted a comment/rating on Google Play:
Me: "If drivers have a 4.4/5 star rating, Uber calls us failures and deactivates us. Why is this rating acceptable or different?"
Uber: "Hi RedANT. This doesn't sound right. We want to take a closer look into this for you. Please send a quick note to t.uber.con/drivercontact so we can connect."
(Needless to say, I did NOT contact them with my real information)
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Old system:
$25 trip @ 2x surge = Passenger pays $50 (driver made approx 65% of the total = $32.50, and Uber/Lyft made approx 35% of the total = $17.50)
New system:
$25 trip @ 2x surge = Passenger still pays $50 (Driver makes 65% of $25 = $16.25 + a $2.50 fixed "surge" = $18.75 earned by driver. Uber/Lyft collect the balance of $50 - $18.75 paid to driver = $31.25 = approx 63%) Driver pays for 100% of their car payment, insurance, gas, and maintenance. Uber/Lyft does nothing but change policies and adjust app settings to increase their share. Passengers get fleeced.* Please note that all numbers are approximate, and will vary greatly depending on the area you're in.
** Driver pay was previously paid based on a per minute rate + mileage rate + surge multiplier.
Pay is now based on a per minute rate + mileage rate + a flat surge fee that is a fraction of the former multiplier payout. This change effectively increases Uber and Lyfts share of the fares significantly, taking money out of driver pockets and increasing company revenue. Regardless, I'd bet that Uber and Lyft will still post huge Q1 losses as they head into their respective IPOs.
This is why drivers are pissed. (And rightfully so)
Yay! another "opportunity" for Uber to get people to work, while they reap huge profits and provide no benefits. Cashier at BK call in sick? Don't worry, Uber will get a person right to you if you pay Uber the same $15 /hr you pay fast food workers, but Uber will take 50% and pay the desperateperson below minimum wage to work fast food. (Like UberEats, they'll probably also demand a certain percentage of sales too)
Do Uber drivers make good money? No, Uber takes 35-65% and the drivers eats all costs.
Do UberEats delivery people make good money? No, they're amongst the worst paid delivery people.
Who in their right mind believes that this will be any different?
Do you understand how companies like Uber and Lyft work?
You don't get on a random website and ask people for a ride, you have to take the initiative to download the Uber or Lyft app on your phone, then on your day of travel you go to the designated pickup location at LAX and use that app to summon a driver to you.
The first one to go public will draw all the early investors. After a few months documenting the actual failures of the rideshare business, nobody will want to invest in the other.
No rideshare company does things because they want to help others. They do things like this because it's the most profitable option for them.
Unless you fit a very narrow subset of target passengers, you're probably best off doing what you're doing now.
As an aside, if this works anything like the version Uber tested last year, count me as a driver who will figure out a way to filter out riders who are using this promotion. They were ALL worse than Uber pool and pool express passengers. No thanks.
There's always going to be people that "talk down" to others because being a jerk is a pretty common thing.
"Is this what you studied in college?" - *smile* No, I have an AA in Liberal Arts, an AS in paralegal Studies, a BA in Political Science, a BS in Biology, and an MBA. You?
"Is this your full time job, or do you work others to make ends meet?" - *smile* No, I only drive 12-15 hrs a week, so this is very part time for me. I'm also a retired military officer, so I have a pension, I'm a former financial advisor so I have investments and risidual income, and I own several rental properties. What about you?
Just curious why you would want to? In many ways, Lyft is worse than Uber, and all you're doing is promoting a greater evil.
Pay structure changes and rideshare policy differences have changed significantly over the years, and the last year has been absolutely brutal. After another year of refining my driving strategies and learning the streets like the back of my hand, my earnings are down 27% from the same week last year. In a nutshell, driving rideshare just isn't worth the time anymore, especially for companies that don't care about their "partners."
I post "All ratings will be reciprocated" in my car, below the dashcam, tipping and rating info.
Sometimes people give bad ratings because they're a-holes or idiots. 1* for picking up other passengers on Uber Pool? 1* for not dropping someone off on a "BUS ONLY" street? 1* for not buying a rider a bottle of water because he was hungover and thirsty? 1* for not making an illegal U Turn?
It's not always the drivers fault.
LOL @ giving us "stock" in a company that exists because we eat almost all of the operating costs, and get a handful of magic beans in return. Stock is great, but a handful of penny stock is pretty much useless and not much more than another publicity stunt to make Uber look like a company that cares.
Even after all of that, the driver was still suspended during Lyft's "investigation." Luckily for him this incident went viral and Lyft reactivated him rather than eat really bad PR.
What I find suspicious is how the driver opened a GoFundMe immediately after this inciident, and collected tens of thousands of dollars before he was even suspended and reinstated. Fake incident to milk some GoFundMe sympathy cash?
500 ratings can take a very long time to get through. Less than half of passengers (~40%) rate their driver, i.e. it takes approximately 1,250 trips for a negative rating to fall off. Due to recent changes by Uber and Lyft, I've cut back my driving time significantly, and only run around 25 rides a week, meaning that it'll take approx 1 year for a negative item to fall off.
Unfortunately most people that rate don't do so because they're happy with the service you provide them, they rate because they were late for work, or because they were in a bad mood, or because they feel that a positive rating makes leaving no tip acceptable. Sadly, the only way we can cover ourselves is to avoid the potential "problem" passengers, which is why I purposely set my rating requirement high, and why I refuse to take any pool/shared trips. It's not worth risking my job over.
Uber will say anything to keep the moneytrain chugging along. Fact is that they don't have enough revenue to survive 3 years, and even once that time passes. there is zero indication that they'll ever be able to even become profitable.
If drivers are absorbing all the costs and Uber still can't turn a profit, I can't see how Uber will ever make a profit without extreme changes to the way it does business.
Don't believe any public statements from Uber. EVER.
Uber - Free to polling place, you pay for the ride home.
Lyft - Free in some areas, 50% off in other areas, for the trip to the polls. You pay for the ride home.
Driver's have been victimized by the same "customer is always right" crap for years at the hands of uncaring passengers, even when we could prove that we weren't the ones at fault.
Rideshare isn't perfect technology, and using it can sometimes come with certain caveats.
I don't think that research supports the belief that rideshare improves any environmental factors. In metro Seattle alone, in 2017 Uber drivers were responsible for 94 MILLION MILES on city roads. That's in ONE year.
Additionally, Pool and Line rides also pull people off of more efficient mass transit busses, trains and other forms of municipal transit, causing a net increase in pollution. Driving a pool of people may be preferable to everyone taking X, but the difference is negligible once factors like driver dead head time and searching for more fares is factored into the overall equation.
https://jalopnik.com/uber-and-lyft-are-offering-discounted-rides-to-get-peop-1829600559
If you’re wondering about the legality of all of this, well it’s all fine and good as long as Uber and Lyft don’t incentivize you after voting. A Lyft representative described the legality of the initiative in an email to Jalopnik:
So, while your ride to the polls may be 50 percent off, your ride back isn’t.
The rides are ONE WAY. Once you're dropped off, you're responsible for finding your own way home.
Lyft is shooting for Q1, Uber later during the year.
Lyft knows that they need to IPO first to get in investors pockets. People that have a vested interest in rideshare companies in Q1 are less likely to invest in competitor rideshare companies during Q3/Q4, especially after half a year shows that rideshare is a horrible investment.
Another driver gets attacked, but Uber continues to add "safety" features for passengers while largely ignoring driver safety and painting us as criminals.
Disgusting.