RIDEGURU
Angela Taylor (RedANT)
Ride Scholar from Seattle
1072 Rider DriverActivity
Posts by RedANT
No posts found.Featured Answers 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)
Have you ever ordered a pizza? If you did, did you tip your driver for delivering it? (95% of people do)
If you went to Olive Garden and ordered the soup and salad, do you tip the waitress for taking the order and carrying to your table? (95% of people do)
If you go to a bar and order a drink, do you tip your bartender for fixing it? (most people do)
That delivery GrubHub/DoorDash/Postmates/UberEats driver doesn't earn an hourly wage like the others. THAT DRIVER PAYS for the vehicle to deliver your food to save you from having to go out. THAT DRIVER PAYS $4 /gal gas to drive to the restaurant during rush hour. THAT DRIVER PAYS higher insurance rates. That driver almost always has to wait several minutes at the restaurant. UNPAID, while the restaurant prepares your meal. THAT DRIVER PAYS to drive from the restaurant to your home/office so that you can relax and/or keep working to make money.
That driver RECEIVES ZERO HOURLY SALARY (unlike the pizza delivery guy or the waitress or the bartender who receive a minimum hourly salary), but his/her expenses are much higher. How can one honestly wonder if tipping that delivery person is appropriate? (Or do you think they're doing it all for free?)
Travis was an A Hole, but at least he didn't try to screw drivers like Dara has done.
So they FAILED to verify the vehicle information, they didn't match the driver picture, and the license plate number didn't match, so they got into a strange car parked nearby, and then blame Uber? Uber wasn't even there!
If I walk outside, flag down a passing car, hop in their backseat and get murdered, is that Uber's fault too?
People need to learn PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
All just more pre IPO marketing hype. The shit is getting deep the closer we get to the Uber IPO.
Lets face it... Uber is just looking for a way to allow startup investors to cash out on this money pit. That's why they hired Dara to spin it, and why his $120 million bonus is riding on a $120 billion IPO. It's all about transfer of liability while they walk away laughing with pockets full of cash.
Yeah, they did it alright...
In three weeks of trading, their stock price fell from 78.29 to 58.36 (approx 25% loss)
They're also the first to be sued by investors for overstating market share and causing huge losses for IPO investors. (But allowed their startup investors to walk away with a profit)
Lyft played a good PR game to convince the public that they were the friendlier alternative to Uber, when, in reality, they were worse.
These rideshare companies are doomed to fail unless they can turn things around and actually turn a profit. The only way that that will ever happen is for them to raise their prices and stop taking advantage of drivers. Self driving cars are but an unobtainable dream, (at least in our lifetimes) and the cost of those self driving programs is exactly whats preventing these companies from becoming profitable.
If Uber and Lyft simply focused on RIDESHARE, they'd be fine, but their insistence on diversifying into a dozen other fields while using rideshare as a piggy bank to fund it all is why they bleed money. Buying bicycle companies for a BILLION dollars is just one example of why they are in financial straits.
Uber and Lyft also need to retain good drivers by paying realistic, living wages. There is still a flood of drivers signing up, but when you hemorrhage 30% of your drivers every quarter, the cost of replacement skyrockets and the well of drivers will dry up. If drivers pay for their own vehicles, pay for maintenance, pay for the gas, (which is near $4 /gal) pay for the insurance, eat the depreciation of the vehicles and do all of the labor while the rideshare companies "tweak" their apps, how do Uber and lyft justify taking up to 65% of fares?
Further, if these companies charge customers Surge/PrimeTime during busy times to offset the shortage of drivers, WHY DO THEY POCKET 90% of the surge/PrimeTime fees? Supply and demand says that you use the money to attract more drivers, not to line corporate pockets.
Once Ubers startup investors recover their billions in losses, cash out and walk away after IPO, they'll transfer control of the rideshare money pit to new investors and walk away laughing. Only then will the ugly face of this industry be seen by the greater public.
Regardless of who was to blame, Uber doesn't change driver ratings anymore. They even refused to change my rating when I proved that a passenger discriminated against me in violation of the ADA, but the only canned response I received was that ratings are an average, bla, bla, bla...
If the passenger calls me before pickup and is in a bad mood, I eat a cancellation and let someone else pick them up. If I don't see the attitude until after they're in the car, I point out the pickup location on my tablet so that they know that I'm not the one to blame. If they give me grief, I throw their asses out of my car, give em' a 1* rating and message support with details.
I'd guess that they'd designate an area, like a part of the parking garage, as a rideshare pickup (or dropoff) area. ALL cars would be required to load (or unload) in that area, and would have the option to join the queue for a new rider.
In Seattle we can drop off at departures during normal hours, but must dropoff at arrivals during airport "busy" hours. Pickups are only in a designated rideshare pickup area on the 3rd floor of the parking garage, and trying to pickup anywhere else will pretty much guarantee a very large fine and potential loss off airport privileges.
Due to local restrictions, the only ones who can queue anytime are those with cars with a blended gas mileage of 45mpg. Those ants queue at a parking lot across the street. Everyone else can drop off, but are only eligible to be in the pickup queue for approx 3 minutes. If you dropoff and don't immediately get a pickup ping for the parking garage, you're deadheading home.
The system works, and there's no confusion of where to pickup. Passengers receive instruction on how to get to the pickup area when they order a ride from the airport. The pickup area has numbered stalls where drivers wait. I arrive, park, then text pax "Waiting in stall #21 in the 3rd floor pickup area."
That may not be how Uber works, but Dave Bautista is
WOW.
Putting this one on my "to watch" list.
- I drive to get out of the house. After a lifetime of activity, sitting at home sucks;
- I drive for social interaction. I love my cat, but if I stay at home too long, people start labeling me the cat lady;
- I drive to fund my "fun fund" and pay for vacations without touching my investments and retirement accounts;
- I drive because as a 60+ disabled woman, there aren't many jobs that are this accessible to me;
- I drive because rideshare affords me extremely flexible hours that fit my ever changing schedule;
- I drive because it allows me to put on old music, let my hair down to blow in the wind, and sing without caring about other drivers staring;
So you're traveling to a major metropolitan area, heart of the tech industry, corporate HQ for both Uber and Lyft and one of the most saturated driver markets in the world, and as a driver you're wondering if you need to schedule rides in advance?
Can you schedule a ride? Yes, you'd schedule it like you would in any other city. My question would be why would you? It's not like you'd ever have to wait more than 1-2 minutes for a ride.
All you have to do is tell the passengers "I show your destination as Burlington, VT. We have 2 options for you to choose from...
1. I can drive you there, but you're going to have to pay for the roundtrip ferry tolls upfront in cash;
2. I can drop you off at the ferry, you can walk aboard, then you're going to have to order another ride once you've arrived on the other side;
Which way do you want to go?
Uber's self driving program is suddenly valued at $7 Billion. The only reason for Uber to release that information is to boost their pre IPO valuation. It's nothing more than desperate marketing to ensure maximum short profits.
Self driving cars are a pipe dream that won't work until everyone decides that they're willing to give up their personal vehicles and are willing to pay companies like Uber and Lyft to transport them everywhere. It's not going to happen, or at least not in our lifetime.
As far as I know, you're not going to be able to book a rideshare trip that crosses the US-Canada border. It's partially because the driver would need to have their passport or enhanced ID on them to cross the border, and also since the drivers return trip would be dead miles since there are no rideshare options out of Vancouver. (and more expensive because of current gas prices in Washington) I could drive you for cash, but to be honest, the commute (~$200) would cost you way more than the $20-$50 it would cost to take a greyhound bus or train. A taxi could take you to the Canadian border for $50, but I have no clue what a ride from the border station to Vancouver would cost,nor am I familiar with available transportation options for that route. (Taxi rate in Bellingham is $3 /mile)
Wrong. Getting the passengers name is for DRIVER SAFETY. Nothing happens, nobody gets in my car, before you give me your name and I know who you are. Once I've confirmed that you're the right passenger, I'm free to verify destination and play this stupid whats my name game.
The correct procedure is for the passenger to give their name to the driver to ensure the safety of the driver . Passengers have a plethora of other ways to verify the identity of the person behind the wheel.
I've only had one person want me to state their name. I simply told them that I can't divulge my passengers personal information until I've verified who they are. "Sorry, but if you're my passenger, it's for your own privacy and protection. If you need to verify who I am, please use the app to verify the year, make, model and color of my vehicle, cross reference it with the picture of my car, and compare the verified driver picture with my face."
This stupid misinformation campaign needs to stop ASAP.
I've been driving for a couple of years, and have NEVER been allowed to pickup curbside at the local airports.
Despite that, the world continues to spin.
Sorry, but my numbers differ from yours. Using a destination filter works better than casually driving, because you're not eating a lot of dead miles doing unprofitable shorties. KEEP A PHYSICAL LOG of your mileage and do the math rather than always using an app to do it for you.
Destination filters are the only thing that makes driving worth my time. It's also worth noting that since the decreased earnings from using a filter were rolled back, there is no reason to not use them to your advantage.
Unfortunately, there is no way that I know of to flag a disability in the Uber app. Being US based, I believe the main concern would be people using it to discriminate against disabled persons in violation of non-discrimination laws.
If you ever have concerns, I'd recommend CALLING your driver while he/she is en route to notify them of any pickup concerns. You can text, but a lot of drivers, (I'm guilty) don't reply to text messages while we're driving for safety reasons.
All I ask is that the passenger(s), drunk or not, be REQUIRED to provide the correct "code" BEFORE getting in the vehicle. Such should weed out all the problems with the wrong people hopping into your car, and will stop all claims of "the driver took the wrong rider" claims. It could also be fun watching drunks skirmish over who has the code, and entering into the app, while everyone freezes their asses off outside in the middle of winter.
Is your demand to rate a driver based on their driving ability and services rendered, or are you demanding to jeopardize someones job as retribution for making you angry?
If a driver hasn't yet picked you up, you can only speculate why they chose to cancel. Before jumping to conclusions, please stop and consider the following:
This morning, en route home after dropping off a passenger, I received and accepted a ride request. The address was showing at some apartments adjacent to my location, the problem is, I was in the left lane of a major interstate, in bumper to bumper traffic, and already past the exit to get to their location. Uber was telling them I was 1 minute away, and while we could probably have waved at each other from our locations, the only way for me to get there was via 2 miles of north bound bumper to bumper traffic, turning around at the next exit, then sitting through onramp lights, and then sitting through southbound bumper to bumper traffic for another 2 miles. REAL ETA: 24 minutes
Guess what? I cancelled the ride because I know that there were other drivers that could be there in under 5 minutes. Was I wrong to do so? Should he have been allowed to destroy my rating and try to get me fired for cancelling?
As far as cancelling because of destination, my question would be: How does the driver know your destination? We don't know your destination until after you're in the car and the trip started. If your driver knows your destination, you already have the ability to rate him/her. Beyond that, I'll say that just because a driver accepted your ride request doesn't mean that they're bound to take you. Many drivers use destination filters to get to "real jobs" or other engagements. If I set a filter to only accept rides going towards my other job and the system assigns me your trip that would take me in the wrong direction and make me late for work, should I not have the opportunity to cancel? This is called RIDE SHARING. We allow you to share our ride. Demands to take you to your destination under penalty isn't sharing, it's extortion.
Do drivers cancel because of the way you look, or could other factors be involved? A few days ago I showed up to pick someone up, but when I arrived, he was standing at a bus stop and the area clearly marked "NO STOPPING." Two cops stood nearby. I drove by, motioned the passenger to meet me around the corner where it was safe to stop, and I didn't stop to let him in when he tried to approach the car. A probable $4 fare isn't worth eating a $250 ticket. I'm sure the guy cursed at me for driving by. Surely I must have refused to stop because of how he looked, right? It couldn't possibly be because he wanted me to break the law and eat a ticket because he was too lazy to walk 20 feet to a proper pickup spot, right? SMH
As far as doing this just to scam cancellation fees, I'll say this: The average driver cut in a cancellation is usually under four bucks. We're NOT getting rich off of cancel fees, and when figuring in lost time and missed trips, we're actually losing money in such a situation. Two or three weeks ago I got a ride request at 3:30am. I headed out, in the cold, dark morning, and drove 3 miles to the pickup location. After arriving I waited 3 more minutes for the passenger to show up. Just before the wait timer expired, the passenger cancelled. I earned a $3.00 cancellation fee for dragging myself out to the car, and driving 3 miles in the cold and rain, and waiting in the dark. Tell me, would you do the same for $3 Why or why not? Quite frankly, I find it offensive that people think all drivers are broke as hell and hard up for a handful of singles. We're not all like that.