RIDEGURU
Sergio Avedian (Uberserge)
Ride Apprentice from Los Angeles, CA
Blogger, Podcaster, Active Rideshare Driver/Coach
1300 Rider DriverActive Uber/Lyft driver in Los Angeles, contributing writer for Rideguru and RSG (The Rideshare Guy), podcaster, rideshare driver coach, independent consultant to rideshare and tech companies.
Activity
Posts by Uberserge
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Dashboard Cameras: The Ultimate Guide for Both Drivers and Riders
All explained in this article! https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/dashboard-cameras-the-ultimate-guide-for-both-drivers-and-riders -
Is the Scooter Era Ending? Was it all just a Fad?
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/is-the-scooter-era-ending -
Step by Step Instructions on Accepting your First Trip as a New Uber Driver and General App Tutorial 2020
It is all explained in this article https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/step-by-step-instructions-on-accepting-your-first-trip-as-a-new-uber-driver-and-general-app-tutorial-2020 -
Step by Step Instructions on Accepting your First Trip as a New Lyft Driver and General App Tutorial 2020
It is all explained in this article https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/step-by-step-instructions-on-accepting-your-first-trip-as-a-new-lyft-driver-and-general-app-tutorial-2020 -
Is Uber Just A Payment Collection Agency For Drivers Now? Must Read For All Drivers & Passengers
Looks like drivers are Uber's customers and passengers are drivers' cutomers https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/is-uber-just-a-payment-collection-agency-for-drivers-now-must-read-for-all-drivers-passengers -
Step by step instrucitons for Uber & Lyft car inspections!
It is all explained in this in this article https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/step-by-step-guide-to-get-an-uber-lyft-car-inspection -
How to track your tax deductible miles for Rideshare driving? Potential tax deduction missed by Drivers!
I have explained it all in this in depth article https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/how-to-track-tax-deductible-mileage-for-uber-lyft-drivers -
Is driving for Uber & Lyft full of Flexibility and Freedom? Not so fast!
My in depth article about the plight of NY drivers https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/is-driving-for-uber-lyft-really-full-of-freedom-not-in-new-york -
Uber is fighting AB5 in CA with a new PAA (Platform Access Agreement)
Drivers are Uber customers, passengers are drivers' customers. Uber charges drivers a service fee for accesing its technology platform.https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/is-uber-just-a-payment-collection-agency-for-drivers-now-must-read-for-all-drivers-passengers -
As per Uber, passengers are driver's customer and drivers are Uber's customers
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/is-uber-just-a-payment-collection-agency-for-drivers-now-must-read-for-all-drivers-passengers -
Uber claims to be just a payment processing agency for the driver and passenger
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/is-uber-just-a-payment-collection-agency-for-drivers-now-must-read-for-all-drivers-passengers -
I must be in a time machine, taking me back to the starting days of Uber albeit at much lower rates!
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/uber-is-making-big-changes-in-california-for-drivers https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/uber-is-making-big-changes-in-california-for-drivers -
I got skunked by the Uber Algorithm! Is over saturation the problem or does Uber put drivers in Time Outs due to declining too many rides?
https://therideshareguy.com/skunked-by-uber/ -
Driving Uber's Way vs. Driving My Way
Do you take every ping Uber and Lyft send you? Are you the slave of their algorithms?https://therideshareguy.com/driving-ubers-way-vs-driving-my-way/ -
Now Uber is letting some CA drivers set their rate at small airports
All the changes over the past couple of months, definitely due to AB5. Will all these changes spread throughout the … -
Is the Scooter craze coming to a crashing halt?
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/is-the-scooter-era-ending -
Dashboard cameras: Ultimate guide for rideshare drivers and passengersrs
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/dashboard-cameras-the-ultimate-guide-for-both-drivers-and-riders -
Do you think the changes implemented in CA by Uber should go nationwide?
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/uber-is-making-big-changes-in-california-for-drivers -
Uber commissions capped at 25%, no upfront pricing, exact destination on each trip before accepting a ride, old surge multiplier is back, no AR restrictions etc.
https://ride.guru/content/newsroom/uber-is-making-big-changes-in-california-for-drivers -
Uber is Making Big Changes in California for Drivers! Is all this due to CA AB5?
I welcome these changes over the past month culminating with commission caps at 25%, showing destination, bringing the old surge …
Take care. I just started writing for RG, hopefully I can make it grow to what the management wants it to be.
Like I said, it's a tough crowd, better have your A game on. I'm on it but veterans don't mess with veterans, if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen rules on UP. RG is more civil but definitely less traffic, it's all good though. Keep up the good work.
You have to have thick skin to show up as a rookie in UP.net! They're bunch of veteran drivers who are very bitter to see their income get slashed by 70% over five years. They're mostly using UP.net for therapy since they can't afford it with a professional. 😆
Major issue on both platforms. I had a pax this weekend at LAX who had just arrived from Chicago with an 8 month old she was clutching. I pulled up, looking at her and asked if I could help with the car seat, she says she doesn't have one but other drivers had given her a ride before while she was holding her baby, she said she's just going a short distance. I smiled, cancelled and drove away, luckily I hadn't started the ride so she couldn't rate me or complain to Uber. Go figure!
You must be talking about UP.net about the rude forum. 😆 now that's a tough crowd.
You're far ahead of most drivers in your city, poach every pax you get in your car in airport trips, print business cards with a Google voice number to keep your privacy.
I'm glad you have a plan B ready.
Yep, you have to find your own honey holes and keep them for yourself, cones with trial and error. Cones with experience, I read on obe of your posts that you have only 2200 rides, that puts you in the semi veteran category. I see that you're putting some thought into what you're doing which puts you in the top 2% of drivers in your city since most are subservient ants. Aimlessly driving accepting every ping.
They call us IC to skirt all local and federal labor laws and they call themselves a technology company to skirt transportation laws. Uber is nothing more than a taxi service with an app.
Harassment of female employees happens more than it should at every company with regular employees and the consequences are dire. Check out the Susan Fowler story with Uber. They have a toxic corporate culture. Uber never takes the drivers side, for them the driver is like yesterday's newspaper but the passenger is the goose that lays the golden egg.
Very prevalent on Uber much less on Lyft. I've had one occasion that she had to order it 5 times befire she got me. I regularly give rides to her to the airport. It was 5am and they kept sending her a driver from 15 minutes away because it was a lucrative ride. There are also silent time outs etc. Uber algo is designed to feed good rides to newbies as sugar so they dont quit right after they get their sign-up bonus. 😆
Absolutely not, that’s been well known for a long time to veteran drivers anyway. I’ve had the pax sitting in my car and they wouldn’t send me the ping. Can’t be closer than that. 😂
In the case of U/L VC got astronomical returns and shifted the risk from private to public hands with their IPO. We’ll see how Wall St. will handle billion dollar quarterly losses.
In this day and age, highly unlikely since there are 8 cars on every corner. Possible if you’re in a rural town in South Dakota in the middle of a snow storm. 😂
That’s because even if you take 60% of a nickel instead of 25% like they’re supposed to, it’s not enough. They’re selling a hamburger worth 50 cents for a nickel through subsidies. Cabs in general have not competed and lowered their prices with Uber because they know what it takes to run a car in the real world without subsidies. In Los Angeles, cabs charge $2.75 a mile and Uber pays 60 cents a mile. Taxi business has been a notoriously low margin since their inception even with those high rates. Uber is not only trying to disrupt a low margin business but also price rides at a quarter of what they’re worth. On top of that, their legal bills are astronomical, spending a ton on other money losing businesses, self driving cars, scooters, flying cars and food delivery.
Seniority for drivers meaning not as much how long they had a license but how long they’ve been with Uber. 80% quit in less than 6 to 8 months, Uber’s numbers not mine. So if a driver stays with the company, they’ll get paid more. I like your idea of higher rated drivers getting paid more, better service better pay.
There’s no legal precedent for IC. However, part of the settlement Uber agreed to is to not deactivate drivers for low AR (acceptance rate). But they’ll turn your app off after three declined rides or put you in unspoken time-outs by not sending you pings.
There’s a difference between low acceptance rates and cancellations. You can only cancel after you accept a request. So study the ping and don’t accept if it’s not what you want. Then you won’t have to cancel a lot, unless you’re working drunk hours and the pax is totally bent out of shape then cancel and show them your tailpipes. No one is puking in my car.
A lot of issues with Uber & Lyft could such as service animals, female drivers being matched with female pax first, pax requesting the same driver again for their next ride etc. could be easily fixed in the app. We’re not hired, we’re IC.
They just don’t care!
It's quite the opposite. Newer riders get better rates to hook them. After a while the algorithm knows everything about you, what airlines you fly, what hotels you stay at, what restaurants and bars you go to and adjust your rates higher. Next time you're ordering a ride, price it 5 times in a row, they will be all different. It's called dynamic upfront pricing. Pick-up or destination stays the same but your price will sometimes fluctuate wildly. That's without surge ot PT.
Ratings have nothing to do with pricing, I wish it did for the pax and especially the driver.
That's correct, female drivers are subject to a lot more harassment than male drivers. Why doesn't UBER algorithms match female drivers with female pax first? Easily attainable. They don't care!
You can use my referral link and sign up to drive UBER 😆
Seriously, as per ADA, American's with Disabilities Act prohibits all ride for hire vehicles to refuse rides for passengers. A taxi driver can be sued probably since they are governed by regulators.
Uber and Lyft constantly send e-mails to drivers not to refuse rides to anyone with a support animal. That supersedes a situation like the driver to be deadly allergic to a dog or a cat. They can easily fix it in the app but they don't, they force drivers with allergies to suffer. Go figure!
Drive sick pax at your own risk, I wouldn't want to get sick for 60 cents a mile. Who knows what they got?
Illegal? As per Uber or Lyft? Or ADA?
U/L will deactivate the driver on any complaint but especially from a pax with a support animal. Half the dogs, probably more that get in my car don't have proper paperwork but if I question the pax and they complain, I'm gone.
U/L are like LAPD, shoot first and ask questions later.