RIDEGURU
Ippei Takahashi (ippei)
Ride Guru from Boston, MA - USA
Uber Driver, CEO of TaxiFareFinder and Unleashed, LLC
1202 Rider Driver GuruUber Driver and CEO/President of Unleashed, LLC.
Ippei boasts over 11 years of experience in travel and taxi industry. As a CEO, he has built, managed, and executed the operations of TaxiFareFinder since 2007. He has partnerships and relationships with major taxi, rideshare, and other travel-related companies.
To contact me, please send email
Activity
Posts by ippei
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What to do if your Rideshare Driver makes you feel Uncomfortable [RideGuru Newsroom]
Good article: What to do if your Rideshare Driver makes you feel Uncomfortable -
Riders are more likely to take an Uber when it's surging 2.1 times than 2.0.
Riders are more accepting of surges that are NOT round numbers, because consumers feel more thoughts went into the calculation … -
Driver strikes didn’t break Uber - but they showed gig economy workers are mad. [Vox]
Feel the Bern!Demanding higher wages and benefits, thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers in over two dozen cities around … -
Uber IPO: Relationship with drivers, drivers being employees, and some metrics starting to be revealed
The usual market gibberish, but I did find these interesting though:Tips and TripsNonfinancial metrics are also important for … -
Our friend, Peter Ashlock, is on NY Times. Pointing out the truths about Uber and its gig-economy.
Our friend, Peter, was on the New York Times last week. Mr. Ashlock, who will be 71 next week, has … -
To Uber and Lyft drivers: What are things passengers UNFAIRLY rate you on? What are things outside of your control as a driver, but can ding you on your ratings or tips?
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Underage Passengers Can Ruin Your Life. Are You Properly Protected? [Ridester]
It's a great summary from Ridester on underage passengers: https://www.ridester.com/lyft-uber-minor-policy/Uber’s rule says:“A rider must be at least … -
A friend, a prank, and autocorrect leads to bad passenger ratings.
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All The Ways You Can Sell Advertising Space In and On Your Car [The Rideshare Guy]
Rideshare driving is becoming more difficult – rates are declining, bonuses are changing, and promotions have been reduced drastically in … -
How to Maximize Earnings While Driving Part Time [The Rideshare Guy]
Are you a part-time Uber or Lyft driver? If so, you’re probably wondering how you can maximize your time on … -
Waymo’s self-driving car unit officially launched the first commercial driverless taxi service
Waymo’s self-driving car unit officially launched the first commercial driverless taxi service in a roughly 100-mile zone across four Phoenix … -
Driver Star Rating Explained - How ratings work and affect drivers (plus video)
How ratings work and affect driver-partnersWhat you’ll be rated onRiders likely consider a variety of factors when selecting … -
If Self-Driving Cars Were Southern
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Uber for Packages - Amazon Delivery Driver: What it’s like to work for Amazon Flex [Geekwire]
People overlook what it takes to delivery all those packages from Amazon, and most aren't aware that it's Uber-esque in … -
What do you think of Lyft's $299/mo subscription plan to replace car ownership?
https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/16/17978626/lyft-monthly-subscription-plan-nationwide Lyft’s monthly subscription experiment is going national. The ride-hailing company has been tinkering with subscriptions since earlier this year, … -
Video - Every Uber Ever [Smoth]
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Travel Tips - Should You Tip Your Uber Driver? If So, How Much? [New York Times]
New York Times' Kristin Wong is educating the riders on how the tipping should work. Do you agree with her … -
Teens headed to homecoming say Uber driver told them to get out due to age [AJC.com]
This is sure to stir up some discussions with strong voices from both ends. "Teenagers in Gwinnett County say they … -
How to Profit from Minimum-Fare Uber Rides [Ridester.com]
Any rideshare driver will tell you that minimum fare rides are undesirable. These small trips offer a low fare cost … -
The worst types of Uber passengers (and how to deal with them) [Gridwise]
A fun article on Gridwise regarding our important cargos, i.e. passengers. They pick up 5 worst types of rideshare passengers …
Featured Answers by ippei
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A 45 miles will take 45~60 minutes to drive. Such a trip should be about $55 to 70 in most areas. This is without considering for surge pricing which can raise the fare during busy periods.
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Here are two related and common questions around Uber/Lyft scheduled rides:
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check this out for the graphs of how rideshare number has been skyrocketing.
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There was a thread on this with a Guru Answer.
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Related threads:
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Great discussions going on here. All great advice. Here are some relevant articles from RideGuru
Getaround: Is Renting A Car For $5 an Hour to Drive for Uber Worth It?
What about peer-to-peer car rentals?
Uber Rent - Drive stranger's cars AirBnB style! Would you rent your car for $5 an hour?
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There are many reasons for this, but it's usually to do with customer service and keeping people happier. Say for example, if a rider has a bad experience (gives a low rating to a driver), Uber wants his or her next ride to be with a highly rated driver, perhaps higher than it could have been. This would be regardless of what this rider's rating is.
Uber does not want their good drivers to continue being matched up with good riders. They want to keep up good customer service to all of their customers. If they assign bad to bad, that can create lopsided perception of the company with one area of its population. They have to spread the good to a wider audience, and this applies to both good drivers and good riders.
No, drivers do see your location before they accept the ride. They do not see your exact address that you may have entered, but they can see the distance and duration to your location and also your location on a map.
My apologies for being unclear. I should have said they cannot see your address but yes they can see your location even before accepting the trip.
The app already hides the passenger's exact location before pickup.
The passenger information that is displayed at the time of the dispatch has certainly changed over time. You mention, "big cities", but for the most part, the information probably was updated around the same time across all cities. Yes, cities like Philadelphia and Chicago required the app to hide the passenger ratings ahead of others, but those are more exceptions than the rules.
Please do not quote me on the below, but I will try to share what I remember During the early years, perhaps in its initial version, the app showed the full name of the passenger, passenger ratings, and full pickup address. Fast forward to 2012~(?) timeframe, the app only displayed the first name of the passenger, the service requested, passenger ratings, and various information about the pickup, such as address and duration to get to that location.
In the more recent years, say 2016, I remember them removing the name completely. (They realized that the driver can identify female passengers or people of certain ethinicity.) They also removed the exact address as well, perhaps to avoid the driver identifying the user's exact address, say, of their residence. The location is now more dictated by the GPS and the pin locations, which can anonymize the users a bit more. Hence, at this point and in the current days, the app only shows the passenger ratings, type of service, distance and duration to the pickup location.
Here are some screenshots I was able to dig up:
CAUTION: You can only order one Uber vehicle at a time. So if you request a ride for your friend, you will NOT be able to request another vehicle until your friend's trip has been completed:
Unfortunately, that information is difficult to keep track of, and we must lean on individual drivers from around the nation to share their own experiences. Uber often releases its features and services in a phased approach, where they pick test markets first and expand from there. In most cases, these aren't publicly announced either.
Uber defines rules, regulations, service types, promotional campaigns, etc. for each market, so many of these decisions are made at the city level.
What makes it even more difficult is that for new features, they do not always segment by cities. Uber may pick certain neighborhoods within a city (e.g. say a suburb) or even specific demographic of the drivers.
No, this isn't allowed. It's even in the Uber's guidelines to decline passengers who show up with too many passengers.
This applies to cases when the pax shows up with two but didn't specify it in advance. This is because Uber's algorithm is trying to figure out the route for subsequent pickups. Imagine if you let two people on but you ended up picking up a few more exceeding the capacity. (though, in reality, UberPool usually stops for 2 pickups, so two plus two should fit in an UberX.)
There was a thread on how to handle pickups at gated communities. Link here:
I just updated the post, but here's an update:
UPDATE - May 2018: Lyft announced an "All Access Pass" for a monthly subscription fee in major cities. There is currently a waitlist. Lyft's All-Access Pas. Monthly subscription coming to major cities. (invitation and waitlist only)
UPDATE - May 2018: Lyft announced an "All Access Pass" for a monthly subscription fee in major cities. There is currently a waitlist. Lyft's All-Access Pas. Monthly subscription coming to major cities. (invitation and waitlist only)
I just added this to the Guru answer, but :
UPDATE - May 2018: Lyft announced an "All Access Pass" for a monthly subscription fee in major cities. There is currently a waitlist. Lyft's All-Access Pas. Monthly subscription coming to major cities. (invitation and waitlist only)
Since this is for a wedding, check out this creative design for a poster. You can customize the Uber code and names, of course.
The neat thing is that this board says "$5 off", but you can customize your event with Uber to pay however much you want.
https://img.etsystatic.com/il/ec3869/1218532753/il_fullxfull.1218532753_bzsh.jpg?version=0
Denice, I just saw that this is for your wedding. Yes, you should try UberEVENTS. It is a neat way for you to hand out Uber rides for your guests. You do have to pay a deposit, but this enables you to send out custom Uber URLs and promo codes to your guests.
Here's how to begin:
https://vouchers.uber.com/create/
You must log in, name your event, when and where, and your payment options. For a very large event, you can contact Uber directly.
Here's what the screen looks like.
Do you mean compared to the original ETA? That is a great point, and I hadn't considered that. However, looking at the rules, the answer seems to be a "yes."
The ETA displayed on the Uber app is an approximate and not guaranteed. It is based on the time the GPS determines the closest car will take to get to you. Then once you request one and as the driver gets closer, the ETA is continuously updated.
Generally, the drivers tend to arrive later, not earlier, compared to the initial ETA. This can be for weather and traffic. This can also be that the closest driver did not accept your request and it went to someone farther.
For shorter trips, yes, the portion Uber takes becomes much larger by percentage, primarily due to the flatrate booking fee.
This is the reason why Uber drivers prefer longer rides.
This is a bit similar to this thread:
As a driver, have you kicked out a passenger? Ended a ride early mid-trip?
For Lyft, you get to keep the Passenger A's PrimeTime for the entire duration. With that said, am not sure if Lyft's algorith is sophisticated enough (or LyftLine busy enough?) to handle a cascading scenario like that.
For Uber, it will be the average. An easy way to remember is that, from the perspective of a driver, until all the passengers are dropped off, a ride is not completed. Therefore, the pricing is calculated only once at the end.
Here's a great thread on that subject:
Thanks for the tip, Elana. I agree wit your comment and I updated the answer to emphasize the need for sending the driver the instructions.