RIDEGURU
I'm in the Chicago area and use Uber and public transport exclusively. In 2019 I have taken in the ballpark of 600 rides. I'd say half the trips are in the $8-$12 range, getting me to and from the Metra usually. Then maybe 25% are the $13-$25 range for various reasons. Then maybe 10% are under $10: trips for laundry or the grocery store.
I work in the field and up until October, I had a rating of 4.92 with a ton of rides. But in October, for 6 weeks I worked on a project that required me to be on sites by 7:00 am which made it impossible to use the Metra to get some places on time. As such, I ended up needing to use Uber for a lot of long trips: 45+ miles, 1-1.25 hrs (Aurora, Elgin, Antioch, etc). In that short span, after hundreds of rides previously, my rating dropped to 4.88.
I won't give you the speel about how good a passenger I am (too late!), but really in that time my behavior has been the same, so the only reason I can see to lose stars is because of those long rides. I imagine some drivers want to out for a couple hours and make a quick buck and go on about their day, but that can kind of get messed up when I pull them 50 miles away and they have to drive back to their home area during rush hour.
Is this a thing or is it just random? I do usually call a driver and tell them if I'm taking a trip like that, but sometimes they don't answer, and other times if it's a nice ride, I'll just let it go because I'd much rather ride in an SUV for an hour rather than a Sentra. Am I being selfish? I don't care about the rating so much as trying to figure out what I'm doing to put off drivers.
Comments
This is really interesting, I cannot see why this would impact your rating. I wonder if drivers are more tired after long trips and hence rate slightly lower just based on their own mood?
I am not a driver but as far as I know most drivers like long trips, but the problem is if they can't get a good fare coming back then it ends up costing them time and money so it can be a mixed bag.
So if you are getting a long ride to somewhere that is a bit remote, where they will not be likely to get a return trip, then be sure to leave a decent tip.
But I mean the thing is you are worrying about having lost 4 hundredths of a rating point. If you think about it it's crazy that that should be a concern -- I think the problem here is Uber's rating system sucks. If you get a few bad ratings, which may not even be deserved, it's hard to dig out of the hole. In any case I wouldn't lose sleep over it.