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Is it true that Uber Scheduled Rides are not guaranteed?
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The Guru Take
Correct. They are not guaranteed.
That is correct. The "Scheduled Rides" of Uber or Lyft are not guaranteed. This is due to the on-demand nature of their drivers. There is no way to be 100% sure whether there will be ample drivers and vehicles for your pick-up location in advance. This is from Uber's website:
Q: Am I guaranteed to get a ride?
A: Uber actively monitors availability to ensure that a car will arrive during the period you schedule a ride, but does not guarantee your scheduled ride. In the rare case a car cannot be found, you’ll be notified immediately.
This tells us how their scheduling system works. It basically sets a reminder in their system to automatically "dispatch" a car for you 10~30 minutes before a specified time. The rest is basically the same Uber and Lyft. It offers the fare to a driver nearby, he or she accepts, and comes to get you.
BTW, Lyft has a nice feature where they show you the price in advance as well, and they anticipate the Prime Time (their surge pricing) and lock it for you. No surprises.
Comments
Wait, hold on a secnod. So what happens if there are no rides nearby? I don't like this. So if I "schedule" a ride for an early morning pickup to the airport, no one may show up? What's the point of this? I can request my own ride when I wake up.
The advantage of scheduling in advance is that a drivers are notified in advance. They can accept the scheduled pickup and you will be notified. The app will then remind them to pick you up. It will also prevent them from taking rides that would make them late. While there is no guarantee your scheduled pickup will be accepted, or even shows up, it offers some level of peace of mind. Yes you can schedule a regular ride, but again there is no guarantee a driver will be available.
That's true with Lyft where drivers are notified in advance and drivers can "accept" those rides in advance, days in advance. However, they are still not required to make the pickups, so it's still not bulletproof.
With Uber, it's just another ride. I cannot remember if it even tells you that it's a scheduled ride. The "scheduling" is just way to schedule a dispatch request at the date and time specified by the rider. If no drivers, no drivers.
On Uber when a prescheduled ride is sent to driver, they add a banner (Scheduled ride), but otherwise it is just a regular ride.
On lyft drivers can add the prescheduled rides to theur que, so if a ride is a lucrative one drivers will grab them and will most likley be ready to perform it once it is pushed our way
yeah, i am no longer sure about this. this only benefits uber. to make sure customers use their service.
i'd like to think this gives me "one thing to think about" but it really isn't that hard to make a request.
I'd like to think that Uber does something to accommodate for the request. With the knowledge they have that the request is coming, they *could* make prior arrangements...
As a driver I can tell you that I have never seen notifications to be somewhere at a certain time.
With that said, here's one thing. When I get a ride request, I do see that it was a "scheduled ride," and drivers like seeing that because it's usually a longer trip (say to the airport) and it is very unlikely to be cancelled. So, I think the rider has that advantage. it's more likely it'll be picked up drivers aroudn you.
If you accept a scheduled request, you will most definitely be notified. If you are out driving, it will even stop taking new requests and direct you to the pickup to arrive on time. Scheduld requests are in a different part of the app, so I assume you haven't accepted any. Heck, I will even get notified to pick up a scheduled request I didn't accept if I'm in the area at the appropriate time and no one had accepted it.
That's for Lyft, right? I don't think there is a separate section for Uber.
I'd like to think so too, but what would they do? What can they do? They can't instruct drivers to work certain times and certain locations. I guess they can try, but what's the incentive for the driver? A forced surge?
It says to schedule a ride but then when I try to there is no car or clock icon they say there is? I am so confused. I need to be picked up at 430 am and may need to consider a taxi since this looks a bit bogus and I need sometning reliable.
Did you see this?
https://ride.guru/lounge/p/i-do-not-have-the-carclock-icon-and-am-unable-to-schedule-an-advance-trip-on-uber-help-please#comment-11097
What makes you think a taxi service is any more reliable? They don't offer any guarantee either.
So true. So many times I have called taxis over dispatchers and no one ever showed up.
The problem with taxis? A driver may get the request but while he is driving towards you, he may see someone hailing a ride. He'd rather pick up those users.
The huge difference between the two:
* Lyft cleanly puts scheduled rides on a calendar system. The Lyft drivers then can select where they need to be by when (say, 6 AM in three days, say 5 miles away) and a rough estimate of the journey (10+ miles is usually the airport). Then they have an ethical if not business duty to be there right on time, or even a few minutes early. This works very well for everyone usually.
* Uber just auto-polls for drivers 10-30 minutes before your journey. When I've been at my parents in a major city's suburb 20 miles from the airport, not knowing this, i have missed a 4 AM flight because THERE WERE ZERO uber drivers in that area at that time. I had assumed it was like Lyft's.
* While the Lyft driver will know for sure that the ride is a scheduled one, and can prepare way in advance to make it work, Uber drivers are not told it is a scheduled ride. Thus, you have to deal with all those uber drivers taking their sweet time, driving in circles…
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The huge difference between the two:
* Lyft cleanly puts scheduled rides on a calendar system. The Lyft drivers then can select where they need to be by when (say, 6 AM in three days, say 5 miles away) and a rough estimate of the journey (10+ miles is usually the airport). Then they have an ethical if not business duty to be there right on time, or even a few minutes early. This works very well for everyone usually.
* Uber just auto-polls for drivers 10-30 minutes before your journey. When I've been at my parents in a major city's suburb 20 miles from the airport, not knowing this, i have missed a 4 AM flight because THERE WERE ZERO uber drivers in that area at that time. I had assumed it was like Lyft's.
* While the Lyft driver will know for sure that the ride is a scheduled one, and can prepare way in advance to make it work, Uber drivers are not told it is a scheduled ride. Thus, you have to deal with all those uber drivers taking their sweet time, driving in circles, filling Lyft ordres and making you wait. Now, you've had 2-3 cancellations and the third guy, just has to make it in the next 7 minutes or you're going to be mad-dashing to the terminal, all because you've had to wait an extra 30 minutes. That happened to me ALL THE TIME when i booked airport travels -around the world- via Uber in 2016-2017.
* Then I switched to Lyft and never once had that headache.
* Note: I am now an Uber driver for fun and to become in the top tier of professionals in my area. I have a star rating of 4.95 and I average about $20/hour in Uber X in a city that only earns about $8 on average. I only do it for 10-20 hours a week. But on weekends, I religiously do airport destinations via Scheduled Lyfts, and it is a much better experience for everyone. This has to be costing Uber big-time jjust to save what must just be $500,000-1,000,000 in development expenses (I also run software startups lol). Their shareholders should revolt right now.
[PS If you're a major stockholder of Uber and want it to succeed, please compel them to offer actual scheduled-rides like Lyft and taxi services, and when you're successful, please tip me a few thousand, because I'm sure that'll increase the profitablility of the company.]
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So this is why Uber doesn't use the word, "reserve" and only "scheduled."
amen. it's just a scheduling feature. It just schedules your request . what's the point? it's a false sense of security
Uber isn't really reliable between hrs of 3am-7am on wait time cars on the road,etc.
Uber is pretty pervasive though. Even right now at 4AM, and I live about 15 miles out of Boston, and I see two cars just a few minutes away. I'd imagine if I were anywhere close to the city, I'd see way more cars. Again, that's 4AM Wednesday morning.
Yeah, depends on your location, but what chrislawson says is true. It may look like there are drivers but I have had some weird experiences requesting a ride in wee hours.
My guess? I think the drivers are sleeping in their vehicles and won't respond to all requests. LOL.
...or worse, the drivers are at their homes sleeping while having the Driver App online. The idea is that if there is a request, their phone would ring and they'd hop out of bed to come get you. HAHAHA. I am not a driver myself, but I can totally see this happening.
I can’t see the car/clock icon on the “where to” bar. How do I access the scheduled rides feature?
This most likely means that the service is not available in your area. Here are some other suggestions:
I do not have the car/clock icon and am unable to schedule an advance trip on Uber. Help please
Followed instructions but no luck. Everyone saying this and that resolved it, but I still do not see the clock icon.
Just FYI: as a driver I like when I get scheduled rides. It shows me that this ride is important to the passenger and often this results in an on time passenger!
Lyft is more reliable and friendly to the driver, because they can schedule their time around it... including wake up times. With Uber, you are going to sit and wait... or cannot plan because it is last minute. Unfortunately the odds of getting an awful Lyft car here is high. Last time we could smell the scent bombs in our clothing on the plane.
Nonsense. Lyft and Uber are virtually the same company, have the same horrible policies, and treat their drivers badly to the point that driver availability is unreliable. You can schedule a Lyft ride and they can make it available for drivers to accept ahead of time, but in many/most cases, the system is still searching for a driver 15 minutes before the scheduled pickup time.
Go to do a schedule ride and Jack shit. Don't Shows any future ride ridiculous app and no customer phone support and app the has help section I'd ram up CEO asshole.
Why are you even trying to schedule a ride? Just call one when you are ready.
amen.