The End of An Era: The New Uber Bonus Policy

Well, ladies and gentlemen, our happy(?) times with Uber are coming to an end. 

I'd like to find all those helpful Drivers who worked on the New App and ask them some pointed questions....

This weekend, I think I've seen the future. 

1. All the bonus areas that were always present on a weekend, changing every hour to get cars to different areas, are gone. GONE. They would range from a 1.1 (10%) to a 2.0 (double) as the bars emptied and every Uber on the road was needed. GONE. They have been replaced by the Consecutive Ride Program where, if you take a ride in a box that LOOKS like the old bonus box, you can get a whole $5.00 bonus for three rides. $5.00 is not the same a 50% of a full fare.

2. The new yellow surge zones aren't surge zones. You grab a ride that says "2.00" thinking that you'll double your fare to wherever. No no no. You're going to have 2.00 added to the fare. A five-dollar ride that's been doubled is $10.00. A $5 ride plus $2.00 extra is $7.00. Don't even think about a nice long ride to the suburbs after a baseball game lets out--you'll start to cry. 

3. Now they've added a weird thing about these false surge zones--if you drive through them, you get a 2, 3, 5  dollar surcharge added to your next fare no matter where you pick it up. That's nice (and why I drove through the airport 4 times tonight without picking anyone up) but it doesn't begin to make up the money you're losing on real surge bonuses. But they sure put it nice and big on the screen so you'll think you're getting More Money. You're getting shafted. 

I figured that I lost about a third of my income in one night. I guess Uber has found the way they've been looki…

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Well, ladies and gentlemen, our happy(?) times with Uber are coming to an end. 

I'd like to find all those helpful Drivers who worked on the New App and ask them some pointed questions....

This weekend, I think I've seen the future. 

1. All the bonus areas that were always present on a weekend, changing every hour to get cars to different areas, are gone. GONE. They would range from a 1.1 (10%) to a 2.0 (double) as the bars emptied and every Uber on the road was needed. GONE. They have been replaced by the Consecutive Ride Program where, if you take a ride in a box that LOOKS like the old bonus box, you can get a whole $5.00 bonus for three rides. $5.00 is not the same a 50% of a full fare.

2. The new yellow surge zones aren't surge zones. You grab a ride that says "2.00" thinking that you'll double your fare to wherever. No no no. You're going to have 2.00 added to the fare. A five-dollar ride that's been doubled is $10.00. A $5 ride plus $2.00 extra is $7.00. Don't even think about a nice long ride to the suburbs after a baseball game lets out--you'll start to cry. 

3. Now they've added a weird thing about these false surge zones--if you drive through them, you get a 2, 3, 5  dollar surcharge added to your next fare no matter where you pick it up. That's nice (and why I drove through the airport 4 times tonight without picking anyone up) but it doesn't begin to make up the money you're losing on real surge bonuses. But they sure put it nice and big on the screen so you'll think you're getting More Money. You're getting shafted. 

I figured that I lost about a third of my income in one night. I guess Uber has found the way they've been looking for to shaft the drivers and make more profit to keep the investors happy. 

Oh yeah, they are going to punch up the Phone Home part of the app that autodials your loving spouse and tells them where you are. I tried that one night (it's always been a part of the app) and my loving wife told me that if one more call came in after she'd gone to sleep telling her where her wonderful husband was, I could just stay there for the foreseeable future. Let's not even talk about the colored screen feature. When it's that crowded, everyone is drunk anyway and guiding them in is like being the Air Traffic Controller on a moving aircraft carrier--having your clients holding up (or staring at) a colored screen ain't gonna help. 

I decided to drive Uber on Weekend Nights because there were always bonus blocks up and, even if I didn't pay particular attention to them, it meant about 10 to 30% more before the surge clouds descended. Now, both surge and bonus blocks are gone. I know it's August but I think we are seeing the future, friends. I've read that venture capital is still spending 40% of every trip and Uber had to squeeze more money out of its drivers (the self-driving car and helicopter nonsense is just a dog-and-pony show for investors). Well, here it is. Just by replacing percentage signs with dollar signs, they've reduced our pay by a third. 

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Quest. How much you receive for 65 rides in three days has always been individually assigned in an email--you get the email, you get the bonus. Have you noticed that if you complete the $195 Quest, you get the $185 Quest, then the $145 Quest all the way down to the $105 Quest? (You'd think if you were working hard enough to pull 65 rides in three days, you would get MORE not LESS but this is Uber.) I was down to $105 for two weekends where I didn't bother to kill myself for the money. What a surprise! They offered me $145 this weekend. I won't make it this weekend either (you can't do 30 rides in a day) so I suppose I'll be back up to $175 the next time. A friend of mine described this as "point of pain" management. 

So, fellow drivers, I know this is August but I'm getting the same amount of rides--Uber has always been popular in DC--I'm just not getting anything but, essentially, tip money for hitting the hot spots. I figure I'll just forget about baseball and football games or arena stage shows IF I continue to drive. I'm already looking for another way to make the mortgage. 

Love

Terry

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