I am a DC uberX driver since 2013 and have SEEN IT ALL...so please, AMA

[Anonymous]

OP, thanks for the fun and informative AMA. I am glad that you are able to make money.

I do not use uber on principle and your observations, especially of the slave drivers, made me even less likely to ever try. This "sharing" economy is a scam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did you do XL?

5 people (3 kids)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read this whole thread. Fascinating. Many thanks for answering all of the questions. Here is mine:

I get what you say about not making the driver wait because he/she is not getting paid for it. But, can I just text the driver from my house and tell him to "start the meter" even if I haven't left the house. I'm happy to pay for the wait if there is way to do this.

This one sort of got off-track so I'll answer it all here. Telling a driver to "start the meter" really doesn't help anything. If you take ten minutes, I've made $1.70. I could have cancelled at five minutes, made $4 instantly, and then be on my way to making more. I do this for the money, not because I want to be your personal chauffeur. Once a driver starts a ride, the option to cancel as a no-show is gone. Every driver has a few regrets of "starting the meter" only to really get screwed because of it, so we're all a little wary of doing it.

But why would you want to cancel when you have a rider who's about to get in your car?

If I see you walking up, sure I'll wait the three more seconds. But if the five-minute countdown runs out, I do a quick 360° look around the car to check for someone approaching and if I see no one, I'm cancelling as a no-show and collecting the $4. The ONLY way you get a little more time on the clock is if it's a surge ride.

Bottom line: Request the ride, see the estimated arrival time, and try your best to be timely. The estimated arrival time is pretty accurate and good drivers, myself included, can shave a couple of minutes off it. I get it from your end too, things come up and you're running behind. But in this transaction there is a human being on the other end who is literally hustling his/her ass off to reach you and then get you where you need to go.

But see, when you arrive early, I'm likely to not be ready because I'm using the estimated arrival time as the amount of time I have before I need to be outside. So although you're thinking you're doing me a favor by being early, I'm still thinking you'll be there in ten minutes instead of eight.

The service is meant to be quick, safe, and efficient. That's the bottom line. After reading all your responses, it's obvious that your time really is more valuable than mine. You get a notification on your phone the instant I pull up. Grab keys, wallet, phone and go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, thanks for the fun and informative AMA. I am glad that you are able to make money.

I do not use uber on principle and your observations, especially of the slave drivers, made me even less likely to ever try. This "sharing" economy is a scam.

Thank you. I definitely feel like I have earned my stripes in absorbing anything and everything about uber/ridesharing/Lyft the past 2.5 years.

If a business treats some of its "employees" so poorly that they have to drive 70+ hours a week to make a livable wage, your business plan is severely flawed. The "sharing" economy is most definitely a scam. The only people sharing anything are the working poor, who in this transportation economy are selling the remaining equity in their vehicles for pennies on be dollar to those more fortunate than themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read this whole thread. Fascinating. Many thanks for answering all of the questions. Here is mine:

I get what you say about not making the driver wait because he/she is not getting paid for it. But, can I just text the driver from my house and tell him to "start the meter" even if I haven't left the house. I'm happy to pay for the wait if there is way to do this.

NP here:
Is it really that hard to be on-time? I don't call my Uber until I'm dressed and ready to go. Sometimes that means I need to wait inside 5 to 10 min if it's a busy night. I'm usually monitoring the driver's progress like a hawk and I'm on the curb when he's within a block. Why is this so difficult for some of you? It's not rocket science.

I used Uber a few weekends ago and my apartment faces the parking lot, so I knew when he was coming and looking at the app of course. He was there within 10 minutes of me requesting it.

You said it, it isn't rocket science, people just don't look at the app that close and see how many cars are within of your starting point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How far can you punt a football?

God, you are annoying! Get laid much?

That was asked in page 1 or 2.....makes me laugh anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I've only used Uber a few times. Yesterday morning ~ 6:45/7am we took an Uber XL to Dulles. My husband, new to uber, didn't realize the implications of a 1.9 surge and we paid nearly $130 to get from Logan circle to Dulles (a ~$70 cab). Painful lesson learned, but help me understand surge- why early Sat morning? I understand rush hours, etc...

Best AMA thread I've read. You are a great writer & seem like a decent and interesting guy. Thanks.

Well, first thing...DC is an early-bird kind of town every day of the week. The Beltway, 395, Dulles Toll Road, 295, and 66 are essentially super-speedways before traffic gets heavy at 6am and are filled with ubers, taxicabs, and the early work crowd. Both National and Dulles are slammed with departures daily from 5-9am. 75% of my trips in the morning are either to an airport or Union Station. This is what surge looks like from the driver's app right now at 5:10am Monday up in South Arlington:



DC is currently scattered between 1.5-2x. This is business as usual, and will be even busier than normal today since this was a holiday weekend prior with lots of visiting family leaving out, not to mention the cherry blossoms too. There are 6,000,000 people living within 20 miles of the Capitol along with ~30,000 visitors nightly in hotels. A huge portion of these folks have no access to a car, and many of those are metro inaccessible too. DC is a top-5 uber city, along with SF, LA, Chicago, and Boston. It's busy here all the time and this brings on surge pricing. Someone needs a ride to somewhere 24/7. Sorry about your high fare, but it's not too bad, and hopefully it was a little better ride than a taxicab because you mentioned you had 3 kids with you in that other post.


Surge is sporadic, but comes and goes. Try to wait it out if you have the time to spare. Now don't give your husband a hard time over this, but I promise you, he breezed right thru this notice/accept screen:



Uber will ALWAYS notify you of surge pricing and ask you to accept it. In fact, if the surge is really high (4x+) the app will force you to type in the current surge multiplier and accept before you can even request a ride.

HOW TO BEAT SURGE PRICING:
1-Use that little button in the pic above "NOTIFY ME WHEN SURGE DROPS". It works.
2-Use Lyft instead. Sometimes you get lucky and lyft won't be primetime pricing in the same spot that uber is surging.
3-Go for a walk towards your destination or at least away from the "action" and keep trying. Surge zones are set up in little honeycomb shapes all over the map that are about a quarter-mile wide. You'll eventually walk out of one and into another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read this whole thread. Fascinating. Many thanks for answering all of the questions. Here is mine:

I get what you say about not making the driver wait because he/she is not getting paid for it. But, can I just text the driver from my house and tell him to "start the meter" even if I haven't left the house. I'm happy to pay for the wait if there is way to do this.

NP here:
Is it really that hard to be on-time? I don't call my Uber until I'm dressed and ready to go. Sometimes that means I need to wait inside 5 to 10 min if it's a busy night. I'm usually monitoring the driver's progress like a hawk and I'm on the curb when he's within a block. Why is this so difficult for some of you? It's not rocket science.

I used Uber a few weekends ago and my apartment faces the parking lot, so I knew when he was coming and looking at the app of course. He was there within 10 minutes of me requesting it.

You said it, it isn't rocket science, people just don't look at the app that close and see how many cars are within of your starting point.

Are you female and single? lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have read this whole thread. Fascinating. Many thanks for answering all of the questions. Here is mine:

I get what you say about not making the driver wait because he/she is not getting paid for it. But, can I just text the driver from my house and tell him to "start the meter" even if I haven't left the house. I'm happy to pay for the wait if there is way to do this.

This one sort of got off-track so I'll answer it all here. Telling a driver to "start the meter" really doesn't help anything. If you take ten minutes, I've made $1.70. I could have cancelled at five minutes, made $4 instantly, and then be on my way to making more. I do this for the money, not because I want to be your personal chauffeur. Once a driver starts a ride, the option to cancel as a no-show is gone. Every driver has a few regrets of "starting the meter" only to really get screwed because of it, so we're all a little wary of doing it.

But why would you want to cancel when you have a rider who's about to get in your car?

If I see you walking up, sure I'll wait the three more seconds. But if the five-minute countdown runs out, I do a quick 360° look around the car to check for someone approaching and if I see no one, I'm cancelling as a no-show and collecting the $4. The ONLY way you get a little more time on the clock is if it's a surge ride.

Bottom line: Request the ride, see the estimated arrival time, and try your best to be timely. The estimated arrival time is pretty accurate and good drivers, myself included, can shave a couple of minutes off it. I get it from your end too, things come up and you're running behind. But in this transaction there is a human being on the other end who is literally hustling his/her ass off to reach you and then get you where you need to go.

But see, when you arrive early, I'm likely to not be ready because I'm using the estimated arrival time as the amount of time I have before I need to be outside. So although you're thinking you're doing me a favor by being early, I'm still thinking you'll be there in ten minutes instead of eight.

The service is meant to be quick, safe, and efficient. That's the bottom line. After reading all your responses, it's obvious that your time really is more valuable than mine. You get a notification on your phone the instant I pull up. Grab keys, wallet, phone and go.

No need to be rude, OP. I never said my time was more valuable than yours. I'm just asking so I understand it better. I want to pay you if you have to wait for me, but it sounds like that's just not an option. Fair enough; that's why I was asking.

[Anonymous]

There have been several recent threads about how bad drivers are in the DC area. What is your view of our driving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you look down on people who fritter away their paychecks and their livers ubering around town several nights a week? I've always been surprised at the number of folks in DC who are into the bar/hip restaurant scene well into mid-life.

Oh yeah, this a great city for the lovers of nightlife. Weekends are always wild, but there is constant bar crowd business 10pm-2am Sunday thru Thursday too and across all ages. I was 22 once and had my fun. But I grew out of it, and I think most other people do too. But here in DC with so many people and places to go, along with high-stress jobs, the scene is definitely alive well into adulthood. I don't really look down on people for that because everyone has different priorities in life as well as vices, but I'm glad that's not me.

[Anonymous]

Would you tap into Under eats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you tap into Under eats?

He already said "No," as he only works during hours when Surge is activated. The margins are too low for a driver doing Uber Eats.
From my standpoint, Uber Eats looks like a giant time suck - drive to pick up the food, drive to drop off food, get out of car, etc. I think the driver only ends up with $8 or something like that. No way is that a good use of time for a driver. Plus, it seems extremely stressful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would you tap into Under eats?

He already said "No," as he only works during hours when Surge is activated. The margins are too low for a driver doing Uber Eats.
From my standpoint, Uber Eats looks like a giant time suck - drive to pick up the food, drive to drop off food, get out of car, etc. I think the driver only ends up with $8 or something like that. No way is that a good use of time for a driver. Plus, it seems extremely stressful.

It looks like a great way to get a shitload of parking tickets.

[Anonymous]

1) Did you have a good time at Grandma's?

2) If Gran lived in Pennsylvania, and you were bored Saturday night, could you go out and get some Uber riders in PA? Or are you tied to one location only?

3) Do you have a celebrity doppelganger?