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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Across a few of your responses, you've said that traits of a better ride include not making you wait and also not texting / calling. For whatever reason, GPS is pretty convinced that we live about 300 feet away from where our house is. On our street, it's our house, a dry pond and then our neighbor's house and GPS believes we live on the far end of the dry pond. As a result, the uber drivers ALWAYS go to our neighbor's house and wait there -- we usually take uber at night and it's hard to see the house numbers. B/c of that, I always stand outside at the bottom of our driveway before the driver arrives and hope they will see me -- they never do and usually end up calling me, or I call them when I see they are turning around or in the wrong driveway. What's the best way to make sure the uber driver knows where I actually live so they don't waste time finding me?

I'm have assume you're punching your home address into the app and requesting the ride. For some reason, GPS is simply a little off on a lot of addresses, in both dense urban spots and out in the boonies. To fix this zoom in on the app to EXACTLY where you want the car to show up and drop a pin there, instead of typing in your home address. As a rider, I rarely ever put in a pick-up address. I usually try to force the driver to show up in an exact spot that I want and heading in the correct direction so that I can hop in anad go. To do this I always "drop a pin". This saves a ton of time as a rider. The driver is trained to show up on that exact dot. Try it out...you can zoom in really, really close to drop a pick-up pin in the app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you think of the gimmicks like kitten day?

Umm gimmicky?, lol. But I'm sure they're trying to promote goodwill. I've tried to call them into my office too and never been successful. I'm sure it's terrifying for those poor kittens.

Anonymous wrote:Do you follow the policy issues facing ride sharing in various cities or at the corporate level? Do you care? Does the company ever seek driver feedback on policy matters?

I'm aware of practically every issue, bottom to top, in ridesharing, and especially the ones that uber faces. I try to care, but this is only my gig, not my bread & butter. If uber goes away today, I'll hustle something else tomorrow. And lastly, never...uber makes it clear that they do not care about drivers. We are all, no matter how good, a dime a dozen. An immigrant fresh off the boat can get a driver's license and be driving tomorrow. He/she won't do the job like I will, but they will be able to get passengers from point A to B.

Long-story short: Uber is "valued" at $60 billion and has NEVER turned a profit. They bleed millions of venture capital funding every month. They do this in their quest to scale worldwide. On the other end, drivers are hampered by uber's dirt cheap rates and drivers starting now will likely last less than six months if trying to make this a full time job. The part-timers cherry pick to make it profitable. Out of both of these groups, the cream rises to the top to hang on and see what's the future holds for uberX and driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was in San Diego a few weeks ago and at the airport there, they have a special pick-up area just for Uber/Lyft. Same with some hotels in Las Vegas -- they have marked pick-up/drop-off points. Never seen those around here though. How do you feel about them?

In SD airport, the pick-up point was just past the taxis, and in the parking lot, so a slightly longer walk. In LV, it's also not in the taxi area, but usually on the side so a less prominent space.

np. I'm just wondering how that works for the drivers, if there are 7 or 8 of them idling adjacent to each other at the airport, does the business keep going to whomever has the fastest finger to respond?

Uber uses geo-fencing in the driver app at airports to keep the madness contained. A driver cannot receive a request for an airport pick-up if they are on airport property and not in the TNC waiting area. Think of it as a designated "corral" where drivers wait in queue and the order is first in, first out. I have NEVER waited in the corral at DCA. If it's busy there, it's unnecessary. I get many requests from DCA when I'm leaving out of DC on the 14th Street Bridge or even across the Potomac over at JBAB because the corral has been emptied out. At Dulles however, I'll wait a bit. It's super-profitable to take a ride to Dulles, wait a half-hour in the corral, and then catch another paid ride out back to DC.

If you'd like to see some international culture, go check out the TNC corral lot at Dulles on a busy day, lol.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH is a professional business traveler, but doesn't use Uber because Dulles airport isn't really set up to do it. He'd rather climb in an open taxi than wait 5 min on the uber (I think they wait in the cell phone lot). Any thoughts on whether that would change?

Frequent Dulles traveler here. In Uber, you can now specify which door you're at so they know where to drive up. Tell him to order the Uber when he's a few minutes away from the door, like when getting off the airtrain.

Still, it can indeed take a while. The arrivals lane gets backed up with traffic so drivers (Uber or not) get stuck for 5-10 minutes getting through. Blame it on Door 1 (int'l arrivals) and the chaos of all the afternoon arrivals from Europe. Taxis go to the lower level so no traffic for them.

Screw taking Washington Flyer out of Dulles...there is no bigger boondoggle in DC than their monopoly arrangement with MWAA. Dulles hint: walk the middle level and find an empty door to request from. You'll save yourself and the driver a ton of time. Also, it takes about five minutes for the driver to get from the TNC lot to the Arrival doors. And yes, the Door # option feature on the pick-up screen is one of the rare uber improvements. Please use it as it works great from a driver's end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But I love the idea that Lyft will first search for a "known" driver that you've rated well or overlook a driver you've rated poorly. Seems like a great compromise.
Why doesn't Uber like or embrace this model?

Here's my guess:

1. Drivers who average below a 4 are kicked out anyway, so the driver you rated low probably wont' be driving much longer.
2. It would make it too hard for new drivers to start driving if the rides are always going to favored drivers, and OP said there's some huge turnover in drivers like 60% per year.

That's why you'd charge a premium to get a preferred driver. This might be worth it when someone is going home at 2:00 am vs someone going cross town for a meeting at 2:00 pm. It would encourage drivers (good ones) to remain as they would get premium fares.

Plain and simple...uber wants pick-ups to be made as fast as possible in order to cut wait times down to a minimum. When wanting to avoid drivers, preferring drivers, and other features get added in, wait times shoot up, therefore those features simply do not exist. Quick, safe, efficient...that is the bottom line.

I touched on it earlier, and this may or may not exist, but I do believe that "power" users of uber (10+ rides a week) are often matched with the better drivers if the pick-up ETA is short enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP I hope someone from the city paper is lurking on here. You would make a great profile piece. Even better, you should be featured in the Post Date Lab! You write well, very smart and funny. Your skrillex story made me LOL.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP I hope someone from the city paper is lurking on here. You would make a great profile piece. Even better, you should be featured in the Post Date Lab! You write well, very smart and funny. Your skrillex story made me LOL.

+1

LOL, thanks to you both! I sure do love Date Lab. I have read just about every single DL write-up ever printed in the Wapo Sunday magazine. My favorite was from recently when that nice older lady *may* have ditched her boorish date by jumping out a bathroom window.

If anyone is seeking me out...you're wasting your time. I plan to continue doing this anonymously to tell as full of a story as possible.

I think I'm caught up on all the questions here on page 12. If I missed your question, please bring it to my attention and I promise I will answer it. Thanks for all the great questions!

[Anonymous]

What are your thoughts when you get an overweight rider?

I am an overweight female, and sometimes I worry about requesting a ride bcs the driver may be upset by my size.
To be fair, I am not so big I have to be forklifted by any means, but I am definitely bigger than most women in the area (think Melissa McCarthy before the weight loss).
Have you had any issues related to passenger size and/or do you feel frustrated when you get a larger passenger?

[Anonymous]

Do you eat in your car during your wait time? Or ever? Maybe a couple of homemade pbj's at 3 am? How do you stay awake?

[Anonymous]

Are there official statistics on driver retention? Or is your 6 month stat anecdotal? You're saying corporate doesn't care about drivers as employees... So there's no reward for great drivers, no attaboys or nothin'!? That seems counterproductive - wouldn't they want their best people motivated to stay to be the retail face of the brand?

[Anonymous]

Uber doesn't have employees. Remember? Just vague ICs who ghost about on their off time and pick up rides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are your thoughts when you get an overweight rider?

I am an overweight female, and sometimes I worry about requesting a ride bcs the driver may be upset by my size.
To be fair, I am not so big I have to be forklifted by any means, but I am definitely bigger than most women in the area (think Melissa McCarthy before the weight loss).
Have you had any issues related to passenger size and/or do you feel frustrated when you get a larger passenger?

I don't care...if you fit, you sit, and off we go. I'm fully aware that people come in all sorts of shapes & sizes in this country.

I have had one single issue with a heavy passenger that ended up as a cancelled ride. This guy was big, like 500+, and there were plenty of other cars that he wasn't going to fit in either.

2 ways to help your odds for a smoother ride: 1) If you're truly concerned, get an uberXL. It's guaranteed to be a roomier ride and only costs about 25% more. 2) Get choosy about your car model on uberX...feel free to cancel the compact/economy cars until you get something a little bigger like a Fusion, Camry, Accord, or the like. You can cancel up to five minutes after the request without penalty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you eat in your car during your wait time? Or ever? Maybe a couple of homemade pbj's at 3 am? How do you stay awake?

Typically, no. I can keep the wheels moving continuously for six straight hours between 9pm-3am on weekend nights without a break. That's about the longest shift I'll pull nowadays. I'm there to make $$$, not sit around and eat PB&J. If I go thru a drive-thru for a passenger request, I usually guilt the passenger into buying me something off the dollar menu as part of deal by grumbling "Ya know, I'm losing money by doing this..." On a non-surge ride that is the truth. But on a surging ride, I can wait for as long as passenger wants.

I'm a true night-owl with a touch of insomnia and I have no trouble staying alert up thru the wee hours. I rarely drink coffee while driving, but sometimes a Diet Pepsi. Back when the money was easy at the higher rates, I regularly drove 14-18 hour days on the weekends to squeeze out every last dollar I could.

Anonymous wrote:Uber doesn't have employees. Remember? Just vague ICs who ghost about on their off time and pick up rides.

Yeah, we're totally not employees, just independent contractors whose newest punishment as of late is a ten-minute "time-out" from the driver app for not accepting enough Pool riders...same shit, different day with uber. Oh yeah, almost forgot, uber is a technology company, not a transportation company...give me a fucking break. All said and done, I'd still rather be an independent contractor because you can get very creative come tax time with a good chunk of earnings on both W-2 and 1099.

Anonymous wrote:Are there official statistics on driver retention? Or is your 6 month stat anecdotal? You're saying corporate doesn't care about drivers as employees... So there's no reward for great drivers, no attaboys or nothin'!? That seems counterproductive - wouldn't they want their best people motivated to stay to be the retail face of the brand?

No clue...doesn't exactly make sense does it? There are no official statistics, but that 6 month 50-60% turnover stat is my educated guess from what I know, read and seen. Uber's books are locked up tight, so in reality, no one really knows anything for 100% fact at all. Uber is intentional about being very shady and mysterious. Lastly, uber wants you to see the car itself as the product and tool (a car they don't even own, I might add), not the person who happens to be driving that car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Awesome AMA!!
...
Any thoughts on dogs in the car? My small dog is always in the carrier and usually Uber drivers don't notice. Taxi drivers can't stand the thought of a dog in their car though and have refused me rides.

Missed this one, sorry! Dogs in a carrier are totally fine to me, and if it's quiet, yes we likely won't notice. I do keep an old bedsheet in the trunk for big dogs as well, and I spread it out so their nails won't get into the leather too much. A lot of uberX drivers won't be this prepared and might refuse a dog that's bigger than a lab.

[Anonymous]

What happened that the rates from your money making heyday dropped? Why is it less lucrative? Gas prices? More drivers to compete with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened that the rates from your money making heyday dropped? Why is it less lucrative? Gas prices? More drivers to compete with?

In 2011 & 2012 uber existed exclusively in DC as a black car service. Limo companies would contract with uber to use their Towncars and Suburbans so folks could request them thru the app just the same as now. Average ride cost was around $40-$50. Lyft got fired up in DC as an outlaw operation in August 2013, using everyday folks in their personal automobiles to give rides. Average ride cost for lyfts was right around $20, ~$2.50/mile. Uber answered the next month with uberX at about exactly the same rates and used brute force and cash money to crush Lyft out of the game. UberX heavily recruited already experienced Lyft drivers with cash offers of up to $2k to come give 100 rides with uberX in fall 2013. I took this offer. That was a $20 bonus on every ride given + whatever the fares ended up being. I hammered out all 100 rides over five days and cleared $4k. Uber took a huge chunk of Lyft's early ridership too with lots of free ride offers. Marketshare for Uber over Lyft is right around 85:15 in DC, and has been steady there for a while. Surge pricing came along right before the holidays and I remember one Friday night during Christmas party season where I had a string of about fifteen rides in a row that were all $50+, with a few over $100. It was REALLY EASY money. But quickly drivers got over-saturated once word spread, and thru 2014 the guaranteed money dropped to nothing. With all these now available drivers this set off an almost 2-year price-cutting war between uber and lyft, dropping rates to the current $1.02/mile + 17¢/minute. Great for riders, but it crushed a lot of drivers out of the game to go get a real job. I work the math in my head as I'm driving as $1.40/mile in the city and $1.20/mile on the highway. And I have to be milking surge constantly to make it worth my time.

Gas has been so cheap lately that I just stick to one rule: always buy in Virginia. I get about 30 mpg cruising easy around town, so it's not a huge cost factor.

Driver over-saturation comes and goes. A TON of people try it out for a single day to see what it's like then may never give another ride again, and some will drive just a single ride per month in order to stay active in the system as a "just-in-case" they need to go hustle a few hundred dollars in a hurry. As you may have noticed lately, there are LOTS of new-to-America immigrant drivers doing this now who speak little to no English and are very tentative drivers. I know because I check for the black&yellow TNC tag on every one I see out. These drivers follow uber's every command and end up doing endless POOL rides for 10+ hours a day and end up netting ~50¢/mile which is basically driving for free after expenses and taxes. You could honestly call this situation the new-age human slavery of being a servant robot in America. Uber got some of these folks on the hook really good by suckering them into a sham of a lease deal back when rates were higher. After the most recent rate drop these folks are now a literal slave to their own leased car.