I recently read, "7 Things You Do That Annoy Your Uber Driver" by Alexandra Ma. It was a well written article that addressed some issues concerning being an Uber driver, that I would like to respond to myself.
1. You don't give a five-star rating, even though your ride was perfectly fine
I want to say that this is more of a reflection on UBER itself than it is on the customer. When rating your ride, you are asked to put into consideration your driver, his/her car, the cleanliness of the outside of the car, the cleanliness of the inside of the car and the timeliness of the ride. As a driver, you may have had a wonderful experience with me and thought I was extraordinarily helpful helping you to carry your bags to the door of your apartment, but you also want to note that my car was dirty. So you end up giving me a 4/5 instead of a 5/5.
UBER needs to take these types of things into consideration. I don't have time to go and wash my car every time we have a snow storm. It's also not a reflection on me if I'm in Waukee when I'm sent a notification to go and pick up in Ankeny and the rider has to wait 20 minutes. It's 20 minutes from Waukee to Ankeny no matter how you slice it.
I also think UBER needs to take some other things into consideration as well. Drunk people can be belligerent. A customer might be upset that you didn't get them there faster, but the speed limit was 35 and is it fair to put yourself in jeopardy of a speeding ticket or possibly even losing your license by doing 50 mph or faster in that zone?
Don't get me wrong, I think UBER should hold drivers to a high standard and that we should adhere to living up to that standard, but those standards need to reflect realistic and fair expectations.
2. You don't tip.
Again this isn't a reflection of the customer as much as it a reflection of UBER. In my opinion, each ride ought to give the customer an option to tip. For example, their phone would read something along the lines of, "Your trip was $10.00 Would you like to tip?" Then it would have the option of "15% 20% 25% other or no." You click 20%, then it would show you that your total was $12.
As for right now, customers usually ask me how they can tip me and I have to tell them that it is a system they have to set up before hand on their phone. They don't like the current system and neither do I. Tipping in a lot of ways is a reflection of service. If I'm rude, blare my music real loud and don't help the customer with their luggage as I pick them up from the airport, I don't deserve a tip. Yet, if I'm polite, friendly and make sure that their experience is as enjoyable as it can be, then I earned the 25% tip they give me.
I've gotten a lot of cash tips. I've gotten lots of $5 bills, a few $10 bills and even a couple $20's.
If UBER made it easier to tip, I think more people would do it. People understand the service industry and if you give them good service, they'll recognize it.
3. You keep them waiting after they arrive to pick you up
This can get a bit annoying, especially when you're on a role and you're getting ride after ride. If it's 1:00 a.m. and you've averaging $25 an hour, you don't want to sit outside a bar for 15 minutes waiting for them to have one last drink. When it's real busy, what I do is message my customer my eta. I'll say "be there in 5 minutes..." When I arrive, I'll give them 5 minutes to come out or explain to me why it might take longer. For example the other night at the airport I arrived at 7:15 p.m. and my customer messaged me back that it was taking forever for him to get his luggage. Since his circumstance was legitimate, I waited the 20 minutes it took.
Yet, if my customer is not responding to me and I've waited for more than 5 minutes after arrival, I'm canceling the trip, charging them the $4 no show and heading out to get another fare. Some may see this as impatient or even unfair, but this is a business. This is a way of making a living. If you asked for a ride and you know your driver will be there at 7:35 p.m. then you better be out there waiting for him/her by no later than 7:40 p.m. Thinking you can have one more drink or finish up your video game and come strolling out at 8 O'clock is unacceptable and rude.
4. You cancel at the last minute
Now this is something that does piss me off. It doesn't happen a lot, but it happens enough to make it an issue. What's annoying is when you have driven a long way and then as soon as you get there, the trip is canceled. For example, I was up in Ames the other night, after having took a girl from the Airport back to Iowa State, and I stayed up in Ames for a few hours as it was busy. When it slowed down, I started on my way back home. As I was back on I-35 headed towards Des Moines, I got a notification to go and pick someone up in north Ames. It took me 15 minutes to get there and when I pulled up into the person's drive way the trip was canceled. That is very annoying.
5. You put your music on way too loud.
5 and 6 go very well together. See 6.
6. You play around with their gadgets without asking.
I have had customers do this before. I've had them get into my car and turn the heat up or turn it down. I've had them turn the radio on and switch it to a station they like and then blare the music. I've even had then reach into my middle compartment, pull out my CD's and start looking through them. My response is usually polite, yet firm.
"Please, allow me to do that." I'll say to them, "If you are too hot or too cold I'll adjust the temperature. What would you like to listen to? What station?"
As for people looking through my CD's I wish they would ask first, but I usually get a kick out of people's reactions to the type of music I listen to.
7. You spill sloppy food or beverages in their car
Never had this problem. I keep waiting for the person who wants to smoke in my car and then is pissed off as Hell when I won't let them, but it hasn't happened yet. I've had a few people ask, but when I said no, they were perfectly fine with it.
Which is reason 10,027 why I like UBER driving more than I did cab driving. Don't get me wrong in cab driving, I did deal with a lot of really cool, interesting individuals, but you deal with a lot of pricks too. You just don't deal with the pricks in UBER. UBER customers are more coherent and they're certainly more educated.
The lady who screams at you for minutes upon end for not letting her stink up your cab with cigarette smoke....you don't deal with that in UBER.
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