Part 1 – Waiting Time
I started driving for Uber three years ago as it gave me a part time income with the flexible hours I needed to run my computer consulting business. It has been an interesting experience.
Many riders question me about how the riders get rated. I decided to do a some posts on how drivers rate riders. Remember, I’m only speaking for myself, but here goes.
First drivers are required to rate the rider. When we drop you off and swipe to complete the ride we must give you a star rating. Anything less then 5 stars requires us to choose a reason from a menu. There is an “other” included in the choices. It would be nice if the “other” choice allowed a driver to type in what that was. To be clear, I can not get my next pick up until I rate the rider I dropped off. Riders rating the driver is optional. Also everyone who is riding with you under your app count when I consider your rating.
Every rider in my car starts with 5 stars with me. Then depending on the following it can go down. Today I will cover waiting.
Waiting: When I’m about a minute out, Uber will send you a notification. Then they notify you I have arrived. The clock starts running. The first two minutes are free. After that Uber starts charging for wait time. In my area the is currently around 16 cents a minute. Not much but it is supposed to give you incentive to be ready. After 5 minutes of waiting I can cancel and receive a cancellation fee. (around $4, which covers the trip to get you.) I do have the choice of continuing to wait. An important note is that if I cancel, I DO NOT get the wait fee on top of the cancel fee.
Normally I’ll send a text or call you after a few minutes to let you know I’m there. I will include the address in case I was given a bad pick up location. Most of the time people ignore this text.
Sometimes a rider will text back asking me to wait or will signal me from the door or window.
Now remember, sitting there I’m not really making much money. and during a busy time this is a big problem. My rule of thumb is if they keep me more then the five minutes I bump them a star. The longer the wait the less stars.
The worst I’ve had is a rider who waited the five minutes, and stuck her head out the door to tell me she will be right out. She continued to stick her head out every few minutes for twenty minutes. (25 minutes total minus 2 free = 23 minuter or $3.68 added to fare) She then went a couple of miles done the road for a minimum ride.This was on a busy Saturday night with a surge going. She got bumped way down.
That’s just one of the times I’ve been kept waiting.
In contrast I had a rider using a walker. It took her about five minutes just to get out the door. Waiting for her was understandable and she got the full 5 stars.
That gives us some good tips when we call Uber