Any Uber/Lyft drivers out there?
4Money has been tight lately, so I decided that I would try driving for Uber. I have worked three days, and so far I like it. I have only driven during the day, so I am not dealing with drunks, which also means I am not making the money that I could be.
So, anyone have any tips on making the work tolerable at night?
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Had a friend who did this for about a year. Will ping that person.
There are some pretty active Reddit threads. The best info may be there.
Be careful w insurance. Don’t tell your insurance company anything or make any policy changes until you know what you are doing w insurance. This involves reading thru the Reddit threads, prob.
@conandlibrarian
A few things:
Most if them seem to drive for Uber and Lyft at the same same. You grab whatever run comes up and log out of the other app.
This may be out if date: It can be useful to get a second/third phone and use 1st phone as a hotspot data source. Keep apps open one one or both other phones. Use Waze or Google Maps to navigate.
Lyft pays better and allows tips.
If you are in a college town or town w an active single and upscale young prof nightlife, those areas and those customers will keep you busy. Busy means $. You want in the areas near where the richer college kids and young professionals party. The downside is that some of your passengers will be drunk.
If someone throws up in your car, Uber used to reimburse for having to quit working that night and getting your car detailed before you work again. This doesn’t happen often, but does happen.
How to make $ depends on the city. If you are in a place where many/most people don’t own cars you can get a lot of demand. In a normal city with an active business area and airport, aside from nightlife you can focus on business travelers moving around the city, and airport runs. Which means be logged in and ready to go near those places at peak travel times or during worj daytime financial districts, if your location supports that.
Have lots of charging cables. All your passengers will want them.
Keep towels in the trunk in case your passengers are a mess (rain or swimming or whatever. They will appreciate it. And sometimes you will need them.
If you can afford it get water bottles in bulk to offer your customers.
Drivers live and die by passenger ratings, just like ebay sellers. If you offer passengers water or towels or other concierge perks they will remember that.
If you can afford it subscribe to Sirius and keep a channel guide handy. That way you can offer your customers music or news or whatever, their choice.
Sirius always has v good intro offers for subscriptions. Do one if those if you want Sirius. Then call them shortly before the auto renew hits (5 or 6 or 12 months and tell them you will cancel. When they try to talk you into staying, quote the best current intro deal you got and tell them you will only stay if they flguve you that deal. Just insist.
They will always give you the intro deal at renewal if you make a fuss about it. You do have to remember to call them. If you forget, and call later and threaten to quit, they will give you the intro deal then.
Are you reading what I’m reading in the banner above the title for this thread? Btw, I considered driving for Uber until I found that your vehicle has to be newer than my 1998 Mountaineer, at least in Minnesota.
@Stumpy91 Image:
@Stumpy91 I’m curious why anyone even wonders that. There’s gay people doing stuff everywhere.
@Stumpy91 Not more than 10 years old IIRC, which rules out all my vehicles. Heck, even if it was 20, I’d still be ruled out.
@Stumpy91 haha, I had not noticed until just now.
@RiotDemon Yup. The driver is there to drive and I’m there to get from one point to another. If anyone’s sexual orientation becomes an issue in the process, someone is doing something wrong.
a friend who drives weekends says:
Deep dish floor mats.
I heard that Gronk moonlights as a Lyft driver.
I drive in Boston. Nights and weekends only. I am UberCowboy. www.ubercowboy.com. Network Engineer by day and put on my hat and no cape at night and drive for Uber, Lyft, and Fasten (boston-based limited service). I’ve been driving for Uber for a year and a half. Putting in very long days. Drunks just need distractions. If you expect them, they’re easy to deal with. I do it every day. If someone pukes in your car, you take a picture of it, send it to Uber, and then clean it yourself at the closest 24-hour car wash or hit the closest 24-hour place you can get supplies to clean with. Costs you maybe $10-15 and Uber pays you $150 for the mess. Takes maybe an hour to clean. Pretty good hourly rate if I say so myself. I know people that clean puke for minimum wage… so I don’t really complain. The thing about them being intoxicated is that they want to prove to you that they are NOT as drunk as they really are. They will usually try to direct you to prove this. In most cases, they don’t even know where they ended up and their directions are wrong. So… don’t listen. Just agree and continue to follow the GPS. Because Uber won’t fault you for following the GPS to the address that THEY entered themselves. Distractions are key. Get an Aux cord, LED charges for phones from eBay, a tip jar (seriously), spotify premium (it’s a write off), and an app called Pyro (mixes songs for you so you don’t have to AND pulls your Pandora playlist). As long as you can put up with the distractions you have to provide like some lights, loud music, etc, then you’ll be ok. OH and replace your interior dome lights with blue LED lights from Amazon. It’s like $9 for a set and is definitely worth it. Because when you wow them before they even get into the car, their trust and respect for you as a driver is drastically higher. Feel free to use the contact form on my website if you have any additional questions.
@pamipa really cool site!
You might wish to have your carpet and upholstery scotchguarded. Makes it easier to clean.
You might wish to keep towels in the interior of the car, to hand to someone who seems to be in the verge of throwing up. They are also nice to hand to people who get in your car when it’s raining hard.
Possibly: If you don’t have the ability to put multiple phone charging cords in your car, get a 12-volt splitter or have extra 12-volt connectors installed. Everyone will always want to charge their phones. Even if your vehicle is full.
Always keep way more charging cables than you need (decent quality ones) on hand, since those suddenly quit working.
The person I knew who did this washed his car all the time.
Warning Uber not only does that surge stuff, they also lower rates with little warning. My friend made great $ for the first 6 months. The Uber lowered the rates several times. And Uber was constantly advertising for drivers in the radio, on buses, etc. so they were always pretty satuarated with drivers in a region where everyone owns cars and Uber awareness was low except among business travelers and people under 30.
In cities when owning, driving, parking autos is problematic, Uber drivers have steadier incomes and the % of people who use Uber or Lyft is much higher.
If you are allowed to do drops and pickups at your local airport (varies by airport) and you have a busy airport, that can be pretty good and business travelers are usually pretty nice.
@pamipa’s tip jar is a great idea.
@f00l If you live where it rains a lot, it might be worth keeping a few Dollar Tree umbrellas to give passengers who don’t have one. Seems like that would get you a stellar review.
42" black umbrellas, $1 each. Case of 24 for $24 shipped free to your local store.
https://www.dollartree.com/Black-Umbrella-42-in-/p398968/index.pro
Thanks everyone for the tips! So far, I am not driving at night as I do not want to deal with the drunks. I definitely need to invest in some rubber floor mats and seat covers.
@conandlibrarian
Almost all the drunks were encountered after midnight. Either near closing time at bars or people leaving college-style parties in a sodden state.
If you have busy $$ bar/restaurant districts where parking is nearly impossible, you can do a nice evening-out biz and stop around say 10-11 pm and never see a true drunk.
The people who take Uber/lyft to and from areas like that usually have some $ and are decently behaved. They just don’t wanna hassle with parking or possibly being near the legal limit.
Drunks are mostly late night at least around here.
Re: water bottles - asked my friend - when he started he kelpt small water bottles in the door pockets. This was on his own dime. People liked it - but he quit doing it because his passengers would throw the empty bottles on the car floor. He got tired of trying to find a place to pull over so he could clean out his car.
He said people who brought food into the car almost always threw stuff on the floor. He had to carry a whisk broom for crumbs I think. Some people were nice and would use the trash bags he always carried and pointed out to his passengers.
He always carried some sort of trash bag.
Your experience will vary depending on time of day and location and local culture. Some younger people will think of your car the way they think of a fast food restaurant - just leave trash and don’t care. Drunks, similar.
Adults and young people with manners will be careful of your property. It just varies.
There will always be some weird behavior. Once my friend picked up a mom and some kids at a swimming pool and took them home. The mom had not bothered to bring towels to the pool and everyone was soaking wet. By the time he dropped the group, his seats were soaked. He couldn’t drive for Uber again until his seats dried out completely.
So I have done 5 days of driving so far, and here is what I have experienced:
Shorter shifts tend to be better. I was actually making more money working 3 hours over 7 as I was working during the 3 hours people need rides most.
Weekday passengers are so nice and easy to deal with. They are just trying to get from A to B, and generally keep to themselves.
When two guys are together, they usually try to impress one another and try to tell me what to do. I experienced that this past weekend with a passenger constantly telling me what lane to drive in. After driving the two guys for 90 minutes, no thank you and no tip. He did get a 1 star from me
No one asked to use my charging cable, and no one seemed to mind that I did not put out waters or candy. I think this would be very different if I worked at night.
I have to be prepared to drive anywhere. Yesterdays drive took 3.5 hours round trip.
All that said, seems like a very easy way to make extra money. I am planning a bit more through the holidays, and then stop. I want me car to last a while longer.
@conandlibrarian What time were those best 3 hours?
@compunaut Early/Mid morning on the weekends were really brisk. This past Saturday I did not have to wait once for a passenger, the requests were coming in before I even dropped my last passenger off. This might be normal for people that work in a big city, but I live deep in the suburbs.