[DelaJoe]

I always rate everyone a 5 no matter what. Uber is a job and why would I want to tick off passengers by rating them low. You have to face reality that you are not always going to get 5 stars on every trip.

1) The person may never give a 5.
2) The person might just be having a bad day.
3) The person might accidentally hit the wrong star button and submit and then its too late to change.
4) You may have made a mistake in driving or a comment you said or an odor in the car.
5) ...and this is the one that hurts me the most....you drive during a price surge and the fare is very expensive...most surge passengers rate you down because they didn't realize how much uber was going to charge. This is called the pi**ed off rating.

 

[DelaJoe]

Do you refuse passengers if their rating is below a certain level? I only have 10 seconds to make a decision. I have to see how far I have to drive and then look at the passenger rating? To me I look at the pickup point and the projected distance. If it is not close, I usually let the ping go. I don't consider the rating. Should I be worried about a 4.6 versus a 5.0? Often times its not the paying passenger but others that accompany them on a fare. I am in an area where I pickup a lot of barhoppers late at night. You are not going to see these people on their best behavior. 95% of the rides are a non event. I just don't want to rate people down. If I am busy, I don't even have time to look to see if there is trash in the backseat.

I am able to retain a 4.7 rating. My rating is closer to 4.8 during a non-surge and 4.5 during surge. Uber has an adjusted rating which is based on your last 200 trips and takes into account your acceptance rate and the amount of surge trips you take. So Uber knows if you take a lot of surge fares that your rating will slide. They also give you credit for taking over 90% of your requests and not being selective.

So if you want to be a perfect Uber driver then you have to be very selective on who you pickup and not work during surge periods. If you follow this credo your hourly rate is probably going to be closer to 15. If you are willing to work surge and put up with awful riders you are probably going to be around 20-25/hour.

 

[DelaJoe]

I don't get many tips. Maybe 1 in 10 passengers tips. Thinking of a way to suggest a tip...perhaps a sign on the dashboard that can be seen day or night. Or maybe have a tip jar right between the 2 front seats.