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OK so Saturday night, 11:50 PM I pick up a decent looking clean cut guy, early 20's. He was a little buzzed but didn't appear drunk. He gets in the back and was talking normal enough about his night with his buddies who talked him into drinking some new "pretty hard brew." After about 10 minutes of conversation he grew quiet and I assumed he was looking at his phone. Then I heard heavy breathing and I realized he was asleep.
After about 5 minutes of silence from the back seat I suddenly heard a shriek come from the back seat (which jolted me off my seat) followed by curse words, mumble, mumble, then silence. I called his name "Mike" and asked if he was OK. More silence. Then about 2 minutes later:
SHRIEK!!...mumble..mumble...CURSE WORDS!!...silence.
2 or 3 minutes later...
SHRIEK!!... mumble..mumble...CURSE WORDS!...silence.
So if I just copy and paste these two sentences above to make out the next 20 minutes of that ride, that's how that ride went.
It's not over though. I finally pull up in front of his house which is the last one on a dead end rural road. I call out to him and ask if this is his house. He wakes up, looks over at his house, says yeah, then falls back asleep. I spend the next 5 minutes repeating this. I wake him up, he responds, then falls back asleep. Then my phone pings and I accept the request, so hopefully now Mike can see he needs to get out of my car. Mike responds with " Go ahead, go pick up the other person." Then falls back asleep.
At this point I get out of the car. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm a small female 5' 3" and 130 lbs. Mike, 5' 10" and 210 lbs. (guessing.) Then I thought of this board and some of the more recent posts from some female drivers concerned about their safety while driving, so I thought about calling the cops. Then I thought for what?! This isn't 1905 and I'm not going to be the damsel in distress. When I signed up for Uber I knew the risks I was taking in doing this job. Never had a problem like this before but tonight was my night so it's not the time to become delicate. "I'm getting him out of this car, by myself", I told myself. Yes he could sucker punch me or come at me with a weapon. Those are the chances we all take regardless of who the pax are, where they sit, or how the ride goes.
I open the door and reach in and unbuckle him and he then lays down across the back seat and goes back to sleep. So I grab his legs and slide him down until I can grab his jacket and pull him back to a sitting position. He wakes somewhat and by hanging onto me I was able to get him into a standing position outside my car, directly in front of the open car door.
At this point a large dog (possibly a Mastiff) comes charging from around the back of the house towards us. I let go of the pax's coat and back away. It's the pax's dog and he's incredibly happy to see his master. The pax calls to his dog and the dog leaps up on the pax's chest, knocking him back down into my back seat, now with the dog in the car too, laying across his owner's body.
I see the dog is friendly so I open the opposite back door to get the dog out, but the dog is having none of it. The pax is happily cooing his dog, and the dog is so happy that he is bouncing his muddy-pawed self from my back seat, through the console area, to the front seats, then back to the back seat. Meanwhile I'm racing around my car opening all my doors to get the dog out. Finally I get the dog out, and resume my process of getting the pax back out of my car and standing again. I held onto the pax, and with him leaning on me, I walked him to his doorstep and held him while he unlocked his door, went inside, his dog went in with him, and Mike was able to shut the door and stumble to his couch before collapsing on it and going back to sleep. (He had big bay windows so I could watch all this from outside the house.)
Finally I get back to my car and see the interior is covered in dog fur and muddy paw prints. My other ride had been canceled so I just slid the app offline, and drove home. (Passing through a glowing red surge in Ballard WA, completely offline.) The next day I went out to my car and after 15 minutes with a pet sticky roller, Oxy Clean, and Febreze and the car is good as new. Anyways, that was my Saturday night.
After about 5 minutes of silence from the back seat I suddenly heard a shriek come from the back seat (which jolted me off my seat) followed by curse words, mumble, mumble, then silence. I called his name "Mike" and asked if he was OK. More silence. Then about 2 minutes later:
SHRIEK!!...mumble..mumble...CURSE WORDS!!...silence.
2 or 3 minutes later...
SHRIEK!!... mumble..mumble...CURSE WORDS!...silence.
So if I just copy and paste these two sentences above to make out the next 20 minutes of that ride, that's how that ride went.
It's not over though. I finally pull up in front of his house which is the last one on a dead end rural road. I call out to him and ask if this is his house. He wakes up, looks over at his house, says yeah, then falls back asleep. I spend the next 5 minutes repeating this. I wake him up, he responds, then falls back asleep. Then my phone pings and I accept the request, so hopefully now Mike can see he needs to get out of my car. Mike responds with " Go ahead, go pick up the other person." Then falls back asleep.
At this point I get out of the car. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm a small female 5' 3" and 130 lbs. Mike, 5' 10" and 210 lbs. (guessing.) Then I thought of this board and some of the more recent posts from some female drivers concerned about their safety while driving, so I thought about calling the cops. Then I thought for what?! This isn't 1905 and I'm not going to be the damsel in distress. When I signed up for Uber I knew the risks I was taking in doing this job. Never had a problem like this before but tonight was my night so it's not the time to become delicate. "I'm getting him out of this car, by myself", I told myself. Yes he could sucker punch me or come at me with a weapon. Those are the chances we all take regardless of who the pax are, where they sit, or how the ride goes.
I open the door and reach in and unbuckle him and he then lays down across the back seat and goes back to sleep. So I grab his legs and slide him down until I can grab his jacket and pull him back to a sitting position. He wakes somewhat and by hanging onto me I was able to get him into a standing position outside my car, directly in front of the open car door.
At this point a large dog (possibly a Mastiff) comes charging from around the back of the house towards us. I let go of the pax's coat and back away. It's the pax's dog and he's incredibly happy to see his master. The pax calls to his dog and the dog leaps up on the pax's chest, knocking him back down into my back seat, now with the dog in the car too, laying across his owner's body.
I see the dog is friendly so I open the opposite back door to get the dog out, but the dog is having none of it. The pax is happily cooing his dog, and the dog is so happy that he is bouncing his muddy-pawed self from my back seat, through the console area, to the front seats, then back to the back seat. Meanwhile I'm racing around my car opening all my doors to get the dog out. Finally I get the dog out, and resume my process of getting the pax back out of my car and standing again. I held onto the pax, and with him leaning on me, I walked him to his doorstep and held him while he unlocked his door, went inside, his dog went in with him, and Mike was able to shut the door and stumble to his couch before collapsing on it and going back to sleep. (He had big bay windows so I could watch all this from outside the house.)
Finally I get back to my car and see the interior is covered in dog fur and muddy paw prints. My other ride had been canceled so I just slid the app offline, and drove home. (Passing through a glowing red surge in Ballard WA, completely offline.) The next day I went out to my car and after 15 minutes with a pet sticky roller, Oxy Clean, and Febreze and the car is good as new. Anyways, that was my Saturday night.
