I wrote the article below in hopes Uber would respond. I'd love your thoughts and especially experiences too.
As of right now my giant SUV will only hold 5 people, even though there are 8 seatbelts. That is because today I decided to stop doing XL trips in my capable vehicle. The "180 Days of Change" the company is implementing in hopes to make things better for drivers is a mixed bag. Most of it seems good, but some of it is costing drivers. Among the changes the long pickup fee is one of the worst. I have begun to lose money by accepting long pickup trips, rather than make more as Uber intended. So with angry gusto I scream out "Hey Uber! From this point forward I refuse to activate XL as an option when driving for you until this problem is fixed."
In my city, the long pickup fee begins if the pickup location is more than 10 minutes from the nearest driver, unless you're an UberXL car, which Uber has excluded from receiving this fee at all. Below I've explained how I not only make significantly less than an UberX would, but I am actually losing money by taking trips because of the fee. So the answer would seem to be to just decline long pickup XL requests, which may not be a good idea.
Uber will tell you that all trips are voluntary and drivers don't have to take long pickups if they choose not to. Well, this is true - sort of. They have us pinned into accepting everything simply because they have and will deactivate drivers for refusing too many ride requests. A quick google search turns up countless deactivated accounts for doing so.
My Experience:
Today's request came in and according to the app It was 24 minutes and 15 miles from where I accepted it at. When I arrived I found I had only 1 passenger in my 8 seater SUV. It turned out this single rider was just going to a bar down the street. On the way to the bar the rider let me know that even though she is only one person, it is significantly cheaper for her to use UberXL over UberX, which she recalled it used to be the other way around, but couldn't figure out why it switched.
I finished the trip and was paid $6.44 with a $0 tip. I'm guessing no the reason I didn't earn a tip is because it took me 20+ minutes to pick her up. I was paid $6 for roughly 2 miles and 5 minutes of my time. I started the trip at 832 pm and arrived back to where I might get a ride request again at 914. This ride took 42 minutes and I drove 32 miles. For $6. Ok. At least it's some money right? No. I lost big time. My SUV gets 16 MPG and I used 2 gallons of fuel for this trip. Gas is $2.86 per gallon today (premium required in my SUV), so $5.72 of that was used immediately in gasoline costs. Now I've got $0.72 left. That's lackluster, but it's not a loss anyhow, right? Wrong.
The rider drank some of my complimentary bottled water which usually helps me get tips, (cost me $0.13 for the water plus$0.10 deposit) She ate 2-3 mints (cost me $0.11), got pine needles all over the floor of my car, which I had to vacuum (cost me $1.00). So I had 72 cents left after gasoline. Let's see. That all adds up to... A loss of $0.62. That's right. I spent my money and and nearly an hour of my time to take this trip and help Uber make money. In addition to those costs above there are many others too, like wear and tear, maintenance, repair, insurance, daily washing, depreciation, and on and on. It was a much larger loss for me than 62 cents.
I can't blame the rider. It is because of the new system that any wise customer is going to choose XL if they have a long pick up. Price a short drive with long pickup out and you'll see that the XL ride is way cheaper. Simply put the XL driver is cheated out of the long pickup fee altogether. Let's talk pay and compare my XL with an UberX ride. The fares don't add up.
Differences in fares:
Below is based on a long pickup of 15 miles with a 5 minute 2 mile ride then a return to the previous area after for an X and an XL car. Both start the same trip at the same time. In comes the "180 days of change" and 10 minutes and 2.5 miles after departure the X car begins to be compensated for this drive. The XL is uncompensated until the actual pickup takes place.
UBERXL
Base Farr $1.80
Mileage 2 x $1.51/mi = $3.02
Minutes 5 x .15/min = $0.75
Total driver pay after fees $5.52
UBERX
Base Fare $1.13
Mileage (13+2) x $1.21/mi = $15.73
Minutes (14+5) x .15/min = $2.85
Total driver pay after fees $19.71
In the above case, this trip lost money for the XL driver to take. The same trip in the X covered the costs and may have even made a small wage for the driver. This makes it impossible for me to do long pickups in an XL.
So I'll say once again, because of the new fee costing me money, I refuse to use the XL functionality of my vehicle until this is corrected. If I show up and there are 6 passengers? Well too bad, I'm only picking up 4. I'm an X now, not an XL. Besides, i need that long pickup perk. Oh, and the rider during the real trip? They saved money and had a $10 fare in the fancy huge UberXL instead of paying $16 to ride in UberX. In the end the customer got a ride and Uber kept their fees and commission of 37 percent of the total fare.
It looks like the only person losing is the XL driver.
As of right now my giant SUV will only hold 5 people, even though there are 8 seatbelts. That is because today I decided to stop doing XL trips in my capable vehicle. The "180 Days of Change" the company is implementing in hopes to make things better for drivers is a mixed bag. Most of it seems good, but some of it is costing drivers. Among the changes the long pickup fee is one of the worst. I have begun to lose money by accepting long pickup trips, rather than make more as Uber intended. So with angry gusto I scream out "Hey Uber! From this point forward I refuse to activate XL as an option when driving for you until this problem is fixed."
In my city, the long pickup fee begins if the pickup location is more than 10 minutes from the nearest driver, unless you're an UberXL car, which Uber has excluded from receiving this fee at all. Below I've explained how I not only make significantly less than an UberX would, but I am actually losing money by taking trips because of the fee. So the answer would seem to be to just decline long pickup XL requests, which may not be a good idea.
Uber will tell you that all trips are voluntary and drivers don't have to take long pickups if they choose not to. Well, this is true - sort of. They have us pinned into accepting everything simply because they have and will deactivate drivers for refusing too many ride requests. A quick google search turns up countless deactivated accounts for doing so.
My Experience:
Today's request came in and according to the app It was 24 minutes and 15 miles from where I accepted it at. When I arrived I found I had only 1 passenger in my 8 seater SUV. It turned out this single rider was just going to a bar down the street. On the way to the bar the rider let me know that even though she is only one person, it is significantly cheaper for her to use UberXL over UberX, which she recalled it used to be the other way around, but couldn't figure out why it switched.
I finished the trip and was paid $6.44 with a $0 tip. I'm guessing no the reason I didn't earn a tip is because it took me 20+ minutes to pick her up. I was paid $6 for roughly 2 miles and 5 minutes of my time. I started the trip at 832 pm and arrived back to where I might get a ride request again at 914. This ride took 42 minutes and I drove 32 miles. For $6. Ok. At least it's some money right? No. I lost big time. My SUV gets 16 MPG and I used 2 gallons of fuel for this trip. Gas is $2.86 per gallon today (premium required in my SUV), so $5.72 of that was used immediately in gasoline costs. Now I've got $0.72 left. That's lackluster, but it's not a loss anyhow, right? Wrong.
The rider drank some of my complimentary bottled water which usually helps me get tips, (cost me $0.13 for the water plus$0.10 deposit) She ate 2-3 mints (cost me $0.11), got pine needles all over the floor of my car, which I had to vacuum (cost me $1.00). So I had 72 cents left after gasoline. Let's see. That all adds up to... A loss of $0.62. That's right. I spent my money and and nearly an hour of my time to take this trip and help Uber make money. In addition to those costs above there are many others too, like wear and tear, maintenance, repair, insurance, daily washing, depreciation, and on and on. It was a much larger loss for me than 62 cents.
I can't blame the rider. It is because of the new system that any wise customer is going to choose XL if they have a long pick up. Price a short drive with long pickup out and you'll see that the XL ride is way cheaper. Simply put the XL driver is cheated out of the long pickup fee altogether. Let's talk pay and compare my XL with an UberX ride. The fares don't add up.
Differences in fares:
Below is based on a long pickup of 15 miles with a 5 minute 2 mile ride then a return to the previous area after for an X and an XL car. Both start the same trip at the same time. In comes the "180 days of change" and 10 minutes and 2.5 miles after departure the X car begins to be compensated for this drive. The XL is uncompensated until the actual pickup takes place.
UBERXL
Base Farr $1.80
Mileage 2 x $1.51/mi = $3.02
Minutes 5 x .15/min = $0.75
Total driver pay after fees $5.52
UBERX
Base Fare $1.13
Mileage (13+2) x $1.21/mi = $15.73
Minutes (14+5) x .15/min = $2.85
Total driver pay after fees $19.71
In the above case, this trip lost money for the XL driver to take. The same trip in the X covered the costs and may have even made a small wage for the driver. This makes it impossible for me to do long pickups in an XL.
So I'll say once again, because of the new fee costing me money, I refuse to use the XL functionality of my vehicle until this is corrected. If I show up and there are 6 passengers? Well too bad, I'm only picking up 4. I'm an X now, not an XL. Besides, i need that long pickup perk. Oh, and the rider during the real trip? They saved money and had a $10 fare in the fancy huge UberXL instead of paying $16 to ride in UberX. In the end the customer got a ride and Uber kept their fees and commission of 37 percent of the total fare.
It looks like the only person losing is the XL driver.
