[QuigleysTavern]

Hi, new part time driver here. Very part time. Had my first Friday night last week and had a blast. made 115. Not great, but like I said its part time and supplemental income. Thanks for all the help here. Has been a great resource. Here are some observations/questions.

1) Early Friday night routine is great. Like 430 - 9 pm. You don't catch the drunks but its very busy.

2) EWR, and other places, such as princeton junction, i just wont' go to. This board and other horror stories has scared me away. I know of the passenger in front and phone down, but as a part time driver its just not worth the risk. Is there any update to the airport situation?

3) Bad rating. I picked up a nanny with her child she was watching, and her daughter. Both had lollipops. Had a stroller, which i helped get in and out. Asked her about the temperature. Tried to make small chat. Got a 1 star rating because I missed a turn because we had poor cell service for a brief minute. The fare was less than 5 dollars, and less than 4 dollars to me. I got a 1 star rating. WTF is this? [email protected] just doesn't give two f's either. THey give the generic message response. "Hi XXXXX, so happy to help you with this! ... actually we don't give two f's and here is a copy paste generic message. please reach out to us at anytime for the same exact message"

 

[TheNJBen]

Welcome to the world of uber. Don't sweat the 1 ... It happens

 

[jerseyboys]

I’m letting the riders ride in the back now with EWR. No problems. I have done A,B, and C term. Just look out for PA and don’t drop off in front of them. simple.
I don’t even bother with taking down the phone. LOL

If I see a kid with no car seat. It’s a no and cancel. I don’t worry about ratings.

I speak perfect english, my car is so clean I can eat off it, it doesn’t smell, I drive PEFECT ( no I mean it PERFECT) and they still give me 4. hahaha


The thing is I do a lot of surge rides and I believe they are rating me for surge not the ride.

What are you going to do.

 

[Golf75830]

Hi, new part time driver here. Very part time. Had my first Friday night last week and had a blast. made 115. Not great, but like I said its part time and supplemental income. Thanks for all the help here. Has been a great resource. Here are some observations/questions.

1) Early Friday night routine is great. Like 430 - 9 pm. You don't catch the drunks but its very busy.

2) EWR, and other places, such as princeton junction, i just wont' go to. This board and other horror stories has scared me away. I know of the passenger in front and phone down, but as a part time driver its just not worth the risk. Is there any update to the airport situation?

3) Bad rating. I picked up a nanny with her child she was watching, and her daughter. Both had lollipops. Had a stroller, which i helped get in and out. Asked her about the temperature. Tried to make small chat. Got a 1 star rating because I missed a turn because we had poor cell service for a brief minute. The fare was less than 5 dollars, and less than 4 dollars to me. I got a 1 star rating. WTF is this? [email protected] just doesn't give two f's either. THey give the generic message response. "Hi XXXXX, so happy to help you with this! ... actually we don't give two f's and here is a copy paste generic message. please reach out to us at anytime for the same exact message"

After the 1 star, I'm curious, how low is your rating now??
Also, just rate her a 1 back. Even if you initially gave her a 4 or 5 right after the ride, you can change the rating later to whatever you want.
I've had all 5's (24 ) and a 4 (3 times). Everyone that rates me a 4 or less after I rate them a 5, I always go and change their rating to match what they gave me.

 

[jerseyboys]

You don’t know who gave you the 4. They can rate you days later.

Just letting you know.

Also, I have no time to go back and think about who gave me a 4 and i gave them a 5. Now I have to go back and change it to a 4 to get back at them.

Come on man. hahahaha

Just go out there and hustle. god almighty.

 

[Golf75830]

You don't know who gave you the 4. They can rate you days later.

Just letting you know.

Also, I have no time to go back and think about who gave me a 4 and i gave them a 5. Now I have to go back and change it to a 4 to get back at them.

Come on man. hahahaha

Just go out there and hustle. god almighty.

Lmao no way man! I keep track of my rating like a hawk! And yeah people can rate days later and you have no clue if you did alot of trips but if they rate you right after and you know your number of 5 stars didnt change but number of rated trips did, bingo! I go back and change that, sometimes not right away, but i do change the rating. It's only fair! I got a 4 Sunday morning, perfect ride. But it was 40 bucks to the rider to go a half hr to Sayreville, kinda steep for them. Probably the high fare but who knows. All I know is they got a nice shiny 4 in return!

 

[QuigleysTavern]

i only have a few rides, and every ride was 5. she rated me a 1 which brought me down to 4.6 which is the uber threshold. though I think they examine things before deactivating you.

So EWR is pretty safe bet these days or are cars still getting impounded? I use my car for commuting to my full time job which can't be put at risk.

 

[Golf75830]

EWR is fine. Just drop off quickly and get off the property. Scan the drop area and avoid cops. I personally wouldn't hang around waiting for a pickup. Asking for trouble. Wow that SUCKS about your rating. Bringing up that 4.6 will take awhile. If you get another 1, you might be toast. Good luck out there!

 

[QuigleysTavern]

is it that sudden? if it goes below you are done and finished forever? I had 9 5 stars and 1 1 star because i got a cranky nanny who didn't appreciate my helping her stroller, letting her kids eat in my car, asking about the temperature and offering water. sorry i ruined your day nanny.

 

[Golf75830]

is it that sudden? if it goes below you are done and finished forever? I had 9 5 stars and 1 1 star because i got a cranky nanny who didn't appreciate my helping her stroller, letting her kids eat in my car, asking about the temperature and offering water. sorry i ruined your day nanny.

No, it's definitely not sudden. I don't have any personal experience with warnings or deactivation, but I believe they email you first that you need improvement and give you some time to get your rating back up. If it doesn't improve and/or you receive complaints, they deactivate you. Uber will then offer you the option of taking a class at your expense, i think around 120 bucks, to get back on the road upon successful completion. You go back on the road with the same rating as when you left. If things still don't improve after that, I believe at that point you're officially done. I've heard that the majority who have to go thru the class end up doing fine after that.

 

[QuigleysTavern]

No, it's definitely not sudden. I don't have any personal experience with warnings or deactivation, but I believe they email you first that you need improvement and give you some time to get your rating back up. If it doesn't improve and/or you receive complaints, they deactivate you. Uber will then offer you the option of taking a class at your expense, i think around 120 bucks, to get back on the road upon successful completion. You go back on the road with the same rating as when you left. If things still don't improve after that, I believe at that point you're officially done. I've heard that the majority who have to go thru the class end up doing fine after that.

just seems so unfair and based on nothing tangible. It might have even been a typo by the woman for all I know. Literally nothing was wrong with the ride. Just irks me. I emailed uber about it even and they said don't worry keep driving. In one response, they said my rating is the average of the latest 30 trips, though in another email they said 500. UberSupport is really showing how awful it is for drivers. Its on the same level as Spirit Airlines and Time Warner.

 

[Golf75830]

Yeah no doubt the rating system can be very unfair. Getting a 1 early on is probably the worst thing that could happen, because it takes ALOT of consecutive 5's to get back on track. Even one 4 is a setback when you have a low number of total trips. But you're still fine and active. Some pax might decide to cancel on you with your low rating, so be aware of that. My recommendation try to do as many short runs as possible. Like short train station runs. More trips the better. Easy 5's all day. Ratings tend to be higher during morning and evening rush hour than other off times. And don't over-do it. I dont open doors and no water or candy. Only chargers and aux cable if they ask. Main thing imho is clean, fresh car and good navi skills and my rating is a 4.9

 

[QuigleysTavern]

That's the plan for tomorrow. Post lunch afternoon trips.

 

[TheNJBen]

Bad ratings happen ... I got dinged tonight because the car in front of my slammed their brakes and I had to stop short and it startled the pax. Was it my fault? No. But it doesn't really matter because they didn't see the other car stop short they just felt be brake hard and suddenly

 

[Drxyy]

Drive surge, don't be obvious or stupid.

 

[jmillj]

Uber won't worry about your rating until at least 100 trips (or some number like that). The point is, they know one bad rating early on can skew your rating heavily and they don't "warn" you until you have several trips, and still have bad rating.

 

[QuigleysTavern]

thanks for that. thats reassuring. how do you know though?

 

[TheNJBen]

I can tell you that from experience ... If anything uber is driven by metrics to a fault. You simply do not have enough sampling data to accurately determine your ability by their metrics. Oh and if you do provide an aux cord be prepared to wash your ears out. The stuff that's played through my system ...

 

[reg barclay]

I think I heard once that they evaluate new driver ratings by 50 or 60 trips.

 

[PorkRollUberAndCheese]

is it that sudden? if it goes below you are done and finished forever? I had 9 5 stars and 1 1 star because i got a cranky nanny who didn't appreciate my helping her stroller, letting her kids eat in my car, asking about the temperature and offering water. sorry i ruined your day nanny.

Did you take kids without a car seat?