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No more surge in DMV area?

5K views 62 replies 21 participants last post by  Emp9 
#1 ·
I haven't seen a surge higher than 2.0 in the area. Even when I do it disappears or go lower within seconds. I see college park surges a lot but it's usually at 1.5. Which is not worth the drive of chances the surge to later get there and it disappear. Arlington/ Alexandria surges a lot but I can't drive in those area. Washington, DC doesn't surge at all unless it's raining and I have yet to see the city hit a 3.0 or higher surge since I been driving.

Am I missing something? I usually drive between the hours of 4PM-7PM weekdays only.

I am at the point where I feel like it's no need of driving.
 
#2 ·
Well as a driver who turned to surge only after the rate cut and after they removed the guarantees...... I can confirm Surges dont exist much or for that long. Why? Too many drivers. Which is surprising that there's some mad rush to drive for $1.02. I used to be able to go out around 2/3pm, and stay out until about 7pm during the week, doing surges only (evening rush time). Not any more. You'll find at least one place surging between 5-6:30pm,but if you get that surge after you do that trip you'll land in a non surge area. As you said normally surges dont go over 1.5x,but of course you'll still find times here and there where it hits 2.0x or above. You can still catch them for sure late night at club let out time on fri/sat night. But trying to do surges back to back for me is over. Sad. They just arent there


Playing the surge game involves a lot of sitting around and waiting. A lot. Which can also happen if you play the greater Maryland game, but at least you dont have to run around and chase anything.

College park wil be back in session next month, so you'll see it surge often there. However most of course are students, and i used to get 2.0x surges simply taking them from 1 side of the campus to the next. Its rare you'll get a long ride on a surge out of college park unless its a non-student ordering the ride.
 
#3 ·
There is a seasonal slow down here with Congress' going out for its August recess. It affects the cab business, as well. Add to that the onboarding of all of these drivers.............. and how do you spell "disaster"?

The House went out last Thursday, the Senate is supposed to go out to-morrow. Until the freshmen come in, which is usually the third week in August, bring your pillow and blanket if you go out to drive, you're a-gonna' need it.

I will drive a little here and there, but I will be going to Nationals or Urriells games and eating at all of these places that are usually packed but will not be for most of August.
 
#5 ·
Used to go out week nights and do ok between xl and x surges but without the surges xl is too slow to stay out long. Few weeks and colleges will be back and at least my early hour weekend nights will be okay. The quality of the cars has really gone done from what I am seeing so for most of these new drivers gas is the only real expense they have at the moment, as most could care less about depreciation since the cars are worth so low anyways. The only thing that will hit a lot of drivers is when they get that large repair bill and when taxes are due and they didn't put away the tax money
 
#6 ·
too many drivers.demand less. but even in the rare case many have gone home and activity heats up , uber is keeping surges down. however when asking pax they say it surges all the time, so i dont know whats going on.

i refuse to work a busy area with no surge!!! no way im risking an accident and fighting traffic for a regular fare. think about it , i can make that same fare just a few blocks away with no trouble. i never understood why drivers line up on U street with no surge.
 
#10 ·
4pm-7pm is the worst time to drive, nothing but stand still traffic. With college kids being out of town, which makes up to 50% of PAX, you will rarely see any surge during the 3 hour window.

Weather is a HUGE factor.
If its a nice weather, PAX will walk, bike or metro. Hot/Humid or rain, then PAX will call Uber.

There is also way too many drivers on the road.

In the past month, only tonight i saw 3.4 surge around White House area, that only lasted about 5 min. July 4th was the last time i saw highest surge.
 
#11 ·
Yes, 4-7 is the worst time to drive unless you get luck with a 2.0x or above surge. Luckily, I got a 2.9 surge yesterday and got about $20 at the end of the ride.

As of right now, metro is still single tracking and this will create insane rush hour traffic. I'll be staying home till about 730 today before I head out.
 
#17 ·
Didnt even go out tonight. As of right now, the app is mostly yellow in like two quadrants.

Surge wont even happen till after last call

Weather is WAY too nice and most people that use uber are probably just walking.

No way I'm going out to take care of all the drunkies.
 
#18 ·
I went out tonight a little after 9. It was slow and no surges and no xl pings. I was going home when I got my first request at DuPont which took me to h street, then got a ping at the next building as I ended trip. Ended up dong 4 xl rides and netting $50 for about 2 hours. No surges anywhere on a Friday night. I saw uber drivers everywhere. Every other car was an uber driver. Turned down a request as I got home because I didn't want to be dragged back downtown again.
The good news is college kids are coming back. I had a group of gw grad students who said they start next week and I saw lots of new au students coming back so that should bump things up a little.
 
#19 ·
Uber server crashed tonight ...again.

Lost 2 trips in history and couldn't end one trip cause of server error.

Now I can't log off cause of server error.

The city is major surging now, but the surge info disappeared after 30sec.

Not getting any pings....more server errrrors.

Now the server crashed again, so I can't log back in.

****ing hell.
 

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#20 ·
Froze again. 2min all the big surges are gone.

I was able to end previous trip, but 20min later and 3 miles away from drop off point.
 
#23 ·
the time there was a surge, you couldnt capitalize on it. oh and the rider app was down so few could order an uber, what a epic fail. Uber is getting worse with the updates and server issues. completely down for 45min at the peak of friday night is inexcusable.
 
#25 ·
Got a 2.1suge ping in Arlington, but pax was too drunk to know where she was.

Another one never came out of the bar, called me 10min later when I was on i66 going home.

Arlington was very busy last night. College kids are back.
 
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