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2 Posts
(Part 1 of 2)
My time as a 'full time Uber driver' is coming to an end soon as I start a new job on Tuesday; but I wanted to expand on having done this Uber driving thing. A smart, successful man once said “If you want a real education, finish a four-year degree then go drive a taxi for six months and then bar tend for six months.” - A lot of people drive for Uber, but I don’t know if most of them get everything out of it that they could.
You come across all types of people taking part in all types of business. When I first started I took my first rides in Jacksonville (and later Gainesville) I could hardly be considered a pro at driving around Jacksonville at that time- I knew a couple of the basic roads- and I had never been one to pick up strangers. My first ride was a business man who's car had broke down and he left it at a dealership while I took him on to work- across the river to Forsyth Street somewhere. As a driver you are the only link most of these people will ever have in common. An example of that is one morning I picked up a prostitute from a hotel room took her by her drug-dealer's place and then back to her home. She didn’t have to say anything for me to know what was up, that could be easily inferred from where we were and how she was dressed among other indicators (for example her purse was FULL of lighters, I counted at least six that spilled out onto the back seat as she got up to get out of the car to talk to her source.) - right after this my very next ride was a well to do wife of a PGA golfer who was going from their home to a nice restaurant called the Aqua grill in Ponta Vedra. In fact I think if she had known who had previously sat in that same seat she'd have canceled me and got another car.
So what are the benefits I mention getting out of driving? - Well there are the obvious ones such as getting a LOT better at knowing your way around big cities. Not that Gainesville is a big city but there are a lot of small areas that unless you have a reason to go there you’d never know existed. Same with Jacksonville. But meeting people in this capacity can have it's benefits. Most of them wish you well and are just as interested in how you are doing as they are in what they themselves are doing that day. The potential social networking benefits are a goldmine as a driver. Many people are willing to give you a small inside scoop on where good jobs are, or what big activities are going on, or they have a friend of a friend who may help get some of your goals going. I learned more about the going-on's in Gainesville and the trends in town from sorority girls talking in the back seat then Id ever had learned on my own. Information I could put to use as a driver or for personal betterment if I was interested. Also, I enjoy driving. I did a LOT of it, and I really do enjoy it- even with the careless pedestrians and over-exuberant other drivers, and dumb drivers, and just pure mean people. I still enjoy it most of the time.
Things that I came to learn but never expected before I started.
1) people who are drunk and hungry are willing to buy you a full meal if you want it. I would say 9 out of 10 times when I picked someone up who was leaving a bar and who wanted to stop by a McD's or whoever was open that late would offer to get me something, sometimes whatever I wanted; and 9 times out of 10 I refused, but a couple times I'd ask for a soda or something if I had gone without water for a bit.
2) There are a lot of Uber drivers who really should not be driving. I've heard of drunk Uber drivers (to where the lady actually threatened to get out of the car while it was moving) – to drivers who are working without any A/C in their car (but ductaped an extra fan for the passengers). To one lady who was in a 4-dr pickup who was eating out of a bucket of chicken while driving. There are also dishonest Uber drivers (just like Taxis) who will take their time … and distance... to get someone home.
3) People can be really forgetful. I have had bags of groceries left in the trunk, cell phones left in the seats, a book bag, sunglasses, thumb-drives. An occasional cell phone falling out of your pocket or getting laid down or sun glasses set aside are easy to leave behind, but maybe the best one was the Asian couple who I got to their apartment and they got a couple bags of groceries out of the trunk and closed the trunk said thank you walked inside and I get going down the road- stop at a red light and here an odd little thunk. I check the trunk and the other 4 bags of groceries are still in the car- along with the girl's cell phone. How do you forget that you got more then a couple bags of groceries?? - they finally contacted me to get them back, I couldn’t do anything to contact them with the cell phone cause it was all in an Asian dialect of some sort- could not even read it. - for a couple hours I was thinking I was going to have an interesting time trying out all these Asian foods (most of which had English writing on them so you could tell what they were- but the rolls were interesting looking).
4) Big tippers & non-tipping. I really didn’t even think of tips when I started. But about 1 in 20 passengers would tip. $3-5 was common. But more often then expected Id get a $20. Those surprised me, especially if the ride was real short. It didn’t happen often, tips in general didn’t happen often- but when it did I was extremely grateful. (A tip on tips- you tend to find better tips from those more grateful that you were around to help them- ie “off the beaten path”)
5) You will come across shady activities you want nothing to do with. While I treated most of these as “none of my business” and “I see nothing, I know nothing” - there were a couple times I turned down the request because of the circumstances. The most notable of these was a time I was on I-95 passing through to get to one hot area, and I got a request, didn't think nothing of it at first when the little phone was beeping so I hit accept and then I get looking at the details- first off the guy used a nickname (I highly doubt his actual name was what was displayed) – and then the other agitating factors were it was about 1:30 in the morning plug it was in very much upper down-town Jacksonville (near the hospital on 8th street). This one was too full of 'bad vibes' – so I canceled it and moved on my way. Read your situations. I was willing to pick up a lot of people in a lot of areas that some might have not wanted to, and I’ve had a couple slightly creepy/scary people in my car – but I rarely came across a real 'no' situation- this one happened to have three strikes from the get-go. Ill pass. Not every ride is worth it.
6) Someone will sneak alcohol into your car at one point or another. I tell people no smoking (its bad for future riders) and absolutely NO open alcohol. They will find a way- usually its just someone getting into the back seat and you just don’t notice it or they will claim its something else. Nothing made me as mad as stopping at a gas station after dropping off a couple passengers and finding an empty bud light can in my back seat. In fact I went back to their home and left it in the mailbox.
7) Your car tires become magnets to any piece of metal in the road. I attribute this to just the sheer number of miles I was driving, but I seemed to have been constantly running over SOMETHING that wanted to put a hole in my tires. Tire repairs and replacements happened a good bit.
My time as a 'full time Uber driver' is coming to an end soon as I start a new job on Tuesday; but I wanted to expand on having done this Uber driving thing. A smart, successful man once said “If you want a real education, finish a four-year degree then go drive a taxi for six months and then bar tend for six months.” - A lot of people drive for Uber, but I don’t know if most of them get everything out of it that they could.
You come across all types of people taking part in all types of business. When I first started I took my first rides in Jacksonville (and later Gainesville) I could hardly be considered a pro at driving around Jacksonville at that time- I knew a couple of the basic roads- and I had never been one to pick up strangers. My first ride was a business man who's car had broke down and he left it at a dealership while I took him on to work- across the river to Forsyth Street somewhere. As a driver you are the only link most of these people will ever have in common. An example of that is one morning I picked up a prostitute from a hotel room took her by her drug-dealer's place and then back to her home. She didn’t have to say anything for me to know what was up, that could be easily inferred from where we were and how she was dressed among other indicators (for example her purse was FULL of lighters, I counted at least six that spilled out onto the back seat as she got up to get out of the car to talk to her source.) - right after this my very next ride was a well to do wife of a PGA golfer who was going from their home to a nice restaurant called the Aqua grill in Ponta Vedra. In fact I think if she had known who had previously sat in that same seat she'd have canceled me and got another car.
So what are the benefits I mention getting out of driving? - Well there are the obvious ones such as getting a LOT better at knowing your way around big cities. Not that Gainesville is a big city but there are a lot of small areas that unless you have a reason to go there you’d never know existed. Same with Jacksonville. But meeting people in this capacity can have it's benefits. Most of them wish you well and are just as interested in how you are doing as they are in what they themselves are doing that day. The potential social networking benefits are a goldmine as a driver. Many people are willing to give you a small inside scoop on where good jobs are, or what big activities are going on, or they have a friend of a friend who may help get some of your goals going. I learned more about the going-on's in Gainesville and the trends in town from sorority girls talking in the back seat then Id ever had learned on my own. Information I could put to use as a driver or for personal betterment if I was interested. Also, I enjoy driving. I did a LOT of it, and I really do enjoy it- even with the careless pedestrians and over-exuberant other drivers, and dumb drivers, and just pure mean people. I still enjoy it most of the time.
Things that I came to learn but never expected before I started.
1) people who are drunk and hungry are willing to buy you a full meal if you want it. I would say 9 out of 10 times when I picked someone up who was leaving a bar and who wanted to stop by a McD's or whoever was open that late would offer to get me something, sometimes whatever I wanted; and 9 times out of 10 I refused, but a couple times I'd ask for a soda or something if I had gone without water for a bit.
2) There are a lot of Uber drivers who really should not be driving. I've heard of drunk Uber drivers (to where the lady actually threatened to get out of the car while it was moving) – to drivers who are working without any A/C in their car (but ductaped an extra fan for the passengers). To one lady who was in a 4-dr pickup who was eating out of a bucket of chicken while driving. There are also dishonest Uber drivers (just like Taxis) who will take their time … and distance... to get someone home.
3) People can be really forgetful. I have had bags of groceries left in the trunk, cell phones left in the seats, a book bag, sunglasses, thumb-drives. An occasional cell phone falling out of your pocket or getting laid down or sun glasses set aside are easy to leave behind, but maybe the best one was the Asian couple who I got to their apartment and they got a couple bags of groceries out of the trunk and closed the trunk said thank you walked inside and I get going down the road- stop at a red light and here an odd little thunk. I check the trunk and the other 4 bags of groceries are still in the car- along with the girl's cell phone. How do you forget that you got more then a couple bags of groceries?? - they finally contacted me to get them back, I couldn’t do anything to contact them with the cell phone cause it was all in an Asian dialect of some sort- could not even read it. - for a couple hours I was thinking I was going to have an interesting time trying out all these Asian foods (most of which had English writing on them so you could tell what they were- but the rolls were interesting looking).
4) Big tippers & non-tipping. I really didn’t even think of tips when I started. But about 1 in 20 passengers would tip. $3-5 was common. But more often then expected Id get a $20. Those surprised me, especially if the ride was real short. It didn’t happen often, tips in general didn’t happen often- but when it did I was extremely grateful. (A tip on tips- you tend to find better tips from those more grateful that you were around to help them- ie “off the beaten path”)
5) You will come across shady activities you want nothing to do with. While I treated most of these as “none of my business” and “I see nothing, I know nothing” - there were a couple times I turned down the request because of the circumstances. The most notable of these was a time I was on I-95 passing through to get to one hot area, and I got a request, didn't think nothing of it at first when the little phone was beeping so I hit accept and then I get looking at the details- first off the guy used a nickname (I highly doubt his actual name was what was displayed) – and then the other agitating factors were it was about 1:30 in the morning plug it was in very much upper down-town Jacksonville (near the hospital on 8th street). This one was too full of 'bad vibes' – so I canceled it and moved on my way. Read your situations. I was willing to pick up a lot of people in a lot of areas that some might have not wanted to, and I’ve had a couple slightly creepy/scary people in my car – but I rarely came across a real 'no' situation- this one happened to have three strikes from the get-go. Ill pass. Not every ride is worth it.
6) Someone will sneak alcohol into your car at one point or another. I tell people no smoking (its bad for future riders) and absolutely NO open alcohol. They will find a way- usually its just someone getting into the back seat and you just don’t notice it or they will claim its something else. Nothing made me as mad as stopping at a gas station after dropping off a couple passengers and finding an empty bud light can in my back seat. In fact I went back to their home and left it in the mailbox.
7) Your car tires become magnets to any piece of metal in the road. I attribute this to just the sheer number of miles I was driving, but I seemed to have been constantly running over SOMETHING that wanted to put a hole in my tires. Tire repairs and replacements happened a good bit.
