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What is the main reason you will cancel a ride?

  • I only cancel when the timer runs out

    Votes: 9 21.4%

  • I get a better ride on another platform

    Votes: 15 35.7%

  • I think about and realize the trip won't be profitable.

    Votes: 21 50.0%

  • After I arrive I don't like the look of the rider

    Votes: 7 16.7%

  • After I arrive I don't like the look of the surroundings

    Votes: 7 16.7%

  • I still hide around the corner to force the timer to run out, and then cancel

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other reason

    Votes: 6 14.3%

  • ACCIDENTALLY ACCEPTED A TRIP DUE TO THE WAY THE APP IS DESIGNED!

    Votes: 23 54.8%

  • Violated Uber's Terms of Service (under 18, no child seat, too many riders, etc.)

    Votes: 12 28.6%

  • I accept and cancel when I don't want the trip but want to keep my sticky

    Votes: 4 9.5%

  • Pax adding a stop or changing drop-off

    Votes: 12 28.6%

  • Accepted a trip radar before losing it... then find it is garbage

    Votes: 1 2.4%

  • Pickup time for trip changes after accepting

    Votes: 4 9.5%

  • Heavy traffic enroute to a borderline fare

    Votes: 7 16.7%

  • I almost always cancel for Lyft Switcheroos

    Votes: 6 14.3%

  • Rider calls to cancel but doesn't know how.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    42

Rideshare drivers. Why do you cancel?

1502 Views 45 Replies 23 Participants Last post by  KenLV, 
_Tron_
EDIT 5-25-23: Added more choices.

Riders are always telling me they frequently get cancelled on. It's endemic, if not epidemic. The only reason I usually cancel is if I get a better offer on another platform. And certainly when the timer runs out.

Under what conditions do you cancel?

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Disgusted Driver
I hear the same thing and I don't get it. There seem like there are way too many cancels when we are talking about very high demand situations. I assume on Lyft, it's the switcharoo when someone books priority, they take the driver away but it makes no sense on Uber. I get riders telling me the driver gets close to them then cancels, we aren't talking about shuffles either.
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Rampage
Sometimes I’ll accept and realize it’s at a laundromat, Walmart, or a school.

Then there is always the stupid nickname. Yeah, I’m not picking up Meat Beater Jr.
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colamacy
If I'm not done with my cigarette and don't have enough time to air out my car, I cancel.
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losiglow
I choose "I get a better ride" because that's my most common. I won't cancel if I get another that's like, $5 more or something lame like that. More like if I accept a $10 ride and suddenly get a $30 Lux ride on Lyft or something like that.

The 2nd most common is if I accept then realize it's not going to be very profitable.

My CR average is about 8% - 10% with Uber, around 5%-6% with Lyft.
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ObeyTheNumbers
I typically only cancel on reservations after accepting them to evaluate less someone else grabs it before I can think it out.

Sometimes it won't let me cancel, so I check out the area if there are drivers near the time and then let them have it.

My CR is 0% currently.
My AR is 98%. 😁

I am Diamond, hear me suffer. 😔
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S
41% CR as of today. Usually it is higher. The 2 reasons I cancel. #1- to keep a high sticky surge while waiting for a decent trip. As my 8% acceptance rate shows, I will never take an unprofitable trip. #2-accidental accept when scrolling through trip radar and non-stop pings keep coming in. The Uber app is really shitty in this regard.

Despite the bullshit posts I see on this forum about getting deactivated for a high cancel rate, it is not the case, at least in my market I've had a high cancel rate for YEARS.
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_Tron_
Stanley B said:
#1- to keep a high sticky surge while waiting for a decent trip.
Click to expand...
Hmm. How des that work?

Stanley B said:
Despite the bullshit posts I see on this forum about getting deactivated for a high cancel rate, it is not the case, at least in my market I've had a high cancel rate for YEARS.
Click to expand...
Good reason! I added that to the poll, and made it multi-choice.
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_Tron_ said:
Hmm. How des that work?


Good reason! I added that to the poll, and made it multi-choice.
Click to expand...
You have a $18 sticky surge, so of course the next 5-10 trip requests that come in are 15+ minutes away, and take 20 minutes to complete, thus completely nullifying your surge amount. You do not lose the surge by accepting and then canceling. This isn't new info, I've seen it talked about many times here. Drivers should never/ever take unprofitable trips. Intro to business 101.
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Nats121
Disgusted Driver said:
I hear the same thing and I don't get it. There seem like there are way too many cancels when we are talking about very high demand situations. I assume on Lyft, it's the switcharoo when someone books priority, they take the driver away but it makes no sense on Uber. I get riders telling me the driver gets close to them then cancels, we aren't talking about shuffles either.
Click to expand...
I'm hearing it more lately as well and I use it as an opportunity to inform the pax that the exploitation of the drivers is hurting customer service.

I then explain to them that the combination of bad pay and being rushed into accepting offers without enough time to make informed decisions (short ping durations as well as Trip Radar) is causing drivers to have "buyer's remorse" which results in cancellations.

I also tell them that at least some of the cancels are the result of the dirty tricks Uber uses to stick drivers with rides they had no intention of accepting.

I'm starting to suspect that some scammer drivers may be using bots and/or other methods such as the use of phony accounts to "batch grab" multiple rides. They choose the best ones and dump the rest of them.

One of the reasons I'm suspecting bots is that things I'm seeing on the screen are similar to the things that Instacart and Flex drivers described seeing on their screens...

Lately I've been getting pings that last for maybe a second and then sort of "slide" down to the bottom of the screen and disappear. Instacart and Flex drivers have been complaining about that sort of thing for years and they're convinced it's being caused by scammers using bots.
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Nats121
Rampage said:
Sometimes I’ll accept and realize it’s at a laundromat, Walmart, or a school.

Then there is always the stupid nickname. Yeah, I’m not picking up Meat Beater Jr.
Click to expand...
The drivers are not being given enough time to make informed decisions about which trips to accept. The ping durations are too short to make informed decisions which results in buyer's remorse cancellations. Ten seconds should be the absolute minimum ping duration. Most of mine are around 4-5 seconds which is way too short.
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painfreepc
I mainly only canceled if I get another ride that's better on the other platform, lyft luxury has priority on almost any other platform ride.
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painfreepc
Nats121 said:
The drivers are not being given enough time to make informed decisions about which trips to accept. The ping durations are too short to make informed decisions which results in buyer's remorse cancellations. Ten seconds should be the absolute minimum ping duration. Most of mine are around 4-5 seconds which is way too short.
Click to expand...
The length of time that you see the ping will also depend on your internet speed and Legacy to the tower, and this is one of the main reasons why I use two device with two different phone plans.
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Nats121 said:
I'm hearing it more lately as well and I use it as an opportunity to inform the pax that the exploitation of the drivers is hurting customer service.

I then explain to them that the combination of bad pay and being rushed into accepting offers without enough time to make informed decisions (short ping durations as well as Trip Radar) is causing drivers to have "buyer's remorse" which results in cancellations.

I also tell them that at least some of the cancels are the result of the dirty tricks Uber uses to stick drivers with rides they had no intention of accepting.

I'm starting to suspect that some scammer drivers may be using bots and/or other methods such as the use of phony accounts to "batch grab" multiple rides. They choose the best ones and dump the rest of them.

One of the reasons I'm suspecting bots is that things I'm seeing on the screen are similar to the things that Instacart and Flex drivers described seeing on their screens...

Lately I've been getting pings that last for maybe a second and then sort of "slide" down to the bottom of the screen and disappear. Instacart and Flex drivers have been complaining about that sort of thing for years and they're convinced it's being caused by scammers using bots.
Click to expand...
Most riders I pick up at Red Rocks Amphitheatre have been cancelled on at least 5X before getting picked up. And then they get hustled by 20 guys standing on the sidewalk to do a cash ride for $x.00 amount. I explain how evil Uber/Lyft are and why this is happening.

I don't get it because for short term profits, these rideshare executives are completely destroying their reputation and reliability perception among consumers, at least here.
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Civicdriver
Just wait til the new AI scammers get a hold of Uber and lyft.
Just like the fake explosion picture at the Pentagon yesterday.
AI is gonna cause big problems by people misusing it.
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Nats121
_Tron_ said:
EDIT: Added the choice for accidental acceptance. Enabled multiple choices.
Click to expand...
I'm requesting you substitute the word "unintentionally" for "accidentally" because what's happening in those cases is no accident. When touching the top of the screen results in a request being "accepted", that's no accident.
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Rampage
Nats121 said:
The drivers are not being given enough time to make informed decisions about which trips to accept. The ping durations are too short to make informed decisions which results in buyer's remorse cancellations. Ten seconds should be the absolute minimum ping duration. Most of mine are around 4-5 seconds which is way too short.
Click to expand...
I agree, which is why I don’t hesitate to cancel. 39% as of today.
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Nats121
Stanley B said:
Most riders I pick up at Red Rocks Amphitheatre have been cancelled on at least 5X before getting picked up. And then they get hustled by 20 guys standing on the sidewalk to do a cash ride for $x.00 amount. I explain how evil Uber/Lyft are and why this is happening.

I don't get it because for short term profits, these rideshare executives are completely destroying their reputation and reliability perception among consumers, at least here.
Click to expand...
Since 2020, Covid has changed consumer attitudes. They're far more tolerant of being shit on than they were before Covid. Since 2020 consumers have tolerated skyrocketing prices, product shortages, reduced product and service quality, shortened shopping hours, etc.

Uber is well aware of this consumer tolerance and they're taking full advantage of it by charging pax higher prices while at the same time paying drivers LESS. The result is longer wait times, increased cancellation rates, and more stranded pax. Uber is convinced that pax will continue to tolerate it.

The big question is how much longer will the pax put up with it?
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Nats121
painfreepc said:
The length of time that you see the ping will also depend on your internet speed and Legacy to the tower, and this is one of the main reasons why I use two device with two different phone plans.
Click to expand...
I've tested Uber with different phones and different phone companies with little to no difference in ping duration.

Uber does NOT want drivers making informed decisions, period.
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F
80% of my Lyft cancels are because Lyft slipped the ride in my queue without me realizing it, the other 20% are accidentally accepting a ride. On Uber, 90% because of the way the app is set up.
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