3 recent stories:
1. I pulled up on a house where the guy was in the driveway smoking. He acknowledged I'm there, then he went inside to grab something. He came out, leaned on his car and continued to smoke while he tinkered with whatever he brought out. 3 minutes had gone by I inched up a little, then turned around in the direction to exit the neighborhood. Figured this would be a good clue. He goes in and comes out, without any real progress. I know it's the right guy because the house address is spot on. I hit the 5 min mark, he goes back inside and I drive off, collect my fee. Not 10 seconds later I get a request from him, so I deny. I ended up getting a Lyft ride shortly after. Thanks for the $5, pal.
2. This guy ended up being one of my regulars, because I take the same route to my full time job at 530 every morning, he is a bit of an idiot, though. He lives in an apartment building but he always puts in the generic street address, coupled with the fact that he ALWAYS comes out on minute 4. Basically, no one can ever find him because he doesn't know how to place a pin. Waited 5 minutes, cancelled, got my fee. He re-pinged, so I turned around and decided to try again. Why not? Worst case, I double my income. He finally finds me, doesn't seem upset, hit the button and see its a good 10-mile ride on my way to work, so bonus for me. I end up driving him about 1-2 times a week, so I just know to catch up on the news when I arrive.
3. I once got a ping near my house. The marker was literally in the middle of Tampa Bay, in the water. I drive as close to the location as possible, waited my 5 minutes and cancelled. Unfortunately, I couldn't get close enough to the marker for it to count as a no-show, so I sent an email to Uber and they gave me $5.
The only thing that feels better than a shuffle is a shuffle on a POOL !
I drive a Frontier pickup, which turns out is a fantastic Uber car, since I can hop curbs, medians, speed bumps, and tackle crappy roads. Turns out my customers actually get a kick out of me doing truck stuff to save time (also, since time isn't worth shit on uber/lyft).
Back on topic, turns out my red pickup truck is invisible to most people. They don't expect a 4-door pickup truck to be their Uber driver, so it's very easy to shuffle. I've pulled up in front of people, they'll look at me, see my stickers, look at their phone, then continue to scan the parking lot for their Uber. I usually have to roll down my window and say their name.
Makes for a fantastic shuffle vehicle especially at my most hated pickup: The grocery store. I will always pull up to the door, but by minute 2, I will move up so I'm not blocking the door, 3, I'm at the far front corner of the store, and 4, I'm pretending to look for a parking spot. I'm not a huge fan of shuffling, but after 3 minutes, you kinda deserve it, a lot of people hail their rides long before they're ready to leave, especially burns me when they had an additional 5-10 minutes for me to even get there.
