[Steve412]

There are going to be a bunch of places I never see again unless it’s on a significant surge. Ideally never going thru SH tunnels, into the south hills or down 51 ever again. Goodbye to the Waterfront. Adios Avalon! See you later sewickley. Suck it South Park! At least now HOPEFULLY all of us can now find rides home in our respective directions at the end of the night instead of stepping on a cow pie.

i know this will hurt pay overall, but you know what else hurts pay? 30 minute trips in a lull when all the drunken idiots going far try to get home without paying surge.

 

[MasterKNinja]

Yeah was thinking all the ways I used to manipulate time + distance in my favor to get more of a payout. I guess that’s all gone with upfront. What you see is what you get, right? Doesn’t matter if you take the longer, slower route, the Upfront payout is the payout. The benefit is Uber’s no longer trying to trick you into taking rides in the opposite direction or out of your way. Seems super useful for staying doing it very part time.

 

[PITTCMUuber]

There are going to be a bunch of places I never see again unless it’s on a significant surge. Ideally never going thru SH tunnels, into the south hills or down 51 ever again. Goodbye to the Waterfront. Adios Avalon! See you later sewickley. Suck it South Park! At least now HOPEFULLY all of us can now find rides home in our respective directions at the end of the night instead of stepping on a cow pie.

i know this will hurt pay overall, but you know what else hurts pay? 30 minute trips in a lull when all the drunken idiots going far try to get home without paying surge.

Gotta think big picture. This is giving the driver free reign to decide where they want to go. But you gotta realize Uber is going to f#ck us somehow. Rumor has it they’ll be rolling out location selection for drivers with only high acceptance/low cancellation rates. Sure, you may enjoy the upfront now but if you don’t keep your acceptance rate 70% or greater, be prepared to be screwed in the near future.
Big picture - Uber wants us to reject rides because then they’ll roll a new initiative out to where if you want to make any money, you’ll be playing catch-up and having to accept everything that comes your way.
Upfront fares was a way to pay us less and the beginning to another roll-out to where we will get screwed more.

 

[Steve412]

Not disagreeing with you. But there’s always going to be give and take. I thought the Diamond thing would affect my ability to earn and it didn’t. It’s just constant adaptation. I don’t work days and I think that time period is much more vulnerable to income swings

 

[Uber_Thrill]

There are going to be a bunch of places I never see again unless it’s on a significant surge. Ideally never going thru SH tunnels, into the south hills or down 51 ever again. Goodbye to the Waterfront. Adios Avalon! See you later sewickley. Suck it South Park! At least now HOPEFULLY all of us can now find rides home in our respective directions at the end of the night instead of stepping on a cow pie.

i know this will hurt pay overall, but you know what else hurts pay? 30 minute trips in a lull when all the drunken idiots going far try to get home without paying surge.

Well said. I‘ve noticed more surge pricing recently in neighborhoods mentioned.

 

[TheRealGnash]

I like it when I can see it. But I use that auto accept when I’m driving so it would load up my next one. Can’t see it then or even if it was off and they sent it while I’m driving. Does anyone go offline after a pickup then wait for the next one after drop off?

 

[Steve412]

I like it when I can see it. But I use that auto accept when I’m driving so it would load up my next one. Can’t see it then or even if it was off and they sent it while I’m driving. Does anyone go offline after a pickup then wait for the next one after drop off?

Yeah I usually go offline because it’s too hard to follow the offers as they come in. Especially since there’s several streets with the same name. Center, Lincoln, etc.

 

[Gnash]

I ended up with a preloaded Northside to Turtle Creek to end my night Saturday,. Live in SH. Gotta remember to start going off line after accepting or turn off that auto accept. Used that when driving because I'd not see the requests coming sometimes.

 

[MasterKNinja]

First time with upfront. Pretty great I could cherry pick a $75 ride down to the far side of the city. The multiple fares popping up & get snagged by other drivers is new to me. But I managed to piece together 5 rides on the way back home with a destination filter & knowing where they were actually going, rather than getting tricked into going backwards. Upfront will prob lure me back to doing some Uber again.

Could be they’re just solving a driver supply problem. Making driving suck slightly less could feasibly keep more drivers from switching to the many other jobs out there. Until the recession haha.

 

[Howie428Uber]

It was inevitable that Uber would use hiding the passenger paid number and introducing up front pricing as a way to cut rates. But I would never have guessed just how brutally ridiculous the rate cut seems to have been. So far today I have not been offered anything that would be better than the IRS expenses number of 62.5c per mile.

Is everyone else getting these numbers or are Uber trying to get rid of me?

I checked the passenger app and these low prices are not being passed on to them. I had one yesterday where the passenger price was $50 and Uber offered me $22.

 

[MasterKNinja]

Here’s one way you get screwed with upfront: when the passenger has a change to their drop off point. It used to just revert to time & distance. The problem is people don’t put in multiple drop off points or change their destination. So far had to do an extra stop a mile down the road for free, or rate got lowered from the upfront because the passenger changed locations. I guess you gotta insist they change it in the app so you don’t get screwed, which doesn’t help when someone else ordered the ride. How are y’all handling this?

I’m still learning the new systems. One thing is for sure: they lowered the payout on long trips. Grabbing a trip to the middle of nowhere & having to deadhead back with lower long trip rates & gas 40% more expensive is definitely NOT worth it. With more frequent small trips you’re at least getting that $0.45 gas bump each ride.

 

[MasterKNinja]

For sure it’s a cash grab by Uber. Remember when they started taking 50-55% on short rides? Now they’re doing that on every ride.

The other change I noticed is they’ve expanded the ride request radius. I’m getting requests from further away (prob a way to address a driver shortage). There’s no way I’m driving 20 minutes to pick someone up & it ends up being a profitable ride. Seems like these ants out here are doing it though (& for sure are making $0.60/mile).

When you get to the point you hate the split, the rideshare companies & the pax, it’s time to quit. But it doesn’t hurt to keep your account active to jump on a few years later when you’ve got a little too much credit card debt haha.

I checked the passenger app and these low prices are not being passed on to them. I had one yesterday where the passenger price was $50 and Uber offered me $22.

 

[Gnash]

For sure it’s a cash grab by Uber. Remember when they started taking 50-55% on short rides? Now they’re doing that on every ride.

The other change I noticed is they’ve expanded the ride request radius. I’m getting requests from further away (prob a way to address a driver shortage). There’s no way I’m driving 20 minutes to pick someone up & it ends up being a profitable ride. Seems like these ants out here are doing it though (& for sure are making $0.60/mile).

When you get to the point you hate the split, the rideshare companies & the pax, it’s time to quit. But it doesn’t hurt to keep your account active to jump on a few years later when you’ve got a little too much credit card debt haha.

My acceptance rate is way down from that. Used to be in the high 90s, now in the 60s. And their 20 minutes isn't usually 20 minutes. Sometimes ends up much longer than they estimate.

 

[Gnash]

Here’s one way you get screwed with upfront: when the passenger has a change to their drop off point. It used to just revert to time & distance. The problem is people don’t put in multiple drop off points or change their destination. So far had to do an extra stop a mile down the road for free, or rate got lowered from the upfront because the passenger changed locations. I guess you gotta insist they change it in the app so you don’t get screwed, which doesn’t help when someone else ordered the ride. How are y’all handling this?

I’m still learning the new systems. One thing is for sure: they lowered the payout on long trips. Grabbing a trip to the middle of nowhere & having to deadhead back with lower long trip rates & gas 40% more expensive is definitely NOT worth it. With more frequent small trips you’re at least getting that $0.45 gas bump each ride.

I usually ask them to change it in the app. Tell them Uber gets worried and thinks something is wrong. Sends the "is everything ok? your ride seems to have taken an unexected turn?" message and then they'll start calling to make sure we're both ok. If someone ordered it for someone else, I just go along. Even less likely to get a better tip if it's someone else. Kind of a bummer. Maybe text them when you get home about the change, but I've usually forgotten all about it by the time I get home. The stops grate on me sometimes when they run in a store for 10 minutes. But sometimes it's a good chance to take a break and use the restroom, buy a snack.

 

[MasterKNinja]

My acceptance rate is way down from that. Used to be in the high 90s, now in the 60s. And their 20 minutes isn't usually 20 minutes. Sometimes ends up much longer than they estimate.

Yeah the request time/distance was always calculated “as the crow flies” using a straight line divided by an average speed. It’s never used actual distance or current traffic.

Good point about acceptance rate with the farther distance requests; I hover around 12% lol. To maintain Gold (85%) would really require you to be a good-little-ant driving far & wide for your app overlord. I guess if you’re maintaining it to get free tuition from ASU online it could be worth it.

 

[MasterKNinja]

I usually ask them to change it in the app. Tell them Uber gets worried and thinks something is wrong. Sends the "is everything ok? your ride seems to have taken an unexected turn?" message and then they'll start calling to make sure we're both ok. If someone ordered it for someone else, I just go along. Even less likely to get a better tip if it's someone else. Kind of a bummer. Maybe text them when you get home about the change, but I've usually forgotten all about it by the time I get home. The stops grate on me sometimes when they run in a store for 10 minutes. But sometimes it's a good chance to take a break and use the restroom, buy a snack.

Appreciate the tips. Thanks. My latest pet peeve: when people add stops after you accept the ride request. Uber keeps the new destination(s) hidden, so you have no idea where they’re going. What are the chances they’re gonna be in & out in 3 minutes? Picking up food or smokes, that’s about 0% chance. So now your upfront fare is off & you have no idea how far or how long it’s gonna take. Ive just been cancelling. It’d be trivial for Uber to update the fare & show the destinations. $9 for 1.3 mile ride, fine, but $9 for now two added stops to who knows where? You got greedy. There’s also the chance it’s Uber’s system which is concealing the added stops & only showing after you accept, trying to get you to do more (less desirable) rides.

Uber should also let people load a tip in advance as part of the request. Annoying 3 stop ride? Skip. Added $5 tip included in the request? I’m a little more interested.

 

[Steve412]

I cancel if they add a stop

 

[Gnash]

Appreciate the tips. Thanks. My latest pet peeve: when people add stops after you accept the ride request. Uber keeps the new destination(s) hidden, so you have no idea where they’re going. What are the chances they’re gonna be in & out in 3 minutes? Picking up food or smokes, that’s about 0% chance. So now your upfront fare is off & you have no idea how far or how long it’s gonna take. Ive just been cancelling. It’d be trivial for Uber to update the fare & show the destinations. $9 for 1.3 mile ride, fine, but $9 for now two added stops to who knows where? You got greedy. There’s also the chance it’s Uber’s system which is concealing the added stops & only showing after you accept, trying to get you to do more (less desirable) rides.

Uber should also let people load a tip in advance as part of the request. Annoying 3 stop ride? Skip. Added $5 tip included in the request? I’m a little more interested.

I never see that there's stops until I've initiated the ride and the people are in the vehicle. I lucked out a couple Saturdays ago. Some young guys here for the Steeler game from Baltimore gave me $20 cash tip because I stopped at Speedway for them to get more beer on the way back to their air BB. That's usually the exception.

That same night, a guy added a stop to the pharmacy. When I completed the first stop, app ended the trip. When I went back on line and he resent, we both got different people so we had to part company there. Then I was leery the rest of the night about people adding stops manually during the surges. Didn't want to lose any good surgers.