What's your Uber experience?

[VPS]

If you want a UK ride first though you want a UK coupon. I'm sure Google will find some.

I don't think the scheduled rides does much more than logging on at that time - if there are no cars around you are still out of luck (generally unlikely with Uber in big cities though)

thanks - google does indeed have some but thought I might be able to find another UK AFFer who I can also help out

 

[kpc]

Took a few Uber rides in NYC, DC and Boston recently.....all +ve experiences and often for short journeys, it was cheaper than the subway for the 4 of us. You now have the option to tip later when you give the feedback rating which is good as you are under no pressure to do so in front of the driver

 

[Bolthead]

Took a few Uber rides in NYC, DC and Boston recently.....all +ve experiences and often for short journeys, it was cheaper than the subway for the 4 of us. You now have the option to tip later when you give the feedback rating which is good as you are under no pressure to do so in front of the driver

The tipping option is not available in Australia (yet). Doesn't make sense to me considering it appears on most restaurant (and possibly) taxi credit card forms. I know that Australians are not big tippers however it's no big deal to add it to the Australian system. Gives people an option. In over 1400 rides I have been tipped about $35. (I can almost fully retire now) The Yankee drivers have been pushing for this option for years. I'm sure the ATO would like to see it added.

 

[Bolthead]

Trip tonight from Double Bay to Potts Point (picked up 3 elderly ladies going to a restaurant)

Pax enters car with usual greetings etc... They off course like many customers think you are from the local area. Considering I have lived in the southern suburbs for most of my life Double Bay is not known to me that well.

Pax2: Oh look mini Tic Tacs... how cute. Where do you get these from?
Me: Help yourself – Big W, I have some water as well.
Pax1: Turn right.... turn left... turn right...etc.
Me: Thank you, the GPS agrees with you
Pax1: That's right, I forgot you have a machine
Me: Local knowledge is better than technology
Pax1: Turn right.... turn left... turn right...etc.
Pax3: Remember he's got a machine thingy (chuckle by all)
Pax1: This next intersection is tricky. Don't turn hard left, take the diagonal.
Me: OK,(commenced across) however quickly realised that it was no entry.
Pax1: No you should have turned hard left then hard right. (all make a gasp as I am now driving on wrong side of road)
Me: (to myself) Bite your tongue Bolthead. (quickly corrected)
Me: Almost there ladies
Pax1: Turn left here
Me: Are you sure, GPS is telling me second right
Pax1: I am sure
Me: OK,(turn corner)
Pax1: No this is the wrong street (my fault apparently) You have to do a U turn now.


Arrived at destination... (no idea if I got a rating) This happens more often than you think.

 

[moa999]

Can be a tricky area.

Let me guess they were going to The Butler on Victoria St and the diagonal you refer is Greenknowe into Hughes crossing the lights at Macleay?

 

[Bolthead]

Can be a tricky area.

Let me guess they were going to The Butler on Victoria St and the diagonal you refer is Greenknowe into Hughes crossing the lights at Macleay?

Not sure of the intersection but I think it was Greenoaks, Darling Point and Mona. Not sure of the name of the restaurant. I usually take no notice as I am already trying to figure out my next move.

 

[Strategic Aviation]

Uber Introduces $15 Fee To Return Lost Items - One Mile at a Time

Uber has introduced a $15 fee for a driver to return a lost item to a passenger. They were trialing this in some US cities for a while, but the policy has now been rolled out nationwide. This is a logical and long overdue change.

Prior to this there was technically no fee to return a lost item to a passenger, and the policy was that the driver and passenger should find a mutually convenient place to meet. At the same time the driver didn’t have an incentive to return that item quickly. I think the assumption is that someone would tip in the case of a lost item, though I imagine some people were cheap and didn’t.

I’m not sure a fixed fee to return a lost item is necessarily the fairest solution, though. That’s more than fair if this is realized a few minutes after a ride ends, while it’s not fair if this is realized a day later, and the driver lives 50 miles away. You’d think the fee would be whatever the ride would have cost for the driver to return the item. But then again, I realize that’s very much open to being gamed.

 

[Bolthead]

Uber Introduces $15 Fee To Return Lost Items - One Mile at a Time

It is not applicable in Australia as yet. Certainly, I have not received any notification regarding this although I was aware of this topic. In most cases $15 would cover it but I have had to return an iPhone to a very ungrateful person with no thank you.

 

[TheRealTMA]

It is not applicable in Australia as yet. Certainly, I have not received any notification regarding this although I was aware of this topic. In most cases $15 would cover it but I have had to return an iPhone to a very ungrateful person with no thank you.

I certainly understand your pain, but technically since you are providing a carriage service you have a social and legal responsibility otherwise it's called

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding

Taxi drivers have been convicted of such offences historically.

 

[TomVexille]

Had some issues last night. Requested a ride, first driver cancelled immediately. I think he was on the freeway heading away from us so fair enough. The diver that eventually accepted was already on another job finishing nearby. Closed the app and got ready to go, no update on driver, the ride seemed to have disappeared without any notification that the driver had cancelled and the notification bar still showed him as being 8 minutes away. By the time we figured out that we weren't getting picked up we were now going to be late to this function (thankfully not too late) and there was now a 1.3x surge. Accepted that and then fired off a complaint to uber while waiting that basically said that I had requested a ride at the base rate and that I'd like a refund to that rate. Ended up with a nice driver with a decent car and multiple emails later in the night that they had adjusted my fare to the non-surge price.

 

[MrHyde]

GoCatch Ride is also available in Melbourne now. Does anyone know which one is cheaper when? I currently work off the basis that when Uber reaches a surge price of 1.3; I just take a taxi instead.

 

[NoName]

I certainly understand your pain, but technically since you are providing a carriage service you have a social and legal responsibility otherwise it's called

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding

Taxi drivers have been convicted of such offences historically.

I doubt anyone would refuse to return a lost item but why should they do it for free? I certainly wouldn't. I had a rider leave their phone in the car one night and they were happy to pay the postage to have it mailed to them. No way would I drive it across town for free or post for free though. The options are: pay the postage or pay for me to drive it to you. If you don't want to do that I'll drop it at my nearest police station as lost property and you can go from there.

 

[TheRealTMA]

I doubt anyone would refuse to return a lost item but why should they do it for free? I certainly wouldn't. I had a rider leave their phone in the car one night and they were happy to pay the postage to have it mailed to them. No way would I drive it across town for free or post for free though. The options are: pay the postage or pay for me to drive it to you. If you don't want to do that I'll drop it at my nearest police station as lost property and you can go from there.

Yes sure. Drop it at the nearest police station. But the driver can not just do nothing and ignore it, otherwise it's theft by finding. That's part of the responsibility you accept of providing a carriage service.

 

[NoName]

Yes sure. Drop it at the nearest police station. But the driver can not just do nothing and ignore it, otherwise it's theft by finding. That's part of the responsibility you accept of providing a carriage service.

No one, including the previous poster is suggesting the driver has the right to ignore it and keep the item so not entirely sure why you brought it up to be honest. All they were expressing frustration over someone showing no appreciation for returning an item. Perfectly reasonable. As I said, no way is a customer of mine going to be receiving their item from me free of charge - pay for the postage or pay for my time to deliver it to you. If they happen to live very close then sure, I'll drop it off for nothing but otherwise forget it.

 

[TheRealTMA]

No one, including the previous poster is suggesting the driver has the right to ignore it and keep the item so not entirely sure why you brought it up to be honest. All they were expressing frustration over someone showing no appreciation for returning an item. Perfectly reasonable. As I said, no way is a customer of mine going to be receiving their item from me free of charge - pay for the postage or pay for my time to deliver it to you. If they happen to live very close then sure, I'll drop it off for nothing but otherwise forget it.

No you should not be out of pocket. But if you fail to deliver the item to a police station then you are potentially liable to be charged with theft by finding. That's part if your contract with your customer.

 

[Skyring]

No you should not be out of pocket. But if you fail to deliver the item to a police station then you are potentially liable to be charged with theft by finding. That's part if your contract with your customer.

As a cabbie, I committed many acts of theft by finding. After every shift, I'd lever up the back seat and there'd often be a few coins underneath. If I got to drive a replacement cab while mine was off the road, I'd be likely to find twenty or thirty dollars there.

Drunks were useful sources of supplementary income. There'd often be a bit of a rattle as they got out. If they had been good passengers, I'd call out for them to check the seat. If they had been cough - and there's a few people who are rude and obnoxious when drunk - I'd say nothing, just drive around the corner and scoop up the loose change before the next passenger did it for me.

For phones and things, there were a few occasions. If I remembered where the destination was, I'd go back and deliver it. Often I'd get a tip, but if not, no problem. If the passenger had flown off or whatever, the taxi company had a slot at the office for lost property. Just drop it in with a note, or ring up the next day to give details.

But by far the best solution was for me to glance over the passenger seat(s) after they got out. Unless the item had fallen down the side out of my view, I'd likely spot it and be able to chase after the passengers. A few phones and keyrings reunited that way.

As for theft by finding, yeah, maybe. But any cabbie has a ready made excuse. The next passenger must have knocked it off.

Uber, by the way, has a facility for the driver to take a picture of an item and send it to the passenger. And for the passenger to get in touch with the driver. That can fix a few problems right there. Unless the pax has left his phone in the cab...

 

[RooFlyer]

Gee, just as I started to use Uber ... Not fare — how Uber drivers gang up to exploit passengers (if pay-walled ... Google the text)

Uber drivers are secretly colluding to cause price surges that allow them to charge customers more, according to research seen by The Times.


Academics interviewed Uber drivers in London and New York and analysed 1,012 posts on the independent Uberpeople.net site, finding that drivers were playing the company’s algorithms. According to the researchers, drivers in the same area co-ordinate to log out of the taxi-hailing app so that their cars drop off the list of available rides.

This causes prices to increase in line with the economics of supply and demand, with fares potentially rising to several times the normal rate.

The team from Warwick Business School, in Coventry, and New York University cited a conversation on one online forum where a London driver said: “Guys, stay logged off until surge.” A second driver replied: “Why?” “Less supply high demand = surge,” the original poster explained. Another driver chimed in: “Uber will find out if people are manipulating the system.” The original driver added: “They already know cos it happens every week.”

The researchers said that the drivers’ behaviour was understandable as a response to Uber’s “management by algorithm” where drivers rarely interact with company bosses.

 

[QF WP]

The problem with that story is that if there are no Ubers around and there is also a price surge, people will look to other pAps (Lyft etc), taxis or public transport if the surge prices are within a reasonable tolerance. So they are cutting off their nose and not thinking of the unintended consequences of their actions.

I had a good story yesterday with Uber. Was needing to attend a Tribunal hearing in the CBD at 11am so wandered to my local bus stop in suburbia from my office at 10:15 to catch the 10:20 bus. No 10:20 bus and few buses going the other way. Realised that at 10:30 there must be an issue and Googled to find out there was a "protected" bus strike on between 10am and 2pm (which just meant that non-unionised bus drivers were still out there, but numbers on the routes had been cut). So logged onto Uber and foung a car less than 1 km away. Got to the Tribunal at 10:52; so very grateful to Uber.

Of course by 10:45am finish of hearing, buses were still patchy so caught another Uber home and had a great chat with a full time student studying a discipline where I have a lot of my clients, so was able to give him some information to ponder. Two 5* rides there.

 

[Skyring]

Gee, just as I started to use Uber ... Not fare — how Uber drivers gang up to exploit passengers (if pay-walled ... Google the text)

This sort of thing is counter-productive. From the drivers' point of view.

First off, you're missing out on fares if you are offline. There's always going to be a few drivers not playing the game, and they'll get the fares (and move out of the area) before there's enough of a passenger to driver ratio to initiate a surge.

Soooo, offline drivers sit idle for a while. The way to make money is to have a passenger in the seat and the wheels turning. Offline drivers aren't making money. They'd have to get a pretty good surge rate to make up for the idle time, and I doubt it's going to go really high through such shenanigans. Solid surges result from a sudden passenger demand, such as the big game letting out or a thunderstorm. When there's a shortage of Uber cars on the road, most likely it's a city-wide thing, such as people wanting to get to work from about 0800 on.

An artificial surge caused by a handful of drivers going offline in a particular area is going to be brittle and shortlived.

And the big advantage of Uber is that it's cheaper than a cab. If a surge pushes the price above cabfare, then passengers will call a cab instead. And if it happens often enough, they'll move away from Uber as their preferred transport.

I don't play such games. I know the patterns of my city well enough to be where I will find work when I want it. And I'd rather do two rides at the standard rate than one at a 1.5 surge over the same time.

 

[andyhui01]

An artificial surge caused by a handful of drivers going offline in a particular area is going to be brittle and shortlived.

Not to mention the number of drivers going offline to get a surge happening vs the number of drivers getting a surge fare once they all go back online. I am pretty sure not all of the drivers participating in this game will get a surge fare after. This means that after a couple of times, some drivers would just feel it isn't worth the game and just stay online.