kb9522

Why is that the rider's problem? Riders will choose to take a ride or not based on the cost of doing so and the value they feel it provides them... What happens with that money afterward is irrelevant.

john2g1

You're almost making my point to you for me if you fully understood things... Uber is a private company and drivers are also private individuals.

There is no mandate (Uber or law wise) for driver to accept an incoming trip. This was literally settled in court. Additionally even after arrival and pick up a driver can end the trip at any time.

I myself have kicked out belligerent drunks prior to their destination and I have started a trip, seen that it was going out of state, and ended it right there.

This is not against Uber's policy in fact berried deep in it's driver agreements it encourages solicitation of additional fees by the driver to cover the increased cost.

For me the "economics" and my time did not match up with the trip so I simply ended it.

Now I don't know how the riders felt about it but they should have alerted their driver to such a trip. This is a situation where as the OP questioned: a phone call for destination would have saved us both a lot of aggravation.

Now all of that said I was referring to traveling a long distance to pick a customer up. It's you all collectively the passengers (myself included) who say "Not my fault that you had a long drive to get me".

As a driver I never go more than 8 mins to pick up a passenger unless they are requesting a premium ride or they are paying 3X surge.

For every driver that gets the "not my problem attitude" is another driver who sets restrictions on the distance they drive to pick up.

john2g1

Everyone on FlyerTalk is supposed to be pretty savvy... Ok follow along...

You made an argument asking why the customer should foot the bill for something Uber/Lyft failed to account for.

My response is that passengers foot the bill everyday for things that Uber/Lyft fail to think of.

My point is that IMHO it is better to show a small token of gratitude based on the value you see. When enough drivers complain (or sue) Uber/Lyft will make the changes needed and they will tack on a +25% fee for themselves.

I'm talking about deciding value for yourself as opposed to having it made mandated to you.

cestmoi123

I had thought that having a high decline rate was something which would push drivers down the queue for job allocation, but maybe I'm wrong.

As for rejecting a trip once it's started, I guess that's your prerogative, but I'm certainly giving you one star for it. Drunk passengers are a completely different scenario, naturally.

Iwantmy240

Yes and no with with regard to job allocation. I will frequently decline low paying trips several minutes out and get higher paying trips that are also closer seconds later. I can keep waiting it out until a desirable ping comes in.

Uber did previously put drivers on timeout for 2 min or more for declining too many requests. This backfired since it reduced available drivers which only prolonged surges. Often times this helped because surge was higher by the time I was able to log back in.

The problem is that Uber will continue to dispatch low paying rides from long distances hoping for a sucker to accept them rather than provide an incentive for accepting them (aka increased rates or minimum fare) I don't care about being pushed down the queue for pings if all that is being offered are crappy rides. There is literally no reward or having higher acceptance rates except for a measly bonus, so drivers who work smart and position correctly and accept their rides wisely make more money. This isn't like a taxi company where the dispatcher will throw you a bone for taking crap rides all day.