Question to Uber drivers: short ride
 

I will soon need a ride with 4 family members from PHX airport in Uber XL which is only 3 miles. I know Uber drivers hate short distance rides. What should I do, go ahead and request Uber XL, or maybe don't bother and just take a taxi instead?

While I'm not a Uber drive, I've occasionally been in the same situation for one reason or another.

My strategy was to call the XL and then give a $5 cash tip.

For what it's worth, the last time I tried to take a relatively short taxi trip from an airport, the driver refused and kicked me out of his cab.

I do a cash tip for short rides. If I get the infamous where-are-you-going text I say something vague ("Home", "The office", "A restaurant", without indicating a location) and let the driver cancel the ride if they don't want it. I don't let the driver know the destination until I'm in the car.I had this at the Sheraton in Nashville a couple years ago. Then the doormen promptly kicked the taxi out of the very long taxi rank (and I was prepared to give $20 for what likely would have been a $5 ride. His loss :rolleyes:)

As a PHX driver, I believe you're thinking about this too hard :p
There's a reason the driver's app doesn't let us know the destination until after pick-up. The short rides usually are not cost effective so we don't like them ... but they're part of the job. You win some and you lose some.
And I'd assume taxi drivers hate them as much as rideshare drivers do, for the very same reasons.
If any driver complains about waiting in the airport queue for a long time then ending up with a short ride, my suggestion would be not to wait in the queue ... get out of the airport and look for rides elsewhere.
If you feel bad, then a tip as Lost suggested help make it worthwhile to the driver.

For what it's worth ...
All of my runs TO the airport have been decent rides.
I've never joined the queue for a ride FROM the airport because I've always been "rematched" within seconds of dropping off my inbound passenger.
I don't think I've ever had a ride FROM the airport that was over 5 miles. It seems I'm always taking the passenger to someplace relatively close where they have parked their car for free.

I do the same thing I've always done with taxis, I give a tip which makes up for what amounts to lost time in the queue. I think that's fair. But, I don't play games with drivers either. Last thing I want is a crazy guy who doesn't want me as a customer. Let the driver be forced back into the queue.

This is something that (shock, horror), the NYC airports do well with taxis. If you're taking a short ride, the driver asks the dispatcher for a short ride "ticket," and then gets to jump the queue if he comes back to the airport.

My definition of a short ride is less than one mile.

Hi echino, I spent a few months in Phoenix as well and I used Uber (sometimes XL when with friends) everytime, for short distances too. Never had problems.

As a driver, you just take it as it comes. Sure, everybody wants a 30-mile trip on the highway to a hot pickup spot.

In PHL, where I used to drive, if you got a short trip, you were cycled back into the airport queue. By "Short" I mean like to one of the airport hotels that might be only 2-3 miles. I remember dropping someone off at the Embassy Suites once and getting another outbound ride from the airport almost immediately.

If you feel the driver isn't being compensated fairly, tip him. Same if you're bar-hopping.

As a driver, my only real question is "How long will it be after I do the dropoff until I get another ride?" I'd be happy to do 2-mile rides downtown all day long, knowing that I'll get another request almost as soon as, sometimes before, I make my dropoff.

At a lot of major airports, one mile doesn't even get you off the airport property :p

For what it's worth, Uber does have "minimum" fares.
In PHX, as a driver I will earn a minimum of $2.62 for each trip, even if it's just to take you across the street.

I'm quite sure Uber and Lyft have the same scheme - drivers wait in a virtual queue to pick up at the airport, and a driver on a short ride can jump the queue upon return.