lamphs

Part rant/part question.

As I mentioned in another post, my last driver in DC, told me as part of casual conversation, that he won't accept a fare from a customer with less than a 4.75 rating. He also told me that other than airport runs, he limits his rides to the 'good' parts of DC. I thought that the driver's could not see destinations until after the ride is accepted.

My rant, from this morning. Uber/Lyft is fairly easy to find in the immediate suburbs of DC, including weekend mornings. I needed a ride this morning to pick up my second car from a shop and then meet some folks for brunch. Called for an Uber. Essentially the message said pickup in 10 minutes, drop off at a reasonable time. The screen goes through a bunch of gyrations, zooming in on the pickup address, zooming back out to the broader area. I did see a couple of cars, but those cars were at least 20 minutes away. And of course I get the message 'finalizing driver details'. Which makes it appear that a car is assigned.

And then nothing.

Try again. The fare went up 30% in 5 minutes. OK, still willing to pay that as I needed to get the 2nd vehicle. Same gyrations on the screen, same messages, but I didn't see any cars. I canceled, and of course get a message that a car would be assigned very soon. Still canceled.

I just went about my day with my primary car and I'll deal with the 2nd car tomorrow.

Anyhow, why does the 'technology' determine a pickup time, drop off time, and a fare if there are clearly no cars available? (And in my case, went through the cycle twice, calculating a higher fare the 2nd time). Does the fare keep increasing until a driver will pickup a ride?

Also, this was going to be a relatively short trip (20 minutes, going closer to DC), but can or can't the driver see the destination before accepting a ride? Maybe the two cars I saw just didn't want to make such a short trip?

Very frustrating. (And there are times I ask for a car, and say, pickup in 10 minutes initially, but by the time the car is assigned the pickup may be in 15 minutes or higher. The fare remains the same, but I don't get a discount when Uber/Lyft can't honor its original commitment.)

Does anyone on FT actually drive for Uber/Lyft and enlighten us?

bedelman

Does Washington DC have a regulator who might be interested?

It would be a great small claims lawsuit against Uber/Lyft... except that their T&C's require arbitration (ruling out small claims court) and even that on an individual basis (disallowing efficient common proof and shared attorneys).

jamesteroh

Someone that works in my office building use to do Uber part time but quit as soon as covid started. He said that the app would show him the pick up point and the rating and that was it He would only pick up peop[le with a high rating because he figured a lower rating meant no tip and/or a real pain

He said the app wouldnt show him where he was going and sometimes he would turn down fares when he got there because it was to the airport an hour away in another state resulting in lost time for him and making the passenger page another uber. He said he wasnt allowed to pick up at the Detroit airport since its another state so he was able to run the meter back to the ohio line and when he would tell passengers he was going to do that if he would take the fare sometimes they would cancel.

He started doing food delivery and said he makes a lot more. The app tells him the general area so he knows what direction he will be travelling and if it is worth it or not.

I’m surprised Uber isn’t required to do the same since its an independent contractor. I don’t know of any painter or construction worker who is an independent contractor that would take a job without know how much they’ll make and the scope of the work.

diburning

Uber and Lyft offers your ride to drivers and if they don't accept, then you're SOL. The time estimate is based upon the closest driver accepting your ride request, which is not guaranteed. Lyft will auto assign rides to drivers by default, but drivers who have driven for Lyft more than a day will find the toggle to switch it to manual accept ot deny. Uber's higher ranked drivers will get your origin, rough neighborhood of the destination, distance for the ride, and how much they'll make. Most drivers won't take low fare rides unless it's a good fare to distance ratio.

As for the gyrations, that is on purpose. It purposefully cycles through your origin and destinaton so that if you're screen recording for the purpose of showing others how bad their system is, you're exposing your origin and destination (because even with video editing, it's difficult to block that all out). Uber and Lyft do not operate honest businesses.