UBER?-NOT!!! -
The "Uber-geniuses" that run this outfit don't realize that most people think (correctly) that Four Stars (out of a possible five) is a good rating, but UBER considers any single four star rating to be synonymous with failure.
I've driven for UBER for two months, fulfilling about four hundred ride requests during that time, and my current rating is only 4.82.
I suggest everyone who likes using UBER give their driver FIVE STARS unless he's rude, he or his auto stinks, he drives unsafely, or otherwise does something hincky.
Additionally, because UBER averages the last five hundred trips, just one mean drunk or otherwise displeased rider who maliciously gives you a poor rating, say, for asking them not to get in your car with an open container they might spill on your upholstery, or refrain from having sex with their girlfriend in your backseat on the trip home from the bar, will cause your rating to plummet, and that single poor rating persists for months, bringing down your total "score".
My rating seems to drift down a point or two weekly, no matter what I do, stop doing, or do differently. I'm not entirely convinced its a real scoring system.
I suspect they just start everyone out with five stars and tweek it down each week to induce some feeling of failure as a "personnel management" technique. It's easier to get your FICO credit score back up after some major event like losing your house than to improve your rating with these nitwits, who are apparently confusing the admitted stroke of genius of dreaming up this company using technology others created with actual managerial expertise.
For example, my personal vehicle is a $37K, fully loaded 2012 Rav4 with only 35,000 miles, leather seats, navigation system, moon roof & tinted glass, i.e.-clean as a whistle. I'm almost 60 (not in much of a hurry any more) and therefore drive quite carefully, albeit without a perpetual left-turn signal. I have a college degree, speak the King's English and read the Economist cover-to-cover every week, so I can converse about almost any subject, or just stay quiet and drive if that is what my rider indicates is appropriate for him or her.
Moreover, I always have fresh bottled water in each door and in the center console, and keep my vehicle clean, vacuumed, and even spritzed with scented Lysol occasionally just in case I've gone "nose-blind" in my dotage.
If all that doesn't rate five stars, what the hell would?
Teleportation, maybe? "Beam us to Starbucks, Scotty."
In addition, if a rider uses GPS to identify their location instead of bothering to enter the actual address, they should expect the driver to have some difficulty finding them unless you actively help him by getting out on the sidewalk and looking for his vehicle. Ride requests entered using GPS have often sent me to an address a block or two away, or put me in the alley behind a large building.
My built-in nav system works much better, but obviously cannot be integrated into UBER because it requires each destination to be programmed while stopped. Even the pre-loaded map app on my iPhone works better than the system this putative "technology" company uses.
This fact contributes to the occasional wrong turn or missed exit, which unavoidably causes the trip to cost a bit more. All a driver can do is stop the trip early to compensate for the excess fare, which comes out of his own pocket.
Finally, a driver cannot actually make any money driving for UBER, assuming he has a decent vehicle you'd actually want to ride in. The cost of fuel, tires, maintenance, and depreciation consumes what's left after UBER takes about 40% of the gross fare a rider pays. That math is simply unsustainable, and unless UBER wants to be left with a rabble of poor, displaced immigrants driving crappy, stinky old vehicles, they'll stop squeezing so much money out of their drivers, who are doing the actual work.
I suspect these guys are just trying to make this whole operation appear to be more valuable than it actually is in preparation for an IPO, when they'll cash out and leave the mess to whatever investor or private equity firm winds up owning control.
In my humble opinion, they'd better hurry.
All UBER does is allow a person to drive his personal vehicle around essentially for free just to monetize it's depreciation, and perhaps meet an occasional interesting person for a brief conversation with a non-American whose idea(s) haven't been formed by the same mass-media we've all absorbed for decades, plus a little beer and beef jerky money.
That said, I do enjoy providing a service to young folks out on the town who need a designated driver, or helping people get to the airport.
I'm not doing anything else right now.
Phillip "David"- "Uber"Annoyed Uber Employee read more