Posts by BenWilson
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Bart Janssen,
No I meant that they driver in a safer manner on the roads :).
Oh, LOL. Yeah. Guilty as charged there. Real pressure comes on drivers to break the road rules. But Ubers are not even slightly exceptional there. That's taxis generally. When getting to jobs the pressure is on, big time. Once driving with passengers, they can be major instigators of law breaking, any time it would reduce the cost to them.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Miche Campbell,
No. But you can cancel any that don't, and that is a perfectly fair reason to do so. From communications directly to drivers querying what the hell is going on, it seems like Uber are going to look for this, and might reconsider their position if enough customers act this way.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to EAColeman,
If Uber lowered the safety standard for it’s drivers I would use an alternative. No question. I am totally not an overprotective mother.
Clearly not! Your daughter has a lot of power to make this change untenable for Uber. She just has to refuse any driver that won’t show a P Endorsement. I could go into the other safety standards violations and how to look for them, but I don’t think it’s viable. The P Endorsement is designed for the passengers to see it. It’s been the official mechanism for passenger safety since inception. It must by law be displayed where they can see it whilst in the vehicle.
ETA: I should clarify. It’s the official government mechanism. Uber’s mechanisms are the many things you already mentioned, and they are not insubstantial. I still think Uber is a great service, and I still want to drive for them. I’m just dismayed at the recklessness of the compliance drop.
ETA2: By refusing the ride, I mean cancelling it in the app. Give a reason, and mention the P endorsement. She needs to do it within 5 minutes of the driver arriving, so no more mucking around with last drinks and people wrangling. Do that before you order an Uber, they get there too fast. You literally get the closest one to you. On Ponsonby Rd late on a Friday, that means the guy is probably parked outside, or driving past. Your five minutes starts immediately under those conditions.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Where is tax levied on each ride transaction (including GST)?
Drivers are responsible for all their own taxes. You are charged GST, built into the fare. It's a good question, and I can't speak authoritatively on this until I've done my first terminal tax return because I quite simply don't understand it. My understanding is that puzzling changes to the GST policy are also part of the bundle of changes last week. This one is under the radar, though, and drivers are pursuing it. Unfortunately, it's a highly complex matter, which is particularly non-conducive to being handled by a low-rent call center that gives you a different answer every time you call. To be honest, I'd be surprised if anyone at the call center really understands what they're talking about when it comes to taxes.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Hilary Stace,
I’d recommend using uberASSIST, the new option launched a few weeks ago. It guarantees you a driver with a very high rating who has attended the uberASSIST course, and is likely to be helpful and patient. The fares are identical. But the vehicle is no different to uberX. So it would need to be someone who can get in and out of a vehicle. The driver will very probably assist you if you request it.
You’ll probably get a call as soon as you book it, to confirm you really want it. This is an unfortunate consequence of the fact that so far 90% of my uberASSIST calls have been for people who simply erroneously chose it in the app, and weren’t in any need of special assistance. It’s to both of our disadvantages when that happens. I have to drive further to get them, they have to wait longer, or may find no one available at all.
Is it a good service for the disabled? Aside from the fact that it’s just a normal vehicle, I’d say yes. The lack of any need to pay directly, and the GPS tracking of the route, and the ability to rate the driver at the end, all contribute to making it a better experience for vulnerable people. You can also book on behalf of other people, even from a remote location. You just have to set the pin where it is that they are. Also, you will receive the phone calls and notifications. It would be worthwhile in those circumstances to call the driver yourself as soon as you make the booking, to explain the pickup complexities. Maybe they should come to the door, to assist the person into the vehicle. Maybe the person can’t use a smartphone, and won’t get the notification that the driver has arrived or any of the calls they will then make. Elderly people could easily be in this situation. You could put the destination in, too, in case the passenger has trouble communicating. If you do all those things, then it will be fairly seamless for the passenger.
ETA: I’d like to speak about uberASSIST in a future post, though, being one of the drivers myself.
ETA2: But happy to answer questions here.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Russell Brown,
And you don’t get anyone doing a runner on arrival.
Yup, although that's not so much a safety issue as a convenience one. A really big convenience. Cuts both ways too. No one has to reach for their wallet. People just get in, get driven, get out. Done: Invoice is in the mail. Corporate users love it.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Bart Janssen,
well if it is meant to ensure that taxi drivers and uber drivers are safer on the roads
It's meant to ensure the passengers are safer. Driver safety is via other processes. Taxis have their security cameras. Uber has the app, with location tracking, and the fact that all users have registered with a credit card. Also, I don't have to carry cash.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Bart Janssen,
You got Surged! Topic for another post. It's definitely not uncontroversial. Riders hate it. Drivers love it. But it's pretty much a lottery. About 1/20th of my fares are comprised of extra surge charges. I don't have the stats, but gut feeling is that the possibility of surge adds roughly 5% to the average fare. But the variance is huge!
For future reference, when you book, it warns you if you have surge pricing and you can opt to wait it out, with a notification when it ends. From my experience, it usually lasts about 10 minutes, unless there is a major reason like the end of a concert or football game.
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Speaker: Confessions of an Uber driver, in reply to Russell Brown,
Surprising fact: taxi drivers who are company employees don’t need a P licence. Weird.
I'd like to see his source on that, because as far as I know, it's not true. So long as you drive passengers "For Hire or Reward", you need it.
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A suggestion mooted to other drivers (yes, we are starting to organize) was to advise passengers to use their own powers to make protest. It seems more likely to have an effect on Uber than anything the drivers could say or do otherwise. Our ability to complain to management or strike or do similar industrial actions is negligible.
There are some ways you could do this. If you're not in a hurry, you could just cancel the ride and put in a reason "Driver illegal. No P Endorsement" or something like it. Uber can and will see these. That would be the most punitive to Uber.
If you need the ride, you could rate the driver 1 star, with a similar reason. That is much more punitive to the driver. Low ratings drive them out of the system very fast. But I think you're going to feel personally much worse doing it, after getting perfectly nice ride with some driver, you then 1 star them. Even a 4 star is an effective down-rating.
Or you could just tell them that it's your opinion that they should get compliant. They will certainly get the message. It's also a more direct signal than ratings. We never know who gave us the ratings.
I added a picture to show what it should look like. This should be clearly displayed where every passenger can see it. Usually on the dashboard somewhere, often dangling from the mirror.
