Things rideshare drivers wish passengers understood

Whether you’re an Uber driver or passenger, you think the other person knows exactly what you’re going through. But they don’t. Drivers don’t understand riders and riders don’t understand drivers.

Here are a few things that are so obvious to drivers that they are at a loss when they realize riders really don’t know them … and they wish they did.

Uber drivers don’t make much

First and foremost among the things drivers would like riders to know is that they don’t make all that much money from driving. And as a result they wish riders would be a little more generous with their tips.

In a 2018 driver earnings survey, Ridester discovered that Uber riders leave an average tip of just 7%. And that’s just for the riders who leave tips — 95% of them don’t. Drivers make less than $1 an hour in tips.

This same survey found that more than 50% of drivers earn less than $10 an hour after factoring in hourly car expenses. So, a little help from tips would be greatly appreciated. The bottom line is that both Uber and Lyft simply do not charge riders enough to compensate drivers fairly. In exchange for the ultra-cheap fares, which are around half of taxi fares in most cities, it wouldn’t hurt for more passengers to fork over a couple of bucks in tips. Drivers really appreciate it.

We hate constantly being asked if we like doing rideshare

Can you imagine if you met two to four new strangers every hour at your job and every one of them asked you how you like working for your company? It would probably drive you crazy after a couple of hours. Well, Uber drivers are no different. We don’t like the question either, because for us the question puts us in a very precarious position and it is a landmine of potential problems.

If we tell the truth and say we don’t like it much or if we start complaining about Uber and Lyft, we’ll sound like sour grapes. People will think we’re bitter or worse, bitter and angry! Any kind of negativity like that is going to lead to lower ratings from riders. And drivers will pretty much do anything to ensure that their rating is as high as possible.

We don’t control where we drive

One thing riders have trouble understanding is that each day we have no idea where we’re going to end up. But we do know it will be in places we’ve never been to before or aren’t very familiar with.

When an Uber/Lyft driver picks up a passenger, passengers naturally assume that they’re from that area and should know it like the back of their hand. What they don’t seem to realize is that many of us ended up there because that’s where our last passenger had us drop them off. We may have never been there before. Or, we may have been there a couple of times but not enough to really know our way around. Often times riders express frustration when we’re not as familiar with their area as they think we should be.

A typical day for a rideshare driver usually starts out in an area they are familiar with, but there will be days when the last time they see that area is right before they pick up their first passenger. That passenger can take them so far out that they never get back to it the whole day.

Just as an example, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are all relatively close to each other, and New York City drivers are allowed to drive in all three states. A New York driver may pick up an early morning passenger in Manhattan who happens to work in Stamford, Conn. So he gets a nice long, profitable trip up to Stamford, but he doesn’t just head back empty, he leaves the app on, hoping to get riders who will gradually lead him back to Manhattan.

But, he may get riders who are going to other places in Connecticut and never make it back to Manhattan for the rest of the day.

His Connecticut passengers, however, have no idea about this. They don’t know he’s based out of Manhattan and spends 90% of his time driving in New York City. They think because he picked them up in Connecticut, he must be from Connecticut. So, some of these passengers may give him a low rating because they don’t feel he knows the area as well as he should. If they knew he wasn’t from there, though, they might be more generous in their ratings.