Uber Usage Question

[haha]

Say my friend and I are downtown together, and she needs to go to her place but I want to get out at my place, which is a small deviation from the best route straight to her home, and would be the interim destination. I live one block south of the route to her place, which is a street running diagonally NE

What is best way to order an Uber, to get least price? From our downtown start point to my home is 1 mile, then from my home to hers will be 2.5 miles.

But I think there is always a destination charge, even if I just called in again before I even got out of the car at my home and she never even left the car until her home.

I'll pay, so I am not worried about the billing aspect.

Looking forward to suggestions-thanks.

Ha

 

[gauss]

I believe UBER charges are based on the actual mileage and time logged during the trip plus any trip fixed costs. I would probably enter the "final destination" into the app, then ask if you can drop someone off along the way.

Hopefully there would be no need to renter anything more in the app. The driver should be paid for the total mileage and time.

-gauss

 

[cathy63]

The Uber app supports multiple stops. Touch the "Where to?" box and it will take you to the list of previous destinations and pop up the keyboard. There's a + next to the destination box on that screen. If you click the + you can add another destination.

 

[haha]

Thanks for this information. I haven’t done a trip with a stop since I posted, but I did a dry run and see how it works.

I have 2 other Uber questions. It was mentioned that the charge and the drivers pay depend on distance, and time and also “surge” which seems to be a form of demand pricing. The areas that I go are very familiar to me, and sometimes either the driver has no clue where he should go, or he thinks that I don’t so he can just pad a bit. Today I summoned at 6th and Pike, to go to 18th and Spring. Direct and best route would head immediately east then move 3 blocks east. Instead driver headed south on 7th which is going to require a lot of hopscotch to get to destination. Similar things have happened often. Are they supposed to follow some app that chooses their route? Definitely some map and direction apps stink.

My other question is tipping. The Uber app more or less trolls for tips. Since only a minority of drivers seem to have even rudimentary familiarity with the city I am not sure why I should tip. What do you do?

Ha

 

[Scuba]

Thanks for this information. I haven’t done a trip with a stop since I posted, but I did a dry run and see how it works.

I have 2 other Uber questions. It was mentioned that the charge and the drivers pay depend on distance, and time and also “surge” which seems to be a form of demand pricing. The areas that I go are very familiar to me, and sometimes either the driver has no clue where he should go, or he thinks that I don’t so he can just pad a bit. Today I summoned at 6th and Pike, to go to 18th and Spring. Direct and best route would head immediately east then move 3 blocks east. Instead driver headed south on 7th which is going to require a lot of hopscotch to get to destination. Similar things have happened often. Are they supposed to follow some app that chooses their route? Definitely some map and direction apps stink.

My other question is tipping. The Uber app more or less trolls for tips. Since only a minority of drivers seem to have even rudimentary familiarity with the city I am not sure why I should tip. What do you do?

Ha

I tip unless there is a good reason not to. First because I think they deserve it, but second because Uber drivers rate passengers just as passengers rate the drivers. I’ve had a couple of drivers tell me they won’t pick up anyone rated below 4/5. Not sure if failure to tip would result in a bad rating, but it might.

Not sure about your first question. I haven’t had that issue.

 

[Sunset]

I have an Uber question, when you tip an Uber driver is it cash ? or on the phone ?

I think the driver would prefer cash tip so he/she don't have to share it with Uber, but I've never used them yet so no clue.

 

[NW-Bound]

I used Uber only a few times, and the last time was several months ago. The cost was determined by the app at the time I entered in the destination (the app knew my present position). And that was what was charged later. If the driver took a longer route to get there, he would not make more.

I did tip. In Paris, the French driver first shook his head but took the cash tip when I insisted. At home, the driver appeared pleased when I offered the cash tip.

Back then, Uber said that no tip necessary. I am surprised to learn that they troll for tips now. Perhaps that was caused by the backlash that Uber was too stingy towards the drivers.

 

[Cobra9777]

DW and I use Uber and Lyft fairly frequently. We always tip at least $1 even on very short trips. Maybe $10 on airport trips that take 30-40 minutes in traffic with lots of luggage. We always use the app to tip, not cash. I would not say that either app "trolls" for tips. They do make it very easy to tip if you want to, but no pressure of any kind.

Regarding the route, the drivers just follow the map in the app. You can see it on their phone (usually attached to the dash) and on your phone as well. I assume it monitors traffic similar to Google Maps, which might explain strange routes at times. I'm not shy about asking the driver about the route or making suggestions, especially for destinations and routes I'm very familiar with. In an unfamiliar setting, I just leave all that to the driver.

 

[exnavynuke]

Uber drivers, unlike cabs, aren't paid based on miles. They get paid the same whether they take the most direct route to the destination or if they go 30 miles out of the way to get there. As such, most of them will follow the directions on the app explicitly since it monitors for real-time traffic conditions to plot the fastest route available at the time per a bunch of calculations. I've found it interesting that sometimes the "locals" take longer to get somewhere than people from out of town because they assume they know the best way to get somewhere, while the out of towners let computers calculate it for them. Kinda embarrassing for two cars to leave the same place to go somewhere and have the locals show up a couple minutes later since they "knew" how to get there fastest..

Regarding tips, they go directly to the driver, Uber does not take a cut of them. Paying a tip via the app (which you can do after the trip) will result in the tips being reported. Paying in cash leaves it up to the discretion of the driver whether they wish to report their entire income for tax purposes..

 

[Red Badger]

I am a big fan of Uber and other disruptive technologies. After dozens and dozens of Uber rides, I've only had a couple of drivers that warranted less than 5 stars.

Back in the days when taxis where the only choice, my experience with rude, incompetent, and corrupt drivers (both here and abroad) was not uncommon.

You have to confirm the charge when booking. There is no after the fact time/distant charge.

 

[cathy63]

Thanks for this information. I haven’t done a trip with a stop since I posted, but I did a dry run and see how it works.

I have 2 other Uber questions. It was mentioned that the charge and the drivers pay depend on distance, and time and also “surge” which seems to be a form of demand pricing. The areas that I go are very familiar to me, and sometimes either the driver has no clue where he should go, or he thinks that I don’t so he can just pad a bit. Today I summoned at 6th and Pike, to go to 18th and Spring. Direct and best route would head immediately east then move 3 blocks east. Instead driver headed south on 7th which is going to require a lot of hopscotch to get to destination. Similar things have happened often. Are they supposed to follow some app that chooses their route? Definitely some map and direction apps stink.

My other question is tipping. The Uber app more or less trolls for tips. Since only a minority of drivers seem to have even rudimentary familiarity with the city I am not sure why I should tip. What do you do?

Ha

The pricing is set before you request the car. The app tells you how much it will cost, and if you don't like that price, you can cancel. The driver doesn't even know where you're going until you get into the car and the price doesn't change just because the driver takes a different route than the one his app recommended, so there's no padding involved. This is not like the metered taxi business model.

Also, the most direct route may not always be the best route. You can't see that there's construction causing a traffic jam along your usual route, but crowd sourced traffic apps do know that everybody over there is not moving for some reason and it will actually be faster to drive a mile south before turning east. I don't know if that's what happened in your case yesterday, but it's one possibility.

I do tip for several reasons:
- I would tip if I were in a taxi, and I got the same service from the Uber driver
- Uber is saving me money over a cab, so I can share part of that savings with the driver
- Uber drivers are earning very little, certainly less than the local minimum wage
- I want to keep a good rating so that future Uber drivers will pick me up when I need a ride

 

[bltkmt]

The Uber app supports multiple stops. Touch the "Where to?" box and it will take you to the list of previous destinations and pop up the keyboard. There's a + next to the destination box on that screen. If you click the + you can add another destination.

This. I just used it recently.

 

[kgtest]

Used uber once, well someone ordered one for me after landing at a small airport via private jet. They said I did not have to tip, so I didn't but the driver gave a funny look when I didn't.

I did enjoy the starburst candy the driver offered. Cab driver never once offered me that.

Scaling safe late-night transportation probably wasn't a bad thing. Next time I need a cab from the airport I'll try uber with a tip. My last cab driver way over charged and so undelivered...kept yapping about how I shouldn't stand close to the microwave.

I left my $80 leather gloves in that Uber that I didn't order. I had no way of calling him once I realized I left them, since it was ordered for me. A good gesture really gone awry.

 

[kcowan]

One things we have noticed in PV is that surge pricing is often active and waiting a few minutes can cause it to drop.

 

[sengsational]

I really like the feature "the price you see is the price you get", but I do have a warning...

If the driver takes a longer route, the passenger should be wary of changing the destination (even by getting out "early"). I did this once and the price went up. Not by a lot, but by making it easier on the driver, I cost myself money, which seems counter intuitive.

As to the solution of adding a stop, I'm not sure how it would work price-wise, but you could both order UBER-pool at the same time. If both of you accept a ride from the same driver, then you'd both pay separately, but ride together. The more typical pool scenario involves picking up two people that don't know each other at the same place and dropping them at destinations close together, as determined by the UBER algorithms.

 

[NYEXPAT]

I use Uber frequently and in Peru, we never tip taxi's of any type . Also frequently drop off people mid trip with no additional charge, in which case I will tip.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I always tip in cash. A ride home from downtown is only 8 dollars and I always tip 3 because they don't get that much on short rides. We often walk downtown and Uber home.

 

[haha]

A lot of helpful info, thanks to all!

Ha