Mile Nerd

Whenever I criticize anyone, I tend to get a good-sized response. In fairness, there are multiple sides to every story. Because of that, I’d like to post one of the conversations I had with an Uber driver in the last couple days. Here is what Stephon had to say:

“A friend forwarded your article to me, and I felt obliged to explain to him and you why the Uber service is getting worse. I have driven for Uber for the last year and a half. In 2014, the fare was $1 per mile in Dallas, TX. The insurance was $1 per trip. Now it’s 75 cents per mile – before Uber gets their 20% share and the $1.70 for insurance (was $1). A lot of numbers, but the point is I make $2 rides on a regular basis.

On a 3 to 4 mile trip, this goes below the IRS approved cost per mile. It doesn’t even pay for the basic cost of a mile, let alone for the payments on my nice car, or for my time and effort. I make a  total of $50-100 a day with Uber. After the gas and maintenance, it gets below the minimal wage of $7/hr.

In their wish to attract more customers, Uber lowered the fares below what is reasonable. The Uber drivers earn 3-4 times less than a regular cab driver. All expenses are covered by these very little monies you love Uber for. And everyone quickly learned to not tip, even if the driver provides a great service, giving a 4-dollars ride to a noisy party of drunken teenagers.

So nice drivers with good cars are leaving Uber. Only a total loser, with a cheap, old car can make SOME living on Uber. Live with it. You get what you’re paying for. A cheap, low-quality service.

-Stephon”

“I appreciate the email but your point isn’t that different than mine, right? Uber is making both drivers and passengers unhappy right now. I don’t think drivers should give passengers negative feedback if they don’t tip (especially since that was the whole reason a lot of people signed up for Uber). And I also don’t think drivers are making enough money.”

“Agree. Uber is pushing the prices down, to a level that demonstrates how little respect they have for the people who actually work for them. I don’t give low ratings for not tipping, because no one is tipping. But I understand the frustration of the drivers, some of whom have taken loans out to buy a nice car and now they can’t make the payments because Uber lowered the fares so much.

-Stephon”

Two things:

1. I really don’t want to pay more money for rides, but something is clear from the drivers I heard from. They believe they are getting the squeeze from Uber. Especially UberX drivers. Doubtful they’ll ever see an increased split of profits, so many are pissed off about working so hard and barely getting by.
2. Taking it out on riders who don’t tip isn’t the answer. I think Uber should fix their rating system so that drivers don’t even have the ability to give low ratings to non-tippers. Ebay made a similar fix when they removed the ability for sellers to give “revenge negative feedback” to buyers.

I got a lot of emails and feel like Uber is pissing off a lot of people on both sides right now. They need to make some changes or competitors will take full advantage of the opportunity. Let’s see if anything actually happens…

Ever since Uber came along, I’ve been a giant, outspoken fan. No shortage of things to love…

• Cash not needed? Nice!
• I can request a ride from my app? Awesome!
• Rude cabbies gone for good? Amazing!
• Tipping not necessary? Sounds great!

But a funny thing happened on the way to Shangri-La…

Uber kept pissing me off.

The final straw wasn’t surge pricing. It wasn’t even a string of drivers who kept using their phones while driving on the freeway. I told myself those were isolated incidents.

Man, I was still an Uber supporter even after I heard stories about a rapist and a murderer.

Those were really, really isolated incidents…

Right?

Of course! Come on Uber, you know you’re never going to lose me! 

Uh, things change in a hurry.

This month, I heard from readers Steve and Michelle. They told me something that sounded too crazy to be true…

No way Uber drivers were giving negative ratings to passengers who didn’t tip. Nuts, right? I mean, one of the big draws of signing up for Uber was the fact that we didn’t have to tip…

So I reached out to a few readers who are also drivers. One way or another, I was going to find the answer…

Damn.

The answer sucks.

Multiple drivers admitted they give low ratings to passengers who don’t tip.

So then I decided to spend way too much time reading through the Uber driver forums. And, yeah, it’s apparently very common for drivers to be vengeful with the ratings they give us.

Keeping things in perspective, there have been worse incidents. There are criminal, scary stories to be told about Uber drivers. But, like I said, it’s easy to brush those things off as fluke events.

There’s nothing fluke about this rating stuff.

It’s a very common way of doing business with Uber.

And it sucks.

Riders shouldn’t be pressured into tipping in some weird passive aggressive way. We sign up with the understanding that tipping isn’t necessary.

So now it’s expected? Why and when did things change?

When it comes down to it, many Uber drivers are punishing riders who don’t pay extra.

Not cool.

I’ve been a huge fan since the beginning, Uber. But you keep pissing me off. This hasn’t been a good trend for you. Most of the drivers I talk to are unhappy with how cheap you are. And now your riders (including me) are growing unhappy with the drivers.

Better fix this soon, Uber. I’m starting to think my praise of you was a big mistake.