Uber Driving - My Stories

My most memorable Uber interactions

I naturally lean towards being introverted. Would I be able to maintain passenger conversations? I found I had nothing to fear and learned a few things:
 

• Not everyone wants to chat, I became better at reading people
• Focus the conversation on the passenger, people love to talk about themselves
• Be your genuine self, people can sense a facade

I completed 270+ trips in 3 months and accumulated a few stories. Below are a few of my favourites…..enjoy!!

Good Experiences

The Italian Job
An UberXL job came through at 2am, pulling into the driveway I was greeted by a big wave. My passengers were a friendly Italian family. The Mum, her son, his girlfiend, nephew, his girlfriend and Aunty. Their ages would have ranged from early 20s to mid 50s.

They were a chatty bunch. Everyone was giving each other stick and they extended the same courtesy to me! The mum’s said “what happens if we all just run off” I cracked up laughing (as did everyone else). Uber has your credit card, if you walk or run away everyone still gets paid.

The family decided to hit the pokies at Harbord Diggers. I remember thinking it was pretty cool the family do stuff like this together at 2am!

We arrived and they said “Park your car and come with us!” I was tempted to call it a night and hangout. I don’t gamble and wasn’t close to my $200 nightly target so I politely declined. They put a smile on my dial. The smile got bigger when the app notified me of the $10 tip they left ….thanks Italian fam!

A Mum’s Love
At 1am I picked up a family in the Northern Beaches. Dad, Mum and 2 children were waiting outside - great Uber passenger behaviour! I found it odd the mum jumped in the front seat (usually the Dad would be in the front). I got used to this as it’s not often a Uber premium arrives when you’ve ordered an UberX.

My Uber Chill playlist was playing and Green Green Grass - acoustic by George Ezra came on. The mum started singing along softly and kept turning around to her daughter and they both were singing along. It wasn’t the singing but the love the mum had for her daughter was tangible. Being a Dad I understand, I’ve seen it with my wife and children. It was beautiful to witness that moment.

The IT Crowd
Around 11pm on Friday night in Lane Cove North 2 work colleagues jumped in from their Christmas party. They were chatting for about 30 minutes about an application monitoring solution. I dropped the first passenger at her destination. We started chatting and didn’t take long before we had an in-depth conversation about the software vendor he worked for. He was surprised I knew about his company and their technology. Long story short he was stoked to find out I worked in pre-sales and peppered me with questions about my experience. He was curious how I moved from support to pre-sales. Nice dude (Nikola) he left me a $5 tip and added me on LinkedIn.

Nervous Passenger
Trust can be hard for women who get into late night Ubers and rightfully so. There have been numerous incidents in Australia where Uber drivers even fake drivers have abused this trust.

I accepted a UberX job around 1am, the pickup location was inland in a remote part of the Northern beaches. The area was dark with no street lights. After a few minutes a lady timidly opened the door and asked me to confirm the PIN. Uber has a security feature where drivers must provide a PIN to confirm they are the correct Uber driver. We exchanged PIN information and she slid into the car.

She seemed nervous and I wanted to put her at ease. Striking up a conversation we somehow arrived on the topic of motorbikes. She told me what she rode and I shared what I rode. I briefly explained how I gave up riding after our firstborn. She asked about my family, this small conversation set her at ease. We sat in comfortable silence for the remainder of the trip. It must have been a good experience, she tipped me $30 for a trip that cost her less than $30….thanks!

Low Rated Passengers
There are plenty of horror stories on Uber forums of low rated passengers causing havoc. Initially I avoided jobs with passenger ratings below 4.7. My wife changed my mind. She received a 1 star when her driver could not find her. (I think in the early days a driver could rate you even if they did not pick you up). The low rating stuck through no fault of her own.

I vividly recall accepting my first low rated passenger, at 4.6 stars. I picked up a young lady at 2am in a dark secluded park area. Driving into the dead end parking lot it crossed my mind I could be mugged. My fears were unfounded. The lady jumped in and was friendly enough, not talkative but absolutely no issues. My bias towards low rated passengers changed that night.

The lowest rated passenger I’ve picked up was a 4.5 rating. I was curious to find out if the low rating was justified. It was a 3am pickup in the Eastern Suburbs. The guy was in his 30s and looked a bit rough, he was a bit jittery. He was heading to Redfern a neighbourhood with a large concentration of public housing. Never judge a book by it’s cover or Uber rating, he was a nice guy, absolutely harmless. We had a good conversation about his nieces and nephews and he dabbed me up when he left.

Not So Good Experiences

“Thanks for having me”
Doing late night Uber it’s inevitable you will pickup drunk passengers.

Around 12am I got a job to pickup a lady from The Corso outside the Hotel Steyne. I drove slowly past her live location but could not find her amongst the crowd. This was my pet peeve with passengers. Passengers know the driver’s make, model, colour and rego. They also have a picture of their Uber driver. All we have is a pin on a map and a name. Unless you flag me down it’s hard for me to identify you in a crowd. I called her but no answer.

I did a u-turn and she flagged me down and told me to wait, I am a patient chap but this was testing it - we are not chauffeurs. The pickup location has 1 lane in each direction, you can’t hold up traffic for long. She spent over a minute saying goodbye to her man friend, I was tantalizingly close to cancelling the ride.

She eventually fell (not an exaggeration) into the front seat and her man friend closed the door. I confirmed her destination, she called the guy who I presume she said goodbye to. With her phone on speaker they openly discussed the complexity of their relationship. It was obvious she wanted more but he didn’t.

She passed out a few minutes after hanging up the phone. We were about 10 minutes into a 25 minute trip. It dawned on me I could have a problem. Uber safety briefings stress you cannot physically remove a passenger from the vehicle.

I wanted no part of being accused of inappropriate touching where it would be my word against hers. She made things worse by being passed out half over the centre console. At one point I stopped at traffic lights. The passengers in the ute next to me gave me a bemused look when seeing her and my awkward driving position (remember Uber tells us not to touch passengers).

I was low key stressed about how to wake her up. My plan was to drive to the police station if I could not wake her. I was sure they could lawfully remove her. Thankfully no police assistance was required. Closer to the destination I set the air conditioning to LOW with full fan! She woke up a bit dazed and confused. I’ll never forget what she said as she left, “Thanks for having me”, like my kids thanking their friends parents after a sleep over. She zig zagged across the road and I drove off.

Holding it together - Legend
One night a young man jumped in and confirmed his location. Then complete silence, I glanced around and he was snoring softly in the back. Clearly he had held it together enough to get into the Uber and appear sober, honestly what a legend I was impressed.

Then he randomly started shouting things in his sleep. At one point he was sleep talking about how he loved someone. It was a short trip about 10 minutes in length. My air conditioning trick would not be as effective, the back seat had less vents. I decided to use the interior led lights at the destination, they are super bright and did the trick.

It got weird quickly. He was far more intoxicated than I assumed. He could not figure out how to open the door. I kept telling him it was the big silver handle. He would grope aimlessly in random places. Eventually I leaned back to try and open the door. He saw my hand and repeatedly tried to shake it. I had a little internal chuckle when he eventually connected and shook my hand. It took a good one and half minutes for him to get out of the car.

Once he was out what I saw made me sad. He was so drunk barely able to balance. I considered helping him into his house but Uber are pretty strict about this. Looking back I should have helped more, I hope he made it inside safely.

Entitled Passengers
People who know me would acknowledge I am pretty chill. It takes a lot to get me worked up.
My relaxed demeanor served me well while Ubering. I was ok with:

• People eating in the car
• Changing destination mid trip
• People cranking their tunes
• Adding stops mid trip
• Making detours for late night feeds
• Taking directions from locals
• Stopping at servos

The caveat was treating me with respect and 99.9% of people did. One night I accepted a job to pickup up a lady and her companions from Millers Point in the city.

I confirmed their destination. The lady promptly told me to take particular roads home. I don’t mind taking directions but what irked me was the manner in which she talked down to me. I was honest with her and said “Sorry I don’t know those roads but I’m happy to plug in an alternative route via Google Maps”. Her friends reminded her at this late hour it would not be any quicker, end of story I thought.

A few times she provided orders in the form of directions, I complied. I stayed polite but internally my annoyance meter was creeping up. Some people want to pay pennies for their ride home but act like we are their personal drivers. Also the Uber meter does not work like a taxi. We might get an extra dollar if we are lucky (Uber will still take their 27.5% out of that too!). We genuinely want to drop you off as quickly as possible to move onto the next job. I dropped them off and still gave her 5 stars.

Trusted Position

Being a Uber driver is a trusted position regardless of what people think about drivers. Someone is trusting you to get them home safely. Driving safely is obvious but also making people feel safe. Passengers are more likely to be in a vulnerable state at the end of their night making trust even more important.

Parents also place trust in Uber drivers. A lot of the late night pickups were young adults making their way home. They would openly share that their parents credit cards were used to pay for the Uber home. Parents are providing financial backing to get their children home safely via Ubers. Back in my day it was that awkward call to Dad, please pick me up!

As a father it made me feel good dropping these young adults off safely. I would want someone like me getting my kids home safely. Some even used their parents Uber profiles. One night I was surprised to be picking up Barbara from The Corso at 3am. The generation named Barb don’t stay out until 3am at this nightlife hotspot! A young man jumped in and before I could say anything he said “I am using my mums profile!”

I’ve also had a few interesting encounters where people have opened up like I was their shrink. One guy I picked up in the Sydney CDB opened up. He was going to his ex-girlfriends and shared the challenges with his ex and shared custody of their child. Another passenger shared how he struggled with his mental health and required medication, reading between the lines his home life wasn’t the best. He dabbed me up when he left, I felt sorry I could not do anything for this young man.

I read somewhere people feel comfortable opening up in Uber/taxi situations for the following reasons:

• They won’t see their driver again
• Short duration of the trip
• Captive Audience
• Comfortable and usually dark

I quickly figured out these passengers just wanted to unload their burdens to someone that was actively listening.

Conclusion

In Part 1 of my Uber driving experience I broke down the $$$ behind Uber driving. I clearly wasn’t doing it for financial gain! So why did I drive for 3 months?

The simple reason was I enjoyed it. I was happy to sit with my thoughts while driving someone else home but also happy to engage if someone wanted to chat.

Every trip was like rolling the dice. What would the destination be? Who would be jumping in the car? Thankfully I never had any bad experiences, overall everyone was respectful. I’ll never forget one young guy I took home from a house party. As he left he bid me a safe night of driving. Small things like that take little effort but leave a lasting impression.

Honestly? I miss the interactions with random people late night Uber driving. Perhaps one day if we buy an electric vehicle I will Uber drive again. The financials would make sense and I can continue additions to my life library of interesting stories.