# New driver stressed about ratings



## Adam S. (Dec 4, 2015)

I'm a brand new driver in a small-midsized city/college town (Harrisonburg, VA)

Uber just launched here about a month ago, so many people are getting used to the app, although others (mainly students) have used it elsewhere.

I'm moving to Chicago in January, and was planning to drive for Uber there as I'm putting together various part-time work, but thought I'd get my feet wet here, in a slower market.

My rides all seemed to go well - I'm trying to get the hang of it. I've done only 17 rides, but definitely got a feeling of satisfaction after each ride, especially since everyone was nice overall, and thanked me afterwards. 

Up until this afternoon, I was seeing a 5 star rating by my name when I signed onto the app. I figured this would last for quite awhile, as I had heard that most people give 5 star ratings. But this afternoon, it changed to 4.8, and later in the day, to 4.83.

Is it normal to get really freaked out about this? I started to look back on all my rides and second guess everything I had done. I'm a perfectionist and want to please everyone (which rationally I know is impossible). 

Any advice is so appreciated. Thanks all


----------



## Ayad (Jan 1, 2015)

It is normal to get freaked out in the beginning, but not necessary. Nobody is expected to keep a perfect 5.0 rating, including passengers.


----------



## Adam S. (Dec 4, 2015)

Thanks for your feedback Ayad!


----------



## Abu_Abdullahi (Dec 1, 2015)

Honestly, my advice eventhough some might say is crazy is to avoid weekend night people. I live in Seattle and I have 380 rides on my belt with 4.86. I always work early shifts where most of my pax are flying off. I give out gum which costs 1 dollar, and I work my way up every morning driving till noon. But then again it really depends on where you at. Most night people are rude, drunk and the list goes on.

Gum, and providing phone charger, and knowing the city too well is a good thing and avoiding too many glances on the gps as pax think we know the city too well you know go figure. Anyways take it easy.


----------



## Adam S. (Dec 4, 2015)

Thank you so much Abu for your reply!


----------



## Abu_Abdullahi (Dec 1, 2015)

Your welcome dude.


----------



## ColdRider (Oct 19, 2015)

Good luck in Chicago. We overcrowded homie.


----------



## Dontmakemepullauonyou (Oct 13, 2015)

Adam S. said:


> I'm a brand new driver in a small-midsized city/college town (Harrisonburg, VA)
> 
> Uber just launched here about a month ago, so many people are getting used to the app, although others (mainly students) have used it elsewhere.
> 
> ...


4.83 is good. You just don't want to fall below 4.6 cause that's the deactivation level. You can once deactivated take a class $100 and get activated again with a 5* reset of your score. Fall below 4.6 after that and it's permanent deactivation.


----------



## Adam S. (Dec 4, 2015)

ColdRider said:


> Good luck in Chicago. We overcrowded homie.


Do you have a hard time getting rides due to too many drivers?


----------



## Coachman (Sep 22, 2015)

It's normal to stress out about ratings. It's going to go up and it'll come back down again. I took a guy on a 25 mile ride the other night and about 3/4 of the way through he asks me "Are we getting close yet? I'm late for work." I instantly knew from the tone of his voice that I was screwed on the rating. And sure enough, my rating took a big hit. You just can't worry too much about it.


----------



## hawaiizeke (Dec 5, 2015)

It's hard not to stress about ratings. I started about 5 days ago, thought I was doing everything right, a few minor (IMO) glitches, had to jerk the . wheel to avoid cutting a curb too close, overshot destination one time and had to make a U-turn, and one time GPS did not take into account road was closed and spent 10 minutes figuring out the detour. So I go from a 5 to a 4.43 to a 4.6 to a 4.55 after maybe 25 rides. It sucks that there is no middle ground between 4 and 5 since 4 is unacceptable. All it takes is one person who maybe thinks they are being funny to give you a low score and screw up your rating. And you have no way to explain what might have gone wrong. It just doesn't seem fair (no pun intended). Maybe I am just over sensitive about my score since I just got started. Any advice would be appreciated.


----------



## Coachman (Sep 22, 2015)

hawaiizeke said:


> Any advice would be appreciated.


Navigation is the number one reason drivers get dinged. You have to be on the ball.


----------



## ORT (Nov 14, 2015)

What you should be concerned about is your earnings, not the ratings, ratings is just another way for Uber to keep your focus away from the crap money you are making, while destroying your car and yourself for these billionaires.


----------



## Matt Uterak (Jul 28, 2015)

Ayad said:


> It is normal to get freaked out in the beginning, but not necessary. Nobody is expected to keep a perfect 5.0 rating, including passengers.


I have a perfect 5 rating as a passenger, but I tip every ride. I buy that stuff.


----------



## Matt Uterak (Jul 28, 2015)

Think about this.

If all 17 riders rated you. 14 gave a 5 and 3 a 4. That means a 4.82.

or 16 5* and 1 1*. That means 4.76.

Ratings are a very basic guide. If you are in 4.6 or below territory long term something is wrong. Anything over that means you should ignore them.


----------



## hawaiizeke (Dec 5, 2015)

Define long-term? 100 rides? 500? At what point can one passenger's low rating not adversely impact your score. And at what point does Uber suspend you? This is not my full-time job, but it is a source of pride when I do a good job and provide a service as well as some income and I want to keep both. For example, I picked up five different passengers early Sunday morning after the bars closed and all were in various states of intoxication. One guy wouldn't give me a destination and wanted to drive around to look for food. I accommodated him (was this a mistake?).We wound up at a 7-11. He bought his snacks, gave me directions to his house, I dropped him off and that was it. All very friendly. Another young lady was very drunk. I gave her a bottle of water, some Starburst candies and got her safely home, chatting with her all the way. The other three were routine. No navigation problems. No one was belligerent, just drunk. Yet I check my rating Monday morning and it went down from 9.6 to 9.55. Why? Was it one of these folks too drunk to hit the five stars? This is what drives me crazy after only a week. It bothers me that you don't get to know what person's issues were. Or maybe they think giving 4 stars is good enough. I wish I knew.


----------



## Matt Uterak (Jul 28, 2015)

Long term I mean over 100 rides.

Something you are doing isn't right if you are at 4.55 over all rides, although 25 rides isn't much of a sample.

Take some morning riders - airport runs on Friday through Monday morning. 


The first two week period I drove, I was rated 77 times, 70 were a 5 star. Total was 4.9 according to the summary. Which means the other 7 were 4 stars. I drive an old 2002 car with some body damage, I am ugly, I sometimes smell. This was primarily bar crowd runs Friday, Saturday and some Sunday nights. My worst two week period was a 4.74.

Think about what you are doing wrong, sit in the back seat and see if something looks odd from that position, have a friend sit in the car while your drive and see if they perceive any smells, sounds or other things that make the ride unpleasant.


The OP is in a good place ratings wise, he shouldnt worry.


----------



## Lord Summerisle (Aug 15, 2015)

All this will negatively impact your rating: college kids, drunks, ignorance of rating system, dislike music/no aux cord, temperature, trash from previous pax, smells from previous pax, boring car, refusal to drive-thru, refusal to wait at grocery/liquor store, refusal to perform illegal U-turn/maneuver, failure to pull up exactly where pax is standing, miss a turn, traffic, pax running late, Indians, XL, surge, no gum/water/snacks/Fastrak, not using Waze/google maps, etc, and of course, the biggest ratings killer of all - POOL! So if you take all this into account and assuming you don't drive like a maniac- if you're 4.7 or over - you're doing a brilliant job!


----------



## ORT (Nov 14, 2015)

The most important thing is know your way around, get them from point A to point B ASAP without any incident, nothing more nothing less. With 3500 plus trips and a 4.85* rating "which I don't pay any mind to", I can tell you, my pax don't care about candy or water or aux cables. I do have AUX cable but I use it to play some nice mellow music coming from my DAP, at low levels so if they have a question I can hear it without having to lower the radio, usually at volume level 4-5, and I also carry charging cords for when they need to charge their phone, that's it. Act professional, drive like a professional and you will receive a good rating, which like I said previously I don't pay mind to, as stars don't pay the bills.


----------



## Adam S. (Dec 4, 2015)

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm now at 36 rides, but I'm a little confused about the ratings. 

When I sign on to my app, it says I'm 4.75.

When I go to the uberpartner website, it says 4.65 for my 30 day rating, and 4.5 for my 7 day rating. 

However, when I got my weekly summary e-mail, it said my current rating is 5.0

Ha, just a little confused by how this is all calculated. Wish I could see which rides gave me which ratings.

I am in a college town and uber is still new here - so ratings could be a little inconsistent. I believe I am doing a good job as a driver - sometimes the navigation in the app is a little inconsistent, or the pin drop is off, so pick-up points aren't always very clear, but I try to always communicate by text when I'm close, and I'm a friendly driver, offer water, etc. 

Thanks again for your feedback. I'm completely an over-thinker, so I'm sure I'm obsessing waaay too much, but I know I'm not the only one.


----------



## ORT (Nov 14, 2015)

Adam S. said:


> Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm now at 36 rides, but I'm a little confused about the ratings.
> 
> When I sign on to my app, it says I'm 4.75.
> 
> ...


This had been discussed in here to nauseam, there must be a post like your here ever day, use the search function in this forum, it works.


----------



## Coachman (Sep 22, 2015)

Adam S. said:


> Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm now at 36 rides, but I'm a little confused about the ratings.
> 
> When I sign on to my app, it says I'm 4.75.
> 
> ...


When you go to your dashboard you'll see the current overall rating in the upper right hand corner. That should match the 365 day rating and the rating shown on your app. Sometimes when the rating changes one or the other of these will update first, so they might temporarily be out of sync.

The 30 and 7 day ratings are rolling averages and change often. They can make you feel good or bad depending on the recent trend. But I try not to pay them too much attention.


----------



## fotograzio (Dec 10, 2015)

I don't know of any rating system used by any public, private or governmental agency that allows anonymous ratings without from people whose issues you are not able to address. Why not make it compulsory for passengers who rate lower than 5 stars to justify it in writing on their app. If this is the standard UBER considers fare for drivers, then why not give drivers who are not rated by passengers a 5-star rating since there were no complaints. It's only fair and it fits the erroneous rating system they are using on their drivers.


----------



## Adam S. (Dec 4, 2015)

Coachman said:


> When you go to your dashboard you'll see the current overall rating in the upper right hand corner. That should match the 365 day rating and the rating shown on your app. Sometimes when the rating changes one or the other of these will update first, so they might temporarily be out of sync.
> 
> The 30 and 7 day ratings are rolling averages and change often. They can make you feel good or bad depending on the recent trend. But I try not to pay them too much attention.


Thanks for the info!


----------



## Scruffy one (Oct 21, 2015)

hawaiizeke said:


> It's hard not to stress about ratings. I started about 5 days ago, thought I was doing everything right, a few minor (IMO) glitches, had to jerk the . wheel to avoid cutting a curb too close, overshot destination one time and had to make a U-turn, and one time GPS did not take into account road was closed and spent 10 minutes figuring out the detour. So I go from a 5 to a 4.43 to a 4.6 to a 4.55 after maybe 25 rides. It sucks that there is no middle ground between 4 and 5 since 4 is unacceptable. All it takes is one person who maybe thinks they are being funny to give you a low score and screw up your rating. And you have no way to explain what might have gone wrong. It just doesn't seem fair (no pun intended). Maybe I am just over sensitive about my score since I just got started. Any advice would be appreciated.


My rating has dropped when I have taken a couple days off. What gets me is, you can send Uber an email detailing problems with the pax and they still ding your rating. It doesn't matter, bottled water, snacks, whatever, if somebody is in a bad mood or just likes to rate you poorly because they can, Uber takes their rating and it can jeopardize you contract. I had a woman complain to me, she had been watching me on her app and I stopped 4-6 times on my way to get her. Wait for it... she thought when she sent for a car, we went directly to her. Ignore stop lights, stop signs, school buses, etc. Then, taking her to her destination, I knew a short cut that would have saved her about 4 miles. Funny, a complaint came in that I didn't know the area well & should learn it better. No matter what you do, how hard you try, somebody can & will trip you. Good luck to you and be safe this Holiday season.


----------

