# Ratings....



## ironUberman (Jul 8, 2015)

can anyone offer some insight into rating trends they see? I am new (58 rides) and my rating is 4.74. I drive a 2007 Touring Honda Odyssey in good condition. 

I wear an under armor polo and cargo shorts. Drive mainly busy hours for party scene. 

I really can't figure it out and I am ocd'ing about it a little bit.


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## Snowtop (Nov 11, 2014)

If you are driving party hours which I assume you mean late night just accept it. Drunks and young people will screw with your ratings.

Drive for a week or two daytime and I can pretty much assure your rating will go up. I never drive during party time and with almost 500 trips my rating is 4.87.


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## ironUberman (Jul 8, 2015)

Snowtop said:


> If you are driving party hours which I assume you mean late night just accept it. Drunks and young people will screw with your ratings.
> 
> Drive for a week or two daytime and I can pretty much assure your rating will go up. I never drive during party time and with almost 500 trips my rating is 4.87.


What kind of car do you drive? Do you offer all kinds of free stuff to pax? Seems like drivers have no chance of five stars if there are drivers out there doling out free waters and candy.


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## BombshellSydney (Jun 15, 2015)

I am a newbie as well. 285 trips and my current rating is 4.9. However, I've seen my rating drop as low a 4.88. So I agree with snowtop drive during the day if possible. Also, a tip I picked up from someone on one of these boards is to end your ride by saying "Thank you for being a 5 star customer" or something that sounds authentic to you. It really has made my ratings go back up. Good luck!


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## Overachiever (Jul 9, 2015)

I tried my hand at Saturday night (also a new driver). Averaged a 3.33 rating and picked up a lot of asshole, passed out or rambling drunks that probably couldn't even remember how awesome my ride was when they woke up the next day to rate me. I'm driving a clean 2015 Mazda3, still smells new.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

I used to keep water and mints in my UberX mobile, but few took them. These days I forget to take them out to the car, when I do decide to UberX over the taxi. I still have a couple of water bottles in the refrigerator that have not moved for some time.

Still, what they said about the drunks.............I do not know what it is about them, but they seem to be less generous with the stars than people during the day. For Uber Taxi, though, the stars come at about the same rate from the drunks as they come from anyone else.

Funny thing, though, about the cabs. People are stingy with the tips when they are on their way to work. When they are going out, however, they seem to be more generous. When I was younger, I used to do these marathons, so that I could save money for long vacations. I would pick up a guy from home at 0800, take him to work, receive the fare and a *whole* _thirty cents_ tip. *WOW!* A whole _thirty cents_! May I really keep it _*ALL*_? I would pick up the same guy at 2000, he would come out with his wife, I would take them to the Kennedy Centre or the bar at the _Intrigue_ for a drink before the show, and this _same_ guy would tip me two dollars and the change.

I miss the old _Intrigue_ and its bar. It was one of the better hotel bars that I have ever encountered anywhere. I used to live in Foggy Bottom, so it was an easy walk there.


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## Snowtop (Nov 11, 2014)

I offer no extras. Just a new car (2014 Hyundai Tuscon). I am friendly when wanted and silent when it appears the pax doesn't want conversation.

I also make sure that when I pick up a new rider to Uber to explain the rating system. I usually tell them that in the Uber world a 4 star is a bad rating and I would appreciate it that if they had a good ride a 5 star. I also tell them that they are rated and I will be giving them 5 stars as well. I would guess that this would not work on the party crowd.


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## Kingo9 (May 20, 2015)

ironUberman said:


> What kind of car do you drive? Do you offer all kinds of free stuff to pax? Seems like drivers have no chance of five stars if there are drivers out there doling out free waters and candy.


This is not true.

I also did the water thing when I first started. Haven't since my first week or 2 and I have a 4.93. It's been said, but I would have to say that its about when you drive. This is just a side gig for me, so I usually sign off by midnight; 2am at the latest. I never stay out when the bars close at 3am. There is money to be made there for sure, but it's just not worth the risk to me. I get the groups to the bars, I let the rest of you take them home.

ironUberman- I assume you are driving for XL?


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## ironUberman (Jul 8, 2015)

Kingo9 said:


> This is not true.
> 
> I also did the water thing when I first started. Haven't since my first week or 2 and I have a 4.93. It's been said, but I would have to say that its about when you drive. This is just a side gig for me, so I usually sign off by midnight; 2am at the latest. I never stay out when the bars close at 3am. There is money to be made there for sure, but it's just not worth the risk to me. I get the groups to the bars, I let the rest of you take them home.
> 
> ironUberman- I assume you are driving for XL?


Yes, I am driving for XL. I'm absolutely certain that last night I was rated poorly because I didn't accept NINE passengers, with only six available seat belts. It seems to me that if you disagree with any pax request the rating plummets.


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## Kingo9 (May 20, 2015)

Did you take 6 of them? If you or they cancelled, neither of you gets to rate. If you get the request to take more, I'd cancel and move on. You are getting a bad rating if you take some of the group. The only time I didn't cancel and took part of the group was when I was 10+ miles from downtown. They didn't rate badly, but the whole time driving them I'm just thinking... "Ughhh" That time it worked, but most it will not. Tell them it's a safety and liability risk. If something happened, no one would get any medical coverage. You are doing it to protect them. Make it about them, not you.


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## madUber74 (Jun 3, 2015)

ironUberman said:


> can anyone offer some insight into rating trends they see? I am new (58 rides) and my rating is 4.74. I drive a 2007 Touring Honda Odyssey in good condition.
> 
> I wear an under armor polo and cargo shorts. Drive mainly busy hours for party scene.
> 
> I really can't figure it out and I am ocd'ing about it a little bit.


Bottom line: Don't sweat your rating too much

Uber bases your overall rating on your last 500 trip so at the beginning you'll see it fluctuate around a lot more when you get someone who low-stars you. After you start racking up more rides your rating will stop moving around so much and will settle in. If you get regular weekly summaries from your regional Uber office, and if you got particularly screwed over by a string of bad ratings you might get some warnings about being below average for that week and some relatively unhelpful tips to correct this. You can pretty much pay no mind to them unless your rating falls below...well, apparently that threshold varies by market.

Yes, drunk people will low-star you more frequently and for more asinine reasons than sober ones will. So only working bar time while usually good for cash inherently results in consistently lower ratings than if you mix it up. It's the nature of the bar time beast. And yes, large over capacity groups will low-star you if you don't let them all cram in illegally but only take the legal number of them. Your best move is to cancel on them.

I don't offer free stuff. Even if water and mints are cheap I don't make enough to warrant buying them in order to bump a relatively insignificant number of 4s up to 5s. Anyone giving you a 3 or lower will be giving you that shitty rating mints or not. Plus, giving those things out means more garbage to clean out of your car after trips. Time is money.

In any case, focus on keeping yourself well groomed (polo and cargo shorts are A-OK for UberX in my books), your ride clean, picking up pax where they are, and getting them safely and efficiently to their desired location. If you do that you'll be fine.


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## Kingo9 (May 20, 2015)

madUber74 said:


> Bottom line: Don't sweat your rating too much


Absolutely, Hell, I often rate and move on before I see how much I made on that trip. Tunnel vision. Just go go go.



madUber74 said:


> Uber bases your overall rating on your last 500 trip


500? I do not remember for sure, so I am not 100%, but I am about 99% sure its the last 100 rides. Please provide info if its 500.



madUber74 said:


> In any case, focus on keeping yourself well groomed (polo and cargo shorts are A-OK for UberX in my books)


As I said before... go go go. I wear a T-Shirt, shorts and sneakers. Sometimes even sandals. Don't smell bad is the only big rule on that topic. I often do open doors, but I have seats that fold down to get in the back, so I open doors and move the seats so they don't get damaged and people climb over the seats... so I do that for me, not really the Pax.


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## KingTravisHasNoClothes (Jun 11, 2015)

ironUberman said:


> can anyone offer some insight into rating trends they see? I am new (58 rides) and my rating is 4.74. I drive a 2007 Touring Honda Odyssey in good condition.
> 
> I wear an under armor polo and cargo shorts. Drive mainly busy hours for party scene.
> 
> I really can't figure it out and I am ocd'ing about it a little bit.


I understand your plight, I now have logged well over a 1000 rides and the beginning I too would wonder why my rating (4.66-4.90, presently 4.80 and subject to change) looked like a roller coaster ride. And I would email uber regarding my weekly summary not to complain , but to better understand what it was that the rider found lacking. Only to receive ubers typical canned email to watch their vanilla flavored bullshit videos. Yes, there is a learning curve but I'm willing to bet that you are providing above average service more often than not.
1. Uber is not your partner.
2. Uber is a p/t , short term gig.
3. Queen Travis is a punk ass *****, who was ****ed over early in life and yearns for a reach around.


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## CommanderXL (Jun 17, 2015)

Kingo9 said:


> 500? I do not remember for sure, so I am not 100%, but I am about 99% sure its the last 100 rides. Please provide info if its 500.


It's the last 500 :









It's from: http://uber-static.s3.amazonaws.com/la_dops/The Rating System.pdf


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## ironUberman (Jul 8, 2015)

Kingo9 said:


> Did you take 6 of them? If you or they cancelled, neither of you gets to rate. If you get the request to take more, I'd cancel and move on. You are getting a bad rating if you take some of the group. The only time I didn't cancel and took part of the group was when I was 10+ miles from downtown. They didn't rate badly, but the whole time driving them I'm just thinking... "Ughhh" That time it worked, but most it will not. Tell them it's a safety and liability risk. If something happened, no one would get any medical coverage. You are doing it to protect them. Make it about them, not you.


Yes, I took six and it was a six minute trip. Another newb lesson learned.


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## Disgusted Driver (Jan 9, 2015)

Let me repeat what's been said over and over. If you drive late night you will get shit on once in a while. I've done over 3000 rides, am running a 4.7 right now, frequently will be running a 5.0 for the week till I get to Friday or Sat. night when 1 or 2 darling pax give me a 1 or 2 star for no reason other than to make the screen go away so they can order another ride. This weekend if I did the math right I got a 1, a 4 and about 50 5's and I didn't have any hassles or beefs with anyone so the moral of the story is:

As long as you are over 4.6 you are driving. You should be more concerned with how little you are being paid than whether people adore you. I would like to feel like I was doing a perfect job but some folks either don't care or can't be satisfied, welcome to customer service.


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## Kingo9 (May 20, 2015)

CommanderXL said:


> It's the last 500 :
> View attachment 9770
> 
> 
> It's from: http://uber-static.s3.amazonaws.com/la_dops/The Rating System.pdf


Thank you. I've read several places, including respected people on here that it was 100, but your post was the first with evidence, so I'll go with that!



ironUberman said:


> Yes, I took six and it was a six minute trip. Another newb lesson learned.


Live and learn!


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## ironUberman (Jul 8, 2015)

Just got my partner summary for last week. 4.4. Last two weeks 29 of 33 rides were five stars. 

A) I use gps all the time and if the override the gps I explain that I usually just follow it so pax don't get nervous I'm going a different way than their phone says. 

B) starting and ending trips on time is something I always do and usually before they are all out of the car. 

C) professionalism ? No clue, I'm respectful and polite all the time.


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## Kingo9 (May 20, 2015)

ironUberman said:


> B) starting and ending trips on time is something I always do and usually before they are all out of the car.


I start the trip once everyone is in and the doors are shut and I end the trip once everyone is out and the door is shut. I do this for my own protection though... not for ratings. If you end it a block away, and you bump into a pedestrian and they break their leg.....

Extremely unlikely, but I would never end the trip until everyone is out.


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## ironUberman (Jul 8, 2015)

Kingo9 said:


> I start the trip once everyone is in and the doors are shut and I end the trip once everyone is out and the door is shut. I do this for my own protection though... not for ratings. If you end it a block away, and you bump into a pedestrian and they break their leg.....
> 
> Extremely unlikely, but I would never end the trip until everyone is out.


Agreed. They usually are stepping out and I'm sliding the app. Just frustrated I guess....


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## Kingo9 (May 20, 2015)

Put your blinders on an just keep going. 

I make the golf analogy... When I have a tough shot and I start thinking about every aspect of my stance, swing, etc, I undoubtedly shank it. When I am relaxed and just play, I hit a nice shot. Avoid the no-nos like bad-rated pax, driving 10+ minutes to a pickup, etc. Do some daytime driving too. Relax and keep going, you will be fine.


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