# Another Surge Question



## Uberette (Oct 16, 2014)

Okay, I decided to do what they told us to do and to go towards the area where people were leaving the Chicago Bears game. First of all, I had to cancel two pings of people requesting rides in an area where I was not allowed to pick them up. I finally got to an area where it was less congested and it was surging red, I got no pings after 10 minutes so I moved to an area that was yellow and got pinged immediately. 

After taking two riders home and I got back downtown but it took a LONG time. I later told my husband, I won't be doing that again. I would have done better staying on the south-side of Chicago. I would have had more rides and made more money. 

Question: Do people not request Uber during the surge because they don't want to pay surging prices?


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## Walkersm (Apr 15, 2014)

To your question. When there is a surge on and you get no requests the system is working exactly as designed. Surge is there to discourage people from using the system unless they really want to pay for it. So most of them wait it out and it usually goes away after a big event lets out all at once. This is an indication that your city is inhabited by particularly smart people as I will explain below. 

Remember surge is factored by the number of people opening up the app and looking at it. Not actually ordering just looking. So if a concert lets out at 9:45pm by 10:00pm thousands of people are going to be looking at the app. So surge goes sky high. But what it does not figure is they even though they are looking at it you cannot get to them even if you wanted to for various reasons: (traffic control shit down streets, congestion, temporary one ways for event). 

So if it did go up to 10x in reality the only person that should be ordering it is the pregnant woman in labor that needs a ride to the hospital. In reality the people that do order it are the ones that are either:

1. Not good at math and cannot take 10 times their normal fare
2. To drunk to do the math
3. Trust fund babies who do not care about the cost of anything.

So as you can see in the 3 examples above i have just described 95% of Ubers client base. 

But what you have figured out is what many veteran drivers have also come to the conclusion of. Stay away from large events. You cannot even get the people in the car to start earning that surge and by the time you get to them the surge is gone. Then if you do get them you spend time in congested traffic earning $9.00 an hour with no mileage charges racking up.


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## DjTim (Oct 18, 2014)

To add what Walkersm is saying, I stay away from Bulls, Bears & Hawks games. I personally don't want that hassle in dealing with a mob of people. I do however look for smaller events like the circus or a small concert and will drive for that. The events are just a different crowd of people and most events are setup for pickup/drop off versus sporting events.


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## Uberette (Oct 16, 2014)

Thanks for your advice, I won't do big events again.


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## Chicago-uber (Jun 18, 2014)

And usually after I drop someone off downtown, I get the hell out of there. Traffic is bad, no place to park, and the fares are usually within downtown that are $4-7


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## DjTim (Oct 18, 2014)

Chicago-uber said:


> And usually after I drop someone off downtown, I get the hell out of there. Traffic is bad, no place to park, and the fares are usually within downtown that are $4-7


Okay, I thought I was just the weird one. When I have a drop in the loop I just scoot up to the northside and go back on-line. I would much rather dead head up then sit around the loop and work against pedestrian traffic.


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## heyJefe (Sep 24, 2014)

Here's what I did after the Notre Dame get let out this past weekend. I timed my arrival to coincide with the end of the game. I positioned myself on a side street that would allow me to get into the traffic flow easily when pinged. I had my driver app off & was monitoring the surge.

All available drivers took non-surged rides while i was still logged out. Finally surge started 1.5 at first so I stayed logged out. Went to 1.8 then 2.1 -not yet... Finally jumped to 2.8 after about 3-5 minutes. Logged on & got insta-pinged. Called to verify location & found out they had 6 rides. Cancel.

Went back online & surge 3.5x now. Insta-pinged again. Easy $30 thank you very much. After drop off returned to area but declined a couple of 3.5x requests due to their pickup location. Finally got one from a nearby bar. Got in & out easily for another $50 ride. After that fare, traffic was easing up but surge stayed strong for 2 more hours.

Was best driving night in 3 months for me (better than Halloween even). 3 hours, 7 rides, $210 fares.


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## Walkersm (Apr 15, 2014)

heyJefe said:


> Was best driving night in 3 months for me (better than Halloween even). 3 hours, 7 rides, $210 fares.


Played well!! Find those traffic sweet spots that allow you to get to the customer and get out quickly.


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## AndyB588 (Dec 10, 2014)

I enjoyed a couple 9X Surge fares on Halloween.. Hopefully those days aren't completely over.


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