# Uber Rating System



## Laura Smith (Jun 4, 2015)

My ratings went from high 70's i.e. 4.76ish to 4.9 (for the week) by following an experienced driver's advice: stop picking up intoxicated people from the bars Fri. night and Sat. midnight into the wee hours of Sun. He was absolutely right. I thought rides for the drinkers were a community service as well as a chance to catch a surge trip and also, at least one drunk rider will hand me a cash tip. I'd like to continue doing that driving, but it seriously does drop my rating. I don't know how important the difference in rating is to Uber, but seems like they could make some kind of adjustment for driving the typical "drunk hours" vs other times. I've only had one gnarly rider that was under the influence in 6 months so I think that's great and don't mind at all, but don't want a lower rating. Maybe the rating doesn't matter that much? Or I should skip that time? Thoughts and your experience much appreciated, thanks in advance.


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## madUber74 (Jun 3, 2015)

I'm pretty sure Uber won't ever differentiate between, say, a 2-star rating given by a passenger at 2:30am early Saturday morning and a 2-star rating given at the noon on Wednesday. Low ratings are the price you pay for working a high-demand time in combo with inebriated pax.

That said, you can probably ignore any "you were below average" admonitions on your weekly email reports. Maybe start worrying about it if your overall rating starts dipping into the 4.6s or lower. I believe the overall is based on last 500 trips, so once you hit that many your overall rating doesn't move around very much, even when some drunk asshole one-stars you for not driving the wrong way down a one-way street to pick him up, or something equally asinine.


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## Laura Smith (Jun 4, 2015)

Thanks! That makes sense in the long-term. Also, I don't need to work those high-demand times coz I NEVER get more than 1 surge trip in a night so there's no advantage there...not sure why it happens like that. There's enough riders pre-inebriation.


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## madUber74 (Jun 3, 2015)

If Uber offers hourly guarantees on evenings and weekends where you are, late night can become a little more lucrative (or at the very least, a little more income-stable) whether it surges or not. It's worth looking into if offered (you'd see it in weekly emails from your local office)


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## ericFL (Jun 22, 2015)

Laura

As Mad Uber said, The ratings are not adjusted for typical 'drunk hours'.... and the weight of each rating is the same, be it from a new or experienced pax, and the calculations are made on a straigth arithmetic scale. I think most drivers WILL take a serious hit when driving drunk hours. Anyone who says otherwise lives in a different reality than mine.

It is a shame really, because it is during drunk hours that demand is the highest, (at least in my neck of the woods in SE Florida). Here is what I do:

When my ratings are faltering, I don' drive Friday/Saturday nights. Result: (and yes, I am enclosing screenshot). 4.91 for the last 7 day. Not all that many trips, (this is a part time gig) but the trend is clear. Last month, I drove one weekend hard (including bad and good rides of shame,) , and got a 4.24 on the rolling 30. Not good, and got the warning and the info about the useless training to improve your service level course. So, I took a weekend break, and my last rolling 30 is now up to 4.72. I still need an additional buffer to offset drunk entries, so I will not drive this weekend, but perhaps next, depending on my buffer. 

The ratings are in most (but not all cases) NOT a reflection of you as a driver, nor is it neccessarily a reflection of a drunk pax assesment of the ride. Consider if you are a fat fingered, or long nailed, very drunk pax; to accurately hit that five star on the right on that small screen, it is not easy, and pax will often punch anything.. to get the screen to the next entry/be able to get another ride, and they will therefore give a 2 or 3 star even though they were happy with the ride, I have seen that on up close on more than one occasion.

While utterly unfair and difficult from a Drivers perspective, The rating system works beautifully in terms of supporting an overall corporate strategy however; Drivers are a high churn commodity and they will/should not last for very long.

Uber on..... (spoken with the voice of a Minion)


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## Laura Smith (Jun 4, 2015)

That's exactly what happened to me in one week -- rating shot back up after I skipped driving Fri and Sat late nite/early mornings. I guess if Uber doesn't care, I don't need to. Unfortunately, Mad, there are no guarantees of any kind in Denver and despite all the reddish screens with surges, I'm lucky if I get one. Half the time, I don't get any so that's not any incentive for working with the early a.m. imbibers.


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## Old Man in a Hat (Jul 8, 2015)

The rating system is there to pacify passengers. Nobody in their right mind would attach much credibility to a system that has drunks and doofuses rating drivers. If the numbers get too low Uber may take some action but basically they just want warm bodies behind the wheel and lots of cars out to guarantee quick pickups. Until they can start running self driving cars....................


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## Laura Smith (Jun 4, 2015)

Makes sense. That's why they don't have just 2 stars for pass and fail. Five stars when less than 5 is failure is insane. But not if you encourage turnover.


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## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

This again? Really? Ratings? If you search ratings on this site you'll get enough to read for the next seven years.

Ratings define who you are as a human being.
It's very important to have a high rating because you can use it on your resume.
Poorly rated drivers should be deported.


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## Laura Smith (Jun 4, 2015)

Thx, Shark. That was really helpful.


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## Old Man in a Hat (Jul 8, 2015)

Laura Smith said:


> Makes sense. That's why they don't have just 2 stars for pass and fail. Five stars when less than 5 is failure is insane. But not if you encourage turnover.


I don't think they necessarily encourage turnover but they bust their humps to compensate for it; that's why the airwaves are inundated with recruitment ads. It's cheaper to recruit newbies than to actually run a transportation service.


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## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

If you really wanted to learn about ratings, you'd use the search tool on this site. This topic has been beaten to death.


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## Laura Smith (Jun 4, 2015)

Relax. I got the info I needed with no harm to the people that responded and I didn't have to pour through a gazillion posts that almost match my question/comment. I will do my best to avoid posting in the future.


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## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

Post all you want...I don't care. 

Ratings are Uber's way to mind control new drivers. Ratings don't matter.


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