# Should I be concerned about a 4.6 rating as of my 2nd day?



## ragnarkar (Sep 2, 2016)

So I've been driving Uber for 2 days so far and I've discovered my current rating is sitting at 4.61 right now (it has dipped as low as 4.54 over the course of today.) I've realized that though I'm still learning the ropes, there were a couple of incidents that were less than perfect for the rider, including:

- Picking them on the wrong side (even though the street wasn't very busy.)

- Getting pinged for an Uber Pool while on the freeway then taking a 5 minute detour and the customer ended up canceling (see my 1st forum post here.)

- Turning the wrong way and ending up making a 5 minute trip into a 7-8 minute one.

- PAX dropped the pin but I couldn't find them then they directed me to go to another intersection to pick them up but there was massive traffic going there (added ~4-5 minutes.)

- One group of Pax requested Uber Pool and I got there late (Waze gave directions to a building nearby rather than the actual location) and I ended up wasting another 3-4 minutes. When I arrived, they wanted me to not pick up any Pax. Normally, I would say that is against the company policy but since I hadn't gotten off to a good start, I agreed to their demands and had Uber stop sending me new requests for the remainder of the ride.

I've completed 25 trips so far with a 97% acceptance rate. Right now, I have 18 rated trips and 13 5-stars. My acceptance rate is 97% (maybe I need to be selective about the Pax I pick up, I don't always check their ratings but the lowest I picked up was about 4.5 and I was a decent ride (they barely muttered a word during the short trip.)


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

ragnarkar said:


> So I've been driving Uber for 2 days so far and I've discovered my current rating is sitting at 4.61 right now (it has dipped as low as 4.54 over the course of today.) I've realized that though I'm still learning the ropes, there were a couple of incidents that were less than perfect for the rider, including:
> 
> - Picking them on the wrong side (even though the street wasn't very busy.)
> 
> ...


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## unPat (Jul 20, 2016)

Before you start driving practice 5-10 rides on google maps with navigation as if it was a real ride . That way you will have no problem with the navigation . Rest you can learn as you give more rides.


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## Colin Levy (Jul 18, 2015)

I wouldn't be too concerned. It's still early on.

I have been driving a week. Done maybe 30 rides, all with no incident. Went out of my way on every single ride to help the passengers. Hell one girl even told me she was going to give me a 3 after I went out of the way to pick up 2 of her friends and stop at a grocery store while on the way to the airport.

Still have a 4.7 rating.


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## Slavic Riga (Jan 12, 2016)

ragnarkar said:


> *Should I be concerned about a 4.6 rating as of my 2nd day?*


No. Don't have to? 
You will stop before Uber deactivates you or when reality sinks in about the car value being depreciated.


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## ragnarkar (Sep 2, 2016)

Slavic Riga said:


> No. Don't have to?
> You will stop before Uber deactivates you or when reality sinks in about the car value being depreciated.


This might actually be true as I'm driving a 2001 car worth maybe a few thousand bucks right now.


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## NachonCheeze (Sep 8, 2015)

I love the positive outlook and concern about statistics..... Oh when I was so innocent....

In seriousness..... Instead of looking at how you will please the master...think about how much you have earned (revenue minus expenses) and the time it took to earn that minimum wage. fUber churns through drivers for a reason.


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## Bill Collector (Dec 17, 2015)

ragnarkar said:


> This might actually be true as I'm driving a 2001 car worth maybe a few thousand bucks right now.


This is the best strategy.. Get that equity out of the old beater as much as you can.. My car was worth $1500 before putting in 10k Uber miles. Now it is probably worth $1200... Heck, even if I sold it for $500 I would come off better.. Driving newer cars for ubering is not a sound financial strategy in my opinion.. I have a 2001 car as well but don't Uber anymore.


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## Bill Collector (Dec 17, 2015)

NachonCheeze said:


> I love the positive outlook and concern about statistics..... Oh when I was so innocent....
> 
> In seriousness..... Instead of looking at how you will please the master...think about how much you have earned (revenue minus expenses) and the time it took to earn that minimum wage. fUber churns through drivers for a reason.


I can just imagine a day when there will be a documentary made about how Uber got away with the slickest marketing strategy where most gullible drivers happily worked below minimum wage in the name of ridesharing. All the while drivers were certain they were banking it! While the pimp was laughing all the way to the bank.

Glad to be a part of this phenomenon and YES I did think along the same line as well.


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## tradedate (Nov 30, 2015)

ragnarkar said:


> - Turning the wrong way and ending up making a 5 minute trip into a 7-8 minute one.


Use a Bluetooth or small wired earbud and feed the nav directions into your ear, so that the pax can't hear it. A lot of times they may not even notice a small wrong turn. 7-8 minutes instead of 5 minutes is not a big deal.



ragnarkar said:


> - One group of Pax requested Uber Pool and I got there late (Waze gave directions to a building nearby rather than the actual location) and I ended up wasting another 3-4 minutes. When I arrived, they wanted me to not pick up any Pax. Normally, I would say that is against the company policy but since I hadn't gotten off to a good start, I agreed to their demands and had Uber stop sending me new requests for the remainder of the ride.


You agreed to their demands and they gave you a one-star anyway. They are paying pool prices, which robs you as a driver. Make them deal with the additional pickups or change their request to Uber X, which is still pretty durn cheap. 3-4 extra minutes is not the end of the world.

And how big was this group? Two pax maximum on pool.

These riders took advantage of you as a new driver.

As a suggestion, if things are going bad before you even get the rider in the car, consider cancelling the trip before you get to them. They can't rate you if you haven't arrived, and started the trip. Use this sparingly, as cancelling too many trips can be cause for de-activation.


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## DrivingStPete (Jul 30, 2015)

ragnarkar said:


> my current rating is sitting at 4.61 right now


Relax, you have nothing to worry about. Read other threads on ratings and you will see, what you are experiencing happens to 100% of new drivers.

Ratings don't matter. But they will to you because you're new. But don't worry, be happy!


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## ragnarkar (Sep 2, 2016)

Bill Collector said:


> This is the best strategy.. Get that equity out of the old beater as much as you can.. My car was worth $1500 before putting in 10k Uber miles. Now it is probably worth $1200... Heck, even if I sold it for $500 I would come off better.. Driving newer cars for ubering is not a sound financial strategy in my opinion.. I have a 2001 car as well but don't Uber anymore.


It's a 2001 Prius with over 190K miles.. hoping to hit 200K by ubering these last 4 months of 2001.



tradedate said:


> Use a Bluetooth or small wired earbud and feed the nav directions into your ear, so that the pax can't hear it. A lot of times they may not even notice a small wrong turn. 7-8 minutes instead of 5 minutes is not a big deal.
> 
> You agreed to their demands and they gave you a one-star anyway. They are paying pool prices, which robs you as a driver. Make them deal with the additional pickups or change their request to Uber X, which is still pretty durn cheap. 3-4 extra minutes is not the end of the world.
> 
> ...


Nowadays, I immediately cancel if it's not easy to pick up in their area (must block traffic, large crowd, too much traffic, etc.) and they're not ready the instant I arrive at the pin.



DrivingStPete said:


> Relax, you have nothing to worry about. Read other threads on ratings and you will see, what you are experiencing happens to 100% of new drivers.
> 
> Ratings don't matter. But they will to you because you're new. But don't worry, be happy!


By avoiding San Francisco and sticking with the suburbs where pickups and dropoffs are less of a headache (read: no need to block traffic in most cases), my ratings have gone into the 4.7s. I even got an invite from Uber to join UberEats or something because they deem me as a *highly rated driver *(their words.) 4.7 doesn't seem too impressive unless my area happens to have ridiculously critical pax overall.


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## UberAnt39 (Jun 1, 2016)

You know Uber's lying cos their lips are moving. They are so desperate to get any driver to do delivery they'll say anything. If you're going to do it, do as you say and stay out of SF, stick to the Peninsula, Marin or East of the Caldecott tunnel.


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## CaptJohn (Apr 27, 2016)

ragnarkar said:


> So I've been driving Uber for 2 days so far and I've discovered my current rating is sitting at 4.61 right now (it has dipped as low as 4.54 over the course of today.) I've realized that though I'm still learning the ropes, there were a couple of incidents that were less than perfect for the rider, including:
> 
> - Picking them on the wrong side (even though the street wasn't very busy.)
> 
> ...


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## CaptJohn (Apr 27, 2016)

from: "Rideshare Guy Blog"

Tip #2
Next, I'd ask, "do think 4 stars is a good rating?" The responses were a revelation to me. In almost every case, they replied, "yes."

This was my opportunity to start a discussion about ratings. I worded it something like this: "a_ctually, on the Uber platform a 4 star rating is a kiss of death for drivers. If a driver's overall average rating falls below 4.6, they're likely going to be fired."_ "Omigod," one girl said, "I feel so bad now. I almost always give a driver four stars unless they do something that's really cool."


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