# Passenger asking you to start the ride and wait



## Swed (Jul 20, 2014)

It's definitely not worth it when a client asks you to start the ride and they will be out in a while. In NJ we only get .20 a minute when we aren't moving. If someone calls you and asks you to do that just explain that Uber doesn't work like that, and they are keeping you from making money driving someone else. I had a guy yesterday that had me waiting more than 1/2 an hour before I finally ended the trip. He actually called me an hour later looking for me. He actually would have had me waiting for an hour and half. (.20x.90= $18)


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## dominant7th (Jun 24, 2014)

And if you do wait for them (cause you're trying to be a good guy), turn the motor off. Excessive idling is bad for your car.


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## NicknTulsa (Jul 16, 2014)

I agree. When they ask I don't start, but I will wait a minute or two, then I have a static text that I send out... "UBER here... I'm very sorry but the call has been cancelled. Please request again when ready... another car will arrive. You will NOT be charged." It's just not worth it, and the pax is usually someone who will give you a low rating.


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## grams777 (Jun 13, 2014)

NicknTulsa said:


> I agree. When they ask I don't start, but I will wait a minute or two, then I have a static text that I send out... "UBER here... I'm very sorry but the call has been cancelled. Please request again when ready... another car will arrive. You will NOT be charged." It's just not worth it, and the pax is usually someone who will give you a low rating.


I was just going to say that. I don't know why, but it seems almost anytime I wait more than about 5 minutes something else eventually goes bad with the ride. The people I bend over backwards for are the ones who often get bent out of shape and low rate me for something. I can think of several examples where this happened after a 5+ minute wait, e.g. going nuts over a route preference like it was the end of the world, not letting them max out the radio volume, or something else.


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## troubleinrivercity (Jul 27, 2014)

Please, uberX drivers, set your standard of service and provide it. If you try to please a difficult passenger, you are attempting a slim chance at saving your 5-star rating, at the expense of all of us after you who have to carry them. *****y passengers only get more and more *****y as drivers try and fail to be the nicest ****ing $9 ride they've ever had.

These people would never dream of complaining to real cabbies like they complain to us. Don't be a scab, do your job, rate them poorly without fear of retaliation, and move on.


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## vtexposfan (May 27, 2014)

You make salient points, but your overuse of "scab" is undermining your gravitas.


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## troubleinrivercity (Jul 27, 2014)

The word is much better suited to other industries. It just recognizes that there are things we can all do to look out for one another, even if we never meet each other. In addition to doing everything we can to protect ourselves, we do need to do what we can to take care of each other by not bowing to unreasonable demands by passengers, and setting standards for ourselves. It's really all we can to to defend against declining conditions. Uber cannot do anything to prevent this trend, it only knows how to bring more drivers online and let competition sort it out. My state is taking steps to see that UberX drivers are adequately protected from huge financial loss in the event of an incident. If I lived in a state which wasn't, I'd view driving for the service as a loser of a risk.


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## HisShadowX (May 19, 2014)

What your going to want to sit down and come up with Rules of the Road.

Remember it's your car and you do not work for Uber. Now Uber has its own regulations for using the service BUT as long as you stay in the guidelines your good.

When you get in the car park in a safe area if your not parked already and ask where he is going.

If he tells you he is taking multiple trips you can inform him you will cancel and not charge him. 

Please be fully aware he can use this as an excuse when he contacts support and says you used a bad route and screw you off money.

So your converstation of where your going when the client gets in is very important


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## troubleinrivercity (Jul 27, 2014)

I had a young female 4.6 outright accuse me last night of taking a "scenic route" in the last five minutes of the trip to screw her out of like 80 cents, after a long and very pleasant ride where I saved them over thirty minutes by using a complicated detour around a freeway accident. I should have said "Google Maps just saved you from being a half-hour late, I hope you don't mind if I follow their directions through to the end". I stayed silent and ignored her to focus on driving. She rated me five on a $50 surge fare. It's a weird job, this one.

I accidentally rated her five since that's usually what I do in hairy weekend traffic. Sorry guys.
But you should remember that you don't have to respond to every single thing the passenger says, they'd prefer you just drove and they just played with their phone or talked to their friend.


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## HisShadowX (May 19, 2014)

troubleinrivercity said:


> I had a young female 4.6 outright accuse me last night of taking a "scenic route" in the last five minutes of the trip to screw her out of like 80 cents, after a long and very pleasant ride where I saved them over thirty minutes by using a complicated detour around a freeway accident. I should have said "Google Maps just saved you from being a half-hour late, I hope you don't mind if I follow their directions through to the end". I stayed silent and ignored her to focus on driving. She rated me five on a $50 surge fare. It's a weird job, this one.
> 
> I accidentally rated her five since that's usually what I do in hairy weekend traffic. Sorry guys.
> But you should remember that you don't have to respond to every single thing the passenger says, they'd prefer you just drove and they just played with their phone or talked to their friend.


I have had similar problems but in cases like this it could net you a nice trip.

I had a customer leaving from Hyde Park to the North-West side of Chicago. Hyde Park is a transplant of rich people who come from other countries or cities in the United States. Every corner literally has a cop or secruity standing twenty four hours a day.

Needless to say most people take lake shore dr north but if they have to go anywhere other then downtown or the north side they'll have to cut across an insane amount of traffic.

Most people hate taking the Dan Ryan because they see actual poor people and the average joe and they think they trip takes longer.

Being that my guy was in a rush I showed him the routes and the traffic and how taking this route will save him twenty minutes.

That netted me a good fifty dollar tip when we got there insanely early


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## mp775 (Jun 26, 2014)

troubleinrivercity said:


> I accidentally rated her five since that's usually what I do in hairy weekend traffic. Sorry guys.


But that also could have helped you get a 5. Remember both the passenger and the driver have to rate the last trip before taking another one, which usually means the rider gets to see how the driver rated them long before they have to rate the driver.


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

Swed said:


> It's definitely not worth it when a client asks you to start the ride and they will be out in a while. In NJ we only get .20 a minute when we aren't moving. If someone calls you and asks you to do that just explain that Uber doesn't work like that, and they are keeping you from making money driving someone else. I had a guy yesterday that had me waiting more than 1/2 an hour before I finally ended the trip. He actually called me an hour later looking for me. He actually would have had me waiting for an hour and half. (.20x.90= $18)


FYI. You get $0.20 a minute whether you are moving or not.


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## runaroundruby (May 3, 2014)

troubleinrivercity said:


> I had a young female 4.6 outright accuse me last night of taking a "scenic route" in the last five minutes of the trip to screw her out of like 80 cents, after a long and very pleasant ride where I saved them over thirty minutes by using a complicated detour around a freeway accident. I should have said "Google Maps just saved you from being a half-hour late, I hope you don't mind if I follow their directions through to the end". I stayed silent and ignored her to focus on driving. She rated me five on a $50 surge fare. It's a weird job, this one.
> 
> I accidentally rated her five since that's usually what I do in hairy weekend traffic. Sorry guys.
> But you should remember that you don't have to respond to every single thing the passenger says, they'd prefer you just drove and they just played with their phone or talked to their friend.


This "Inefficient route" thing is the only thing that ever brings down my score. I use GPS fastest route when I am not sure. But I usually know the quickest way to anywhere in Nashville. I get tired of this dragging me down. Heck, most of the time I let THEM choose the route so I don't get one of those but every weekend, I get at least 1!


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## Just Some Guy (Jun 10, 2014)

mp775 said:


> But that also could have helped you get a 5. Remember both the passenger and the driver have to rate the last trip before taking another one, which usually means the rider gets to see how the driver rated them long before they have to rate the driver.


Passengers don't see their ratings, they only know what it is if they ask one of us.


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## Choochie (Jan 4, 2015)

mp775 said:


> But that also could have helped you get a 5. Remember both the passenger and the driver have to rate the last trip before taking another one, which usually means the rider gets to see how the driver rated them long before they have to rate the driver.


Are you certain about this? I just started driving and I got a call right down the street and as I was following the nav bc I wasn't familiar with the side street - the pass calls me and asks where I am and I said right down the street. As I got close to the address he asks me where I am and I said I was almost there and then he says I will be at the via - could you pick me up there. I said yes and then he said how long are you going to be- it's cold out. Well I said I was about a block away and finally when he got in the car I said the nav address was somewhere else and he says it does that sometime. Really? So I tried to break the ice and he was smug so I let him be and after I dropped him by his hotel I gave him a 4 - and subsequently picked up another passenger and my phone kept ringing and I couldn't answer as I was following the nav. If what you are saying is true he didn't like the rating I gave him. And the next day after 2 days of driving my rating went down to 4.43
Someone else on here says they don't see the rating. How do I gleen who rated me?


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## Former Yellow Driver (Sep 5, 2014)

Choochie said:


> Someone else on here says they don't see the rating. How do I gleen who rated me?


Passengers do NOT see what you rate them. You also will not know what the passenger is rating you. The second time the customer called to ask where you were you should have said you had a flat tire. Please cancel and request another car. Multiple calls from pax are almost always indicative of a problem customer.....and if you don't pick them up you won't have to worry about your rating from them.


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## Choochie (Jan 4, 2015)

Former Yellow Driver said:


> Passengers do NOT see what you rate them. You also will not know what the passenger is rating you. The second time the customer called to ask where you were you should have said you had a flat tire. Please cancel and request another car. Multiple calls from pax are almost always indicative of a problem customer.....and if you don't pick them up you won't have to worry about your rating from them.


Sounds about right - he seemed to be a legend in his own mind. I believe he was one of those semi-pro hockey players having a relaxing lunch by himself as he put it. Thanks for the good advice on my 3rd day. Thank god this isn't my real job!


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## RideshareGuru (Nov 17, 2014)

Swed said:


> It's definitely not worth it when a client asks you to start the ride and they will be out in a while. In NJ we only get .20 a minute when we aren't moving. If someone calls you and asks you to do that just explain that Uber doesn't work like that, and they are keeping you from making money driving someone else. I had a guy yesterday that had me waiting more than 1/2 an hour before I finally ended the trip. He actually called me an hour later looking for me. He actually would have had me waiting for an hour and half. (.20x.90= $18)


I just tell them, "sure, no problem", and don't start the ride until they get in. Oh, and btw, if they take more than 5 mins., I cancel them as a no-show and leave. I especially love the ones who text you, "I'll be right out" as soon as you arrive. It is a sure sign of someone who expects you to wait 10 mins. or more. And don't forget the 20% Uber vig, you only make $0.16/min. after that; $9.60/hr.


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## RideshareGuru (Nov 17, 2014)

runaroundruby said:


> This "Inefficient route" thing is the only thing that ever brings down my score. I use GPS fastest route when I am not sure. But I usually know the quickest way to anywhere in Nashville. I get tired of this dragging me down. Heck, most of the time I let THEM choose the route so I don't get one of those but every weekend, I get at least 1!


Pax have been trained to use the system to their advantage. They are cheap bastards to begin with, which is why they are using the X platform. Advice from a fellow Nashvillian: Avoid Vandy, MTSU, and Fisk like the plague. In fact, now that the flat rate airports are gone, I would only do Uber rides when surge is active, wouldn't mess with them otherwise, not worth it.


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## Cjones1980 (Oct 27, 2018)

This happened to me yesterday for the first time after 650 trips. She was a college girl attending a large University in Texas. As soon as I arrived she messaged me asking if I could start the trip, and that she would be down shortly. Well shortly turned out to be 7-8 minutes later, and she was easily one of the more difficult riders I've picked up in a while. But, she was also very young and I felt like with her low rating, at least one driver could show her some kind of kindness and patience, which I did. I was polite to her the entire trip and eventually got a smile out of her. I gave her a 5 star rating and she returned the favor, later on that day she even gave me a tip. This is my approach with every rider, to be patient with them, as I feel like primarily I am here to provide a service and a good one at that. I've never been the kind of driver that just slings 1 stars around just because someone isn't having as good a day as myself.


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## Mole (Mar 9, 2017)

I tell them the truth. No!


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## Z129 (May 30, 2018)

Don't do it. It's just another way of anchoring you and can result in a report if they should cancel and say you started the trip early.

As is the latest latest saying here... shuffle.


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## Las Vegas Dude (Sep 3, 2018)

Don’t do it. Just tell them you will wait for them and get your no show if they don’t get to you in time.


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