# Flat rate surge, coming to you soon? Here are some tips from CLT



## dryverjohn (Jun 3, 2018)

First off, yes it does suck. However, you can make sure that Uber loses more on flat rate by employing some strategy.

Screen shot every stage of the surge.

Don't believe the hype, unless it's a concert or busy day at the airport, most surges last 3 minutes. Unless they were 1.5 minute before, it doesn't last any longer.

Drive into a surge zone online with accepting all ride types and no filters and expect to get a ping before you get a surge, or you will get the lowest available surge in the area. Go in either offline, or tighten down your parameters if you want the max. Often time on my android phone, I'll be in the middle of a surge zone and nothing shows up on my next ride amount. If this happens to you, go offline and restart your phone.

Surge amount must show up on the ping, you will not get paid if it doesn't. I have screen shots showing me in the surge, the amount was listed and Uber support refused to payout.

So now you hit gold which around here is a $9-20 surge, a unicorn, most times it's $1.25- $3.50 on your next ride. Save that surge by keeping your parameters tight. Now go to a mcdonalds and wait for the next ubereats order. Most of the time you won't be more than 5 miles away from the destination. Short fares are your friend. If there is a local college with lazy students, take them a block to their next class, collect your surge and move on to the next one.

When it's surging at the airport, expect arrivals to be a nightmare. That doesn't mean you can't drive in the area, grab a surge and then head to mcdonalds. Keep repeating as long as the surge last. You will make more per mile and per day with this strategy.

Busy concert, same story, why fight the traffic and stay in line when you can get in the bubble and then go to mcdonalds. Concert surges tend to last the longest, so you may be able to hit 3 or more surges if you plan it right.

So what do you do on your way to mcdonalds? Turn on Lyft see if they are surging, or turn on DH, GH, Postmates etc.

How can you lose this surge? By not leaving Uber on the foreground, it will time out. It will ask you if you want to stay online, fail to say yes and that hard earned surge is gone.

I use Dynamik app, it's tones let you know if a surge is going up or down before it gets reflected on the uber app. While driving offline, I hear the tones and then go to Dynamik to see what is going on and where.

Lyft in my area now does 0 surge at the large outdoor concert area. Make sure you don't accept any rides in this situation, especially when Uber is paying a $14 surge. The difference in fares
last night was $19.95 on Lyft and $80 on Uber same location, same destination.

All this assumes that you drive a Prius and continue to drive once flat rate surge comes to your area. Which translates to about 2% of those reading this.

I also expect Uber, to change the app so that this won't always be available. It works right now, but may not in the future.

Let me know if you have any further questions. I should add that I rarely drive for Lyft or Uber now, only when I know I can hurt their bottom line.

Pro tip, sit in the parking lot of McDonalds, order a happy meal on Uber eats with a destination back to the surge zone 10 miles away. You will get mileage of $6-10 plus your surge, give the happy meal to a homeless person for good karma.

PS I did get a tip on this delivery for $2, so $21.97 for the win!


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## pvtandrewmalone (Oct 2, 2016)

That sucks balls! That blood red cloud you posted is a 3X or higher surge (which the passengers are still paying). Gone will be the days of sitting in that cloud at an event, with a strategic destination filter, waiting a Long Trip tag and a 3-figure payout. No amount of Happy Meal games are going to make up for those $100+ rides.

As Eric Cartman would say "Screw You Guys...I'm Going Home!"


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## Failed Login (Nov 13, 2017)

I concur with his tips. I've driven in Charlotte the entire time the "new" surge has been in place. The entire last 10 months... You have to figure out what you're doing. Short trips are your friend. And, as he says, many time you'll be positioned in the center of a surge yet no amount appears in your surge bubble. You can go offline and quickly get back online but do it quick. They'll disappear. Taking a screen shot doesn't suffice them.

Also, be prepared for when you go offline to chase and enter a surge area thinking the surge map is updating. Just because it may change a little while you're offline, doesn't mean its the actual map. More times than not, the moment I go online, the entire surge disappears. It's really frustrating. Better bet is to stay online as you get close and decline rides that aren't surge.


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## Jo3030 (Jan 2, 2016)

More games from Uber.


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

I just simply won’t be working any events anymore


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## dryverjohn (Jun 3, 2018)

heynow321 said:


> I just simply won't be working any events anymore


If you work events, you may just be giving your friends a ride home for the night. Save the Uber sticker to get in the parking lot with no charge.


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## Marco Solo (Oct 5, 2017)

Your fare details show pickup and dropoff fees. Haven't seen that yet in my market, and I'm still on the old app. Are you no longer getting paid the traditional Mileage/Distance and Time?


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

Do the same surge amounts apply to XL/Select? If I drive into the surge with X and delivery turned off, do I then lose surge if I turn them back on? Seems like you can only get surge for any platform enabled at the time the bubble appears, is this correct?

If I am outside surge area and decline non-surge rides, will I still be eligible for surge once I get to it?

Once you’ve grabbed a high surge from a concert or airport, how do you make it back to McDonalds or some other place without receiving any unwanted pings or losing the surge on the way? Is there a way to deal with
them?

What about when you do lose the surge, either by declining, cancelling, going offline, changing trip options? Can you quickly get one back by finding another surge bubble? Or must you repent by taking a base ride from a surge area? PM me if you don’t wanna say here


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## dryverjohn (Jun 3, 2018)

With the new app, the surge doesn't show up if you have only deliveries on. I turn on the app with accepting all ride types, see the surge, then go in and turn off the uberx rides. The surge remains and when the next meal comes in the surge will be on there. The best way to preserve a surge is to do a delivery using a DF to a far away place. Like a location far north when you are south. I have been in the middle of a battlefield of pings and ended up preserving my surge using this method. I would just take pax on Lyft Primetime and save the Uber surge if the Lyft pay looked better. Or there are other ways to get creative when demand exceeds supply. Each market is different.


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## Lee239 (Mar 24, 2017)

is flat rate surge a test now or permanent and only in certain markets?


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## Lee239 (Mar 24, 2017)

Someone on a local forum was talking about busy season and how at the airport you can occasionally make $200 on what would have been a $50 ride. 

With something like that to happen you would have to see a $200 plat surge so Uber get's their cut too. That's not happening.


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## nj2bos (Mar 18, 2018)

Great tips. The thing now is that Lyft will destroy themselves by introducing this flat surge like they are about to do in Boston. Like you mentioned, Uber drivers can have alternatives like grabbing the surge and doing Eats trips. However Lyft drivers have no such alternatives. So who the hell will work the airport, events, concerts, etc. on Lyft when you have to actually pickup passengers to claim that surge? Big fail IMO.


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