# XL is pretty cool



## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

Tonight I started driving my wife's oddysey van which is fully loaded with leather seats and sunroof.
I am doing xl only and finally feel like I'm working smarter, not harder.
Took 2 trips and made $48 and each trip was only about a 15 minute drive. I also got a $10 tip.
One of my trips had only one pax. He said he just preferred a vehicle with space cause he's a large man.

Too bad I can't do xl every night. Only when my wife is off work. The rest of the time I'll be doing x in my civic.
I'm nearing 100 lifetime trips and I think xl is the way to go. Wish I could drive select.


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## I_Like_Spam (May 10, 2015)

Sounds like a good ride for airport trips, enough room for the passenger's luggage.


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## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

I_Like_Spam said:


> Sounds like a good ride for airport trips, enough room for the passenger's luggage.


No doubt. I can fit 7 people comfortably and still have room for luggage.
The doors open and close automatically and pax seem to like that.
I figure an airport run from my area will be about $60- 70 after Travis gets his cut.

I've been driving pax to airport on x and that makes me about 28 -$30.

Can't wait till we can do legal airport pick ups.
Theoretically, I could make over a $100 with a fare to and from the airport.


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## Uber 1 (Oct 6, 2015)

Reversoul said:


> Tonight I started driving my wife's oddysey van which is fully loaded with leather seats and sunroof.
> I am doing xl only and finally feel like I'm working smarter, not harder.
> Took 2 trips and made $48 and each trip was only about a 15 minute drive. I also got a $10 tip.
> One of my trips had only one pax. He said he just preferred a vehicle with space cause he's a large man.
> ...


If you can make good $$ driving XL why can't your wife just drive the civic and you take the minivan?

Alternately, you could drive her to work in the minivan and then Uber while she is working and then have her ping you when she gets off and wants to go home....No Deadheading allowed ! ;-O

Andy


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## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

Uber 1 said:


> If you can make good $$ driving XL why can't your wife just drive the civic and you take the minivan?
> 
> Alternately, you could drive her to work in the minivan and then Uber while she is working and then have her ping you when she gets off and wants to go home....No Deadheading allowed ! ;-O
> 
> Andy


Yeah, that crossed my mind yesterday. I'm a little weird about my car and always worry when she drives it.
That said, I let her drive it to work today so we'll see how it goes.
She's a good driver, but I still worry for some reason.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

If Uber is your only choice xl is the way to go. Switching cars with your wifeet sounds like the smart choice. I did around 1k rides on x before switching to xl and will never do x again even though I do neither anymore.


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## Uber 1 (Oct 6, 2015)

Reversoul said:


> Yeah, that crossed my mind yesterday. I'm a little weird about my car and always worry when she drives it.
> That said, I let her drive it to work today so we'll see how it goes.
> She's a good driver, but I still worry for some reason.


To help put your mind at ease, unless your Civic is a stick and you are worried about her grinding gears, she should do OK.

Generally, as far as driving goes, it's easier going from a bigger vehicle to smaller vehicle than vice versa.

It looks as though your airport runs are very profitable....I am green with envy since my airport runs are not nearly as profitable.

Good luck.

Andy


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

I always wonder the percentage of people using x versus those using all the others, as well as for earnings comparisons. I gotta think most use x but I never see any data.


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## Uber 1 (Oct 6, 2015)

Only a guess, but I would say X is the most used ride of all the ride options. 

I do XL also (minivan) but rides are fairly far and few between.....I looked at my last 150 trips and only had 6 XL rides in that group. 

I don't know about the other options but it probably makes a difference where you drive so your results may differ.

Andy


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## Ziggy (Feb 27, 2015)

After the most recent fare cuts, I only do XL when it is surging 2.1 or higher ... Uber cut XL fares here by 20%; but the greedy bastards kept XL at 28% commission.


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## dirtylee (Sep 2, 2015)

What I'm wondering is how you only get XL pings. XL in Dallas also gets X pings. Same with select cars. I.e. all you pings will be X.


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## Santa (Jan 3, 2016)

In Toronto you can't do XL only if you've an XL vehicle. You've to do X also.


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## volksie (Apr 8, 2015)

Ziggy said:


> After the most recent fare cuts, I only do XL when it is surging 2.1 or higher ... Uber cut XL fares here by 20%; but the greedy bastards kept XL at 28% commission.


They cut XL 45% in San Diego! Bastards. I prefer Lyft Plus but you have to take Lyft fares too. Both of these companies are doing a disservice to drivers & riders.


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## volksie (Apr 8, 2015)

Reversoul said:


> Tonight I started driving my wife's oddysey van which is fully loaded with leather seats and sunroof.
> I am doing xl only and finally feel like I'm working smarter, not harder.
> Took 2 trips and made $48 and each trip was only about a 15 minute drive. I also got a $10 tip.
> One of my trips had only one pax. He said he just preferred a vehicle with space cause he's a large man.
> ...


A 2009 or newer van w/leather should qualify for Select.


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## Ziggy (Feb 27, 2015)

The only way to avoid X calls is to have an XL vehicle that also qualifies for Select. It's unlikely that Uber will allow you to dump X ... since most trips are X; albeit X is unprofitable for the driver. But in the end, Uber doesn't care if the driver is unprofitable; remember that at the same time that Uber dropped X in 100 cities, they also raised SRF in most of those cities ... so Uber typically makes more money on the short X rides than the drivers ... because of the inflated SRF.


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## Jennifer G (Feb 16, 2016)

Some of my friends that drive for Uber love the airport trips because usually business travelers tip much better than a broke drunk college kid


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## Michael Williams 27519 (Sep 2, 2015)

XL is the only way to go. It also helps passengers decide to upgrade from X to XL when there are no XL drivers available.


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## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

dirtylee said:


> What I'm wondering is how you only get XL pings. XL in Dallas also gets X pings. Same with select cars. I.e. all you pings will be X.


I emailed support and they gave me an option on my account to switch from x and xl to xl only.

Uber said that they couldn't remove x from the van, but they could give me the option to go to account settings and then switch to xl only. It's great because if I'm not getting xl requests, I switch to the x and xl option.

I also have an option for deliveries only on my civic. Delivery officially launches next week and is called uber rush.


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## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

Ziggy said:


> The only way to avoid X calls is to have an XL vehicle that also qualifies for Select. It's unlikely that Uber will allow you to dump X ... since most trips are X; albeit X is unprofitable for the driver. But in the end, Uber doesn't care if the driver is unprofitable; remember that at the same time that Uber dropped X in 100 cities, they also raised SRF in most of those cities ... so Uber typically makes more money on the short X rides than the drivers ... because of the inflated SRF.


Not true, uber gave me an option to toggle between x and xl to xl only. Just email support.


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## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

volksie said:


> A 2009 or newer van w/leather should qualify for Select.


Well maybe I'll check the list again. Last I checked there was no Hondas on the list.


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## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

Michael Williams 27519 said:


> XL is the only way to go. It also helps passengers decide to upgrade from X to XL when there are no XL drivers available.


The only thing bad about that is it tends to lead to lower ratings. I got a couple of 3's because the pax was mad there was no x available. He complained about the price and sure enough I got a low rating.


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## Reversoul (Feb 8, 2016)

Uber 1 said:


> Only a guess, but I would say X is the most used ride of all the ride options.
> 
> I do XL also (minivan) but rides are fairly far and few between.....I looked at my last 150 trips and only had 6 XL rides in that group.
> 
> ...


Well my first weekend as xl only I made $320 so the requests were definitely coming in.

If you're driving x and xl it's likely u are missing xl fares cause x requests keep coming to you.


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## Ziggy (Feb 27, 2015)

Reversoul said:


> Not true, uber gave me an option to toggle between x and xl to xl only. Just email support.


Well, that might be an option in ATL; but XL only is not an option in all cities.


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## Ziggy (Feb 27, 2015)

Reversoul said:


> If you're driving x and xl it's likely u are missing xl fares cause x requests keep coming to you.


Agreed. Similarly with Select & Lux ... some pax will opt for Select to see if they get a Lux car to avoid paying the extra $1/mi on Lux. However, if I get a pax that requests Lux, then they cancel and get me on Select, I've been known to cancel on them ... unless Select is surging.


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