# Drive Pass Test Results



## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

Uber has a new scheme called Drive Pass, whereby you pay them money and they send you pings at 0% commission. There seems to be a promotional offer at the moment, whereby you can buy 10 no commission pings for $7, reduced from a "normal price" of $30. Now, buying no commission pings for $3 a pop seemed to be a daft idea, but at 70c each I thought I would try it last week.

I bought 40 zero commission pings, which cost me $28 in total. I accepted around 70% of these pings, rejected 25% and cancelled 5%. On these rides, I saved $125.62. I am a 20 percenter; if I was a 25% commission layer I would have saved $157.03. Anyway, I saved $125.62 and it cost me $28, so I came out ahead by $97.62.

Conclusion - paying 70 cents for each no commission ping is a good idea. However, if I had paid Uber's "normal price" of $30 for 10 pings, I would have come out just $5.62 ahead. Something else to bear in mind is that, as I was paying for pings, I was a lot less selective when accepting pings, meaning that I accepted pickups that were farther away than usual, or with a lower payout. This could have decreased the overall benefit of this program.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

The Gift of Fish said:


> Uber has a new scheme called Drive Pass, whereby you pay them money and they send you pings at 0% commission. There seems to be a promotional offer at the moment, whereby you can buy 10 no commission pings for $7, reduced from a "normal price" of $30. Now, buying no commission pings for $3 a pop seemed to be a daft idea, but at 70c each I thought I would try it last week.
> 
> I bought 40 zero commission pings, which cost me $28 in total. I accepted around 70% of these pings, rejected 25% and cancelled 5%. On these rides, I saved $125.62. I am a 20 percenter; if I was a 25% commission layer I would have saved $157.03. Anyway, I saved $125.62 and it cost me $28, so I came out ahead by $97.62.
> 
> Conclusion - paying 70 cents for each no commission ping is a good idea. However, if I had paid Uber's "normal price" of $30 for 10 pings, I would have come out just $5.62 ahead. Something else to bear in mind is that, as I was paying for pings, I was a lot less selective when accepting pings, meaning that I accepted pickups that were farther away than usual, or with a lower payout. This could have decreased the overall benefit of this program.


Uber SETTING THE HOOK.

HONEYMOON PERIOD.


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## dmoney155 (Jun 12, 2017)

You know that they don't just blindly throw a number... they do their number crunching as well to come up ahead.


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## cumonohito (Feb 13, 2018)

I agree on what @dmoney155 says, UBER is not going to loose any money on this, no matter how you look at it. I wonder if the pings you got would have been the same had you not bought into it. Uber already knows total cost anyway of the rides you get, most likely they probably send you some "not popular" request, short ride, long pick up, bad area, low rated rider, etc.

This is just another way of rebranding their consecutive ride promo, except this time you pay UBER ahead and commit for 10 no commission ride. Me, I refuse to pay to work, what if i get deactivated for whatever reason, will I get the money back? Or If I'm sick and can't drive for some time. I rather have money in my hands.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

Before I trialled this, I suspected that the pings would be shit - the dregs that nobody else wanted. However, the zero commission pings actually seemed decent - one of them was the $1,400 fare that I recently posted about, which would have saved $350 in commission. Apart from that one, I also had a $97 fare and a few other medium-sized fares.

But, of course, you're both right. Uber only ever does things to benefit Uber. There's no way that they are going to sell zero commission pings for 70 cents each indefinitely. And, as I say, paying $3 for each zero commission ping would make no sense.

I also suspect that this is another experiment. I would expect Uber to be trialling different drivers at different ping prices to see how much drivers will pay for zero commission pings. And yes, this is a variation of consecutive ride bonus, encouraging drivers to accept pings.

Anyway, for now, it seems to be worth buying these pings _in certain circumstances_, i.e. buying 10 when you know it's going to be surging, when fares will be higher and you'll be more likely to accept pings.


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## TomTheAnt (Jan 1, 2019)

Definitely going to a hook, line and sinker for your everyday full time ant. First lure them in with the cheap buy-in and once they get used to it, Uber will jack up the price and get rid of other incentives without the ants even realizing it. And Uber laughs once again all the way to the bank.

Good luck ya'll. At least I don't have to worry about that stuff. I still keep on doing what I've been doing and adjust things as necessary when ever I get back to anting.


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## Fusion_LUser (Jan 3, 2020)

cumonohito said:


> This is just another way of rebranding their consecutive ride promo, except this time you pay UBER ahead and commit for 10 no commission ride. Me, I refuse to pay to work, what if i get deactivated for whatever reason, will I get the money back? Or If I'm sick and can't drive for some time. I rather have money in my hands.


Wow what a brilliant concept. Pay Uber then take pax's for a ride... Looks like Uber is counting on drivers to not accept or cancel rides going by how without the "Drive Pass" option Uber would not make money on the 30% of rides that were not taken by The Gift.

The only way I can see this going the drivers way is if you can still set the fare multiplier to a higher rate. Those who set their rates higher are already getting far less pings (by choice) so the odds of not accepting a ping are better.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

TomTheAnt said:


> I still keep on doing what I've been doing and adjust things as necessary


Yes, it's prudent to assess each new scheme that Uber thinks up and either participate in it for as long as it is beneficial, or immediately disregard it.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

The Gift of Fish said:


> meaning that I accepted pickups that were farther away than usual,


...and that is exactly what Uber intended with DP. I'm glad you brought up the current price is a 'promo' of sorts. Initially I wasn't going to do DP because of the fact it is by ping and they expire a week from purchase. But, at the lower price you can still come out ahead if you don't take every ping (I don't). 
When the price goes up, becomes uncertain again for anybody who doesn't take all pings offered.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

SHalester said:


> ...and that is exactly what Uber intended with DP. I'm glad you brought up the current price is a 'promo' of sorts. Initially I wasn't going to do DP because of the fact it is by ping and they expire a week from purchase. But, at the lower price you can still come out ahead if you don't take every ping (I don't).
> When the price goes up, becomes uncertain again for anybody who doesn't take all pings offered.


Right, for 7 bucks for 10 it's worth trying while it lasts, and if Uber tries to get out the lube on those 10 pings it wouldn't be much money lost.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

...and what happens when Uber switches to that new format permanently?


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

The Gift of Fish said:


> Before I trialled this, I suspected that the pings would be shit - the dregs that nobody else wanted. However, the zero commission pings actually seemed decent - one of them was the $1,400 fare that I recently posted about, which would have saved $350 in commission. Apart from that one, I also had a $97 fare and a few other medium-sized fares.
> 
> But, of course, you're both right. Uber only ever does things to benefit Uber. There's no way that they are going to sell zero commission pings for 70 cents each indefinitely. And, as I say, paying $3 for each zero commission ping would make no sense.
> 
> ...


And
They get all of this FREE ADVERTISING FROM YOU !

BEFORE THEY BAIT & SWITCH.

Uber has Figured out how to make YOU
Pay the Cancellation Fee !


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

tohunt4me said:


> And
> They get all of this FREE ADVERTISING FROM YOU !
> 
> BEFORE THEY BAIT & SWITCH.
> ...


No, rather than advertising, it's a review from me of the Drive Pass scheme. My conclusion is that it's worth it while it's being offered cheap, but it will not be worth it once Uber puts the price up after the initial period. The reason for my post was to share my experience of the scheme as it is at the moment, along with the customary warning that any benefit is likely to not last long.


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## cumonohito (Feb 13, 2018)

Wasn't there another startup rideshare service with a similar concept of drivers paying a monthly/weekly fee to the service provider to connect them with riders? I seem to recall someone was posting in UBNET trying to recruit drivers.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

cumonohito said:


> Wasn't there another startup rideshare service with a similar concept of drivers paying a monthly/weekly fee to the service provider to connect them with riders? I seem to recall someone was posting in UBNET trying to recruit drivers.


Maybe you're thinking of Tryp, which was a pyramid scam. Drivers had to pay $199 per month IIRC to be in the pyramid but, as usual with this type of scheme, all the company did was take the monthly subs and it never launched - no drivers got any rides through it. The expected lawsuits are now being filed by the drivers who were foolish enough to hand their money over to Tryp. @UberHammer was the UP member who heavily promoted the scheme, but seems to have distanced himself from it now.

There's now another company called Dumpling Drive which, for $20 per month, lets a driver's regular customers request rides through an app, and then the company bills the pax on the driver's behalf. However, that's all it does; the driver could just give out his business cards to his regulars and have them call/text when they want a ride, and save the $20 per month.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

The Gift of Fish said:


> Right, for 7 bucks for 10 it's worth trying while it lasts


I might, my county just left 'purple' CV19 status for 'red'; might start going online if we stay in red for a week......And if we stay in red 2 weeks schools here will open up in hybrid mode. WooHoo kid will leave the house for school....I might faint....


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## Gone_in_60_seconds (Jan 21, 2018)

dmoney155 said:


> You know that they don't just blindly throw a number... they do their number crunching as well to come up ahead.


Yup, the house always wins. LOL



The Gift of Fish said:


> Uber has a new scheme called Drive Pass, whereby you pay them money and they send you pings at 0% commission. There seems to be a promotional offer at the moment, whereby you can buy 10 no commission pings for $7, reduced from a "normal price" of $30. Now, buying no commission pings for $3 a pop seemed to be a daft idea, but at 70c each I thought I would try it last week.
> 
> I bought 40 zero commission pings, which cost me $28 in total. I accepted around 70% of these pings, rejected 25% and cancelled 5%. On these rides, I saved $125.62. I am a 20 percenter; if I was a 25% commission layer I would have saved $157.03. Anyway, I saved $125.62 and it cost me $28, so I came out ahead by $97.62.
> 
> Conclusion - paying 70 cents for each no commission ping is a good idea. However, if I had paid Uber's "normal price" of $30 for 10 pings, I would have come out just $5.62 ahead. Something else to bear in mind is that, as I was paying for pings, I was a lot less selective when accepting pings, meaning that I accepted pickups that were farther away than usual, or with a lower payout. This could have decreased the overall benefit of this program.


It definitely if of value if you get the Uber pass cheap and you use it in downtown for short trips, where Uber's take is almost 50% due to the service fee and booking fee take.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

Gone_in_60_seconds said:


> It definitely if of value if you get the Uber pass cheap and you use it in downtown for short trips, where Uber's take is almost 50% due to the service fee and booking fee take.


Actually, the opposite is true. In CA Uber's take is currently 20% or 25% - they have suspended up front pricing here for the time being. It's not worth using Drive Pass for short hop trips - the commission on a $5 min fare shorty for me is only $1, so paying 70 cents for such a ping would be of little benefit. The higher the fare, the more worth it Drive Pass is.

Unfortunately you don't get the booking fee with Drive Pass.



FLKeys said:


> ...and what happens when Uber switches to that new format permanently?


If they made this permanent and started charging drivers $3 for each ping then the number of drivers would fall, requiring Uber to pay surge to get them out driving again. Uber would see that the ploy didn't work and would reverse it.

That's what seemed to happen in Detroit when Uber tried to get drivers to work for 30c per mile - there was a lot of surge there and then they put the rates back up.

Uber's always trying new tricks and traps to bend drivers over, but regardless of the exact format of the attempted insertion, there is a minimum amount for which drivers will work.


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## DavisUberX (Sep 13, 2014)

Drivepass+set your own surge is winning proposition but I'm sure it won't last


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

DavisUberX said:


> Drivepass+set your own surge is winning proposition but I'm sure it won't last


No, nothing of benefit to drivers does last in the world of Uber. All of the goodies that Uber laid out on the table in CA in order to try to get around AB5 (return to flat rate commission, multiplier surge, fare value and destination at ping time etc) will be withdrawn soon after the Prop 22 vote. If Prop 22 fails, drivers become employees and the goodies go. If Prop 22 passes, then Uber will be swift in taking reprisals against drivers and the goodies go.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

The Gift of Fish said:


> This could have decreased the overall benefit of this program.


FIFY


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

Gone_in_60_seconds said:


> where Uber's take is almost 50% due


nah. IN calif it is 20,25 or 28% (for black).



The Gift of Fish said:


> If Prop 22 passes, then Uber will be swift in taking reprisals against drivers and the goodies go.


wait: Uber wants Prop 22 to pass. Why reprisals for the daily app and regular emails telling us to vote yes. Even the pax app says to vote yes. Almost like surround sound: VOTE YES.


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## hpdriver (Jan 24, 2015)

Uber has cried wolf many times by saying "we are reducing rates so you can get more rides". Shouldn't have done that.

Now nobody believes any messages coming out of Uber's HQ. Who cares if it helps us or not, they must apologize for what they did earlier in order to gain driver trust. That's never going to happen. 

Uber, you fornicated yourself, in the rear.


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## 34-Methoxyzacko (May 9, 2020)

cumonohito said:


> Wasn't there another startup rideshare service with a similar concept of drivers paying a monthly/weekly fee to the service provider to connect them with riders? I seem to recall someone was posting in UBNET trying to recruit drivers.


I believe Arcade City was, at least at some point, supposedly operating this way. Turns out they weren't operating at all. Other than that, Tryp I believe it was. I could be wrong- seems it was a couple years ago. 
I was taught early on- "Any job that you must 'pay' to work is almost always a scam."

So while I think the review of RP that's been discussed is a necessary discussion (though doesn't apply to me in TX), I also feel that important discourse has taken place- that is, at the promo rate, it worked out for this individual. I'd definitely be interested in hearing others' experiences with it, as one never knows what may come next. &#128077;&#127995;


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