# Uber sending fewer requests to those who reject vast majority of their ride requests



## Heisenburger (Sep 19, 2016)

From this two year old article:



> Uber began sending fewer requests to those who reject or cancel the vast majority of their ride requests...
> 
> This may explain why Uber recently decided that it would stop sending as many requests to those who decline too many rides.
> 
> Uber Changes Its Rules, and Drivers Adjust Their Strategies


Is this still occurring? If so or if not, how'd we even know?


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## Rampage (8 mo ago)

Heisenburger said:


> From this two year old article:
> 
> 
> 
> Is this still occurring? If so or if not, how'd we even know?


Every morning I start surrounded by red and purple surges and I have to decline 20-30 requests that are over 10 miles away or I sit for a while with nothing. Being punished? I can’t prove a thing but c’mon.


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## ObeyTheNumbers (7 mo ago)

I love my pax 💕

I whip myself if my acceptance rate drops below 99%

If it drops below 97% I hire Mrs. Dorothy to wipe me harder.

Yes I'm broke, but I'm proud to be a Diamond Driver. 😇


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## AvisDeene (Jun 7, 2019)

That’s how it felt when I used to drive. I would be in the busy* business district, waiting on trips and they’d continually send me shit university runs a few miles away. I’d decline all of them and then they’d just stop sending me orders, yet, I would see other Uber drivers picking up customers right in front of where I’ve been parked at for a while.


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## Jp! (12 mo ago)

If it's true, just look at it as a spam filter 🤪


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## Heisenburger (Sep 19, 2016)

Rampage said:


> Every morning I start surrounded by red and purple surges and I have to decline 20-30 requests that are over 10 miles away or I sit for a while with nothing. Being punished? I can’t prove a thing but c’mon.


Pro tip: get into the red or dark orange zone to get a surge attached.


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## Nats121 (Jul 19, 2017)

Heisenburger said:


> From this two year old article:
> 
> 
> 
> Is this still occurring? If so or if not, how'd we even know?


As usual, Uber was lying in that article.

They didn't "start" doing it in 2020, they've been "shadow-banning" drivers for years. I started driving in 2017 and they were doing it then and they're still doing it.


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## Rampage (8 mo ago)

Heisenburger said:


> Pro tip: get into the red or dark orange zone to get a surge attached.


That goes against commandment #3…never chase a surge.


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## _Tron_ (Feb 9, 2020)

We now turn to our ex-SNL reporter on this topic, *Grumpy Old Man*...


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## bobby747 (Dec 29, 2015)

I get tired of reading on here over the years . Never chase a surge. Total bullshit. If it's real its catchable. Especially at an event or bad weather.
A big $30 is 100% catchable.


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## Rampage (8 mo ago)

bobby747 said:


> I get tired of reading on here over the years . Never chase a surge. Total bullshit. If it's real its catchable. Especially at an event or bad weather.
> A big $30 is 100% catchable.


If you kept records of time, miles etc I bet you would be shocked. This is coming from someone that considers every variable in every trip I accept. I’m like rain man when catching a ping. 🤓


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## Nats121 (Jul 19, 2017)

bobby747 said:


> I get tired of reading on here over the years . Never chase a surge. Total bullshit. If it's real its catchable. Especially at an event or bad weather.
> A big $30 is 100% catchable.


I chased surges years ago when I did rideshare and the surges were multipliers. I took a shot and chased them if they were reasonably close and the multipliers were high. I didn't catch too many but I'd still do it now if the surge was high enough.

If you don't chase them you've got close to zero chance of getting them unless you're one of those rare drivers who've done all the homework required to learn where surges are likely to pop up.

When it's super super busy you don't have to chase surges but that doesn't happen very often.


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

ObeyTheNumbers said:


> If it drops below 97% I hire Mrs. Dorothy to w


Can I get her number. I been a baaaaaad boy.


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

Heisenburger said:


> From this two year old article:
> 
> 
> 
> Is this still occurring? If so or if not, how'd we even know?


It happens because on my one account it pings like a schoolgirl ringing her bicycle bell.

But my other account pings 1/2 the rate 

Guess witch account I cherry pick the most?


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## May H. (Mar 20, 2018)

bobby747 said:


> I get tired of reading on here over the years . Never chase a surge. Total bullshit. If it's real its catchable. Especially at an event or bad weather.
> A big $30 is 100% catchable.


 Really? Where do you drive? Surges in my area are capped at $20.


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## bobby747 (Dec 29, 2015)

It an art and skill to chase the surges. Yes $20 at events. As high as 40. So many ways to hit that bullseye. I wont explain. Too many trolls. I did all 8 years chasing when when available....just look at Chicago. Always surging..
90% of the guys in a $20 surge get $9....ants


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## ObeyTheNumbers (7 mo ago)

W00dbutcher said:


> Can I get her number. I been a baaaaaad boy.


867-5309

Her real name is Jenny. 😄

She likes to dress up, Wizard of Oz style. 😉

"Listen up Toto, 'crack', your NOT in Kansas anymore! 😄


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## ObeyTheNumbers (7 mo ago)

bobby747 said:


> It an art and skill to chase the surges. Yes $20 at events. As high as 40. So many ways to hit that bullseye. I wont explain. Too many trolls. I did all 8 years chasing when when available....just look at Chicago. Always surging..
> 90% of the guys in a $20 surge get $9....ants


Did you know it takes 3 miles w/ pax of profit to equal the costs of one mile of no pax?

Sad but true....😞


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

ObeyTheNumbers said:


> Did you know it takes 3 miles w/ pax of profit to equal the costs of one mile of no pax?
> 
> Sad but true....😞


You just work for a stingy fool.


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## bobby747 (Dec 29, 2015)

ObeyTheNumbers said:


> Did you know it takes 3 miles w/ pax of profit to equal the costs of one mile of no pax?
> 
> Sad but true....😞


Obey. I know my numbers. At it 8 years.
private passengers to with proper insurance. Some stats can be thrown out the window. As I do wheelchair access . Xl .
Tommorow will be a great day. Bed soon out by 4.30 am. 
I refuse to drive for $1 a mile.


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## OG ant (Oct 11, 2019)

literally drown in calls with with extremely low acceptance


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## Heisenburger (Sep 19, 2016)

OG ant said:


> literally drown in calls with with extremely low acceptance
> View attachment 672061


They don't send fewer offers to you, just fewer decent ones! Unlimited shit offers!


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## Fernando-R (Nov 24, 2017)

Heisenburger said:


> From this two year old article:
> 
> 
> 
> Is this still occurring? If so or if not, how'd we even know?


It’s called “being put on a time out”…. Easiest way to fix it is to go offline and count exactly 3 minutes and then go back online. It sort of resets the whole thing and you’ll get requests again.


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## Gman67 (Aug 19, 2021)

I'm in a college town rife with bars. We have regular major concerts, huge festivals and as good a college football atmosphere as you are going to find anywhere. In about two weeks, it's gonna be like shooting fish in a barrel. I decline and cancel at will and I've never noticed Uber punishing me at all. On Friday and Saturday nights around here, I don't need to chase surges, they chase me. But all markets are different.


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## Invisible (Jun 15, 2018)

ObeyTheNumbers said:


> 867-5309
> 
> Her real name is Jenny. 😄
> 
> ...


I heard she’s busy with Tommy Tutone.


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## Heisenburger (Sep 19, 2016)

Gman67 said:


> don't need to chase surges, they chase me


Printed on your:

Coffee mug?
Bumper sticker?
T-shirt?
Ball cap?


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## ObeyTheNumbers (7 mo ago)

bobby747 said:


> .
> I refuse to drive for $1 a mile.


As you should. 😉


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## ObeyTheNumbers (7 mo ago)

Invisible said:


> I heard she’s busy with Tommy Tutone.


Yep, got her number off the wall.


MISSING DOG

Answers to "Toto"

Last seen running naked down main street.

If found please contact:

Dorthy The Dominatrix
865-5309

REWARD FOR SAFE RETURN


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## ObeyTheNumbers (7 mo ago)

Back to the topic at hand, this is what I think is occurring.

Uber needs vehicles moving with a pax so it knows in advance where and when a vehicle will be available to pickup the next pax. Then the next pax and the next. Daisy chaining trips.

The reason for this is simple, after so many trips drivers get burned out and go offline. They also want pax picked up very quickly.

So if one is sitting there cherry picking, their acceptance rate suffers and the system begins to disregard that driver as more and more unreliable.

However if there isn't enough drivers available then of course the above system doesn't work.

So that would explain why a driver dropping off nearby gets the next trip nearby despite another driver being closer to the pax.

The system considers the two acceptance rates, gives the nearby trip to the arriving driver. Assumes the waiting driver has another pax they are waiting for because he's been declining trips.


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## Ted Fink (Mar 19, 2018)

Gman67 said:


> I'm in a college town rife with bars. We have regular major concerts, huge festivals and as good a college football atmosphere as you are going to find anywhere. In about two weeks, it's gonna be like shooting fish in a barrel. I decline and cancel at will and I've never noticed Uber punishing me at all. On Friday and Saturday nights around here, I don't need to chase surges, they chase me. But all markets are different.


What college are you near? Just curious


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## OG ant (Oct 11, 2019)

Heisenburger said:


> They don't send fewer offers to you, just fewer decent ones! Unlimited shit offers!


Never experienced that aswell


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## woggy9 (6 mo ago)

ObeyTheNumbers said:


> Back to the topic at hand, this is what I think is occurring.
> 
> Uber needs vehicles moving with a pax so it knows in advance where and when a vehicle will be available to pickup the next pax. Then the next pax and the next. Daisy chaining trips.
> 
> ...


I like your theory. It makes sense to me about the daisy chaining trips etc, it does seem like once you start going you end up able to keep going nonstop anytime, but I wouldn't say that their goal is to cause drivers to get burned out and go offline, that's probably something that they don't care to think about except in markets when it is legally enforced for them to follow certain guidelines about time allowed to drive per day or such.



ObeyTheNumbers said:


> The system considers the two acceptance rates, gives the nearby trip to the arriving driver. Assumes the waiting driver has another pax they are waiting for because he's been declining trips.


I would not think the algorithm is making that assumption, I think where you postulated that it was due to reliability and likelihood of acceptance of the next trip in the chain you were spot on. The cherry picker might be less likely to continue a chain of trips than the ant so makes sense it might be factored in.

I have to say though, I am really glad I don't have to go and secure payment from customers for the trips afterwards, and that I don't have to do anything to market or find the people who need rides etc like, do you guys know how annoying it is to invoice customers for work performed and then they lag or end up trying to not pay etc etc it's a nightmare, but anyway that's a tangent.

It's fairly reasonable that less requests would go to those with lower acceptance rate but I would guess that it is far less of a factor than when it is just really busy and if many people need many rides then no doubt any driver available will be given them, not just skipped or passed over, but when trip requests is at equilibrium with drivers or below it then is then the algorithm would be in a position to make decisions about which drivers that are able to take the trip (nearby/online/available/etc) would be prioritized for them and in that case the algorithm factoring in the statistics that are used to get drivers to behave and do what would profit uber the most, statistics like acceptance rate.


TLDR: if it's busy acceptance rate likely matters less, but when it's slower you might get de-prioritized when the choice is between you and another driver with higher acceptance rate / lower cancel rate etc

or maybe it's all just a psy-op, or maybe it's all just a scam, or a plant, or a dream.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

This morning I used my clicker to keep track of my declines.

I was parked in front long of a high end hotel with every Uber service active on the car.

I switch off everything except black and suv…

uberx turned itself back on 9 times and I got 4 passive aggressive messages saying I would get more rides if I wasn’t so selective and rejected 38 pings that were uberx/xl. I got logged out 6 times.

most of the pings were from 20+ minutes/miles away.

then I got an suv ride from the hotel next hotel over.

$108 including tip to the airport.

the airport was closer than about half the pings I declined.


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

Before up front pricing, my technique was 5 minutes or 5 miles. At that time it didn't matter if it was a short run or a long run because it was time and minutes. Obviously long runs were more profitable than short runs, because I had less sitting time with the long runs per hour which meant more engaged time per hour. So in effect it was self-implemented daisy chain.

With this up front pricing, now I have to be selective on each ping because of the financial insecurity you have per ping. So now my sitting time has been increased per hour so I have less engagement time per hour. So now my Target ping is a very High compensation for low mileage.

With this technique I now am servicing less people or engaged less per hour because of the Financial insecurity. I'm not sure Uber understands that or even sees it that way but with the old system I would service more individuals than current system. So in essence, I was doing more for the community and making pretty good money doing it. Now, I'm doing less for the community and getting paid even less to do the same job.


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

Maybe a better way to keep individuals engaged and actually working longer hours would be to implement a daisy chain Progressive pay schedule. So the longer you do each ride given to you in order without declining the pay goes up a bit.

Of course the downside would that they would start sending you seven eight nine 10 Mi away and expecting you to pick those up. But with more drivers on the app at one time spread out a little bit more maybe that wouldn't be so true. I don't know it's it's a hard system to balance out to begin with.


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## Heisenburger (Sep 19, 2016)

W00dbutcher said:


> and getting paid even less to do the same job.


and getting paid even less to do _less work_.


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## Rampage (8 mo ago)

W00dbutcher said:


> Before up front pricing, my technique was 5 minutes or 5 miles. At that time it didn't matter if it was a short run or a long run because it was time and minutes. Obviously long runs were more profitable than short runs, because I had less sitting time with the long runs per hour which meant more engaged time per hour. So in effect it was self-implemented daisy chain.
> 
> With this up front pricing, now I have to be selective on each ping because of the financial insecurity you have per ping. So now my sitting time has been increased per hour so I have less engagement time per hour. So now my Target ping is a very High compensation for low mileage.
> 
> With this technique I now am servicing less people or engaged less per hour because of the Financial insecurity. I'm not sure Uber understands that or even sees it that way but with the old system I would service more individuals than current system. So in essence, I was doing more for the community and making pretty good money doing it. Now, I'm doing less for the community and getting paid even less to do the same job.


Same market, as you know and I’m doing exactly the same. I’m making more now though when you factor is everything such as miles on the vehicle. I’ll never go back to the other way. If they pulled it away tomorrow, it would be my last day and I’d be forced to start another business sooner than I want.


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

Rampage said:


> Same market, as you know and I’m doing exactly the same. I’m making more now though when you factor is everything such as miles on the vehicle. I’ll never go back to the other way. If they pulled it away tomorrow, it would be my last day and I’d be forced to start another business sooner than I want.


I guess what sucks about this new system is to make the better money you have to Target your hours.

Only when people are actually moving is it worth going out to make that kind of money. Otherwise you're stuck at that silly 50 cent threshold all the time.

With the old system it didn't matter when you went out to work. It was a bit more stable.


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## Rampage (8 mo ago)

It’s harder to keep it consistent but I still work a “shift” so to speak. I have my areas I work at certain times to keep the shorties b2b. 

I take a 2 hr or so break to workout when it’s dead but I’ll never be one of the drivers that work in the morn and at night. That’s being a slave in my opinion.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Rampage said:


> It’s harder to keep it consistent but I still work a “shift” so to speak. I have my areas I work at certain times to keep the shorties b2b.
> 
> I take a 2 hr or so break to workout when it’s dead but I’ll never be one of the drivers that work in the morn and at night. That’s being a slave in my opinion.


21:00 to 9:00 am.

Best of both worlds.


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## W00dbutcher (Jan 14, 2019)

I may work 12 hours in a day but it's in 2 or 3 different shifts. It also depends on what day it is when I work the 12 hours.. Don't want to reveal exactly what hours those are but with anybody with half a brain can figure it out it's not that hard. But most days it's 8 hours in 2 shifts. Like I said I Target my hours for high pay low miles.

Besides that I'm old I need my noon time nap!
And my pre-nap.


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## Rampage (8 mo ago)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> 21:00 to 9:00 am.
> 
> Best of both worlds.


That’s probably ideal. Not for me because I have other stuff to do but I think you are working the ideal hours. I’m an early morn to early afternoon, no weekend’s driver. I maximize the F out of the time I do but if I was relying on this I’d do things a bit different.


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Rampage said:


> That’s probably ideal. Not for me because I have other stuff to do but I think you are working the ideal hours. I’m an early morn to early afternoon, no weekend’s driver. I maximize the F out of the time I do but if I was relying on this I’d do things a bit different.


No judgements... the 5:00 am to 5:00 pm has long been a staple shift in the taxi industry. I've worked quite a few 5 to 5s.


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## Ted Fink (Mar 19, 2018)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> No judgements... the 5:00 am to 5:00 pm has long been a staple shift in the taxi industry. I've worked quite a few 5 to 5s.


That's the opposite of my typical weekend uber shift... 5pm to 5am


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

5:00 to 5:00 is honestly a much better split of the day than most people give it credit for.


9:00 to 9:00 split is an extremely unfair way to split the day. I love the 9:00 pm to 9:00 am shift and the 9:00 am to 9:00 pm is just a shit shift. Like it's the damned worst.

I'll work 5:00 pm to 5:00 am, I'll work 5:00 am to 5:00 pm.. I'll work 9:00 pm to 9:00 am in a heartbeat.

No way am I touching 9:00 am to 9:00 pm.


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## archienjohnsoniii_3198 (11 mo ago)

Rampage said:


> If you kept records of time, miles etc I bet you would be shocked. This is coming from someone that considers every variable in every trip I accept. I’m like rain man when catching a ping. 🤓


Exactly! A numbers man! Same here.


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## Heisenburger (Sep 19, 2016)

AvisDeene said:


> they’d continually send me shit university runs a few miles away. I’d decline all of them and then they’d just stop sending me orders, yet, I would see other Uber drivers picking up customers right in front of where I’ve been parked at for a while.











Batched matching


What do you know about batched matching? How does Uber match riders with drivers? Here's why you don't get paired with that Uber car you see on the map Uber’s Marketplace Matching: Case Study




www.uberpeople.net


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## painfreepc (Jul 17, 2014)

woggy9 said:


> I like your theory. It makes sense to me about the daisy chaining trips etc, it does seem like once you start going you end up able to keep going nonstop anytime, but I wouldn't say that their goal is to cause drivers to get burned out and go offline, that's probably something that they don't care to think about except in markets when it is legally enforced for them to follow certain guidelines about time allowed to drive per day or such.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Why do you get paid after work is done and not before, I did this for several years when I was driving taxi I did my own advertising I didn't invoice anyone they paid me up front.


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## Heisenburger (Sep 19, 2016)

painfreepc said:


> Why do you get paid after work is done


Because that's the standard in most contracting.


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## elelegido (Sep 24, 2014)

Heisenburger said:


> Is this still occurring? If so or if not, how'd we even know?


You would know alright. I used to regularly decline garbage no-surge Uber pings and they would regularly soft ban me. When it happened I could be sitting, for example, in the middle of San Francisco on a Friday/Saturday night where, instead of non-stop pings, I would get one ping every 30 - 40 minutes, which would invariably turn out to be a garbage min fare shorty. When it happened I would just switch over to Lyft for the rest of the week - the soft ban would reset itself at the end of each week on Sunday night.


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## ObeyTheNumbers (7 mo ago)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> This morning I used my clicker to keep track of my declines.
> 
> I was parked in front long of a high end hotel with every Uber service active on the car.
> 
> ...


Dude that's some seriously fscked up shit. 😱


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