# Trying a little surge chasing



## raisedoncereal (Jun 5, 2019)

This morning I decided to try and chase some surges during the morning commute/rush hours. Started roughly 7am, wrapping up this tiny, highly inconclusive, micro sample size experiment around 10am for a total of 3 hours spent behind the wheel.

Started out in an area where I anticipated a surge, but didn't necessarily wait for the surge to peak, partly because I'm not yet terribly familiar with the daily surge patterns or amounts and partly because I was a little impatient.

Basically started in a surge zone, and turned off my app when outside a surge area, and turned back on when in one to the best of my noob abilities and knowledge. There was roughly a 20-ish minute stretch when the faulty app incorrectly displayed that I had a sticky surge, which I highly suspected (from previous experience) was incorrect, but didn't want to chance losing out on a potential $6 sticky surge if I was wrong.

This particular experiment, I was disappointed.

- App driving time: 2h 11m. Could have been reduced to 1h 50m or so.
- Time behind wheel: approx 3h.
- Number of rides: 4
- Gross earnings: $71.08

Real time gross avg: $23.69/hr
App time gross avg (2h 11m): $32.56/hr
App time gross avg (1h 50m): $38.77/hr

$23.xx/hr gross is a bit lower than my typical expected earnings during this time period, although I realize there things vary widely and a microscopic sample size like this isn't very meaningful. I would usually gross something in the neighborhood of high-20's to low-$30's during a busy period like this, but of course have seen low/mid $20s as well.

I'll give it another try or two at another time, but for now it seems like unnecessary "stress" instead of just going with the flow and leaving the app on. The total Gross earnings at the end of the (longer) work day will undoubtedly be larger, though.


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## Flier5425 (Jun 2, 2016)

Profit = Revenue IN - Depreciation - expenses - taxes. Profit is not determined by the number of hours driven. As a business owner we all need to get off this "how much per hour" we make. When we do that profits will go up and losses will be reduced. As a business owner we are tasked with doing one thing: Maximize profits while minimizing losses.


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## Fozzie (Aug 11, 2018)

What kind of person hangs out on UP, but chases "surges" exactly like everyone tells them not to?

Chasing surge is like chasing your tail. You're never going to catch it, and if you ever do, you're just going to end up bit in the ass.

*DON'T CHASE SURGE*


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## peteyvavs (Nov 18, 2015)

raisedoncereal said:


> This morning I decided to try and chase some surges during the morning commute/rush hours. Started roughly 7am, wrapping up this tiny, highly inconclusive, micro sample size experiment around 10am for a total of 3 hours spent behind the wheel.
> 
> Started out in an area where I anticipated a surge, but didn't necessarily wait for the surge to peak, partly because I'm not yet terribly familiar with the daily surge patterns or amounts and partly because I was a little impatient.
> 
> ...


Surges are usually good on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights all other times you're chasing unicorns.


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## raisedoncereal (Jun 5, 2019)

Fozzie said:


> What kind of person hangs out on UP, but chases "surges" exactly like everyone tells them not to?


A real ass hole


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## IthurstwhenIP (Jan 12, 2018)

Chase my brother

Dont mind the noise

Show you are your own boss

All of the replies to you are from the same sock puppet who does not drive

Should say I am also a sock of @Fozzie


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## welikecamping (Nov 27, 2018)

I've never had much luck chasing surges - they would always evaporate before I got there. My approach now is if I am near one and I see there is a bonus, I will drive into if - if it is the right neighborhood. I've made some nice bucks this way - especially if the airport is surging.

I consider the time and region of the surge as well. If I find myself in a bad area, surging or not, I'm doing a DF to get out. Bad for me is areas where rush-hour traffic is too heavy and it takes too long to get around. You pick up one and you often get sucked in to another in the same region, short distances, long times, so I might get 2 surge rides out of it. Not worth it.


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## gotrocks (Dec 27, 2017)

Chasing surge is usually an exercise in futility unless you’re already close and able to get there before other drivers arrive to oversaturate the area. Compiling and consistently updating records of what areas surge when and how much is necessity. If you’re dropping off a passenger in or close to an area that you know will be surging soon, you can stop accepting additional rides while dropping the passenger off until you get into the anticipated surge area. Very little down time wasted and you’ll keep moving (assuming you’re dropping off close the area getting ready to surge.) This isn’t rocket science but it amazes me that there are drivers who still don’t keep records to anticipate their next move. They know the obvious busy surge spots to go to but have very little knowledge or ability to anticipate a not so obvious upcoming surge area.


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## JohnnyBravo836 (Dec 5, 2018)

The only times I had any success in getting surge rides to come to me was by lingering just outside the surge zone and waiting; I might get several pings which were not in the surge zone, and after letting them expire, a surge ride would finally fall to me. 

But driving into it is clearly unwise: if the size of the surge is determined by the ratio of potential riders checking ride prices divided by the number of available drivers, increasing the number of drivers is guaranteed to lower the surge value.


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## ANT 7 (Oct 14, 2018)

I totally ignore surges. If I get one, hey that's great, and if I don't, so what.

Why ?

The app throttles you once you are getting close to the daily allowable earnings amount for your specific area, relative to the driver saturation. I can only make between XXX and XXX every single day for a 10-12 hour shift regardless of what the map looks like at any given moment.

YMMV...........


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## Disgusted Driver (Jan 9, 2015)

An interesting experiment. 

Part of the problem is that we have been lied to once again by Uber, surprise! When they switched to flat rate, they told us that surges would be less volatile and they were for a while. SO I could rush back to a surge zone and get a second dip for example. These days it only makes sense to difert slightly to get a sticky surge if you are already close.


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## 2smart2drive (Jul 9, 2019)

raisedoncereal said:


> A real ass hole


Only during deep nights, nowadays.... Those innocent $700 'Driver Referal' give always for "referring your friends to driving for UBER" destroyed the Good Old Surge Days... In OC, it used to surge every wrk days mornings & during all 'party-time' nights...
No more! The Endless Referral Expansion backfired on the referring class - drivers.
Last joke's on UBER. Carefully pre-planned.


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