# The bullshit Uber rating system is about to blow up



## Desert Driver

Folks, Uber has a problem brewing. Take a look at this. I sent this to my local Uber office. This driver rating bullshit has got to change. You'd think that someone somewhere would have told Uber that you can't combine an ordinal scale and an interval scale for rating drivers. This is basic stats. Anyway, have a look at this article.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/lyft-uber-drivers.html


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## DjTim

Desert Driver said:


> Folks, Uber has a problem brewing. Take a look at this. I sent this to my local Uber office. This driver rating bullshit has got to change. You'd think that someone somewhere would have told Uber that you can't combine an ordinal scale and an interval scale for rating drivers. This is basic stats. Anyway, have a look at this article.
> 
> http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/lyft-uber-drivers.html


There is a TON of truth to this article. The number #1 complaint when I talk to riders on both platforms - communication. I've had 2 riders in the past month that had a deaf driver, and had a card that said "Please check your destination address and enter it in if it's wrong". Other riders say the driver doesn't understand them or even argues with them when the driver can't repeat back correct addresses or correct information.

On the flip side of this, I generally enjoy giving rides to Lyft folks rather then Uber folks. The Lyft riders seem more in-tune to the "rideshare" concept, respect you more as a driver and respect the vehicle as well. I like the fact that Lyft folks are "Hey - this is really cool, your a cool guy, Lyft is cool". Lyft riders also understand about tipping and the entire concept of how you earn. Uber riders heads are in the sand or they just don't give a ****, like pompous assholes with their nose stuck up "i'm better then you". This is very evident and in line with what the marketing strategies are with both companies.

I personally don't think there is going to be a "winner" in rideshare, Uber may come out on top as a dominant player - but there will always be a place for Lyft & Sidecar or whoever wants to try and enter into a market.


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## Desert Driver

DjTim said:


> There is a TON of truth to this article. The number #1 complaint when I talk to riders on both platforms - communication. I've had 2 riders in the past month that had a deaf driver, and had a card that said "Please check your destination address and enter it in if it's wrong". Other riders say the driver doesn't understand them or even argues with them when the driver can't repeat back correct addresses or correct information.
> 
> On the flip side of this, I generally enjoy giving rides to Lyft folks rather then Uber folks. The Lyft riders seem more in-tune to the "rideshare" concept, respect you more as a driver and respect the vehicle as well. I like the fact that Lyft folks are "Hey - this is really cool, your a cool guy, Lyft is cool". Lyft riders also understand about tipping and the entire concept of how you earn. Uber riders heads are in the sand or they just don't give a ****, like pompous assholes with their nose stuck up "i'm better then you". This is very evident and in line with what the marketing strategies are with both companies.
> 
> I personally don't think there is going to be a "winner" in rideshare, Uber may come out on top as a dominant player - but there will always be a place for Lyft & Sidecar or whoever wants to try and enter into a market.


You mention the haughtiness of Uber paxs. I know what you mean. My car is a 5-speed. In fact, both of my cars have 5-speed manual transmission - I factory ordered both of them. Several Uber paxs have actually said, "A clutch? I didn't even know they still made cars like this." Talk about ******bags. My standard comeback is, "Yeah, it's a special talent and it takes a special driver to handle three pedals and a gear shifter." That shuts 'em right quick and then the topic changes.


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## prdelnik666

I wish everyone would just stop calling it "ride share" and "share economy" and all that bullshit. Everyone got dooped into this. There is no sharing going on. None. It's a transportation business aka taxi service. Customer orders, you show up and drive them where ever they need to go and then they pay. No sharing going on. Is the taxi driver sharing his leased cab??? No!!! The same way luber and lyft is not sharing anything. Let's call it what it is. Taxi service.


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## DjTim

Desert Driver said:


> You mention the haughtiness of Uber paxs. I know what you mean. My car is a 5-speed. In fact, both of my cars have 5-speed manual transmission - I factory ordered both of them. Several Uber paxs have actually said, "A clutch? I didn't even know they still made cars like this." Talk about ******bags. My standard comeback is, "Yeah, it's a special talent and it takes a special driver to handle three pedals and a gear shifter." That shuts 'em right quick and then the topic changes.


If I had to drive a manual for this, I would have a calf the size of a holiday ham in a few weeks LOL! Unfortunately I won't be able to enjoy driving a manual again. I lost the use of my right foot last year and have to wear a prosthetic. I loved driving Mazda's, BMW's and a few other vehicles with a manual trans. It's like you become "one with the vehicle"


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## DjTim

prdelnik666 said:


> I wish everyone would just stop calling it "ride share" and "share economy" and all that bullshit. Everyone got dooped into this. There is no sharing going on. None. It's a transportation business aka taxi service. Customer orders, you show up and drive them where ever they need to go and then they pay. No sharing going on. Is the taxi driver sharing his leased cab??? No!!! The same way luber and lyft is not sharing anything. Let's call it what it is. Taxi service.


Not in the state I'm from. TNC will not be considered apart of taxi, limo or car services. IT professionals hate the word "Cloud", but just because I hate it - doesn't mean the term is going away.


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## prdelnik666

DjTim said:


> Not in the state I'm from. TNC will not be considered apart of taxi, limo or car services. IT professionals hate the word "Cloud", but just because I hate it - doesn't mean the term is going away.


Might not be going away because cities and states got dooped into this. There is no share economy. It is the same as calling taxi service a "phone company" back when they started using phone dispatch. Same thing as calling luber "technology company".


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## elelegido

DjTim said:


> If I had to drive a manual for this, I would have a calf the size of a holiday ham in a few weeks LOL! Unfortunately I won't be able to enjoy driving a manual again. I lost the use of my right foot last year and have to wear a prosthetic. I loved driving Mazda's, BMW's and a few other vehicles with a manual trans. It's like you become "one with the vehicle"


I used to prefer manual when I was younger; much more fun to drive. Now I'm older, though, I can't be arsed with all that farting about and prefer automatic every time.


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## Nick781

This article is complete bullshit. Uber never even fired him. He left on his own will. The rating system ensures drivers act professionally and work hard like every other job.


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## Desert Driver

DjTim said:


> If I had to drive a manual for this, I would have a calf the size of a holiday ham in a few weeks LOL! Unfortunately I won't be able to enjoy driving a manual again. I lost the use of my right foot last year and have to wear a prosthetic. I loved driving Mazda's, BMW's and a few other vehicles with a manual trans. It's like you become "one with the vehicle"


Sorry to hear of your misfortune. I have a 16 year-old who just started driving. The rule in our house is, no driving mom's automatic until you master dad's 5-speed. Of course, once a kid learns to drive a clutch, he has no interest in driving an auto trans. My Fit has a very light clutch, so no calf exercises going on. But my Mustang has a performance clutch that weighs a ton. I drove the car once in a parade. Never again. My leg ached for weeks after that.


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## AndyB588

I noticed the other day that my driver rating that the rider sees WAS NOT the same as the rating I see on my app or in the online dashboard. Anyone else see this??


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## Nick781

AndyB588 said:


> I noticed the other day that my driver rating that the rider sees WAS NOT the same as the rating I see on my app or in the online dashboard. Anyone else see this??


Yeah mine says 5 on the app a passenger told me but its really 4.74


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## Desert Driver

Nick781 said:


> This article is complete bullshit. Uber never even fired him. He left on his own will. The rating system ensures drivers act professionally and work hard like every other job.


Nick, the Uber driver rating system is statistically flawed. The riders rate drivers on an ordinal scale. Yet, drivers are deactivated based on an interval scale. Any first year student of statistics will tell you this is horribly flawed statistical design. You see, one rider giving a driver a rating of four is, in essence, a demand to fire the driver. See the problem here? You cannot blend an ordinal scale with an interval scale. The results are absolutely meaningless.

Anything else I can clarify for you, or are you good for the time being?


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## Desert Driver

elelegido said:


> I used to prefer manual when I was younger; much more fun to drive. Now I'm older, though, I can't be arsed with all that farting about and prefer automatic every time.


It takes a special skill and a special love of driving of a more complete driving experience.


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## Desert Driver

prdelnik666 said:


> I wish everyone would just stop calling it "ride share" and "share economy" and all that bullshit. Everyone got dooped into this. There is no sharing going on. None. It's a transportation business aka taxi service. Customer orders, you show up and drive them where ever they need to go and then they pay. No sharing going on. Is the taxi driver sharing his leased cab??? No!!! The same way luber and lyft is not sharing anything. Let's call it what it is. Taxi service.


Potato, potahto


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## Nick781

Desert Driver said:


> Nick, the Uber driver rating system is statistically flawed. The riders rate drivers on an ordinal scale. Yet, drivers are deactivated based on an interval scale. Any first year student of statistics will tell you this is horribly flawed statistical design. You see, one rider giving a driver a rating of four is, in essence, a demand to fire the driver. See the problem here? You cannot blend an ordinal scale with an interval scale. The results are absolutely meaningless.
> 
> Anything else I can clarify for you, or are you good for the time being?


Passed 12 trips I was rated 5 on 11 of them, and one was who knows cause I kicked the guy out. It can use some improvements your right. But it doesnt seem too bad.


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## Desert Driver

prdelnik666 said:


> I wish everyone would just stop calling it "ride share" and "share economy" and all that bullshit. Everyone got dooped into this. There is no sharing going on. None. It's a transportation business aka taxi service. Customer orders, you show up and drive them where ever they need to go and then they pay. No sharing going on. Is the taxi driver sharing his leased cab??? No!!! The same way luber and lyft is not sharing anything. Let's call it what it is. Taxi service.


duped, not dooped

dupe
verb (used with object), duped, duping.
3. to make a dupe of; deceive; delude; trick.


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## prdelnik666

Nick781 said:


> This article is complete bullshit. Uber never even fired him. He left on his own will. The rating system ensures drivers act professionally and work hard like every other job.


Really? Are you new, drunk or luber's spokesperson? Or all of the above?


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## Desert Driver

Nick781 said:


> Passed 12 trips I was rated 5 on 11 of them, and one was who knows cause I kicked the guy out. It can use some improvements your right. But it doesnt seem too bad.


Nick, it doesn't matter if it seems 'not too bad.' Statistically, the driver rating system is wholly irrelevant and the results are meaningless. The paxs rate drivers on an ordinal scale, yet Uber makes their decision to activate or deactivate based on an interval scale. This makes no sense at all. If you're OK with this design, then we can assume that if you ordered a ribeye steak at the restaurant and the waiter brought you a slice of tofu casserole that you'd be OK with that. You see, the two entrees have zero to do with one another. Likewise, paxs rating drivers on an ordinal scale, but then Uber determines who stay or goes based on an interval scale have exactly nothing to do with one another. This is basic knowledge for anyone who has taken even the most introductory statistics class. I have offered my local Uber office a basic stats seminar, if they're interested in understanding why the rating system means precisely nothing to anyone who understands statistics.


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## painfreepc

Nick781 said:


> This article is complete bullshit. Uber never even fired him. He left on his own will. The rating system ensures drivers act professionally and work hard like every other job.


The rating system is not about being professional, it's about kissing and licking the ass of the entitled.


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## Nick781

prdelnik666 said:


> Really? Are you new, drunk or luber's spokesperson? Or all of the above?


I am Ubers ceo


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## DjTim

Desert Driver said:


> Nick, the Uber driver rating system is statistically flawed. The riders rate drivers on an ordinal scale. Yet, drivers are deactivated based on an interval scale. Any first year student of statistics will tell you this is horribly flawed statistical design. You see, one rider giving a driver a rating of four is, in essence, a demand to fire the driver. See the problem here? You cannot blend an ordinal scale with an interval scale. The results are absolutely meaningless.
> 
> Anything else I can clarify for you, or are you good for the time being?


I agree with you that it's flawed, but what I actually think that Uber knows what they are doing because I believe that Uber wants to _churn_ their drivers. It's a simple concept and it's been used by many different companies in their yearly review process.I remember something about a tech company, but I can't remember which one. It may have been IBM, HP or Motorola. The longest a person could possibly hold a tech position was 3 years. They always clipped/fired any employee with a 4.25 rating, and kept everyone else. You then hire a TON of people again. You go through the rating system again the next year, and - you get where I'm going. Eventually everyone gets fired.

This technique has been proven to create a "cut throat" culture, where each employee will **** over their fellow employee, not realizing they won't last either. Because your evaluation is based on opinions, well, you say something wrong to a manager, and poof, you have a low rating. Companies always defended this process because you "keep the best of the best". What the companies weren't saying is that they saved a ton of cash on benefits and other things that would only go to employees that made it longer then a year.

So if we pull this out to a drivers/IC/Uber point of view, what Uber thinks will happen is drivers will do what ever it takes to make that 5 star, not knowing they are feeding the same type of "cut-throat" system, and eventually that 5 star driver will be eliminated/deactivated. It is impossible to be 100% - 100% of the time. Humans make mistakes, and sometimes they will make a bunch of mistakes in a row.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my SVP in February, before I left my company in August. He said to me "I wasn't hungry enough, that my team and I were stalling". It was true, I had dialed back my work to a "normal" workload, my team was getting burned out and I was as well. I started letting my team take time off, and do less work in the process. I told this to the SVP, and he was PISSED. I more or less told him he could go pound sand. I could see the writing on the wall before all of this - I knew that churn was going to take place. I wasn't that "exceptional 5 star employee" "Do more with less" person. This is what I see in Uber internally and externally.

At this point, all we can do is hope that it will change after they go public, or they will implode and - well - we'll go to the next Uber or whatever comes along.


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## chi1cabby

DjTim said:


> It may have been IBM, HP or Motorola. The longest a person could possibly hold a tech position was 3 years.


Yeah Right!
Freaking Tech Behemoths wanna let go of seasoned professional workers after 3 years!
Cite an example of a company, Any Company, besides TNSs, where this is going on.


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## DjTim

chi1cabby said:


> Yeah Right!
> Freaking Tech Behemoths wanna let go of seasoned professional workers after 3 years!
> Cite an example of a company, Any Company, besides TNSs, where this is going on.


The term is "Stacked Rankings" and it's popular. Microsoft had been doing this for years: http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/13/technology/enterprise/microsoft-stack-ranking/ and just got rid of it in 2013.

I know that HP uses stacked rankings for most of their front line help desk employees. IBM uses it for 2 of their divisions related to mainframe support.

Here's a few more articles, most are from 2013 becasue it was a popular topic with Microsoft in the news:

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/stack-ranking-inter-office-hunger-games

http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2...CopyingMicrosoftsPerformanceReviewSystem.aspx

http://fortune.com/2013/11/19/a-ceos-passionate-defense-of-stack-ranking-employees/

http://www.commercialappeal.com/business/companies-increasingly-turn-from-stacked-ranking
http://www.hrcapitalist.com/2013/05/why-companies-stack-rank-the-performance-of-employees.html


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## chi1cabby

DjTim said:


> The term is "Stacked Rankings" and it's popular.


Thank you for proving my point by citing articles that have this to say about Stacked Ranking:

And a scathing _Vanity Fair_ article from August 2012 about Ballmer's tenure _-- _titled "Microsoft's Lost Decade" -- pegged stack ranking as a major contributor to the company's struggles.
"Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed -- _every one --_cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees," Kurt Eichenwald wrote in the _Vanity Fair _article.

Many American companies that had adopted a much-vaunted employee evaluation system have lately been turning away from it.

Companies stack rank because it's the path of least resistance, the lowest common denominator for what needs to be done.


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## DjTim

chi1cabby said:


> Thank you for proving my point by citing articles that have this to say about Stacked Ranking:
> 
> And a scathing _Vanity Fair_ article from August 2012 about Ballmer's tenure _-- _titled "Microsoft's Lost Decade" -- pegged stack ranking as a major contributor to the company's struggles.
> "Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed -- _every one --_cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees," Kurt Eichenwald wrote in the _Vanity Fair _article.
> 
> Many American companies that had adopted a much-vaunted employee evaluation system have lately been turning away from it.
> 
> Companies stack rank because it's the path of least resistance, the lowest common denominator for what needs to be done.


I think that your getting pissed off for the wrong reason. I agree that stacked ranking is shit, I even said so above, and I also said that Uber is doing this because they want to churn drivers out just for the sake of doing it, not because it's a positive culture building, company building exercise on keeping people around. I also said 3 years in my original post, but from most of the articles I checked, it's as soon as 6 months.

I'm giving you a cookie, take the damn cookie LOL


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## chi1cabby

DjTim said:


> I'm giving you a cookie, take the damn cookie LOL


I'm not pissed. I'm just pointing out that it's incorrect to assert that stacked ranking is/was popular.


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## DjTim

chi1cabby said:


> I'm not pissed. I'm just pointing out that it's incorrect to assert that stacked ranking is/was popular.


It still is VERY popular with companies and HR managers, it is NOT POPULAR with employees. Most companies use this with their sales groups because it's really easy to show who makes money and the ones that don't make money get shown the door.

There are a ton of shitty business practices out there, this is the top one on my list.


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## Realityshark

Desert Driver said:


> Folks, Uber has a problem brewing. Take a look at this. I sent this to my local Uber office. This driver rating bullshit has got to change. You'd think that someone somewhere would have told Uber that you can't combine an ordinal scale and an interval scale for rating drivers. This is basic stats. Anyway, have a look at this article.
> 
> [URL='http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/lyft-uber-drivers.html[/QUOTE']http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/lyft-uber-drivers.html[/URL]


That was a interesting article to read. Thanks for posting it.


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## centralFLFuber

Desert Driver said:


> You mention the haughtiness of Uber paxs. I know what you mean. My car is a 5-speed. In fact, both of my cars have 5-speed manual transmission - I factory ordered both of them. Several Uber paxs have actually said, "A clutch? I didn't even know they still made cars like this." Talk about ******bags. My standard comeback is, "Yeah, it's a special talent and it takes a special driver to handle three pedals and a gear shifter." That shuts 'em right quick and then the topic changes.


ROFLMAO 

i am woman who has driven clutch almost ALL her life. even did a lil job for auto wholesaler driving cars back & forth to GA. Needless to say we were in Ga & had to bring jeep back to FL (manual) NONE of his regular guys/drivers could drive it. ME the Woman/Girl had to drive it cuz they/men didnt know how!!!


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## Sydney Uber

Nick781 said:


> Passed 12 trips I was rated 5 on 11 of them, and one was who knows cause I kicked the guy out. It can use some improvements your right. But it doesnt seem too bad.


I can see that tune change in the future. It looks as if TNC's will be allowed to continue to operate in some cities. As long as drivers


DjTim said:


> It still is VERY popular with companies and HR managers, it is NOT POPULAR with employees. Most companies use this with their sales groups because it's really easy to show who makes money and the ones that don't make money get shown the door.
> 
> There are a ton of shitty business practices out there, this is the top one on my list.





DjTim said:


> It still is VERY popular with companies and HR managers, it is NOT POPULAR with employees. Most companies use this with their sales groups because it's really easy to show who makes money and the ones that don't make money get shown the door.
> 
> There are a ton of shitty business practices out there, this is the top one on my list.


HR Managers? That's short for Human Remains right?


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## Killeen Ubur

Desert Driver said:


> You mention the haughtiness of Uber paxs. I know what you mean. My car is a 5-speed. In fact, both of my cars have 5-speed manual transmission - I factory ordered both of them. Several Uber paxs have actually said, "A clutch? I didn't even know they still made cars like this." Talk about ******bags. My standard comeback is, "Yeah, it's a special talent and it takes a special driver to handle three pedals and a gear shifter." That shuts 'em right quick and then the topic changes.


Nice I have a standard to and my pax's said the same thing LOL But I'm in Austin and here they like the weird stuff KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD lol


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## Chris Dee

Funny how the rating changes so every week. 5 stars for three weeks, then 4.82, 4.78, 4.88 for two weeks then 4.78 again and now 4.79. I am at the point where I don't care anymore, after reading all the other driver's feelings about the rating it have taken the worry out of it. I just drive.... still no water or mints. One question if someone knows the answer because Uber has told me no. I get a ride, get to the destination, wait around, call and find out rider is at location. Rider is stupid and doesn't know where they are so they state to forget it and they'll take a cab. Rider cancels ride, they get charged $7 for some reason and I don't get a piece of it. How is that fair? I wasted twenty mins with this idiot who can't give me their address and I get nada... wonderful.


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## UberHustla

Nick781 said:


> Passed 12 trips I was rated 5 on 11 of them, and one was who knows cause I kicked the guy out. It can use some improvements your right. But it doesnt seem too bad.


We will see if you feel that way when you get enough 4's (most assume 4 out of 5 to be good, that will get you fired at Uber). After talking to riders, they had no clue a 4 was a "bad" rating. Now I'm forced to explain the rating system to each rider


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## Desert Driver

Chris Dee said:


> Funny how the rating changes so every week. 5 stars for three weeks, then 4.82, 4.78, 4.88 for two weeks then 4.78 again and now 4.79. I am at the point where I don't care anymore, after reading all the other driver's feelings about the rating it have taken the worry out of it. I just drive.... still no water or mints. One question if someone knows the answer because Uber has told me no. I get a ride, get to the destination, wait around, call and find out rider is at location. Rider is stupid and doesn't know where they are so they state to forget it and they'll take a cab. Rider cancels ride, they get charged $7 for some reason and I don't get a piece of it. How is that fair? I wasted twenty mins with this idiot who can't give me their address and I get nada... wonderful.


That very scenario has happened to me twice in the past three weeks. In both cases it's been a drunk person - one was a male and one was a female. Here's how I handle that. When I contact them and they tell me that they decided to take a cab, I tell them to cancel the ride. In both cases the would-be paxs ask if I can cancel the ride. I tell them that because I have already tapped the ARRIVE button that I cannot cancel. (The truth of the matter is, I don't want to get a nastygram e-mail from Uber the next day for failing to have a 100% acceptance rate.) In both cases in which this happened to me, the would-be paxs had input destinations, so I start the trip and begin driving to the destination as if the pax was in the car. In one case, I got a third of the way to the destination before the would-be-pax canceled the trip. I earned an $8 fare on that one. In the second case I'm referring to, I drove all the way to the would-be-pax's destination which was his home. As I approached, I saw the taxi pulling away. I collected the whole fare of $10. My rationale is that the fare I collect for driving an empty car is the courtesy fee I'm entitled to for making the effort to pick up the pax PLUS the "hassle" fee of the pax not canceling the ride properly. My only advice if you plan to use this tactic is make sure the would-be pax is drunk so they won't have a clear recollection of what happened when they see their credit card statement. As we're now into the heavy drinking season, I anticipate this scenario will play out a few more times. And until someone can explain to me why I shouldn't take this approach, I plan to continue with this approach because I need to be compensated for my time, effort, and wear on my car. By day I am a consultant, so I understand very well the value of being fairly compensated for any and all effort expended for the benefit of a client. Driving passengers for Uber/Lyft is no different - we all need to be compensated for the time and effort we expend, and if the pax cannot play by the rules, then they will be charged. I hope this helps. (P.S. I have yet to see a charge dispute or a charge reversal from Uber when I have used this tactic.)


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## UberHustla

Desert Driver said:


> That very scenario has happened to me twice in the past three weeks. In both cases it's been a drunk person - one was a male and one was a female. Here's how I handle that. When I contact them and they tell me that they decided to take a cab, I tell them to cancel the ride. In both cases the would-be paxs ask if I can cancel the ride. I tell them that because I have already tapped the ARRIVE button that I cannot cancel. (The truth of the matter is, I don't want to get a nastygram e-mail from Uber the next day for failing to have a 100% acceptance rate.) In both cases in which this happened to me, the would-be paxs had input destinations, so I start the trip and begin driving to the destination as if the pax was in the car. In one case, I got a third of the way to the destination before the would-be-pax canceled the trip. I earned an $8 fare on that one. In the second case I'm referring to, I drove all the way to the would-be-pax's destination which was his home. As I approached, I saw the taxi pulling away. I collected the whole fare of $10. My rationale is that the fare I collect for driving an empty car is the courtesy fee I'm entitled to for making the effort to pick up the pax PLUS the "hassle" fee of the pax not canceling the ride properly. My only advice if you plan to use this tactic is make sure the would-be pax is drunk so they won't have a clear recollection of what happened when they see their credit card statement. As we're now into the heavy drinking season, I anticipate this scenario will play out a few more times. And until someone can explain to me why I shouldn't take this approach, I plan to continue with this approach because I need to be compensated for my time, effort, and wear on my car. By day I am a consultant, so I understand very well the value of being fairly compensated for any and all effort expended for the benefit of a client. Driving passengers for Uber/Lyft is no different - we all need to be compensated for the time and effort we expend, and if the pax cannot play by the rules, then they will be charged. I hope this helps. (P.S. I have yet to see a charge dispute or a charge reversal from Uber when I have used this tactic.)


Love it! Brilliant!


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## Desert Driver

UberHustla said:


> We will see if you feel that way when you get enough 4's (most assume 4 out of 5 to be good, that will get you fired at Uber). After talking to riders, they had no clue a 4 was a "bad" rating. Now I'm forced to explain the rating system to each rider


I have explained to Uber until I am blue in the face that the driver rating system is meaningless because it is statistically flawed. The reason it is flawed is because paxs are rating drivers on an interval scale. However, Uber makes its keep/dismiss decisions for drivers based on an ordinal scale. It is apples and oranges - the two scales have precisely nothing to do with one another. I currently have a 4.97 rating but I can take no pride in it because I understand that the rating is statistically flawed and has no relevance. Believe me, I'd love to brag about that score, but because it's wholly irrelevant owing to a statistical design flaw, it'd be like bragging that I know Santa Claus because I said 'hi' to him at the mall. So, what I do is give all my paxs a short statistics lesson and end with, "So, basically, a rating of 4 tells Uber that you would like to see the driver fired immediately." That is not a lie or an exaggeration because the design flaw in mixing ordinal and interval scales leads to that very conclusion. Ergo, nearly all my paxs rate me a 5 and I have a 4.97 rating. And it's because of this horrible rating system that more and more drivers are leaving Uber and going to Lyft. Take a look at this article.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/lyft-uber-drivers.html

Hope this helps.

Uber on, amigo!


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## UberHustla

Desert Driver said:


> I have explained to Uber until I am blue in the face that the driver rating system is meaningless because it is statistically flawed. The reason it is flawed is because paxs are rating drivers on an interval scale. However, Uber makes its keep/dismiss decisions for drivers based on an ordinal scale. It is apples and oranges - the two scales have precisely nothing to do with one another. I currently have a 4.97 rating but I can take no pride in it because I understand that the rating is statistically flawed and has no relevance. Believe me, I'd love to brag about that score, but because it's wholly irrelevant owing to a statistical design flaw, it'd be like bragging that I know Santa Claus because I said 'hi' to him at the mall. So, what I do is give all my paxs a short statistics lesson and end with, "So, basically, a rating of 4 tells Uber that you would like to see the driver fired immediately." That is not a lie or an exaggeration because the design flaw in mixing ordinal and interval scales leads to that very conclusion. Ergo, nearly all my paxs rate me a 5 and I have a 4.97 rating. And it's because of this horrible rating system that more and more drivers are leaving Uber and going to Lyft. Take a look at this article.
> 
> http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/lyft-uber-drivers.html
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Uber on, amigo!


It's embarassing for me to have to explain it to riders. Imagine how Uber management must feel with drivers and riders talking about this. Doesn't look good


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## DjTim

Desert Driver said:


> That very scenario has happened to me twice in the past three weeks. In both cases it's been a drunk person - one was a male and one was a female. Here's how I handle that. When I contact them and they tell me that they decided to take a cab, I tell them to cancel the ride. In both cases the would-be paxs ask if I can cancel the ride. I tell them that because I have already tapped the ARRIVE button that I cannot cancel. (The truth of the matter is, I don't want to get a nastygram e-mail from Uber the next day for failing to have a 100% acceptance rate.) In both cases in which this happened to me, the would-be paxs had input destinations, so I start the trip and begin driving to the destination as if the pax was in the car. In one case, I got a third of the way to the destination before the would-be-pax canceled the trip. I earned an $8 fare on that one. In the second case I'm referring to, I drove all the way to the would-be-pax's destination which was his home. As I approached, I saw the taxi pulling away. I collected the whole fare of $10. My rationale is that the fare I collect for driving an empty car is the courtesy fee I'm entitled to for making the effort to pick up the pax PLUS the "hassle" fee of the pax not canceling the ride properly. My only advice if you plan to use this tactic is make sure the would-be pax is drunk so they won't have a clear recollection of what happened when they see their credit card statement. As we're now into the heavy drinking season, I anticipate this scenario will play out a few more times. And until someone can explain to me why I shouldn't take this approach, I plan to continue with this approach because I need to be compensated for my time, effort, and wear on my car. By day I am a consultant, so I understand very well the value of being fairly compensated for any and all effort expended for the benefit of a client. Driving passengers for Uber/Lyft is no different - we all need to be compensated for the time and effort we expend, and if the pax cannot play by the rules, then they will be charged. I hope this helps. (P.S. I have yet to see a charge dispute or a charge reversal from Uber when I have used this tactic.)


Damn dude - this is a brilliant idea. So I only see 2 down falls with this approach. If the pax doesn't enter in a destination, when where do you go? If you have a "high" level of disputes after a while, how many before you could be suspended?

Would you also do this to a Lyft rider? I tend to like the Lyft crowd a bit more, so I would be hesitant to take this approach, unless the rider is being a bag of dicks with me on the phone.


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## Desert Driver

Killeen Ubur said:


> Nice I have a standard to and my pax's said the same thing LOL But I'm in Austin and here they like the weird stuff KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD lol


Last night I had another driver comment, "What, they still make cars with stick shift?"

I've decided that my standard (no pun intended) reply to that comment is, "Nope, I got the last one!"

And when paxs making disparaging or snotty comments about standard transmission, my reply will be, "It takes a special skill and a special brand of driver to operate three pedals and a shift lever while keeping an eye on the tachometer. It's really not designed for your run-of-the mill street driver." The weird thing is, I'm pretty sure those disparaging comments stem from envy when they see guys like you and me operating standard transmission with skill and aplomb.

I have a new teen driver in my house. The rule here is - you cannot drive mom's automatic until you master dad's 5-speed. Of course, once he mastered dad's 5-speed he had zero interest in driving mom's automatic. And his friends are in awe when they ride with him and they watch him adroitly fly through the gears.

Both my daily driver (Honda Fit) and my weekend hotrod (35th Anniversary Mustang GT ragtop) are 5-speeds and I ordered both of them from the factory.


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## Desert Driver

DjTim said:


> Damn dude - this is a brilliant idea. So I only see 2 down falls with this approach. If the pax doesn't enter in a destination, when where do you go? If you have a "high" level of disputes after a while, how many before you could be suspended?
> 
> Would you also do this to a Lyft rider? I tend to like the Lyft crowd a bit more, so I would be hesitant to take this approach, unless the rider is being a bag of dicks with me on the phone.


DjTim - you always make such good comments and ask excellent follow-up questions. If no destination is entered, I'd still start the trip and wait about 10 minutes for the would-be pax to cancel. If no cancel comes, I'd probably just end the empty ride after 10 minutes.

Your comment about disputes is excellent. I apply this protocol only when I can tell that the pax is pretty drunk. And in the case of the guy who went home via taxi, he'll see on his trip log that I drove from the bar to his home. Two weeks later when he gets his credit card statement and he goes to reconcile it, he'll have a tough time figuring out why the trip went all the way to his home if he wasn't in the car. Thought bubble, "Holy shit! I must've really been hammered that night!" And all he'll have from the cab company is a receipt (maybe) and no trip log. So, which charge is he more likely to dispute, the Uber charge which is lower or the taxi charge which is higher?

I have not run into this yet with any Lyft riders.

Keep the questions and comments coming. I love conversing with you.


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## DjTim

Desert Driver said:


> DjTim - you always make such good comments and ask excellent follow-up questions. If no destination is entered, I'd still start the trip and wait about 10 minutes for the would-be pax to cancel. If no cancel comes, I'd probably just end the empty ride after 10 minutes.
> 
> Your comment about disputes is excellent. I apply this protocol only when I can tell that the pax is pretty drunk. And in the case of the guy who went home via taxi, he'll see on his trip log that I drove from the bar to his home. Two weeks later when he gets his credit card statement and he goes to reconcile it, he'll have a tough time figuring out why the trip went all the way to his home if he wasn't in the car. Thought bubble, "Holy shit! I must've really been hammered that night!" And all he'll have from the cab company is a receipt (maybe) and no trip log. So, which charge is he more likely to dispute, the Uber charge which is lower or the taxi charge which is higher?
> 
> I have not run into this yet with any Lyft riders.
> 
> Keep the questions and comments coming. I love conversing with you.


Thanks for the complement, honestly you add some really good info and stories here. I think I'm just like you, along for the ride - pun intended 

I've only had a few notable riders that couldn't figure out how to cancel and just texted me to cancel the ride. They figured it out like 30 seconds after they texted me.

When I'm in a "bar" zone, I tend to wait about 30 seconds to a minute before driving to the pax. It seems that most rides are canceled in that period of time, for me at least.


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## Desert Driver

DjTim said:


> Thanks for the complement, honestly you add some really good info and stories here. I think I'm just like you, along for the ride - pun intended
> 
> I've only had a few notable riders that couldn't figure out how to cancel and just texted me to cancel the ride. They figured it out like 30 seconds after they texted me.
> 
> When I'm in a "bar" zone, I tend to wait about 30 seconds to a minute before driving to the pax. It seems that most rides are canceled in that period of time, for me at least.


Ya know, that's an excellent tip about waiting a few moments before starting out after accepting a ping. I can't tell you how many times I'll be parked, the ping comes in, I immediately accept it, cradle up the phone, and head out, only to have the cancelation come through when I hit third gear. Yeah, waiting a minute or so before heading out is an excellent tip when the ping comes from Drunks "R" Us.


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## Desert Driver

Nick781 said:


> Yeah mine says 5 on the app a passenger told me but its really 4.74


Don't worry about your rating. The number is a complete fabrication and I am educating Uber as to the gross errors they are committing in their calculation method. Simply put, you cannot have paxs rate drivers on an interval scale, and then Uber makes its retain/dismiss decisions based on an ordinal scale. They are committing such a grand statistical error, that they may as well say, "Your driver rating this week is a grapefruit! Congratulations! You driver rating last week was submarine sandwich! You're moving up. We value drivers like you!"

My current driver rating is 4.97 but I take no pride in it because I understand the errors Uber is creating with its statistical methodology and I grasp the meaninglessness of the value.

Hang in there. I'm continuing to work with Uber to get them to repair the grand mess they've created for themselves and the drivers.


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## painfreepc

I pray that what you do will help as the rating system the way it is now is total bullshit,
I can drive for months and be a top driver and then get a few asshole passengers and in just a few weeks be come a bad driver looking at deactivation, this is not right if this rating system continues the way it is I will go back to driving taxi.

I did well as a taxi driver doing my own advertising, as a taxi driver i got respect and trust from personal clients, one of my clients married me, i don't really need uber.

I stop driving taxi in mid 2012 due to my wife death from lung cancer, after her passing my high tolerance for people's bullshit in my taxi became zero tolerance, not a good thing, I had to stop driving, it's taken nearly 2 years to pull myself together.


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## Desert Driver

painfreepc said:


> I pray that what you do will help as the rating system the way it is now is total bullshit,
> I can drive for months and be a top driver and then get a few asshole passengers and in just a few weeks be come a bad driver looking at deactivation, this is not right if this rating system continues the way it is I will go back to driving taxi.
> 
> I did well as a taxi driver doing my own advertising, as a taxi driver i got respect and trust from personal clients, one of my clients married me, i don't really need uber.
> 
> I stop driving taxi in mid 2012 due to my wife death from lung cancer, after her passing my high tolerance for people's bullshit in my taxi became zero tolerance, not a good thing, I had to stop driving, it's taken nearly 2 years to pull myself together.


You are not alone. Take a look at this article. This is why I am making it my personal mission to help Uber correct this problem. Evidently no one at Uber has even the faintest clue of what statistical assessment design means. They have blatantly mixed ordinal scaling with interval scaling. Ergo, driver rating numbers and keep/deactivate decisions have virtually nothing to do with one another.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/12/lyft-uber-drivers.html

I enjoy driving for Uber, and that's why I'm committed to helping the company fix this grand error it has created for itself.


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## Nick781

Desert Driver said:


> Don't worry about your rating. The number is a complete fabrication and I am educating Uber as to the gross errors they are committing in their calculation method. Simply put, you cannot have paxs rate drivers on an interval scale, and then Uber makes its retain/dismiss decisions based on an ordinal scale. They are committing such a grand statistical error, that they may as well say, "Your driver rating this week is a grapefruit! Congratulations! You driver rating last week was submarine sandwich! You're moving up. We value drivers like you!"
> 
> My current driver rating is 4.97 but I take no pride in it because I understand the errors Uber is creating with its statistical methodology and I grasp the meaninglessness of the value.
> 
> Hang in there. I'm continuing to work with Uber to get them to repair the grand mess they've created for themselves and the drivers.


I wish we can have more power to choose clients too. I was getting pinged like 15 minutes away from passengers. The GPS ETA is complete bullshit since it doesn't count how I had to U-turn in Boston which causes alot more time. But I guess this is a start. Thanks for doing something!


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## Desert Driver

*Hello Fellow Drivers -

Please help me out. I am doing all I can to educate the Uber execs about how horribly flawed the driver rating system is from a statistical perspective. But I need my fellow drivers to send plenty of messages to their local Uber management teams, too. Those messages get forwarded, too, if they're courteous and tactful. The more vocal we are as a group, the better the chance we'll be heard. I can provide the technical explanation of why the current rating system is meaningless (ordinal scale vs interval scale) and I can help Uber design a more sound rating system. But unless Uber believes there's actually a problem, I'm just an over-educated, pissed off dude. We ALL need to make certain Uber understands how broken and irrelevant to current rating system is.

I current have a driver rating of 4.97. I also have a flat tire on my bicycle. Sadly, the flat tire possesses more real value that my driver rating number.

Thank you.

P.S. For now, let your paxs know that a rating of 4 stars is the same as telling Uber to fire the driver immediately, then explain that 4.6 is the cutoff. I do this and that's why my rating has moved from 4.94 to 4.97 in the past three days.*


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## Elmoooy

DjTim said:


> There is a TON of truth to this article. The number #1 complaint when I talk to riders on both platforms - communication. I've had 2 riders in the past month that had a deaf driver, and had a card that said "Please check your destination address and enter it in if it's wrong". Other riders say the driver doesn't understand them or even argues with them when the driver can't repeat back correct addresses or correct information.


I call bullshit on this post. I am an deaf driver and have had nearly 1000 rides under my wing. I have a 4.97 rating, so if passengers were really upset about communication I would not be driving today. I always double check the drop off destination with my passenger and if it's not correct I hand them a eraser board for them to correct it. I am often mentioned on twitter while other clients go on twitter just to trash uber.


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## painfreepc

Elmoooy said:


> I call bullshit on this post. I am an deaf driver and have had nearly 1000 rides under my wing. I have a 4.97 rating, so if passengers were really upset about communication I would not be driving today. I always double check the drop off destination with my passenger and if it's not correct I hand them a eraser board for them to correct it. I am often mentioned on twitter while other clients go on twitter just to trash uber.


you are a 4.97 because clients feel sorry for your ass, you actually show that the rating system is shit, sorry not going to sugar coat it for you..


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## Elmoooy

painfreepc said:


> you are a 4.97 because clients feel sorry for your ass, you actually show that the rating system is shit, sorry not going to sugar coat it for you..


Um no - you clearly don't know shit. My clients love me. THEY EVEN TALK TO OTHER LOCAL DRIVERS ABOUT ME. Don't take my word for it, go to Charleston forum and ask them for your idiot ass.

I have several repeat clients and they always tell me they are thrilled to get me, they love the service i give. It sucks that you have to make up some bullshit story to get likes, I don't.


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## johnny danger

Desert Driver said:


> *Hello Fellow Drivers -
> 
> Please help me out. I am doing all I can to educate the Uber execs about how horribly flawed the driver rating system is from a statistical perspective. But I need my fellow drivers to send plenty of messages to their local Uber management teams, too. Those messages get forwarded, too, if they're courteous and tactful. The more vocal we are as a group, the better the chance we'll be heard. I can provide the technical explanation of why the current rating system is meaningless (ordinal scale vs interval scale) and I can help Uber design a more sound rating system. But unless Uber believes there's actually a problem, I'm just an over-educated, pissed off dude. We ALL need to make certain Uber understands how broken and irrelevant to current rating system is.
> 
> I current have a driver rating of 4.97. I also have a flat tire on my bicycle. Sadly, the flat tire possesses more real value that my driver rating number.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> P.S. For now, let your paxs know that a rating of 4 stars is the same as telling Uber to fire the driver immediately, then explain that 4.6 is the cutoff. I do this and that's why my rating has moved from 4.94 to 4.97 in the past three days.*


CUZ.... THE RATING SYSTEM IS ONE THING , BUT WHY DO YOU EAT THE BALLSACROSSTHECHIN SANDWICH UBER FEEDS YOU EVERY DAY.....GET A LIFE


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## Desert Driver

johnny danger said:


> CUZ.... THE RATING SYSTEM IS ONE THING , BUT WHY DO YOU EAT THE BALLSACROSSTHECHIN SANDWICH UBER FEEDS YOU EVERY DAY.....GET A LIFE


The only way change occurs, son, is when people take action. If you're so unhappy with Uber, you would be well advised to head back to your job at Burger King and see if you can get more hours. Just sayin'.

No need to thank me.


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## Desert Driver

Elmoooy said:


> I call bullshit on this post. I am an deaf driver and have had nearly 1000 rides under my wing. I have a 4.97 rating, so if passengers were really upset about communication I would not be driving today. I always double check the drop off destination with my passenger and if it's not correct I hand them a eraser board for them to correct it. I am often mentioned on twitter while other clients go on twitter just to trash uber.


Cool story, bro. You're an inspiration to us all. Uber on, my friend.


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## painfreepc

Elmoooy said:


> Um no - you clearly don't know shit. My clients love me. THEY EVEN TALK TO OTHER LOCAL DRIVERS ABOUT ME. Don't take my word for it, go to Charleston forum and ask them for your idiot ass.
> 
> I have several repeat clients and they always tell me they are thrilled to get me, they love the service i give. It sucks that you have to make up some bullshit story to get likes, I don't.


Hello, in my spare time i drive for uber, I have 5 stars, give great service like me and watch your rating rise.


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## DjTim

Elmoooy said:


> I call bullshit on this post. I am an deaf driver and have had nearly 1000 rides under my wing. I have a 4.97 rating, so if passengers were really upset about communication I would not be driving today. I always double check the drop off destination with my passenger and if it's not correct I hand them a eraser board for them to correct it. I am often mentioned on twitter while other clients go on twitter just to trash uber.


Sorry - I meant no disrespect to you. In the context that I was using, both riders thought the driver was "faking" it because they thought the driver didn't know how to speak english.


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## Elmoooy

DjTim said:


> Sorry - I meant no disrespect to you. In the context that I was using, both riders thought the driver was "faking" it because they thought the driver didn't know how to speak english.


Ah big difference when you omit that information. But if the driver faked it, that should be reported to uber.

I've ridden with 4.4 driver who didn't speak English and my friend is looking at me like, Wtf how is he driving, so I do understand riders frustration.


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## DjTim

Elmoooy said:


> Ah big difference when you omit that information. But if the driver faked it, that should be reported to uber.
> 
> I've ridden with 4.4 driver who didn't speak English and my friend is looking at me like, Wtf how is he driving, so I do understand riders frustration.


Next Time I'll try and be a bit more clear with the context that I'm using. Sometimes it's hard to call out drivers when riders complain. We know personally as drivers there are bad drivers out there, just the nature of the business. When a rider calls out a driver - is the rider trying to use that as an angle for personal gain or are they really complaining? I had a guy complain to me because I didn't have leather seats - WTF? I think that most of the riders that do have complaints aren't voicing them with the drivers, and when they do - they are doing it because that is the only thing the rider thinks they may have in common with the driver.


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## livinlavidabroka

Elmoooy said:


> Ah big difference when you omit that information. But if the driver faked it, that should be reported to uber.
> 
> I've ridden with 4.4 driver who didn't speak English and my friend is looking at me like, Wtf how is he driving, so I do understand riders frustration.


Had this driver that came in a dirty Honda Sienna. This asian dude smelled and didn't speak hardly any english. I didn't switch from smelly yellows in NYC FOR THIS ! If your ride isn't up to par I will give you a one and BLAST YO AZZ in my comments to uber


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## Desert Driver

livinlavidabroka said:


> Had this driver that came in a dirty Honda Sienna. This asian dude smelled and didn't speak hardly any english. I didn't switch from smelly yellows in NYC FOR THIS ! If your ride isn't up to par I will give you a one and BLAST YO AZZ in my comments to uber


Honda Sienna?


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## livinlavidabroka

Desert Driver said:


> Honda Sienna?


 YUP


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## Desert Driver

livinlavidabroka said:


> YUP


Nope.


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## chi1cabby

johnny danger said:


> CUZ.... THE RATING SYSTEM IS ONE THING , BUT WHY DO YOU EAT THE BALLSACROSSTHECHIN SANDWICH UBER FEEDS YOU EVERY DAY.....GET A LIFE


 What does that even mean? You've made that exact same comment in other threads as well. The only chance of things changing for the better is by concerted action by Drivers.



Desert Driver said:


> The only way change occurs, son, is when people take action.


 Exactamundo!
Thank you!


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## UberCemetery

Hello Exactamundo! @chi1cabby


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## Desert Driver

livinlavidabroka said:


> Had this driver that came in a dirty Honda Sienna. This asian dude smelled and didn't speak hardly any english. I didn't switch from smelly yellows in NYC FOR THIS ! If your ride isn't up to par I will give you a one and BLAST YO AZZ in my comments to uber


When did Honda start building a Sienna? Does Toyota know about this?


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## Desert Driver

chi1cabby said:


> What does that even mean? You've made that exact same comment in other threads as well. The only chance of things changing for the better is by concerted action by Drivers.
> 
> Exactamundo!
> Thank you!


Johnny Danger is a confused, angry person who really needs to hang up the car keys, dig out the bicycle, and ask his manager if he can get more hours at Burger King, since driving is just not his strong suit.


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## chi1cabby

UberCemetery said:


> Hello Exactamundo! @chi1cabby


Hello @UberCemetery !

Your Avatar is having an identity crisis, again!


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## Lidman

prdelnik666 said:


> I wish everyone would just stop calling it "ride share" and "share economy" and all that bullshit. Everyone got dooped into this. There is no sharing going on. None. It's a transportation business aka taxi service. Customer orders, you show up and drive them where ever they need to go and then they pay. No sharing going on. Is the taxi driver sharing his leased cab??? No!!! The same way luber and lyft is not sharing anything. Let's call it what it is. Taxi service.


 I couldn't agree more. It's ubers way of trying to circumvent regulations...


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## Desert Driver

Lidman said:


> I couldn't agree more. It's ubers way of trying to circumvent regulations...


Then don't participate. This is nothing more than another technology-driven paradigm shift.


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## UberCemetery

chi1cabby said:


> Hello @UberCemetery !
> 
> Your Avatar is having an identity crisis, again!


Wanted to post a photo of my Uber wheels. So if you see me out the the road or at the airport. Terminal #1 lower level door 1B inside lane ready to go - copy? Dept Of Consumer Affairs does not screw with me they just laugh? I have water and mints I give them. 
Comprende amigo?


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## Lidman

Desert Driver said:


> Then don't participate. This is nothing more than another technology-driven paradigm shift.


 go troll somewhere else


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## johnny danger

Desert Driver said:


> Then don't participate. This is nothing more than another technology-driven paradigm shift.


dude--- you drive a fit.... how can you be taken seriously .... you are my # 1 fan though.... thanx


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## Elmoooy

DjTim said:


> Next Time I'll try and be a bit more clear with the context that I'm using. Sometimes it's hard to call out drivers when riders complain. We know personally as drivers there are bad drivers out there, just the nature of the business. When a rider calls out a driver - is the rider trying to use that as an angle for personal gain or are they really complaining? I had a guy complain to me because I didn't have leather seats - WTF? I think that most of the riders that do have complaints aren't voicing them with the drivers, and when they do - they are doing it because that is the only thing the rider thinks they may have in common with the driver.


I completely understand your struggles. Ive had complaints from riders about other drivers who I personally know and yes they are nasty trash. Ive taken Uber rides myself in past and I cannot believe some of cars i see out there.

Common complaints i get is "OMG this is so clean the last ride was so dirty" "The last driver could not speak English"

However you have to understand this kind of thing also helps us top drivers to get that 5 star rating because if they leave from a bad ride to a awesome ride in their eye, you can be sure your getting 5 stars. I am constantly checking my jeep for dirt, trash, keeping dashboard clear of dust (had a bad experience with another uber ride, I posted about it somewhere in the board and couldn't believe how nasty it was) I also keep my clutter of personal items to the minimum. No mail left in car, no other things that I normally use other than phone chargers.


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## Desert Driver

johnny danger said:


> dude--- you drive a fit.... how can you be taken seriously .... you are my # 1 fan though.... thanx


4.97 driver rating. Evidently, son, a lot of people take Desert Driver seriously. I'm glad you're a fan, too! Do we rock, or what?


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## Desert Driver

Lidman said:


> go troll somewhere else


Oh, no need to apologize. I was merely offering an explanation and a constructive suggestion.

Is there anything else I can assist you with today, Lidman?


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## Chris Dee

Ha Ha, lovely thread. Pure entertainment by small minded people.


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## Desert Driver

Chris Dee said:


> Ha Ha, lovely thread. Pure entertainment by small minded people.


We're glad you joined us.


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## Samename

Uberpeople.net could use a better ratings system...


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## Desert Driver

Samename said:


> Uberpeople.net could use a better ratings system...


Please expand on that comment.


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## Samename

Desert Driver said:


> Please expand on that comment.


. Perhaps Ill start a new thread about it.


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## rjenkins

AndyB588 said:


> I noticed the other day that my driver rating that the rider sees WAS NOT the same as the rating I see on my app or in the online dashboard. Anyone else see this??


Yes. It appears that Uber is either 1.) Slow to update from one application to another, 2.) Deliberately slowing updates of ratings to obfuscate things (i.e. keep you from deducing who rated you well/poorly), or 3.) Presenting different numbers to manipulate perception of drivers and passengers. My best guess at reality is that it's a combination of #1 and #2.

I have three different numbers, one the driver app, one the dashboard, and one on the passenger app.

When I started out (a mere 3+ weeks ago, which seems like an eternity), of course I was at five stars. Of course even a single four star rating can skew things when you only have a handful of trips under your belt, so my rating on the dashboard (which seems to update daily or more often) dropped quite a bit, and has now crept back up to a very nice 4.91 stars.

However, I passenger mentioned the other day that my rating was somewhere in the 4.7s. My rating on my own driver app seems locked at 4.69 for a week or more, even through reboots and two app updates).

Sooo..three different numbers. Will the true rating please stand up?? lol

For now, I'm gonna hang my hat on the dashboard, since it seems to move daily and is currently the highest.


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