# July 4th Jackpot



## The LAwnmower (May 1, 2014)

That was a crazy day. Made 925. My buddy made 1230.


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

I got a late start, but it did seem to be hopping. Of course, it seemed with the surge pricing came lower ratings. A 4 for nine trips. Of course I really don't remember anything being out of sorts the whole night on any of the rides. There was a lot of traffic at times. It is probably not statistically significant, but it sure supports the theory (in my mind at least) that the higher the surge pricing, the lower the ratings.


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

LAwnmower you KILLED it !

I set a personal record, you made it look tiny....


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## grams777 (Jun 13, 2014)

LAuberX said:


> LAwnmower you KILLED it !
> 
> I set a personal record, you made it look tiny....


Rather than kill I got killed. Nashville is weird. Almost anytime there are surges, you have to get stuck getting people in or out of a very small downtown area. The last surge event was the same. Road closures and backed up traffic everywhere near where you need to go and pickup from. The fares were good ($25-50 each) but it took too long to get to/from each one - even though I dropped people off a half mile away. It's sort of like just one big crowded stadium event in an inaccessible area.

More details:
https://uberpeople.net/threads/nashville-july-4-2014-report.790/


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## The LAwnmower (May 1, 2014)

In LA and OC it was 5x surge for about 5 hours and then about 2-4x the rest of the day/night. You're right the ratings do take a hit. I wish they would take that into account and have the ratings carry less weight during surge.


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## LookyLou (Apr 28, 2014)

The LAwnmower said:


> In LA and OC it was 5x surge for about 5 hours and then about 2-4x the rest of the day/night. You're right the ratings do take a hit. I wish they would take that into account and have the ratings carry less weight during surge.


They should just not count any ratings during surge. Good or bad, just throw them out completely.


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## AMBUDRIVER03 (Jul 1, 2014)

I only was out from 8pm to 1am, but made $300 in fares and will probably get another $100 in online bonus


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## grams777 (Jun 13, 2014)

LookyLou said:


> They should just not count any ratings during surge. Good or bad, just throw them out completely.


There is almost nothing that ticks off riders more than surge. I would say you're right that all ratings under surge should be ignored. Only reports of serious driver problems should be allowed if made specifically by email.

Imagine you worked at a restaurant and were called in for an extra shift at double time because it got busy. You worked as hard as you could with no complaints against you. Then after the shift, everyone who worked was fired because the customers were unhappy that they had to wait in line. That's about the brilliance of allowing reviews during surge.

Enjoy this while it lasts. With enough of these surge rants, it will fuel the fire for more regulation backed by public outrage like this. The surges at 3x and up especially seem to rile up the riders. From the sound of the reviews, they are ok with some surge if it were below that level. I believe Lyft caps out at 3x surge (200% PTT).

Here are some example yelp reviews for Uber from this July 4 in the Los Angeles area. If you think people isolate the driver ratings from the surge fare, think again:


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## Jeeves (Apr 10, 2014)

4.5%. Obviously this person isn't too good at math. Its mostly the PAX that don't understand how multiplication works that end up complaining about surge. Getting a taxi would have been a nightmare in itself on the 4th. If these PAX dont want to pay the surge someone else will. Just the same if you don't want to drive Uber for the money it pays, someone else will.


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## SoCal_Uber (May 2, 2014)

Almost a $1K workday, now that is amazing!

I do believe that going beyond the 3X surge pricing will eventually hurt Uber in the the long run. I got a call from my friend who took an Uber from Santa Monica to Weho, and even though he 
agreed to the 5X surge pricing, he couldn't believe what the fare ended up as. He's been taking Uber since early last year, and he *****ed at me of all people ( I'm not even in CA right now! ) 
that he'd never ever take Uber again. I think his fare was $185. He's a mild mannered, analytical fellow, and I couldn't believe how irate he was. There will eventually be some form of public backlash, 
not only in the ratings to the innocent driver, but perhaps less demand for rides altogether after burning loyal customers. 

Don't get me wrong, I loves me some surge pricing, but I think perhaps a cap may be necessary sooner than later.


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

4th Jackpot residue!!

I started driving a guy from Brentwood to Balboa Island to retrieve the car he left there on the 4th. When we were just past Garden Grove he realized he forgot his keys back in Brentwood!

so I turned around and drove him back.

A new high fare for me $134.77

...and the car is still in Balboa Island the customer is out of time to retrieve it today


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## SoCal_Uber (May 2, 2014)

LAuberX said:


> 4th Jackpot residue!!
> 
> I started driving a guy from Brentwood to Balboa Island to retrieve the car he left there on the 4th. When we were just past Garden Grove he realized he forgot his keys back in Brentwood!
> 
> ...


I need more forgetful customers......

LAuberX, what was the total time required for that ride?


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## Jeeves (Apr 10, 2014)

I have found Uber gives me a new liking for holidays.


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## 80002 (Jun 16, 2014)

I dont feel bad for these customers at all...to accept a higher fare, I had to enter the value (in my case, 2.0) into the app before it would continue to matching me with a car. These people can't even do simple multiplication to get an idea of what they'd be paying...it's pretty straight forward take usual times 2, 3, 4, etc.

And each time the app doesn't match you and you have to re-request, it makes you type it in again to confirm you understand.


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## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

It took per Uber, 95 minutes, 83 miles. 405 Carpool lane both ways, cruise set at 73 mph.

No other ride today was over $12.00..


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

Perhaps there should be a cap on surging. But, why are we capping it? Is it because some Uber customers can't handle the math? The two Yelp reviews posted above seem to illustrate this.

Jamie H. says that a her fare would usually have been $15-20. The surge was 5x. She states that she figured the max she would have to pay would be $60. WTF!?!?!?!?!?!!? $15 x 5 =$75. And good luck finding an open hotel room near the beach for $115 on a July 4th weekend night.

Christy H. states "I do not agree with this." Well, she had to agree to the surge rate, so she did agree with it! I just hope Christy isn't a math teacher!


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## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

LAuberX said:


> It took per Uber, 95 minutes, 83 miles. 405 Carpool lane both ways, cruise set at 73 mph.
> 
> No other ride today was over $12.00..


So the customer still has a 52+ mile and 57+ minute ride ahead of him ($84+). OUCH


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## AMBUDRIVER03 (Jul 1, 2014)

I got 3 decent ones on top of each other. 
The most lucrative being for almost $150, Santa Monica to Downtown LA at 11pm. 5x surge.

I would have stayed out until 3 or 4 am but threw in the towel at 1am due to miserable allergy symptoms.


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