# My 1000 UBER Ride



## Kappa21 (Mar 18, 2015)

So I wanted to make a thread in regards to my 1000th UBER Ride. Just a milestone and reflection on the time I was with UBER and some notes and what i took from having 1000 rides in Toronto, Canada.

*Its interesting to be an UBER Driver: *
Having met so many people, mostly interesting people..id say its been a nice ride to be an uber driver. Most of my conversations with my riders has been about UBER and the controversy surrounding UBER as being legit and legal or safe and dependable. Most people hate TAXI's and really dont care about how safe/dependable/legitimate uber is. They care that they can get a ride for under 20 dollars half way around the city. So I found I have to defend uber but also be the one to look at my own opinion about UBER and how it treats its 'partners' and what we mostly get from it.

*Wear and Tear does hurt: *
With the arrival of my 1000th ride came another warm welcome... a 1000 dollar fix to my car. I had to redo the rotors which ended up costing me 1000 dollars. It was painful. I didnt even think twice. I knew that I was in it for the long run, plus going to a dealership, it gave a stark realm that it can be unsafe to drive like this. So now im paying off the damages.

*The way people treat you, UBER and the System: *
With much respect comes even more abuse. People love a good deal and would do anything for it. Black Friday are great examples of people running to fight for Blu Ray DVD's and post the embarressment on youtube. The clientele i find doesnt really care about you and what you feel. They care about a cheap ride. Would it be too much if they raise the price making ot better for drivers or would it drive our demand down and have more drivers?

*After 1000 drives, thousands of Miles and some profit my final verdict about UBER is...: *
Uber is here to stay. Like it or not. The new system..not necesarrily the best system or the leading system..is here to stay for good. The idea of UBER is too hard to pass by. I dont know what they have in the future, but the idea of having a car and going to drop off people from place to place is something that will stick in for good. The question is - how is UBER going to treat or survive is a different question.

*My feeling about UBER: *
After driving with UBER since Early October. I realized that UBER is a company that has their own priorities. Like the real world where you go out to a highly competitive job which may be cutthroat and if you dont survive you get tossed, UBer works the same. Uber doesnt think twice about deactivating you. Infact, it did deactivate me fo sometime because i didnt have winter tires. In my state (province in Canada) its not legal to have winter tires, only on commercial vehicles and still...they arent enforce like elsewhere. UBER decided that it is necessary. As a result they deactivated me. They also decativated me a few months later when they decided to force drivers to have safety inspections. After I did get documents for them, they made an issue on the smallest specs of the document like initials. It took another week to finally get it approved. 
These kinda of treatments make people in the grey. Not knowing what UBER Is interested in makes partners feel less reliable about UBER. I know they have a 50 Billion dollar endownment and their focus is with carnegie mellon university to create a manless car, but with 15 years in the future + legislation + pilot programs ..it will take a while til we see a manless car. For now, you have partners and with paying for winter tires and uneeded inspections...UBER doesnt put a cent into our development... they know for a driver who is based on a rating and a profile...they are nothing. More will be uber drivers if they wanted to. This mentality is like a gym, where you have a 24/7 gym and have 50,000 customers in a town. You expect everyone to register and lose weight.....but after 1/5 of the town registers to this gym.... not many go to the gym, many do quit and others do it hardly.....

*UBERs policy on tips suck and tips go a long way: *
After 1000 rides, i realized how crucial tips are. I probably got no more than 100 dollar in tips which include both local and foreign money and also a wine bottle which was accidentally left in my car.... 
UBER should realize that we are a service and if they want to offer world class service, they should also offer world class treatment which would include tips. Bar tenders get it, cabbis get it, barbers get it, waiters get it...why dont we? 
Tips go a long way and if you do 17 rides in 5-6 hours...those 17 dollars go to having a clean car..to having gas in your car and to putting some coffee or food in your tummy.

*Some riders are annoying and treat us like a cab service: *
To those I say...you suck! 
So many expect you to be fast, expect you to know directions and expect so much from you. We are human and we arent 12 hour a day cab drivers working in the middle of the city for you. We are people doing this part of the time and if we make an error big deal. I realize the biggest complainers are those who can afford more than just a cab driver...those who can afford limo service and live in poshy areas and make a scene when we miss a an exit or when we use our GPS and the GPS tells you to turn right and we turn left. Just sit down and enjoy the ride.

Overall its an intersting system. 
I do this because I lost my job in May and i decided to go to school in January. I go to school twice a week which makes it hard to hold a full time job and part time jobs are not as good to come by. This way I can do school and study when I need to and uber when I dont. I wish it was more partner oriented and less hassle dealing with issues out of your control.

final note - uber needs to realize its an amazing company but like many companies like them with hundreds of lawyers, consultants and self proclaimed prodigies....it can hit a snag and meltdown...teams, empires and dynasties and people have their day and so do companies...even with 50 Billion dollr in their belt. 
Uber always reminds me of Ebay. Ebay was the best thing for ecommerce online in the early/mid 2000s. Today they arent growing and the way they treated their partners. The way they made fraud relevant, the way they acted on the worst interest of their main revenue generators allowed Ebay to act up. They missed opprotunities and ways to redeem themselves and as a result let Amazon take the charge and probably they would lead further down the line making ebay weak and smaller in the future. Uber take note.


----------



## Sacto Burbs (Dec 28, 2014)

I'll send over my virtual magnum of champagne to you. Congratulations, I think.


----------



## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

Kappa21 said:


> After 1000 rides, i realized how crucial tips are. I probably got no more than 100 dollar in tips which include both local and foreign money and also a wine bottle which was accidentally left in my car....


^^^
Look at it this way.... just to keep you optimistic, even an empty bottle from the right year of Chateau Lafitte Rothschild could be worth about as much as your car. 
And never needs rotors.

I never had a champagne bottle left in my vehicle, but several years ago somebody did leave half a box of Franzia Grenache Rose'.
Gotta love the spigots on those boxes. 
In the transportation business, you gotta think outside the box. Hah!


----------



## jiwagon (Feb 19, 2015)

You paid 1000 to have your rotors resurfaced? You could have bought new ones at that price.


----------



## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

jizzwagon said:


> You paid 1000 to have your rotors resurfaced? You could have bought new ones at that price.


^^^
Yeah, but they hit you up for everything under the sun with the rotors irrespective of whether they are new or turned. 
Some auto manufacturers say to not turn rotors, just replace, like Volvo and certain Mercedes. 
They'll pop you for repacking the bearings and maybe even replacing them, the wheel seals, maybe brake lines if the manual calls for it, and then fluid. 
It's such a racket because if your brakes were pulsating, the way the piston seals are installed, they keep fluid in but during pulsation it's possible for the seal to allow air to be sucked IN to the caliper piston, so they're gonna pop you for everything possible and scare you into doing it or they won't work on the car. LOL.


----------



## Simon (Jan 4, 2015)

Rotor r


Uber-Doober said:


> ^^^
> Yeah, but they hit you up for everything under the sun with the rotors irrespective of whether they are new or turned.
> Some auto manufacturers say to not turn rotors, just replace, like Volvo and certain Mercedes.
> They'll pop you for repacking the bearings and maybe even replacing them, the wheel seals, maybe brake lines if the manual calls for it, and then fluid.
> It's such a racket because if your brakes were pulsating, the way the piston seals are installed, they keep fluid in but during pulsation it's possible for the seal to allow air to be sucked IN to the caliper piston, so they're gonna pop you for everything possible and scare you into doing it or they won't work on the car. LOL.


Rotor rePlacement is the EASIEST thing on your car to replace.


----------



## jiwagon (Feb 19, 2015)

Uber-Doober said:


> ^^^
> Yeah, but they hit you up for everything under the sun with the rotors irrespective of whether they are new or turned.
> Some auto manufacturers say to not turn rotors, just replace, like Volvo and certain Mercedes.
> They'll pop you for repacking the bearings and maybe even replacing them, the wheel seals, maybe brake lines if the manual calls for it, and then fluid.
> It's such a racket because if your brakes were pulsating, the way the piston seals are installed, they keep fluid in but during pulsation it's possible for the seal to allow air to be sucked IN to the caliper piston, so they're gonna pop you for everything possible and scare you into doing it or they won't work on the car. LOL.


Lol you can bleed the brake lines to remove all the air. Whatever, I'm glad I have a Toyota. That is all.


----------



## LAuberX (Jun 3, 2014)

I'm glad I do most of my own maintenance.

Paying a shop $100+/ hour while I make $10 is just not going to happen.

I'm approaching 50,000 "Uber use" miles on my gas Camry. One set of tires, one air filter, one cabin filter, 4 oil changes and one coolant drain and fill.. or just under $700.00 in maintenance so far.


----------



## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

Simon said:


> Rotor r
> 
> Rotor rePlacement is the EASIEST thing on your car to replace.


^^^
Only if the rotors are not integral with the hubs like on some cheap cars where the wheel studs constantly work on the drilled holes in the rotor where they start to make a lot of noise. Even on my ancient Volvo they're integral with the hubs with huge rivets that have to be drilled out. 
A $70.00 rotor is one thing, but buying new and integral is $250.00 each side.


----------



## Taxi Driver in Arizona (Mar 18, 2015)

I like your EBay analogy, but Uber reminds me of Napster. They insist on operating outside the law, and that's not a good business model.

"I fought the law and, the law won..."


----------



## Kappa21 (Mar 18, 2015)

People, before i went on uber my car had like 120,000KM...
Now im at 147,000. 
Regardless it was wear and tear maintenance i had to do.... nothing out of the ordinary...but if i had a newer car with less KM i would have not had to do it.


----------



## biozon (Jan 6, 2015)

*Kappa21*
Thanks for sharing!

Couple of comments.



Kappa21 said:


> I had to redo the rotors which ended up costing me 1000 dollars. It was painful. I didnt even think twice.


 I hope you didn't agree to dealer's recommendation to resurface them? This is a useless procedure because it costs just as much (or sometimes more) as installing new rotors (labour included in both cases) and is considerably less effective. Also, replacing rotors is one of the easiest DIY procedures for a modern vehicle. Just buy a calipers piston spreader at Canadian Tire for 8$, jack up your vehicle, move calipers, replace rotors, push caliper pistons all the way back, and put everything back together. Took me 1.5 hours on all four wheels (although what speeds it up for me is having a hydraulic jack as opposed to the spreading jack that is usually included in a car for a spare tire replacement). Just keep an eye on brake fluid level in master cylinder while you are pushing back the caliper pistons, so it doesn't overflow (you may need to pump out a little, although I didn't need it). There is nothing to it, really. A set of new OEM rotors for my MDX 2008 cost about 400$ (I bought aftermarket ones with drilled holes and slots for 200$), so you can save a lot.



Kappa21 said:


> In my state (province in Canada) its not legal to have winter tires, only on commercial vehicles and still...they arent enforce like elsewhere.


 Did you mean there is no legal requirement to have winter tires for winter season in Ontario? It's just the way you said it, sounds as if winter tires are illegal, which is not true.

Overall, great article totally worth a column in a city paper!

I myself is half way there (~500 rides), but I think it is also quote considerable, since it means I transported over at least a thousand people.


----------



## DrJeecheroo (Feb 12, 2015)

Sacto Burbs said:


> I'll send over my virtual magnum of champagne to you. Congratulations, I think.


Send some over here too.


----------

