# UberXL Dilemma: Minivans: Why Uber cannot see minivan owners losing money?



## ebrain (Oct 3, 2016)

Started driving for Uber recently and only after 7 rides I can see it is not worth driving my Honda Oddyssey Touring minivan because I got only one 6-miles long trip request for XL so out of roughly 100 miles that I have driven only 6 miles were UberXL .. rest were UberX which is not really favorable for a 7 seater top-of-the-line minvan with all the bells and whistles.

I read somewhere on the Internet that there was a way for Uber to change my settings so I contacted Uber Support. They have come back saying this feature is not available in my city (Dallas). I was furious. Have asked Uber to close my account. Who in the world in their right state of mind would drive minivan for UberX? It is so obvious. Why Uber cannot see it? There is something seriously wrong with this UberXL concept.

There should either be an UberMinivan category or Uber should give minivan drivers the ability to do UberX or UberXL as option. One XL ride to the Airport per day is worth more than 50 rides on UberX for people trying to avoid walking couple blocks down the street ..


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## renbutler (Jul 25, 2015)

I just ignore UberX pings, unless there is a surge (near 2.0x or higher, depending on my mood).

I get timed out now and then, but I just won't drive UberX at the base rate.

This was true even before I upgraded to UberXL.


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## Squirming Like A Toad (Apr 7, 2016)

I drive a minivan and the additional pings and XL money makes it worth it. Also the added comfort, and the advantage of having a van as your spare car. Mine was recently totaled (still Ubering with it, runs great!) and I'm going to upgrade to just a newer minivan.

The trick is to not spend a ton of money on one. You can't make money driving X/XL with a new or expensive anything. We're a discount service, you need a discount vehicle. If you want to drive a new or upscale vehicle XL is not for you, better off getting something eligible for premium service and then you can take the lucrative rides, and only drive X/XL when you have nothing better to do.


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## tradedate (Nov 30, 2015)

Would it really make sense to only get XL trips? Would you receive enough XL trip requests to be worth the time?


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## renbutler (Jul 25, 2015)

tradedate said:


> Would it really make sense to only get XL trips? Would you receive enough XL trip requests to be worth the time?


If you're full time, or buying a vehicle to do Uber, I would say "no" in most cases.

But in my case, I drive in my free time during profitable circumstances (surges, events with large groups), using a vehicle that I already have to haul the family around. So it's more a matter of _waiting until_ _Uber is worth the time_.


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## s_uber_guy (Sep 19, 2016)

I drive a Minivan and rarely get XL pings. I had to drive 10-15 minutes to pick up XL pings and these were short trips (3 to 4 miles max). Total nonsense from Uber and Lyft.


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## Squirming Like A Toad (Apr 7, 2016)

tradedate said:


> Would it really make sense to only get XL trips? Would you receive enough XL trip requests to be worth the time?


Only in rare circumstances. If you are in a very busy area, with a lot of cars and a lot of pings and you see you are the only XL on the map you can do that. Just don't skip 3 X pings in a row to avoid the timeout. However those areas usually have more than their share of XL and SUV drivers so this won't happen too often.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

They can see.
Uber is not losing money.
They do not care.


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## tradedate (Nov 30, 2015)

Squirming Like A Toad said:


> Only in rare circumstances. If you are in a very busy area, with a lot of cars and a lot of pings and you see you are the only XL on the map you can do that. Just don't skip 3 X pings in a row to avoid the timeout. However those areas usually have more than their share of XL and SUV drivers so this won't happen too often.


And that's what I figured. For most people, seems like you'd be losing money if you did opt to only take XL trips, which is what the OP was trying to do.


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## ebrain (Oct 3, 2016)

It is only a matter of time. Uber is going to be part time driving anyways, and all part timers will have high-end vehicles to have the flexibility of picking up any class of customers.

I am obviously not in a position to pull any data but I would assume there are far more part-timers joining compared to full timers. That is Phase 1. In next phase part timers will be either switching to higher-end vehicles or more and more higher end part timers will start taking business from existing part timers because of the power given to high end vehicle owners. Uber has either not realized it yet or is waiting for that to happen.

Also, when we consider 100 XL miles = 250 X miles I think full time or part time dont really matter. So the argument really is around not getting enough XL miles. This definitely depends on location. For an area as big as Dallas/Fort-Worth getting 2 trips to the airport should be quite possible. That makes 100 miles easily no matter where you pick customers from.

Another thought: Just changing the label from UberXL to UberMinivan might bring more business to existing minivan drivers because customers are more used to minivans when it comes to 3rd row. My issue is Uber does not seem to understand how XL is suffering from both ends: XL forced to pick X customers and SUVs picking customers that should have come to XL. Customer requested 6+ seating not an SUV so such customers should have come to XL.


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## ebrain (Oct 3, 2016)

tradedate said:


> And that's what I figured. For most people, seems like you'd be losing money if you did opt to only take XL trips, which is what the OP was trying to do.


Agreed. I should have mentioned my intent was to do it part time. Uber should leave it on to the driver to decide though. That was the purpose of this post.


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