# Mandela Effect?



## Ms. Mercenary (Jul 24, 2020)

When I first joined this Forum - which was way before I started driving, as I research literally _everything - _I distinctly remember people discussing including cards with their names and requests to rate them, all sorts of “personalizations”,even mints.

I don’t see those anymore.

I guess it stopped being a thing? 😂

I’m just curious - why did people stop doing this? I mean, I think I know why in general, but curious.

All replies appreciated, but especially appreciated those who used to do this and stopped.

And by all means - if you still do this, what exactly do you do and why?


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## jaxbeachrides (May 27, 2015)

There used to be money in it. When there's money in a profession, professionals apply effort to earn more.

Now it's kind of like a less than minimum wage job for most. So now it's about playing the game of slacking.

I play games like how long can I go without a car wash, or how little can I do to get a petty task accomplished.


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## Uberdriver2710 (Jul 15, 2015)

The economy is poop now due 5 trillion dollars being printed out of thin air.

Now we get higher prices on everything, AND at a higher rate, not just the regular rate.


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## jaxbeachrides (May 27, 2015)

Uberdriver2710 said:


> The economy is poop now due 5 trillion dollars being printed out of thin air.
> 
> Now we get higher prices on everything, AND at a *lower* rate, not just the regular rate.


Fixed it for you.


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## Uberdriver2710 (Jul 15, 2015)

jaxbeachrides said:


> Fixed it for you.


No, the prices will increase at a higher rate.


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## Uberdriver2710 (Jul 15, 2015)

Inflation:


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## jaxbeachrides (May 27, 2015)

Its constant price inflation and wage deflation. Stagflation even in good times for this business.


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## colamacy (Oct 25, 2021)

Uber and pax changed and drivers simply reacted accordingly.


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## Schmanthony (Nov 18, 2017)

I've never once bothered with mints, candy, water, etc. Doesn't seem worth the hassle to me.


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## Uberdriver2710 (Jul 15, 2015)

Schmanthony said:


> I've never once bothered with mints, candy, water, etc. Doesn't seem worth the hassle to me.


So, I'm going to guess.... you're a 'hard pass' in the foot massages? 🙃


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## Ms. Mercenary (Jul 24, 2020)

I wore reindeer ears during the holidays. But that was more for me than the customers. I liked their perplexed expressions. 😂


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## SpinalCabbage (Feb 5, 2020)

I handed out referral cards, gum, and water. Also had an aux cable and charging cables and I also had signs on the back of the head rests explaining the rules of the car and letting them know that if they needed something to just ask. I was an ant. But I learned about surge driving early on so I did alright despite offering amenities. Ultimately I stopped offering any amenities. As I recall it went like this:

Somebody took their chewed up gum and ground it into my carpeting. So no more gum.
A group of young adults demanded the aux cable so they could blast their music for the 2 block trip to their house. So no more Aux cable. When asked I would just say that the last person to use it stole it. I also only play my music. Generally classic rock.
I finally ran out of referral cards and didn't order more. I handed out a lot of those cards.
I switched from XL to X and the signs didn't look good in my X car so they got removed. I also stopped offering water at that point.
I don't make a charging cable available to pax any longer as I don't trust pax to interact with the electrical system of my vehicle. But I still do have a charging cable available if I care to let a pax use it.

What I do give pax is a safe ride in a clean car.


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## UberBastid (Oct 1, 2016)

SpinalCabbage said:


> What I do give pax is a safe ride in a clean car.


Towards the last for me? they couldn't even count on that.
"Yea, it smells like barf because ... well, somebody barfed back there."
"What's the big whoop? I gotta get you there quickly so I drive on the sidewalk for a little bit ..."
"One headlight is enough, hell, I'm blind in one eye anyway."
"Yea, it does say ONE WAY but not WHICH WAY."
"I don't need brake lights -- I got no brakes."
"Chewing gum? Naw. Chew on THIS..."


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

SpinalCabbage said:


> I handed out referral cards, gum, and water. Also had an aux cable and charging cables and I also had signs on the back of the head rests explaining the rules of the car and letting them know that if they needed something to just ask. I was an ant. But I learned about surge driving early on so I did alright despite offering amenities. Ultimately I stopped offering any amenities. As I recall it went like this:
> 
> Somebody took their chewed up gum and ground it into my carpeting. So no more gum.
> A group of young adults demanded the aux cable so they could blast their music for the 2 block trip to their house. So no more Aux cable. When asked I would just say that the last person to use it stole it. I also only play my music. Generally classic rock.
> ...


Sounds so familiar! I drove pax starting in 2017 when Uber became legal in NY State. When I started it was very common for drivers to provide water, mints and candy. At first it was all very nice as Uber was brand new for pax as well. It seemed appreciated at first.

Of course, over time it turned not so nice. It became an entitlement for many and unappreciated. Same as you, I would find half chewed mints ground into my carpet and stepped on, old chewed gum shoved into my seat cracks, and empty water bottles for me to clean up. The last straw for me personally, was when I was dropping off people for an outdoor concert and on the way out they grabbed all of my waters and the Lady told me they were taking them for the road for the concert. I jumped out of my van and told them no way they were taking all those waters. The lady was so enraged I wouldn’t let her take a dozen water bottles that she started throwing them at me and my van. 😆 

After that incident, I was like OK we’re done here !


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

Only thing I have offered is a blue tooth connection to the radio on long trips and a charging cable for phones. I have given a couple people a bottle of water in rare circumstances. I still do the same today.


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## Nats121 (Jul 19, 2017)

Ms. Mercenary said:


> When I first joined this Forum - which was way before I started driving, as I research literally _everything - _I distinctly remember people discussing including cards with their names and requests to rate them, all sorts of “personalizations”,even mints.
> 
> I don’t see those anymore.
> 
> ...


I started in 2017 and never offered freebies. The only thing I did offer was phone chargers for a short time when I was a newbie. When it became obvious that offering them to all pax didn't increase my tips, I only offered them to certain pax.

The Great Pay Rate Massacre of 2014 marked the beginning of the end of the freebies. Drivers concluded that being paid 1979 taxi rates didn't justify giving away bottled water, After Eight Mints, Grey Poupon mustard, and foot massages.

The true end came with the loss of surge in 2018.


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## Alantc (Jun 15, 2018)

And I still don't have an aux cord.


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## Ms. Mercenary (Jul 24, 2020)

While I’m curious about pax (even though it’s extremely unlikely I’ll ever do it), I kinda understood the water/gum/charger situation with pax. 

What interested me more was the food delivery freebies.

People actually sold cards on eBay with pre-printed text about the reviews, and even pre-configured baggies with similar cards, a mint/chocolate etc.

That was really odd to me. Particularly as those cards had super-long messages on them with lots of “thank you” and “please” and “if there are any problems” (and grammatical errors and bad phrasing, tbh) and I was wondering why waste your money on those if it is highly unlikely someone would bother reading a long message when people just want their food. I know I wouldn’t. 

Pax is a more personal experience. You actually have the person in your space, sometimes - for long stretches of time.

It seems like most of the delivery people are no longer driving, as most of the replies are pax-specific.

(Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in pax experiences too; just wondering about delivery - the thread was on UberEats).


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

Ms. Mercenary said:


> While I’m curious about pax (even though it’s extremely unlikely I’ll ever do it), I kinda understood the water/gum/charger situation with pax.
> 
> What interested me more was the food delivery freebies.
> 
> ...


I both delivered and took pax from 2017 until 2019 when they killed the multiplier surge in my market. Then I switched to 100% food delivery.

In almost 9000 deliveries going on 6 years I have never heard of anyone doing that in food delivery. Everything you mentioned was common pax driver behavior, hence the response.

Not only have I never heard of anyone who gave food delivery freebies, it just wouldn’t make any sense or serve any purpose for a driver to do that. Driving pax and delivering food have totally different customer interactions.


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## Ms. Mercenary (Jul 24, 2020)

Seamus said:


> I both delivered and took pax from 2017 until 2019 when they killed the multiplier surge in my market. Then I switched to 100% food delivery.
> 
> In almost 9000 deliveries going on 6 years I have never heard of anyone doing that in food delivery. Everything you mentioned was common pax driver behavior, hence the response.
> 
> Not only have I never heard of anyone who gave food delivery freebies, it just wouldn’t make any sense or serve any purpose for a driver to do that. Driving pax and delivering food have totally different customer interactions.


Well that’s why I called the thread “Mandela effect”. This was _specifically_ for food delivery, as I joined (when I first joined) the food delivery threads only.

Now you’re tempring me to search the forum, which I was trying to avoid. This was specifically for food delivery. I know for sure as I remember I bought small round printer labels and designed a simple, short design “Delivered by (insert name) Enjoy!” 😂

Because I didn’t want to not do something similar to what others were doing yet didn’t want to invest into it, either. Looked into buying mints in bulk and decided they can brush their teeth, they’re at home. 😂


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

I've considered printing some round labels at home with the Uber logo on it and some think like Don't forget to tip your driver. Then I decided that I don't do enough deliveries to make it worth it and I'm pretty sure the ones that are going to tip have already decided to tip and the ones that don't tip won't care about the sticker.


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## Ms. Mercenary (Jul 24, 2020)

I knew I wasn’t crazy.


KIAstingerGT2 said:


> what do you guys do to get a higher % chance of the customer tipping you?
> 
> -Deliver on time/quickly?
> -Communication text/calling?
> ...


A lot are sarcastic, but I remember there were loads of serious ones, too.

And just in case you need them, they got you! 😂


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