# Uber APP Screen



## Boise Boy (Oct 31, 2017)

Does the App screen show if the Ride Request is for uberX or uberXL? I accept both so I need to know the type ride request. uberXL does not pay the Long Pickup Fee, so it makes a big difference if the pickup is far away.


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## Boise Boy (Oct 31, 2017)

I drive both uberX and uberXL using the same vehicle. How can I see which ride request (X orXL) is which, when accepting rides? You don't get the Long Pickup Fee if the request is for uberXL. If you travel a long distance for your pickup, and the ride is short, you lose money. Uber needs to protect the driver from this. The rider can game the system if they live in rural areas or far from drivers. Unless I'm seeing the wrong information. Thanks!


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## MHR (Jul 23, 2017)

It'll show on the screen with the ping whether it's X or XL.


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## Boise Boy (Oct 31, 2017)

Thanks MHR. I need to slow down before accepting a ride. I wasn't aware of not receiving the Long Pickup Fee for uberXL until after the fact.

This might sound dumb, but I don't see destination information when I get the ping. Is there even a hint of how long the ride will be?


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## MHR (Jul 23, 2017)

You are correct about not getting the long pick-up fee on XL as well as riders gaming that exploit in small territories.

I won't take a long distance XL pickup unless it's a 45+ as well.


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## reg barclay (Nov 3, 2015)

Boise Boy said:


> Thanks MHR. I need to slow down before accepting a ride. I wasn't aware of not receiving the Long Pickup Fee for uberXL until after the fact.
> 
> This might sound dumb, but I don't see destination information when I get the ping. Is there even a hint of how long the ride will be?


Yep, apparently the long pickup fee is only for uberX and pool.
https://help.uber.com/h/20d33df7-7317-4f86-aa38-5db09a219c27

The only info we get at present about the destination, is if the trip is set to be over 45 minutes, there's usually a 45+ minute notification on the ping screen (I've read reports of other notifications like 60+ minute, but never seen them in my area).


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## MHR (Jul 23, 2017)

You only get a hint if it's what's considered a long trip. It'll show something like 45+ or 30+ and say long trip.

Other than that you're in the dark. 

Also, those time estimates can be wildly wrong if there's traffic to consider.

In my area, if I get a 45+ notice, that's almost a 99% chance of a trip to the airport 30 minutes, 23 miles away.


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

Boise Boy said:


> This might sound dumb, but I don't see destination information when I get the ping.


Neither company gives destinations with the ride request. If they did, nobody would get rides!

Forget the "long pickup fee." The pickup has to be something like 10 minutes or more away, and you don't get the fee for whatever that qualifying distance is. You're literally talking about pennies. You'll spend more in gas than you'll get paid extra...especially as gas prices rise.

As you drive more, you will learn to be more selective with which rides you accept. And don't worry about your acceptance rate -- neither company will deactivate you for low acceptance.

Work for yourself, not for the rideshare companies.


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## Boise Boy (Oct 31, 2017)

MHR said:


> You are correct about not getting the long pick-up fee on XL as well as riders gaming that exploit in small territories.
> 
> I won't take a long distance XL pickup unless it's a 45+ as well.


Here I go again. What is a 45+? What bothers me about this situation is Uber not correcting it. If a rider really needs uberXL in this situation, a driver will not respond, and the rider won't have a clue. It's a win win for both the rider and driver. There has to be an incentive for the driver to accept the ride. Thanks again.


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## wk1102 (Dec 25, 2015)

Boise Boy said:


> What is a 45+?


A ride that uber estimates will take ~45 minutes or more to complete.

It could be 20 miles and 39 minutes..

Or

It could be 200 miles and 3 hours.

I've had the 45 minute notification on both.


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## #professoruber (Feb 19, 2018)

Boise Boy said:


> Thanks MHR. I need to slow down before accepting a ride. I wasn't aware of not receiving the Long Pickup Fee for uberXL until after the fact.
> 
> This might sound dumb, but I don't see destination information when I get the ping. Is there even a hint of how long the ride will be?


This is the most common mistake that most drivers make. They tap the screen without looking at:

1. Rider rating (4.7 or lower does not get a ride in most cases)
2. Time/Distance to pickup (8 minutes is my limit in my market unless surge or long trip notification)
3. Type of trip

And for long pickup fee, a huge mistake that all of us drivers are making is falling for Uber's BS that these long pickup payouts justify the long pickup in itself. Long pickups are an immediate "no thanks" for me unless surge and long trip. The surge amount has to justify the long pickup.


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

Boise Boy said:


> What bothers me about this situation is Uber not correcting it.


LOL. If you spend time worrying about obvious deficiencies Uber doesn't correct (REAL ones, as distinguished from stuff none of us understood at first) -- you are going to drive yourself stark raving mad!

Uber is not going to protect you from anything -- nor do they have any obligation to do so.

Go to YouTube and watch *"Let It Go!"* from Frozen five times! Here's a link:






When you look at a ride request, look at the following -- in this order:

*Type of service*
XL = Good
X = okay
Pool or CESSpool = Bad to VERY bad. I don't process excrement.

*Time to pickup *-- establish your own maximum for each ride category. For me, it's:
XL -- within reason, and depending on pickup location and what's going on in Miami that day
X - <10 minutes, and, because of saturation, I rarely even have to consider that. Most of my pickups are 4 minutes or less
Excrement-related rides -- doesn't matter because I don't take them. YMMV, depending...

*Rating* -- I drive _almost exclusively in the daytime_, and to be honest I really don't pay much attention to rating. But if I drove nights, I would avoid low-rated riders.
*Long-trip notifications* -- I might drive further for a long-trip notification, but that would depend entirely on where I was at the moment. If I was far away from home, late in my shift, and got a long-trip notification -- I probably wouldn't even accept it. But I certainly would not accept a long _pickup_ for a long trip which might take me an hour farther from home.


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## jgiun1 (Oct 16, 2017)

reg barclay said:


> Yep, apparently the long pickup fee is only for uberX and pool.
> https://help.uber.com/h/20d33df7-7317-4f86-aa38-5db09a219c27
> 
> The only info we get at present about the destination, is if the trip is set to be over 45 minutes, there's usually a 45+ minute notification on the ping screen (I've read reports of other notifications like 60+ minute, but never seen them in my area).


I drove 72 miles from amtrack in town to WVU, just the +45 minute plus alert was on. It was roughly 1.50 hours. It was nice also....all highway, no traffic with killer mpg ratio. I put the cruise control on and even better the pax feel asleep whole trip so I played Ozzie boneyard and was chillin. I would do +45 all day long


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## reg barclay (Nov 3, 2015)

#professoruber said:


> And for long pickup fee, a huge mistake that all of us drivers are making is falling for Uber's BS that these long pickup payouts justify the long pickup in itself. Long pickups are an immediate "no thanks" for me unless surge and long trip. The surge amount has to justify the long pickup.


The addition of the long pickup fee has been a good thing for me. I don't take them all the time, but I often will, depending on the circumstances. Driving in the suburbs, I find they can often be useful, like at times when I want to relocate to a different area anyway.


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## #professoruber (Feb 19, 2018)

reg barclay said:


> The addition of the long pickup fee has been a good thing for me. I don't take them all the time, but I often will, depending on the circumstances. Driving in the suburbs, I find they can often be useful, like at times when I want to relocate to a different area anyway.


Can you share the numbers that make them good? $1-3 extra on a trip is not good in my opinion.

When I relocate my filter is on and I reluctantly turn on Uber X. Nothing good about the Long pickup fee as it simply pays a driver an extra $1 for picking up someone 5-10 miles away.


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## MHR (Jul 23, 2017)

I got $7 on a long pick-up fee to an area I get pings from but usually decline, depending on my mood. These rides are usually trips back into town or to the big city airport. Sometimes they pay off.

If it will pay my way out in addition to deductible mileage I'm inclined to accept.

Most of the time, a long distance fee on a ping located in town means squat.

As usual, you have to watch the pings and payouts and figure out what works for you in terms of earnings.


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## reg barclay (Nov 3, 2015)

#professoruber said:


> Can you share the numbers that make them good? $1-3 extra on a trip is not good in my opinion.
> 
> When I relocate my filter is on and I reluctantly turn on Uber X. Nothing good about the Long pickup fee as it simply pays a driver an extra $1 for picking up someone 5-10 miles away.


Firstly, it says you do Select. Meaning you likely drive a vehicle who's MSRP is 3-5 times the size of mine (and depreciates accordingly), and very possibly uses more gas than mine. That would change the way I looked at any UberX ride, long pickup fee or otherwise.

Long pickup fees don't apply on destination filter trips in any case: 
https://help.uber.com/h/20d33df7-7317-4f86-aa38-5db09a219c27

Okay here's a scenario, I drive someone out to a sparsely populated area and want to get back to a place where I can get pings. In times gone by I might have driven a decent part of that way back for free, before getting a ping. Nowadays I can often just take a long ping from where I am, taking me back to civilization, and I get paid $1-3 extra. $1-3 might not be a lot, but if it's for miles I would have driven anyway, I'll take it.

We all drive in different areas, with different vehicles, different circumstances, etc. Long pickups happen to work for me in some scenarios, that doesn't mean they work for others in different circumstances. Fortunately, one of the good things about Uber is we're not forced to accept rides we don't want.


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## #professoruber (Feb 19, 2018)

reg barclay said:


> Firstly, it says you do Select. Meaning you likely drive a vehicle who's MSRP is 3-5 times the size of mine (and depreciates accordingly), and very possibly uses more gas than mine. That would change the way I looked at any UberX ride, long pickup fee or otherwise.
> 
> Long pickup fees don't apply on destination filter trips in any case:
> https://help.uber.com/h/20d33df7-7317-4f86-aa38-5db09a219c27
> ...


What type of car do you drive? I run select and XL on a $18k vehicle. I also run X on a fully depreciated vehicle. In either car $1-3 extra dollars for a long pickup is a smack in the face.

For a trip back into the action (rural area), I will take anything that comes my way with the destination filter. This is when I pull up in my $18k select/xl vehicle and give someone a X ride.

Bottom line in my fully depreciated X vehicle, Long pickups are ignored as they don't pay out. I don't gauge my profitability in $ per hour or week. I look at my earnings per mile which includes dead miles.

The sad reality is uber charges the customers for the longer pickups and drivers get shafted. Even worse the reason why Uber does this is idiot drivers justify driving 5-10 miles for an extra $1-3.


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## reg barclay (Nov 3, 2015)

#professoruber said:


> I don't gauge my profitability in $ per hour or week. I look at my earnings per mile


I fully agree with that part. I'm assuming you're aware then, that a fully depreciated car doesn't get us out of mileage costs. It generally just shifts them from depreciation to repair costs (which tend to start mounting up as a car ages and depreciation costs drop). Plus every additional mile on a fully depreciated vehicle is pushing it quicker to the point where it needs to be replaced with a newer one.

For the record, I gauge profitability the same way, and from what I can see, the long pickups I selectively accept have helped my miles to dollar ratio (which I try to continually monitor). Whether it's different in your circumstances I can't say, but if it is, then whatever works best for you.


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## #professoruber (Feb 19, 2018)

reg barclay said:


> I fully agree with that part. I'm assuming you're aware then, that a fully depreciated car doesn't get us out of mileage costs. It generally just shifts them from depreciation to repair costs (which tend to start mounting up as a car ages and depreciation costs drop). Plus every additional mile on a fully depreciated vehicle is pushing it quicker to the point where it needs to be replaced with a newer one.


I am fully aware hence the reason I purchased in cash the select/XL vehicle to run along side my full depreciated vehicle. My X vehicle will easily hit 250K mile which I am at 150K right now. Zero repairs or issues so far. Even still on my full depreciated X vehicle, I am paying back into my business for replacement or repair.

I simply try to minimize miles especially dead one's. That means ignoring long pickup's.


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