# How to catch surge rates ??



## Nitedriver (Jun 19, 2014)

I remember getting surge rates last winter many times and it was sweet to see those numbers, however lately (Phialdelphia region) I almost never get a surge anymore (vital to get a decent income if you are X).

Are there any tricks or ways to get that surge ?? Just staying in the red zone doesn't help at all..I was reading somewhere some kinda tech trick (like using airplane mode on the device??)


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

Apparently, go offline to force it to. But with all the new drivers good luck. Its there goal to have so many it never surges again.


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## Sherif Elkattawy (May 25, 2015)

In the Philly area there is no chance, I was directly in the middle of a surge once, right next to the field and shit never went off. SCAMMMM!!


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Yeah Philly is difficult. If you are patient, you can catch them. At periods of high demands, especially weekends wait for the top of the hour.

I will not work downtown without a surge. My plan is this:

1) Have PAX app open. If you see less than 8 cars in your area (scroll around, make sure there are <8 close by, far ones are ok, most drivers deny stuff 10 mins or further away), and you're downtown you may see some surge. When the far ones deny the ping throughs that helps increase the surge rate. Now they may cancel after accepting as many do, this will delay any surge rate increase for another minute or two until new requests are made.
2) The first surge will generally occur at 4 cars or less. Now you can go for it, but I prefer to wait for 1.5x and I wait to see if people really need rides (ie., rain) and those cars in the surge area are being picked off.
3) If those cars aren't being picked off, continue to stay offline, the surge will die and you are the supply that will help it die if you don't stay offline.
4) Now the cheap bastards who didn't want to pay surge will get their rides in 2-4 mins after first surge dies. The desperados will pick them up.
5) If it's a high demand time, you should see a bunch of cars disappear as soon as the first surge dies. Now your area is ready for a healthier surge, because supply is much diminished.
6) It should resurge again when less than 5 cars are around. Now go back online and see what you can get.

Generally during surge if you don't get a request in one minute just go back offline. I actually do this before the surge dies because I know it means no PAX will pay. So you need to reduce supply again by taking your car offline. They will pay if it keeps up - most people I've talked to say they will wait 5 minutes for a surge to die, then they just suck it up.

This really only works weekends and crazy nights when everyone is out. There is almost no point driving downtown without poor weather or some event. There are too many drivers. I have no idea what they're thinking, but apparently they can't get jobs at McDonald's.

Finally, make sure you're at the edge of the pack. you know where it is in your town, in Philly it's always around Rittenhouse and Broad south of city hall. Independence area is a little tricky. If you suspect a surge, park offline as close as you can get to the bar area. That way you'll get the ping first.

While I'm off with Uber, I do Lyft. Lyft is better because those short rides pay $4 rather than $3.20 and you have a chance at a tip. Consider that a 20% tip is worth even more than 1.2x surge because they don't take commission on your tip.

If you get an Uber and Lyft request at the same time, always cancel or let the Uber request ping through unless it's a super surge rate.

Obviously this means I'm extremely patient. I would rather sit around and get paid 2x for those shit downtown rides rather than $3.2 for multiple rides downtown. It's far more profitable. I end up making more an hour this way, by a lot even though I'm idle quite a bit of the time.


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