# Rating suggestion



## uberlyfting123 (Mar 16, 2017)

I know this suggestion will never go anywhere, but I wanted to get it out of my head. 

Ditch the 5-star system. 

When ride is done have three options. 

Would you want this driver again?

No opinion. 

I never want a ride with this driver again. 


But here is what happens. Drivers start building "friends" list of preferred pax. If we are whithen a mile radius, we get preferential pings. There there are many of us within a mile, closest gets the ping. 

If you start building negative list. Uber can email you and eventually cut you. 

What does this do? Actually reward good service to Drivers. Better service gets more drives. And to the fool Pax that hates on everyone, guess what? He/she has unfriended the whole city and never gets matched!!!

These ratings actually matter. And our score is our friends list count. Sure, you can show how many dislikes we have too. No one is perfect. 

There thought over. Goes into the file of wasted 1010101 in the land of the interweb.


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## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

uberlyfting123 said:


> I know this suggestion will never go anywhere, but I wanted to get it out of my head.
> 
> Ditch the 5-star system.
> 
> ...


Uber knows the rating system is bogus. The reason the don't change it is cause they want to use it as a weapon


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## uberlyfting123 (Mar 16, 2017)

True. Manipulation over production. Ah yes. 

Mooooooooooving along now. Back to the herd.


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## Coachman (Sep 22, 2015)

There's really nothing different about your system than the current system. Most driver will not rate. Most that do will rate "I would want to ride with this driver again." And every so often you'll get some jerk who rates you a "I never want to ride with this driver again." Same result.


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## Uberfunitis (Oct 21, 2016)

It needs to be more nuanced than I binary yes or no answer. This would just lead to a race to the bottom in terms of quality of service.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

Coachman said:


> There's really nothing different about your system than the current system. Most driver will not rate. Most that do will rate "I would want to ride with this driver again." And every so often you'll get some jerk who rates you a "I never want to ride with this driver again." Same result.


I disagree.

If everyone who rated a *3* on Lyft KNEW that it meant they could never be matched with that driver again, or that drivers with below average ratings get deactivated, I bet a lot of those 3* ratings would turn into 4* ratings or even 5* ratings.

I picked up an old guy from a rural place to bring to town. I happen to pass near this rural place often. He said thanks for the trip, as far as I know everything went smooth... but he rated me a 3* on Lyft. Probably the old guy just thought it meant average, but not bad. Good luck getting a trip into town in the future old guy when probably most of the drivers will see your ping as a 25 min ETA and the few drivers that ping you up will probably also get rated 3* by you.

FWIW I'm glad that 3* means we never get paired on Lyft. I don't want to pick that guy up either. He was a great rider in every respect except for the fact that he gave me a 3* rating that could help get me fired and that's reason enough not to pick him up.

Now, if there was no low rating deactivation for drivers, I wouldn't care what he rated me. I always try to provide the best service I can but for some pax I don't think they hand out a 5* rating unless if something spectacular happens during the trip, like you use CPR to save someone's life.

I don't think drivers should be deactivated for ratings. Let the rating system stand and let it actually mean something. Riders should be able to have a "pass" button to skip to the next driver if they don't like the rating of the driver coming to get them, and should be able to "go back" to one they skipped if the ETA gets too long for them.


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## Uberfunitis (Oct 21, 2016)

Trafficat said:


> I disagree.
> 
> If everyone who rated a *3* on Lyft KNEW that it meant they could never be matched with that driver again, or that drivers with below average ratings get deactivated, I bet a lot of those 3* ratings would turn into 4* ratings or even 5* ratings.
> 
> ...


Ratings should absolutely be a factor in deactivations. They are the subjective valuation of your service, and that of Uber in general as you represent Uber at least in the minds of the consumer. Why would Uber want to have someone running around using their service that people did not like for whatever reason when there are more than enough others to fill the gap and that driver that was not liked would not have any material effect by being removed from the system.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

Uberfunitis said:


> Ratings should absolutely be a factor in deactivations. They are the subjective valuation of your service, and that of Uber in general as you represent Uber at least in the minds of the consumer. Why would Uber want to have someone running around using their service that people did not like for whatever reason when there are more than enough others to fill the gap and that driver that was not liked would not have any material effect by being removed from the system.


Ratings are meaningless for drivers because there is no such thing as a low rated driver and riders cannot refuse a driver based on his rating.

There are no low rated drivers, only activated drivers or deactivated drivers.

Passengers should be free to choose their driver instead of forced into using the nearest driver.

It's like E-bay. E-bay doesn't need to ban a seller with a low ratings. No one would buy anything from a seller with consistently bad feedback. There is no need for Uber to deactivate drivers based on ratings. Drivers should be deactivated for fraud or misconduct, but not just because some old fogger thought 3 stars was average.

Ratings are also influenced by bigotry. I guarantee I'd get better ratings if I didn't have a beard. I've even had people tell me that. On the other thread someone posted how he got a bad rating for "not speaking english" according to the Lyft comment.

Should a driver be fired because he speaks with a thick accent? Riders should be able to rate the guy down if they want and put a remark "driver has bad accent" but it shouldn't be auto termination. If I was a rider I'd have no problem riding with a driver who has a bad rating because maybe his riderbase thought he was a Muslim.

Riders should see driver rating breakdown, how many 5 stars and 1 stars the driver has, and should be able to comment on the driver.

I know you will are downrating drivers and probably would be writing "asked for tip" if there was a feedback list.

If I was a rider, I'd still take a ride with a driver that had a 3* rating and had lots of complaints that he asked for a tip. He could ask me for a million dollars. It doesn't mean I give him a million dollars. But if he get me from A to B even if he is a grouch I can probably handle him.

On the other hand if he was rated 2* and all the comments were like "bad driver, makes unsafe left turns, almost crashed twice" *got pulled over*, *smelled of strong liquor*, I might be more hesitant to take that driver. I should be able to choose.

Drivers with lots of bad ratings will self-terminate because eventually they won't have riders.

One of my bad feedbacks on Lyft was "ditch the camera". Why should I be fired for having a dash cam to protect myself? If riders don't like it they should see my feedback and if they want a more private ride they can choose a different driver.


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## Uberfunitis (Oct 21, 2016)

Trafficat said:


> Ratings are meaningless for drivers because there is no such thing as a low rated driver and riders cannot refuse a driver based on his rating.
> 
> There are no low rated drivers, only an activated drivers or a deactivated drivers.
> 
> ...


I believe it to be in Ubers interest to allow only those with high ratings to continue to have access. Why inconvenience the rider with having to toggle threw many riders to find one that is rated well it is all about ease of use for the customer. I generally did not enjoy my shopping with Ebay and don't use them any longer.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

But people have different preferences. Obviously the things you would 1* or 3* a driver for are different than the ones I would.

If 92% of people have no problem with a dashcam in my car, but 8% do, that 8% who have a problem could get me fired if I need an almost perfect rating as it is.

Personally, I think riders who don't think drivers should be allowed to defend themselves against false accusations by riders or other drivers on the road should be disallowed to ride!

If drivers are pemanently deactivated for ratings below 4.6, get rider social security numbers to allow them to ride and permanently deactivate them if their rating goes below 4.6. It is only fair.


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## Uberfunitis (Oct 21, 2016)

If it is a one off person than there is nothing to worry about, but if you are doing something that annoys multiple people than that should be a reason for deactivation. There does not have to be any set score and there is not one that would get you deactivated it is all based on the ratings of others in your market. If your passengers don't like you at a higher rate than others in your market I see nothing wrong with dropping people that are not working out. 

Ideally there would need to be a specific reason for the lower rating that would give the driver some knowledge what was the problem was rather than some vague non helpful feedback that is given currently.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

So if too many people are offended by black drivers, should a black driver be deactivated? It only takes a small minority of racist raters to get a driver fired since even if the majority of the ratings are 5* ratings, 1* ratings have more weight.

On the other hand if you were a rider and saw a guy with 90% 5 star ratings and 10% 1 star ratings, but no feedback on the bad ratings, whereas most of the guys with the same number of 1 star ratings had safety, cleanliness, or other reasons stated, you might suspect there was something stupid accounting for the ratings since people are too shy to say why. Or if they aren't too shy and the 1* rating reviews say things like "black driver from the ghetto" you can safely decide that it doesn't matter he was rated low because the only low raters are dumb raters.

I'd personally ride with a driver rated 4*, just as I'd buy an item on Amazon rated 4*.

If everyone was honest when rating and had to leave feedback I bet my bad feedback would say things like:
"water bottle was not cold"
"driver had a beard... UNPROFESSIONAL!"
"driver had a dashcam" (And actually on Lyft I got a feedback to that effect)


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## Uberfunitis (Oct 21, 2016)

It is not up to me to determine the inner working of everyones mind, I take their ratings at face value unless they specify in some way that the rating was for a reason like one you mentioned, than it should be disregarded. The bottom line is that the person with lower than average ratings whatever the reason is not the best fit. To ensure quality I would very much deactivate anyone that fell below the average of that market.


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## LA_Native (Apr 17, 2017)

uberlyfting123 said:


> I know this suggestion will never go anywhere, but I wanted to get it out of my head.
> 
> Ditch the 5-star system.
> 
> ...


That's pretty much how I rate passengers. 5 stars if I'd have them in my car again or 1 star if I wouldn't.


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## Coachman (Sep 22, 2015)

Trafficat said:


> ...I need an almost perfect rating as it is.


No you don't. You just have to stay out of the bottom 5-10% of drivers. That shouldn't be hard at all, should it?


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

Coachman said:


> No you don't. You just have to stay out of the bottom 5-10% of drivers. That shouldn't be hard at all, should it?


Every time you drop out the bottom 10%, you instantly have a new bottom 10% to drop out.

Driver Pool: 100
Drop out bottom 10%... these guys probably suck.
Driver Pool: 90
Drop out bottom 10%... okay these guys probably weren't so good.
Driver Pool: 81 ... 73 ... 66... 59.... 53.... 48... etc. Eventually you get to the point where dropping out the worst drivers still means dropping out good drivers. Bottom 10 percent why? Maybe an ugly face.

Of course, they keep adding new drivers, but assuming there is a lot of retention of old drivers, over time this will mean that in the long run the bottom 10% of drivers that get eliminated that are not new drivers will be at the bottom for increasingly trivial reasons.

It could be that a great driver works his way towards the bottom because his vehicle is older and crappier than the competition. Okay, so you eliminate him. Sort of unfair when he could get a new vehicle and be on par with the others, but he will have no chance to correct course.


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## Julescase (Mar 29, 2017)

uberlyfting123 said:


> I know this suggestion will never go anywhere, but I wanted to get it out of my head.
> 
> Ditch the 5-star system.
> 
> ...


 I know this comment was posted a long time ago, but I really like your idea for ratings. It makes more sense and would actually be useful for Uber, drivers, AND riders. Oh, wait- now I realize why Uber would never put it into practice. It's logical, simple, and beneficial to drivers.....Uber avoids logic, simplicity and any terms that may be beneficial to drivers; why would they consider loosening the leash it has on it's worker bees (aka ants aka drivers)?


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