# Using Surge as a lure...



## Bluto1899 (Aug 24, 2018)

Last night, I’m at home around 10:00 and I check out the app. My little town is blood red at 3.0 to 4.0 surge. This is really unusual as it’s a small quiet town, but if figured what hell? I told my wife I might head out and went online. I proceeded to get 3 pings, in neighboring towns 8-10 minutes away, just outside of the surge zone. I flipped over to the Pax app, no cars in my town at all. I declined all three, because I’m sure they were all going to be 5 minute bar runs around town. I’m convinced now more than ever that surge is not real, but a way to get offline drivers online.


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## wallae (Jun 11, 2018)

Also Possible Premium Pickup

They know if it is or not.

I decline lots...60%. I wish others would join me. They would have to pay


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## Lowdown (Apr 29, 2018)

Premium Pickup Possible or Likely are intertwined and don't mean squat. I have been burned the few times I went for it. Using the adjective "Premium" makes one think it is special or important. I could put Premium before any word....Premium Poo, Premium Sh&t (no, not the good one)...I think they tested the word "Premium" more than they tested the new app (which by the way is another "Premium" , sarc). I think they started with the word "Sucker" but nixed that right away when an astute researcher told them drivers probably wouldn't go for it. By the way you are right about using surge as a lure. I did a test this past weekend. If you are right on the edge of a surge cloud, Uber never lets you in as you are driving towards it. Goes farther and farther away and fading to where it disappears altogether. Reminds me of a cat with a ball of string or play toy just right out of reach. Never chase a surge.


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## Drivincrazy (Feb 14, 2016)

Same chit here in LV. Plus, while in staging lot for airport pickup, surge shows mostly 1.6, 1.7, etc., Three consecutive pings, all @1.3. Take it or go to end of line. Uber is full of devilish greed.


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## Alex Driver (Jul 26, 2018)

Everyone says don't chase surge, never chase surge. Why not? You're going to a busier area while waiting for a ride, with the possibility of getting extra money on your trip anyway. At worst, you burn a little bit extra gas. I do that anyway. It would actually be stupid not to go for a surge.


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## wallae (Jun 11, 2018)

We have two busy areas a beach and downtown.
Yesterday I chased it. Averaged 36 an hour for 7 hours Got 14 surge and 9 non. 2 of the non surge got me home using the Destiination filter from an out-of-the-way place that I didn’t want to be.
Sometimes I turn the app off and then flip it on when I’m in the middle.
That’s said, I have driven towards it and watched it just keep moving away.

Quite frankly in our town with our rates if you don’t get any surge it’s not worth driving.

I will not drive for 10 an hour or less and supply a car and gas.

Also.. I have sat and declined a no surge A 1.3 a 1.2 a no surge and then got a 1.9 all in 30 seconds to a minute..... it feels pretty good powerful


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## 404NofFound (Jun 13, 2018)

It retracted as I drove into it, then suddenly I was engulfed by it. I didn't get any pings. I parked. Three minutes later it disappeared. I went home.


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## whensthefunstart (Jul 27, 2018)

The way surge is used (same as primetime) lately is to move cars to areas where no cars are. Also no demand. Just moves the ants.


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## Fozzie (Aug 11, 2018)

Uber and Lyft use those maps to manipulate drivers into going where they want you to go. They're manipulating you like I manipulate my cat with a laser pointer.


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## 404NofFound (Jun 13, 2018)

Fozzie said:


> Uber and Lyft use those maps to manipulate drivers into going where they want you to go. They're manipulating you like I manipulate my cat with a laser pointer.


Even a cat can become bored with a laser.



whensthefunstart said:


> The way surge is used (same as primetime) lately is to move cars to areas where no cars are. Also no demand. Just moves the ants.


It is a dishonest way to do it. The driver will become disgusted with the deception and ignore them or even leave the area. I ignore surges sometimes. Fool me once... Occasionally it just appears and I'm on the edge so I'll go into it and see if it retracts.


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## LadyLuv (Jun 13, 2018)

Lowdown said:


> Premium Pickup Possible or Likely are intertwined and don't mean squat. I have been burned the few times I went for it. Using the adjective "Premium" makes one think it is special or important. I could put Premium before any word....Premium Poo, Premium Sh&t (no, not the good one)...I think they tested the word "Premium" more than they tested the new app (which by the way is another "Premium" , sarc). I think they started with the word "Sucker" but nixed that right away when an astute researcher told them drivers probably wouldn't go for it. By the way you are right about using surge as a lure. I did a test this past weekend. If you are right on the edge of a surge cloud, Uber never lets you in as you are driving towards it. Goes farther and farther away and fading to where it disappears altogether. Reminds me of a cat with a ball of string or play toy just right out of reach. Never chase a surge.


Premium pickups are ones that are far away, and you get a certain cent per mile fee for anything over 12 minutes. So if it says, say, 20 min premium pickup likely, you start earning it at 13 minutes. If it's say, a 15 minute premium pickup possible, but you speed and get there in 11, no premium.


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## wallae (Jun 11, 2018)

LadyLuv said:


> Premium pickups are ones that are far away, and you get a certain cent per mile fee for anything over 12 minutes. So if it says, say, 20 min premium pickup likely, you start earning it at 13 minutes. If it's say, a 15 minute premium pickup possible, but you speed and get there in 11, no premium.


Correct.. usually you get about 8 cents
It's a joke.. fool me once


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

To my understanding this is what surge has become.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

It is what surge always was.

The cake is a Lie.

Crumbs are the truth.

" LOWER RATES MEAN MORE MONEY "

Uber has more important things to do with its money than PAY DRIVERS !

" FLYING CARS "!


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

If you complain that surge is just a bait and switch you are doing it all wrong. Yes sometimes it shows up seemingly for no reason , which are commonly known as fake surges. However a good amount of the time it’s there for a reason, and if you know the traffic patterns and events going on in your area it should be fairly easy to anticipate when they will happen so you can position yourself accordingly. Of course if you take time and effort to stage only to take an early base ride then it defeats the whole purpose of staging. 

Most of the time if youre not already on site when the surge begins to develop your chances of landing a surge ride decrease cause of all the closer drivers already there. Even in areas of fake surge it usually means someone is looking for a ride and may or may not wanna pay extra to get one quickly. However; you may sway him to pay if you’re already nearby, otherwise why pay surge if you still gotta wait a while anyway. 

This is the reason Uber is putting out the new flat surge. It’s cause of all the drivers complaining about not getting a surge ride when driving to the red cloud. The same guys who didn’t anticipate the surge. Now those drivers are getting thrown a bone for chasing tj cloud. Meanwhile the smart drivers who anticipated surge and position accordingly get screwed just to appease those ants.


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## Bluto1899 (Aug 24, 2018)

hulksmash said:


> If you complain that surge is just a bait and switch you are doing it all wrong. Yes sometimes it shows up seemingly for no reason , which are commonly known as fake surges. However a good amount of the time it's there for a reason, and if you know the traffic patterns and events going on in your area it should be fairly easy to anticipate when they will happen so you can position yourself accordingly. Of course if you take time and effort to stage only to take an early base ride then it defeats the whole purpose of staging.
> 
> Most of the time if youre not already on site when the surge begins to develop your chances of landing a surge ride decrease cause of all the closer drivers already there. Even in areas of fake surge it usually means someone is looking for a ride and may or may not wanna pay extra to get one quickly. However; you may sway him to pay if you're already nearby, otherwise why pay surge if you still gotta wait a while anyway.
> 
> This is the reason Uber is putting out the new flat surge. It's cause of all the drivers complaining about not getting a surge ride when driving to the red cloud. The same guys who didn't anticipate the surge. Now those drivers are getting thrown a bone for chasing tj cloud. Meanwhile the smart drivers who anticipated surge and position accordingly get screwed just to appease those ants.


I sat in the middle of a small 3X-4X surge area last weekend for 15 minutes. I was the only driver nearby, as per the pax app. I got 4 pings during that time. Each one was 8-10 minutes away, on the fringes or completely out of the surge. If there were legitimately that many people requesting rides to drive the surge that high, and no other drivers around, why was I only getting pinged outside the area? I can only assume Uber knew rides were getting requested in the area I was getting pings from, so they created a big surge close enough to get drivers nearby in hopes they'd take the first ping they got. I didn't take the bait.


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## Hawk Eye (Jul 2, 2018)

I'm a fairly new driver and I swear to freaking God I will NEVER chase a BS surge again. Those MF'ers at Uber know exactly how to lead the sheep where they want us. I will chase a surge ONE time however, with the sole purpose of putting it on YouTube to show everyone how it works. You chase a huge surge area, start getting closer and closer as it shrinks and shrinks before finally going away. You never get into the surge area and you never get a ping. The next think you know you are repositioned 10 miles or more out further then you want to be, (with no surge.) Then.... guess what? PING! Such bullshit. So FU UBER... I cancel.


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## Lowdown (Apr 29, 2018)

Got that right Hawk Eye. Let us know here if you do a YouTube on this. Would love to see it.


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

Hawk Eye said:


> I'm a fairly new driver and I swear to freaking God I will NEVER chase a BS surge again. Those MF'ers at Uber know exactly how to lead the sheep where they want us. I will chase a surge ONE time however, with the sole purpose of putting it on YouTube to show everyone how it works. You chase a huge surge area, start getting closer and closer as it shrinks and shrinks before finally going away. You never get into the surge area and you never get a ping. The next think you know you are repositioned 10 miles or more out further then you want to be, (with no surge.) Then.... guess what? PING! Such bullshit. So FU UBER... I cancel.


That's why you don't chase. You anticipate where it's likely to happen and then you make sure you're there before it does. There are apps like SurgeChaser that give you surge history of any specific locations you want so you can study trends and make better decisions of where to drive. If you can't think of any reason of why a bunch of people all need rides at the same time (events, airport runs, bar close, parades, people going out, etc) it's probably not worth chasing if you're not nearby (5 min or less)

In general if you're not there before it starts to peak don't bother chasing. If you take every ride then Uber will just use surge to lure you where they want so you can pick up at base rates. If you use surge to your advantage you can make money. For example, this weekend I'll be staged near hotels right before I expect a mass of people to all leave at once, when it will likely surge. I will not wait to see a giant red ball to start heading there because th demand will be met well before I get there. I will also not take a long base fare pickup to get one of these people because chances are this means demand is starting to heat up and surge will commence shortly.


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## LadyLuv (Jun 13, 2018)

Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> To my understanding this is what surge has become.


Yep, and then you get no fares from inside the zone anyway because everyone will just wait until it ends to order a ride.


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## Jake1980 (Apr 9, 2018)

wallae said:


> Correct.. usually you get about 8 cents
> It's a joke.. fool me once


8 cents per min but the cents are higher per mile. For example I live in the raleigh, NC area and for premium we get 57 cent per mile/10 cents per min after the 10 minutes are up. So if i get a 20 minute premium then get 5.70 plus 1dollar and change for a long pickup fee.


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## Zap (Oct 24, 2016)

Fozzie said:


> Uber and Lyft use those maps to manipulate drivers into going where they want you to go. They're manipulating you like I manipulate my cat with a laser pointer.


LOL Friggen perfect example of surge manipulation & chasing. Good one Fozzie! 5* on that one!


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## Juggalo9er (Dec 7, 2017)

Last week was the first time I've seen nbn little to no surge saturday night... curious if it continues this week


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