Two Weeks into My Experience as an Uber Driver

It's Sunday, and that means my second week as  an Uber driver will come to an end tonight (Uber's weeks begin on Monday and end on Sunday).  This means that the money I've made since last Monday up until tonight will deposited Thursday morning - at least, this would normally be the case, but since it's Christmas Eve, I'm not sure if that will impact the timing.

So I have learned quite a bit about the Uber driver experience in that time, but I'd definitely like to touch on the rating system first.  It seems quite a few drivers view the rating system as erratic at best, and unfortunately, this has also been my experience.  For example, by the end of the night Friday, I had a score of 30 five star ratings out of 34 total ratings.  This was actually an improvement, as I had started the night off with a difference of 5 between ratings with five stars and ratings overall.  Apparently, someone changed their mind and went back (which, apparently, means riders can do this :/ ).  Yet somehow, my overall rating still dropped slightly.  

But when I woke up Saturday (yesterday) morning, my ratings had changed to 28/32.  The only logical explanation is that some riders apparently cancelled their rating.  Again, I had no idea this was possible, and honestly, it's a little irritating.  I only took 1 fare yesterday due to some other plans, so there wasn't much room for it to change.  Or so I thought.

When I checked the app this morning, my ratings changed to 30/36.  This is definitely worrisome, as it means that my five star ratings are now 6 behind my total number of ratings.  When I checked my score for the past 24 hours, it stated 0, meaning that the 1 passenger I had yesterday had not left me feedback.  So apparently, some people cancelled their ratings and others either changed them or just decided to leave me one less than five stars. I have no idea why, honestly.  In fact, I can only think of one incident I've had in all of my trips that would merit a lower rating, which I will explain later.  My overall score now stands at 4.74, which is alarming given that a lower rating means less trips and a rating under 4.5 disqualifies you as a driver.  

There has been some confusion as to whether riders are required to leave feedback for drivers and drivers are for riders.  The following screenshot, captured directly from the app, confirms that doing so is optional for them: 

Perhaps this wasn't always the case,  but it obviously is now.  It also confirms that they have "several days to leave feedback".  Once feedback has been left, riders can apparently change it by submitting a request.  They have several to do so, which is detrimental for some trips, especially on weekends when you're driving them to a bar to get wasted. Supposedly, trips with no rating have no impact on the overall score.  Additionally, it states that the score changes more frequently during the first 50 ratings. 

The policies seem to change pretty often according to feedback from other drivers, so who knows how long this will remain the case?

So now on to the Uber money.  Obviously, everyone's always wondering, "can you really make money through Uber?"  Thankfully, the answer is yes.  It can be hit or miss, but the app does show you which regions are experiencing a need for drivers (referred to as "surging).  You can observe this over the course of several days to determine which areas have the most demand and at what time.  Unsurprisingly, it tends to flair up during rush hour.  I've made as much as $18 in 25 minutes and as little at $7 in 20 minutes.  The key is to drive when surging demand increases the fare rates.  I could actually be doing quite well if I were more comfortable driving in downtown Atlanta.  However, I don't yet know it well enough to accept fares in the area (even though I drop them off there pretty frequently).  If I remained there to pick up riders rather than going back to my "comfort zone" first, I'd have a lot more trips.  And if the rating system weren't so erratic, I'd be more willing to take the risk.  But, sadly, I can't afford that right now.  Oddly enough, as I sit here typing this, I actually just received a text from Uber stating "You have good ratings!  Visit (a link) for more details."  Even so, I'd much rather get back in the 4.9 range before I take a chance like that.  Whether or not I can resist for that long has yet to be determined.

I'll definitely report more as I go into this third week, which just happens to be the week of Christmas.  Be sure to leave any questions about my Uber experience and I'll address them from a first-hand perspective.