That's on Mr. Jarvis's tombstone, ain't it ? ;-D
Posted on 04/08/2018 11:24:53 AM PDT by BBell
A man who ordered a Lyft to take him to Los Angeles International Airport this week was dropped off at a random parking lot instead after the driver realized how little money he would be making on the trip, according to a video recording of the incident.
Darryl, a pilot for a major airline who didn't want his last name used or his employer identified, was headed to LAX on Thursday morning for work when the incident took place.
He was on a tight schedule when the driver apparently realized it wasn't worth it financially for him to get the passenger to his destination and abruptly decided to abandon him.
Like many, Darryl had turned to the ride-hailing app when he needed to get to the airport.
His initial ride was canceled after the first Lyft driver realized he was already 15 minutes away from where Darryl was staying in Hermosa Beach. The second driver who responded happened to be coming from LAX when he went to pick him up, Darryl told KTLA in a Skype interview from Miami on Friday.
“He ... picked me up, I loaded the bag and we started to leave, and then I guess he looked at – the destination popped up on his phone at that time, and then he got very frustrated,” Darryl said. “He did not want to go back to LAX.”
Darryl, who was in his uniform at that time, told the driver he was a pilot and explained he needed to be at the airport by 7:30 a.m. to catch a flight. He even showed the young man his rank and wings.
Although the driver still appeared frustrated, he continued on with the ride, "gunning it" on South Bay surface streets and even "running stop signs," according to Darryl.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Uber and Lyft drivers do not know where your going until they agree to the pick up and then swipe arrived when they get to the (your) pick up destination. You can now add stops on a trip and change your destination in-trip.
Huge ditto on air freshener. Not just rides but hotel rooms and offices. Had to make a a driver put away 6 fresheners and I still found a Glade behind my head on the ledge under the back window.
One of my favorite movies.
$6 for a ride into LAX is a rip off for the driver. Pilot should have given him more. We paid $36 for 40 minutes into LAX and I gave him a $20 tip. The guy was a Trump voter!!
the dumb bunny didn’t offer the driver an extra 20 to get him there?
why this driver did not go to the airport. I’m sure he would have picked up another fair while he was there.
I play senior softball with a low intelligence guy who was a career cab driver who echoes the same sentiment. They're also at the mercy of the company's dispatcher who will only assign fares to the driver who gives the most kick backs to them..........
I called a taxi. They know me from other rides, I tip well.
On 2 occasions however I was told after waiting and waiting that they would call another cab company to pick me up.
No one came, no one called back.
On the 2nd occasion I took my car to the doctor 20 miles away using the 101 to 405 (LAX is by 405 another 10 miles) after being told this and waiting another 15 minutes. I never did get a call back. I was suppose to take a cab to the doctor as they were going to put me asleep for a procedure and did not want me groggy driving home. I explained the problem when I got there and they adjusted the amount so I would be wide awake for that easy ride home on the 405 freeway.....
I have done the same.
Uber will let you put in your destination to quote you a fare before you order the ride. I am sure the drivers see it.
I understand. I don’t need taxi rides, I have a network of friends and other professionals that get me where I need to go if driving is impractical. Still, I know some Uber drivers, and I wouldn’t ride in their cars, oh, no.
As an Uber driver off and on since 2014, people who use Uber get charged a base rate (for getting into the car), time and mileage. Uber drivers and Lyft drivers do not get paid to come to a rider and wait until the rider feels like they are ready to leave. This past summer they implemented a few things, first they implemented the wait charge which equates to about 0.15 per minute. Yeah, exactly! Then they implemented where drivers could choose which levels and services they would take. Just because a driver has a BMW does not always mean they are going to get the luxury rates. They could get the lowest economic rates. This service was discontinued in Uber’s ever stick it to the driver. When I started with in 2014, I drove a Camry and Uber took about 10% off the top. By 2016, that had increased, in 5%, steps to 25%. The amount of time a person had to cancel a trip was also increased. Meaning if i am heading to you to pick you up and you cancel 3 minutes into my driving to you, then I get absolutely no money for that. I have sat in a rider’s driveway waited, the rider wait charge get activated, the do you want to cancel for a no show pop up after 3 minutes of waiting, and the rider cancel the trip with me in their driveway waiting for them to come get into the car. I have had people tell me I have been there before so I should know where I am going. No, not necessarily, Uber is large company and I do not make up Uber. The GPS is not always accurate. Case in point, a college student having fun decides to request Uber at the bar. They walk three blocks down the road to another bar. The app takes me to the pin where they requested the Uber. Its funny they track your location but cannot change the location by where you are at any given moment. The rider still has to update their app. The best rider I had was sticking it to her husband as they were getting a divorce. He was required to pay her Uber per the courts, she told me. So she went shopping for four hours on his dime. He finally called me and in not so many words said take her home now! While she was shopping I waited in the car, parked in a parking space and motor turned off, with the meter running.
I don’t do it for the money although it is a benefit. I have been able to network and get a few job interviews out of it. I would also bounce ideas off of the execs I took to the airport for my dissertation. It is a great way to network because you have a captive audience paying you to entertain/talk to them. Now if they were on their phone either texting or taking a call, I left them alone. If a couple/friends got into the car and were talking amongst themselves I left them alone. I have overheard some information that was proprietary information but never said a word to anyone about it. I have overheard some interesting conversations only women would have between themselves. They think if they whisper under the music I can’t hear them. What they never knew.
Yes Uber drivers lose money after all costs, expenses and taxes are paid. Most Uber drivers don’t last a year. If a driver tells you something that you are uncomfortable with don’t believe them. Thank them for a safe trip and leave. The initial advertising for Uber it was a cashless transactions and drivers were not supposed to take tips. i have heard riders tell them they had to pay a tip in cash. I have denied tips but people insist on giving me a tip to which I thank them and quickly put it out of sight. This past summer Uber started accepting tips on the app. Some people have it set up to automatically tip and don’t know. They then give a cash tip (usually because the driver says the tip mechanism on the app isn’t working) and find out after the driver is long gone that the app charged them for the tip. Beware!
Not all drivers are low on the totem pole of finances or society. I do it because even though I work, it allows me to get out of the house, network and I enjoy driving. I have done jobs like Uber since I was 18. I have worked off and on for 4 years and just made the official one year on the road badge. For example, I drove absolutely no miles for Uber from November to April. I get to make my own hours and with all the pros and cons I enjoy it rather than need it for the money. I started with Lyft and Sidecar before Uber and have run both, Uber and Lyft, at the same time but got three times the calls for Uber than Lyft.
Oops I broke the biased stereotype that all Uber drivers needed the money and were the dregs of society, damn!
The entire ride share model DOESN’T WORK...
Look how much money UBER and LYFT lose each year.
Pay your driver pennies to undercut Taxi companies just to claim market share, but there is no profitable end game. Uber wants to cut out the driver but as much as the hype and lies around autonomous driving exist. It’s DECADES away.
Uber will not be able to keep finding people willing to give them money to burn and will likely be out of business long before autonomous driving is perfected.
You are right that there is a big churn of drivers. I have never had the same one twice and all seem to have just started. Bet half quit in a month, the rest within 90 days.
Uber will let you put in your destination to quote you a fare before you order the ride. I am sure the drivers see it.
________
When you request a Uber to come pick you up, the driver does not see your destination until you enter the car, put on your seatbelt and the driver starts the trip. The driver does not see the cost of the trip until about two minutes after the driver has confirmed you have been dropped off.
Now if an Uber driver has been working the area they can usually guestimate how much the trip is going to pay. The rider knows more than the driver at that point.
Just because there is a GPS the driver uses, does not mean you have to take the route the GPS states. You can tell the Uber driver a different route. If I do not know an area, I will talk with the rider about the direction to go. Worst riders I have had are former or current Uber drivers. I had one former Uber driver wanting to go to some club but the road was closed due to a midnight summer bike ride event. Cops were posted at the streets so cars could not cross the route. I told the rider this and he said go up and ask a cop to let us across. I did and was not allowed. He then said I had no idea what I was doing and he was going to pull out Waze (great app by the way). He did and Waze did not show the blocked streets and he kept telling me to turn into a cop who had the down town street blocked with his car. I finally said he could either walk to his destination or have me drive him home. Either way he was getting out of my car. No tip.
100 percent correct Hamiltonjay
Uber’s on the road because it is burning through literally billions in capital. They are charging the rider half what it costs to get you there. And the driver gets a fourth if it.
Taxi fares are what they are for a reason. No one is subsidizing taxis. The driver earns enough to make a low wage living, that’s all.
Used to drive for Uber. Got into taxi. Safer, more secure, better insurance situation, and I actually make money. Not driving my car into the ground either.
Look how much money UBER and LYFT lose each year.
They used to lease and sell cars to drivers. They have a gas credit card when a driver completes 100 trips they charge interest on and the balance is paid every week. They do not pay for tires, oil, gas, or other incidentals. They do pay me 30 dollars to clean up the vomit in my car when a rider pukes. But they charge the rider 50. Uber will never cut out the driver and act like they will because then they will lose money because the cost for the rider will be too much.
No the ride share model doesn’t work for the driver but it does work for the company who only has to pony up for the insurance and the app. The app has long been paid off and the insurance and litigation is really the only money pits. They do have a no-service customer service. Good luck if it is 2AM on a Saturday and you need to get a hold of them (that includes the new telephone number you can now call and ask). I had 15 questions to ask one day. They wanted me to write 15 different emails. I said no thanks. Their local office, no one picks up the phone and when you go in they treat you like crap even though without the drivers they wouldn’t have a job. Yeah it sux if it is your only source of income however the people I meet and talk with are some of the most interesting people I have ever had the chance to meet. I wouldn’t trade that aspect of it for anything in the world.
One other thing, don’t confound the driver with Uber two different birds of a feather. There will always be plenty of drivers to give it a try. There will not be as many drivers who stick with it. I have had repeat customers. One thing Lyft has that Uber does not is the repeat ride. I don’t know what Lyft calls it but a rider can schedule a repeating or one time ride fr let’s say every Tuesday at 8AM. If a driver accepts, you will have a repeat driver every Tuesday at 8AM.
In the last twelve months I have gone through three tires not because I am driving a lot but because there are potholes galore. So many, that 1 and three people here know someone who knows someone who has lost a tire to the potholes. The amount of cars on the side of the road is ridiculous. Is this Uber’s fault? Nope this is the government’s fault for using their infrastructure money as a slush fund. The roads need so many repairs that the normal driver would be in road construction hell if they tried to fix it all at once. The roads are bad and they are getting worse. The 1 inch blacktop on it when they surface the roads doesn’t last long. Oh and the city only pays so many people for a replacement tire and when that money is gone, its gone for that year. So our dysfunctional government is just as bad when it comes to the roads. Don’t always blame the driver. And there are passengers I wish I would have never let into my car and in the four years I have ejected only one rider.So please the holier than thou crap is hypocritical.
That's on Mr. Jarvis's tombstone, ain't it ? ;-D
so the guys a pilot...late for his flight...why didn’t he just throw the guy an extra ten spot...this is one cheap pilot.
...
I read an article that the local Ubers always call the people wanting a ride from the airport to home. If it’s a short trip they won’t show up unless they get a $20 cash tip.
I am not confusing the driver with the company... I know many people working for Uber... and not as drivers. The entire model DOES NOT WORK.
It’s a scam. Uber is burning through cash because it’s a model that DOES NOT WORK, period.
The only route remotely for corporate profitability is to remove the driver from the equation and keep their cut... and they are scamming folks with the plan autonomous driving will get them there... and it won’t. Because folks will stop giving the money long before autonomous driving actually works. Autonomous driving is DECADES away.. anyone telling you different is whole ignorant or selling snake oil.
There is no path to profitability for Uber or LYFT. They are simply using investors cash to subsidize low fairs in attempts to gain market share as a selling point for the Next round of foolish investors, who are being sold a false bill of goods.
It’s a bigger fool model and sooner or later folkswho are throwing cash at them will realize market share doesn’t make them $$. Uber has NO path to profitability without autonomous driving, which means they must burn cause for at least 20-30 years or more... you can only keep shaking the tree for fools for so long.
Uber will go the way of webvan and pets.com most likely. Odds they will keep getting capital to burn for that long of a period of time is doubtful.
Right now autonomous driving is being so oversold and overhyped that investors keep writing checks out of irrational exuberance, but eventually they will realize they have been sold a false bill of goods.
I got a co-worker who does both along with Uber Eats. He loves it and makes $hundreds a week.
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