Why You Can't Get Rides: The Thread and the Triangle

This last week, one of my free-lance clients more or less took a summer break. Not incredibly unexpected, and certainly not fatal to our long-term relationship, but it is what it is: suddenly, there is less money in my life. Combine this with two major bills, and I had to get back in the car for significant hours to make my nut. So be it; that's what rideshare is for, after all. Employment court of the last resort.

Just in time for the Uber app to more or less stop working for me. For the better part of a week, no matter what kind of surge price zone I was in. Here's a screen shot from the first ten, very frustrating, hours of the week.

Note that my surge price was a lot more than the regions were showing? That's because I had been in the app for hours without a request, turning it on and off, reinstalling the software, checking my Internet connection, and so on. Eventually, I just left Uber on while doing Lyft work for less, on the off chance that it would finally start working again, and I'd finally catch that nice surge price.

Here's the impact this had on my net hourly rate. (Well, that and Lyft sending me to on a two-hour plus trip to JFK without warning, because that's the kind of thing Lyft likes to do, and a big reason why I try not to drive for Lyft anymore.)

7/5-7/11: $19.26 per hour

6/28-7/4: $34.90 per hour

6/21-6/27: $36.44 per hour

6/14-6/20: $38.65 per hour

I had no way to fix this, no way to re-start my revenue, no way to actually connect with the customers that the platform is supposed to provide to me. Through no fault of my own (current driver rating: 4.96; I'm good at this), my revenue from Uber went to zero on four different shifts. Thank heavens I had Lyft as a (not as good) back up, or the bad financial week would have been even worse.

FYI, I finally started getting requests again-- after alerting me to an Uber Driver app update, and only after a half dozen form letters to various complaints that showed absolutely no evidence of the rep actually reading the complaint. Always with a very Indian sub-continent name, and always overnight, so, yeah, you can tell charming stories of how much Uber is paying customer service reps.

Anyway, getting back to the triangle. Until cars drive themselves, rideshare is best imagined as a triangle. Mark one corner as D for Driver, another as R for rider, and the last as P for platform...

Now, find a place where D, R and P are all happy.

Make it too good for the driver and platform and it costs too much; passengers find another option, especially in the long-term. Make it too good for the rider while still paying the driver, and the platform takes it in the neck from the stock market for taking too long to turn a profit (if ever). Make it too good for the rider while still paying the platform means the driver will find something else to do with their time.

That's what the vast majority of drivers did during the more brutal parts of the pandemic, and in all likelihood, will continue to do -- unless there's a massive and long-term change in the math that just forces a more expensive ride on riders, or a lower take for the platforms.

And even then, the platform can end a driver at any moment, because no matter how many rides we've given (me: over 18K), we're all hanging by the thread of the next request.

Which, as the first ten hours of Uber showed me last week, may never come.

And that, my dear passengers, is why you are having such a hard time finding someone to pick you up...

Night Bite

Part of what happens in rideshare is that you just occasionally see random nonsense on the streets. I seem to have a bit of  a gift for that.

In the past month, I've picked up a lot of consulting work, which means (a lot) less rideshare. So instead of having hundreds of rides to safeguard my rating, I've only got a few dozen... which means that if I decline or cancel, I lose visibility in the next ride.

Fast forward to a ride I wouldn't normally take on a weeknight, a full hour out of state without a surge price to Philadelphia. Not loving life, I turn on my map and head for home, going past the local prison on my route.

Which is when I see... some guy with a relatively decent pick up truck, parked on an overpass over the river, with three fishing poles and lines going down to whatever is trickling through a fairly industrial part of town.

At midnight, on a Wednesday. Near a prison.

Because your rideshare shift can, and will, become a South Korean horror short at a moment's notice, really...

My Codeswitch Reality

Or get 5 stars or tip

Rideshare passengers index to a much greater percentage of people for whom English fluency is not assumed or present. For the most part, this isn't a big problem. So long as the passenger got the address right and GPS doesn't lead me astray -- so +95% of rides -- we can do the transaction without any conversation at all. There will be some, of course, because I want people to feel welcome and I always try to confirm the address and let people know about a couple of free affinities, but if you want to talk the entire time in a language I don't understand, have at it. 

But the interesting thing about that conversation is... a significant portion of it is still going to be in English, because (a) the Internet, and (b) code switching. 

Now, the classic definition of the phrase talks about how words in a second language will slide in -- in my experience in rideshare, these usual gravitate to "OK" and various corporate, Web site or app names -- but the more colloquial use of code switch is when you change your speech patterns to match your audience.

We all do this on some level, whether we are aware and OK with it (talking to children), or unaware and trying to pass as One Of The Good Ones (i.e, talking to people of a very different demographic). When done badly, it's awkward and awful for all concerned, and makes my spine contract with embarrassment when it's part of cringe comedy. It's also adding to the mental energy that you exert in a conversation, so there are times when you just don't want to do it.

But when it's done well?

My tips go up. So do my ratings. My passengers have a better time. I'm more effective at communicating helpful information about why rideshare works the way it does for passengers, why taking a Covid-19 vaccine is something everyone should want to do, and so on. I don't feel as worn out by the end of my shift.

You could see it as manipulative, calculating, artificial. 

Or polite, engaging, and accommodating.

And if you never codeswitch, or would never?

You probably aren't a rideshare driver. (Or a waiter, bartender, live performer...)

Or a very highly rated rideshare passenger or beloved customer...

Indirectly Paid Vaccine Outreach

For the most part, conversations with my passengers have dropped like a stone during the pandemic for obvious reasons. The windows are down, the masks are on, fewer people are intoxicated and loose with their tongues, and the majority of riders are solo. 

I take warehouse workers to long shifts, grocery shoppers home with their goods, and folks who are having transportation issues who need to rely on rideshare. It's been a hard time, both personally and professionally, and the nearly 3K passengers that I've given service to since the start of the pandemic have mostly kept quiet. 

I'm fine with that. I'm here to make money because I have to.

But as the days get longer and the snow melts and the new case count goes down while vaccines go into arms, there are green shoots. And, also, community outreach.

Here's an odd thing about being a (white? obviously educated? older? try hard?) rideshare driver in lower income areas and to lower income passengers... they want your opinion on things, and seem to regard you as a credible source. More so than traditional or social media, at least. Maybe I'm just one of the few people outside of their community that they get to talk to during the pandemic, or maybe I just present well... but in any event, I get to do Vaccine Outreach on a routine basis.

"Are you going to get it?"

And my answer is always the same: yes. As soon as humanly possible. With bells on. To protect my family and my passengers and to hasten the day where we all don't have to wear masks, because I guarantee you that I wear a mask *many* more hours a week then you do, and that my three-layer mask can cause my glasses to fog, my face to hurt, and is downright annoying when there's variable temperatures or I have to yawn or sneeze. 

Also, that I'm well and truly tired of buying masks to give away to people who aren't wearing one. I'm also well and truly tired of stealing glances at people in the rear view mirror to see if they keep the damned thing on for the duration of the ride. 

And yes, some truly wonderful people do that. They get a rating that makes sure I don't ever give them service again, which is kind of a problem for them given that fewer drivers are working in the pandemic in the first place, but when people show you who they are, believe them. Also, if all rideshare drivers did this, then no rideshare drivers would have to check, because the riders would have corrected their behavior or walked.

Tonight, I had a woman in the car who actually works in vaccine distribution. She was exhausted but enthusiastic, and I had her in the car for 20+ minutes to brainstorm ideas on how to get lower accepting populations to join in later.

I told her that I didn't envy her task. That we needed to make sure things were multi-lingual, that there needed to be church outreach, that there would likely never be a stick that would match the carrot, and that with media fracturing and the previous Administration's spectacularly fail and salting of the political earth, that even hitting so many market segments would likely still leave us in the 30% asshat resistance group, and how those people are going to hurt the world even more than usual, because people who aren't learning are just the worst.

So what's the solution?

Well, one of my later rides was a home health aide, an older African-American woman who was going to get the shot, but was scared and just going along because it was a condition of employment. By the time she got out of the car, she was much more enthused about getting the shot. Or she was just telling me what I wanted to hear. But I don't think she was lying, because I kind of doubt she ever lies about anything.

One at a time, folks. Each one, help two. 

Or, well, more.

My Ratings Are Heating Up

Six weeks ago while unwrapping presents under the Christmas tree, I discovered an extremely thoughtful gift from my spouse.

It's a plug in black car seat cover -- one for my driver seat, and another that covers all three spots in the back seat. 

Which means that my modest little hybrid... has a spot of luxury and comfort that you almost never find in a car, let alone a model whose primary benefit is fuel economy.

My tip percentage for this year is up 27% (note: relatively small data sample size). My driver rating currently stands at 4.95 in Uber, the highest they have ever been. 

Only one passenger (out of 655 since the change -- I've been busy) has asked me to turn it off. More passengers are also lowering their windows or leaving them cracked open, which also means that my protection from the damned virus are also hopefully on the rise.

The right gift is everything, really. (And if you do this hustle yourself, consider an investment. It seems to be paying off.)