My Second Fare as an Uber driver in Silicon Valley
My next stop was a quaint little home in Willow Glen and again I used “arriving now” to signal my presence. I found it usually takes riders a few minutes to get organized and come out to the car so it’s normal for drivers to wait a bit. Barita hopped in the back seat and said we’re going to the city, “if that’s cool.” It was no problem that day, I had all afternoon to drive but it surfaces a good point. Uber drivers have no idea where they’ll need to drive, or how long they’ll be inundated when they pick up a fare. I would expect this experience will evolve with app revisions. Barita was another five star passenger, very nice and she even liked leaving the radio on my country station. She also griped about taxis and how Uber is so much better. She mentioned my X3 was one of the nicest UberX cars she’d been in, saying she mostly rides in Toyota Priuses or other high efficiency vehicles. We arrived in the city and I announced the local time and temperature, having some tongue-in-cheek fun with my new found occupation. Driving Uber is simple, you just end the fare on your iPhone, make any fare corrections if needed, then go back online.
After driving to San Francisco, I hung around the airport looking for another fare, but nothing came
Conclusions
As an Uber driver, I can see how this disruptive technology is in the infancy stages and has a bright future ahead. Uber is definitely on the right track with the customer experience, but I expect Uber still has a long battle ahead for widespread acceptance. To be an Uber driver in Silicon Valley, I’d say you sometimes get fare requests every 20 minutes, but sometimes hours go by without a peep. The furthest fare that came to me was eight minutes away, which means drivers don’t have to drive far for business and customers have shorter wait times than with taxis. I think the biggest takeaway is how much the taxi industry is going to need to change to compete with Uber. In general, I found people don’t like taxis as much as Uber, and the taxi industry can only hold Uber off for so long. Uber has deep pockets now and a lot of lawyers, you can expect these types of services to grow and improve quickly in the near future.
Watch for my next article, where I’ll discuss what it’s like using the Uber app as a driver, what Uber support is like, and how much you make as an Uber driver. If you liked this article, please share or comment below.
If you’re thinking about opening an Uber account, click here for a referral discount of $20 off your first ride.
