Uber/Lyft items left in your car

[BuccaneerBrad]

A spinoff from the good guy thread

I drive for Uber/Lyft on the side to make extra walkaround money.  This past Sunday, I picked up a mom and her 10/11 year old daughter and gave them a ride to Busch Gardens.  Traffic was horrible around the area and they jumped out prematurely to get to the gates faster.  I immediately got another ride request picking up a family and taking them back to their hotel.  When the family got in, one of the ladies handed me a white iPhone and said, "Someone left this here."  I knew right away it belonged to the girl so I messaged Lyft through the app about what I had found.  Lyft e-mailed me with a request for a phone number and e-mail to stay in touch.  Within 30 minutes, my phone rings and it's the mom I had dropped off at Busch Gardens saying that her daughter had left her iPhone in my car.  I told the mom that I was dropping off my current passengers and would come right back to Busch Gardens and give it to her.  When I arrived back, the girl ran to my car all smiling and giggling, took her phone back, and handed me a $20 bill. 

I appreciated the nice tip, knowing that it would've cost the girl's mom WAY more to replace her iPhone. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

took her phone back, and handed me a $20 bill. 

I appreciated the nice tip,

I don't use Uber so I don't know their pricing enough to know if that was a nice tip.  I figure at minimum they owed the cost of a fare equal to round trip cost from whereever you were when you dropped of your prior customer.  If that would have only been $3 or $4 then that was a nice tip.  If the fee would have been $19.50 it was a crappy tip. 

Just my two cents. 

[Tenshot13]

Uber is connected to a credit card.  That's the best part, you can completely ignore your driver if you want, destination and payment is done all through the app. Cash tip is all profit.

[BuccaneerBrad]

I don't use Uber so I don't know their pricing enough to know if that was a nice tip.  I figure at minimum they owed the cost of a fare equal to round trip cost from whereever you were when you dropped of your prior customer.  If that would have only been $3 or $4 then that was a nice tip.  If the fee would have been $19.50 it was a crappy tip. 

Just my two cents. 

It was a short ride.   I made only $4.79 off the ride.   But giving me $20 as a reward for bringing it back was a nice gesture considering the mom would've had to pay upwards of $200 to replace it

[masterfins]

I would think the $20 would be a fair tip, as long as you didn't have to go far out of your way to return it.  The same thing happened to a friend of mine a few years ago in a regular taxi; his phone fell out of his pocket and he realized it a few minutes after the cab drove away.  We just called his phone and the cab driver heard it ringing and returned with it.

I've been using Uber lately due to having to drop/off pickup my car at the repair shop a few times, and I don't see how these drivers make much money after accounting for costs.  For instance I took about a three mile ride, took about 7 minutes with traffic, and took the driver about 8 minutes to get to me, so overall 15 minutes of his time.  Now the fare cost about $8, but much of that was taxes and fees, so I think the driver got about $5, if lucky.  Therefore, if his whole day goes like that he's getting $20/hour - but from that he's got the expense of gasoline, insurance, and wear and tear on his vehicle.  So, this really turns into a minimum wage job at best.  If he has a lag between rides it's worse, or may be better if pickups between rides are closer together.  However, if your getting tips, that's where the real profit kicks in, that and if you drive later hours when fares are higher.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

The current Uber/Lyft system is a perversion of the original purpose of ride sharing apps which was to have people who were already going somewhere fill their passenger seat with someone who needed a ride.

Similar to carpooling although rather than taking turns driving, one person drives and one pays some gas money.

First time I did this in college if I took the bus it took me 5.5 hours to get home, if I caught a ride with a guy that lived on the next block it took 2 hours.  I paid him exactly what I would have paid for the bus ($18).  Gas and tolls cost him ~$4.  It was a great deal for both of us.  For going literally 2 minutes out of his way he was ahead by $18 when min wage was $4.  However that same trip as a pure taxi ride would have had him making well less than minimum wage.

Second time, overhead a conversation in a lunch restaurant when this lady was talking to a coworker about how her car was in the shop and she was going to have her husband come pick her up.  I vaguely recognized her and asked where she lived --- three streets over.  So I told her I would give her a ride home.  Because her as passenger allowed me to to take the carpool lane, I got home in 45 mins rather than 1:30.  Even going out of my way to drop her off.  I was thrilled and offered to drive her everyday just so I could use the carpool lane.  She loved it too and suggested we carpool once her car was fixed.  I told her I couldn't do that because most days I need my car to visit clients.  I was fine with driving her just so I could use the carpool lane.  She didn't think that was fair to me, turns out she had to pay $15 per day to park.  So she gave me the $15.  I was ahead by $15 and spent an hour per day less in traffic.  She was ahead the cost of gass.  She only saved a half hour of time because I worked later than her. But she loved the fact that now she got to see her kids at breakfast by leaving the house a half hour later.  And she saved wear and tear on her car and gas.  The real kicker one day my car wouldn't start. I was seriously stressing out because I has  meeting that afternoon with the CEO of my largest client.  I called her to tell her and immediately offered to drive me.  I told her to go without me because I needed to rent a car so I could get to my appointment and that it was more important that I get to that meeting than be at work at time.  She told me to use her car to drive to the appointment. Which made what would have been a very stressful day very successful.

The original intent of ride sharing apps was to help people make these kind of connections e.g. two people who work and live near each other and have a long commute but don't know each other.  Now the are unregulated underpaid taxis.

[BuccaneerBrad]

The original intent of ride sharing apps was to help people make these kind of connections e.g. two people who work and live near each other and have a long commute but don't know each other.  Now the are unregulated underpaid taxis.

And do you see what happens when the government quits regulating things and sticking their nose in everyone's business?   Prices go down.  Uber/Lyft are way cheaper than cabs.   A lot of people would rather risk a DUI than pay a cab to get home.  But they'll Uber/Lyft it to the bar/club and back home without a second thought.  DUI's have gone down 45% in Tampa since Uber/Lyft came to town. 

Not to mention that it's impossible to stiff a driver for a fare.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

And do you see what happens when the government quits regulating things and sticking their nose in everyone's business?   Prices go down.  Uber/Lyft are way cheaper than cabs.   A lot of people would rather risk a DUI than pay a cab to get home.  But they'll Uber/Lyft it to the bar/club and back home without a second thought.  DUI's have gone down 45% in Tampa since Uber/Lyft came to town. 

Not to mention that it's impossible to stiff a driver for a fare.

Yes, prices have dropped and that is good.  But at the cost of substandard cars and drivers, which is bad.  Plus one less occupation that pays a full time lower middle class wage, being replaced with a part time sub minimum wage workers.

[masterfins]

^^^ Every Uber car I've ridden has been 10X better than the cabs I've rode in; and the Uber drivers have all been equal to, or better than, all the cabbies I've encountered over my life.

The things I like about Uber are no cash is needed, you know in advance what the fare is going to be, you can see the car in route to you so you know when they are arriving.  Cab companies are going to have to get with the new technology or they will continue to lose customers.

[DaLittle B]

I really liked the story about you and your coworker Hoodie;I like the original idea of the ride sharing...

Living in podunk & plowed ground assbackwards land,Uber/Lyft is still a bit of a novelty that the college kids mainly use.

IMO the biggest difference between cabs.and Uber/Lyft.One seems to be a lot more available to certain clientele,discriminates* to people who can afford to have a cell phone with internet access (*It's not the right word,but I'm not sure how else to put it),the other available to everyone..

 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I really liked the story about you and your coworker Hoodie;I like the original idea of the ride sharing...

That is the thing, she wasn't my coworker.  She worked for a different company in a different building a block from my office.  But for me overhearing her conversation and me thinking she looked vaguely like another customer at my local grocery store who let me cut when I had two items and she had a heaping cart, we would have never connected. I bet there was a dozen or more people who lived within a few miles of me that work within a few blocks.  But there is no good way to find them and team up to save money and the environment.  We need an app for that.

Talk about a chain of karma.  First she lets me cut for no reason other than to be nice.  This results in me recognizing her.  I offer her a car ride home to be nice and both of us wnd up ahead both in time and money.

[Fau Teixeira]

What's killing cabs isn't the fact that people are giving other people rides, it's the technology involved, if cab companies had an online platform that you could post the need for a ride, companies could then tell you how much it'll cost and you could book the ride without the need for cash, cabs would have a share of this too. Instead they fight innovation and they're going to lose and go the way of the horse and buggie.

[Phishfan]

I'm not sure how long ago it was that some of you used a taxi. Maybe your area is behind though also. Modern taxi companies do have online and app access and do not require cash. It absolutely is the price which is the deciding factor around here.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

And in many areas taxis are competitively priced.

[Tenshot13]

And in many areas taxis are competitively priced.

Not in Tampa they aren't.  From my house to downtown:  Taxi - $30...Uber - $17.

Not to mention, there is always an Uber less than 5 minutes away....Taxi, I need to call ahead of time, anywhere from 30 min to an hour.  Tampa doesn't have the luxury of "waiving a taxi down" unless you are downtown or in Ybor, and even then you're lucky to get one.

If taxi's are using apps now, it's too little too late.  Uber was doing in before them, so I'll stick with Uber.