Uber drivers cancelling shorter trips out of the airport

24 replies

Businessasusual

Member since 27 Nov 2018

Total posts 1

I have been an Uber driver and they have a policy of not disclosing destinations to drivers until the trip commences as a way of assuring maximum trip fulfillment. If drivers are finishing a shift they have the option of setting a destination so they are only offered trips in that direction.

Furthermore, a driver is not entitled to ask your destination in a phone call. Therefore you are under no obligation to tell them your destination under Uber's terms of service, and I would recommend using this as a response to drivers if asked.
It's a practice that is reducing the reliability of the service and it drags down the reputation of the whole company.
In summary: if asked, don't tell.

Himeno

Member since 12 Dec 2012

Total posts 295

What is a "shorter" trip?
My only trips I've had in Australia have been home > work (5km), home > interstate bus station (14km) and home > airport (23km). Only had 1 phone call (airport trip), no cancellations.

Trips overseas have been downtown LA > LAX, SEA hotels > Tukwila Amtrak station, DFW > hotel, Chicago loop > ORD, DTW > downtown Detroit, Fisherman's Wharf > Larkspur and Anaheim Convention Center to the nearest metro station.
The shortest trip was about 5 miles (Tukwila). The others were all between 13 and 22 miles.
Only phone call I got was on the north bound Larkspur trip for the driver to find me. Only cancellation I got was the last DTW trip.

Madhatter49

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 11 Dec 2016

Total posts 86

I gave up on Uber and went back to Taxi's. Found that the cost difference is marginal and if in peak times a taxi is generally cheaper due to Uber's surge pricing.


Use either the Ingogo or Gocatch apps on your phones to get the same booking benefits as Uber. They show you the map of nearby drivers in the same way.
Can't really see any benefits of using Uber now.

Now only Ingogo credits Qantas FF points though. Gocatch used to up until June this year, but now uses their own rewards internal credit system.

xtfer

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 14 Mar 2017

Total posts 159

Let's face it, Uber is rubbish.

Fred888

Member since 06 Nov 2018

Total posts 1

Frankly I don't know why people are complaining about this. THAT is the risk you take if you want to take an unregulated service like Uber that pays its drivers peanuts.. There internal rules mean zero as you cannot enforce them. With taxi drivers, they are regulated and can be reported.


From the Uber drivers perspective I can under them doing tis as they are paid very little for each trip. If you want to use a service that lives in the regulatory wild west, than all you can expect is wild west treatment.

mushmush

Singapore Airlines - The PPS Club

Member since 14 Nov 2013

Total posts 40

is it fair to say that this occurs with UberX and not with select or black? I've not experienced this before with black and im only 15min from Sydney airport.

adethyasjce

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

Member since 03 Jul 2018

Total posts 66

I gave up on Uber and went back to Taxi's. Found that the cost difference is marginal and if in peak times a taxi is generally cheaper due to Uber's surge pricing.

Use either the Ingogo or Gocatch apps on your phones to get the same booking benefits as Uber. They show you the map of nearby drivers in the same way.
Can't really see any benefits of using Uber now.

Now only Ingogo credits Qantas FF points though. Gocatch used to up until June this year, but now uses their own rewards internal credit system.

I thought Uber also credits Qantas FF points for trips to & from the airport? I made a trip last week SYD-AKL-MEL-SYD and got Qantas points credited for trips to & from selected Australian airports

flyOFTEN

Member since 24 Apr 2015

Total posts 14

I have been an Uber driver and they have a policy of not disclosing destinations to drivers until the trip commences as a way of assuring maximum trip fulfillment. If drivers are finishing a shift they have the option of setting a destination so they are only offered trips in that direction.
Furthermore, a driver is not entitled to ask your destination in a phone call. Therefore you are under no obligation to tell them your destination under Uber's terms of service, and I would recommend using this as a response to drivers if asked.
It's a practice that is reducing the reliability of the service and it drags down the reputation of the whole company.
In summary: if asked, don't tell.

these guys work for peanuts. Lucky to earn $20/hour fater taking out expenses, which are huge. No wonder OLA is taking over from Uber.

andyf

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 07 Dec 2014

Total posts 55

Frankly I don't know why people are complaining about this. THAT is the risk you take if you want to take an unregulated service like Uber that pays its drivers peanuts.. There internal rules mean zero as you cannot enforce them. With taxi drivers, they are regulated and can be reported.

From the Uber drivers perspective I can under them doing tis as they are paid very little for each trip. If you want to use a service that lives in the regulatory wild west, than all you can expect is wild west treatment.

FYI - Uber IS regulated, in NSW at least.


Regulations aren't designed to solve for every problem you might face; they provide minimum legal standard. As others have said, they used to see this behaviour from taxis as well; so obviously not unique to Uber.

BigH

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 24 Dec 2012

Total posts 34

It looks like these bad behaviours are coming from ex-taxi drivers. How could Uber deal with this? Limit each driver to one cancellation per week?

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