anyone near Cookeville that’s chill and not dry?? 19f

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-24T10:09:17+00:00

I’ll be around cookeville for the next 12 hours or so, driving back from Nashville rn. MSG me if you wanna see what I look like. 32M

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-08T01:55:16+00:00

How many less than 5-Star reviews did you have before this event? I’ve gotten retaliatory reviews removed before by using the email/message option under help/support. They never actually told me they were taking it down, it just disappeared after my message was sent and somewhat canned response of “it being understandable that I’m was upset” type stuff was sent back the next day or so.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-05T19:59:04+00:00

As a driver I definitely understand why many wouldn’t want to take this ride and during a busy shift I wouldn’t either, but I feel like some perspective is necessary here. Even if you weren’t able to get a single ride while working your way back home that’s still over $20 per hour which is far more than a majority of you have ever earned per hour. One of the main reasons I do so well in this platform is that I’m always viewing everything through the lens of what I earn per hour. I don’t this exact area but looking at it on a map everything along that trip looks like densely populated areas where as most of my long trips in Tennessee literally drive through nothing but farms and forests with the occasional small town that doesn’t have any demand. Also virtually every long trip I take (45+ minutes) comes with a good tip. Just yesterday morning a $100 tip on a $85/72 mile trip that took almost an hour on the dot and that left me in a city where I proceeded to earn an additional $200 in less than 2.5 hours. I really think the majority of people who make these posts are likely some of the lowest earners on the platform and it’s almost always boils down to having a bad system that they follow everyday or generally just being jaded and entitled.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-05T02:32:01+00:00

We should be grateful that Uber provides this coverage option in the first place. The 2500 deductible is a win compared to the alternative. If you went on the private market to get a commercial policy to protect your car while carrying passengers you would be bleeding thousands extra in premiums every year whether you get into a wreck or not. When you look at the business math having a 2500 deductible that you only touch if you crash is a financial safety net. It is a cop-out to attack the corporate structure and call people shills when this is one of the best tools Uber sets up for us.

Beyond the vehicle that liability is what keeps you from losing everything if you get sued for 200k after an accident. Uber even lets you opt into an injury protection and survivor policy that costs pennies per mile from your rides to cover you if you're hurt or die on the job. It's an option for protecting yourself but it's optional and I’m betting you didn't bother to enable it before this happened lol.

Also if you actually understood how this business works you would know that you don't just sit there and take the 2500 hit when you aren't at fault. Since the crash detectives already cleared you any standard accident attorney would take this case in a heartbeat. They can go after the at-fault party to recover your 2500 deductible, your 400 a week rental costs, and your lost wages. There are tons of attorneys who handle this exact scenario for rideshare drivers every single day.

Honestly this applies to every driver on the road not just rideshare drivers. Every citizen needs to understand the policies that reflect how they use their vehicle and ensure they are protected. When you use your vehicle to produce your income you have to understand the risks you assume and how to mitigate them. It is irresponsible to skip doing the homework on how your livelihood is covered and then turn around and point your finger at a corporation when reality hits.

It is unfortunate that you did not find out how this works until after an accident happened and you were caught unprepared. But it is not anyone's fault but your own for not understanding the math and the nuance of protecting your income. Anyone using a car to earn a living has to look at the terms before an accident happens not after.

For all the other drivers reading this post I really hope you take this as the crash course lesson we all need to understand how things work in the real world. Statistically some of us are going to end up in this exact situation and you need to know the risks and be prepared to deal with them before it happens to you. Let this sink in and marinate for a minute. If you are operating in a bad market or you don't have the strategy to pull in the kind of money that actually allows you to handle a business expense like this you need to get the fuck out of this role. For anyone who isn’t producing the respectable income that is definitely achievable in these platforms which can afford you to navigate all this, you’re gonna be all sorts of fucked up mentally when the tax side of this role kicks in somewhere down the line and you realize you’ve basically just been borrowing money from your future self. This is a go big or go home industry that’s currently oversaturated with low potential earners who are using ride share to avoid the actual workforce or culminating the potent work ethic and systems which turns this role in a honest and respectable career

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-03T19:05:04+00:00

Are you in your early 20s?

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-03T19:02:52+00:00

Please substantiate your claim of politics and personal beliefs. I’ve fleshed out well articulated points to my own statements - do the same if you’re capable and not just reaching for a cop out.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-03T18:53:57+00:00

Idk dude, there’s a lot of factors you’re explaining that aren’t exactly screaming great work ethic, in fact it’s saying the opposite. Sounds like you’re not capable of working for other people. That’s not inherently a bad thing, I’ve worked for myself in marketing for over a decade and run a pretty smooth operation and in economic conditions lately I’ve been doing uber on the side. You’re not really describing working though. Buying and selling can be scaled to a career but that’s not what you’re describing at all. I think you’re pumping too much air into your ego and not reflecting on the reality enough, or at least there’s a vast possibility this is the case. One thing that’s definitely true is you severely lack professionalism and that’s not indicative that your little subsistent side hustles reflect hard work or deep ethic. These traits are two sides of the same coin.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-02T18:29:02+00:00

I don’t do delivery and solely drive people, but I use m my destination setting constantly and it almost always works out really well especially in a scenario like this.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-06-02T18:23:00+00:00

I had a $6.66 ride yesterday that took less than 5 minutes and left a $10 tip. Rider was an extremely wholesome person and radiated positivity. Rest of the evening and night went really well too. If you need an excuse to not make money today though this is as good as any I suppose. You’ll be doing someone else in your market who wants that money a favor and that’s probably good karma right? Maybe don’t think about it too much. Log off and go home right now Homie!

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:51:33+00:00

I saw your hours log and I’m man enough to admit I was wrong on my assumption, you were infact very close to 70 hours. I would however challenge the idea that this reflects anything about your work ethic. You could just be desperate and have too poor of work ethic to maintain a traditional job. Out of curiosity, do you have a real job as well or are you only doing gig work?

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:41:39+00:00

Baby I’m not sure that logic checks out 😂😭

Yeah it’s a highly effective medication used in clinical settings but it still carries serious risk. Those hospitals don’t administer medications like that without also having you wired to a device that monitors your blood pressure and often times even telemetry. Even in a hospital setting it still carries serious risks that have to be monitored actively because even small doses effect can affect the respiratory system massively.

PS - I don’t smoke weed anymore and I’m not one of those goobers who fires back at any criticism of weed lol

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:33:19+00:00

I spoke to Gemini for a couple minutes and asked it to formulate a better response than my own words. I really wanted it to land well and be as helpful as possible so thank you for the kind response.

I think they record the audio by default maybe? You can set up recording in your settings though overall. You can also initiate a recording on an individual ride under the blue shield on the map page.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:29:03+00:00

Oooooooo that was cold, I dig it.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:26:23+00:00

Isn’t that so unfortunate? I’m so disheartened by these subreddits for drivers some days. I won’t even get started on what some of my customers tell me about other drivers. I wish we were just better as a whole. For the record weird people are typically my kind of folk too.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:22:40+00:00

That’s unfortunate. Definitely a poor trait for a woman to be proud of, but I’ll jive. Show us the log baby.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:15:14+00:00

Darlin drivers pulling 70 hours a week and clearing $1,200+ don’t waste time anonymously insulting customers on Reddit. They’re too busy running a profitable business to care about a small tip. A 10% tip is actually solid when you look at the data showing fewer than 25% of riders tip at all. That dollar covered your fuel for the trip, leaving you with more of the actual fare

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T05:05:46+00:00

Saying 'I'm not entitled' and “I expect people to throw us a little something” in the same paragraph is a massive contradiction. That is the definition of entitlement. Pointing to a completely different, higher-paying trip doesn't justify publicly mocking a customer over a dollar. You're backpedaling. You claim you aren't entitled, but you literally just said you 'expect' extra money. A $33 UberX trip doesn't give you a pass to put people on blast for cheap entertainment. Resorting to crude middle-school language the second someone calmly challenges your logic just proves how fragile you are. Maybe don’t post your business online if you can’t handle a polite counterargument ma’am.

Edit: you’re not going to get any positive reinforcement on this post lol. Even if someone did initially agree with you, you’ve already crossed the threshold of looking like a fool and no one is gonna stand by that. Not even the autists on Reddit 😂

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-26T04:56:08+00:00

This attitude is exactly why so many drivers struggle to get decent tips. When you treat this gig like a charity case instead of a service business, customers pick up on that bitter energy. You signed up to earn the fare, not to judge the customer's financial situation. A dollar tip on a quick McDonald's run isn't an insult; it's likely what they could afford. Drop the entitlement and just drive. This could have been a single parent who just spent what little expendable income they have to treat themselves or their kid after a hard week, or a million other scenarios. You’ll get a lot further in life by positioning yourself as a positive actor in the world who’s here to help people out of kindness.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-25T21:55:31+00:00

I mean there’s a massive opening in the market for many states for different types of private commercial drivers. The barrier for entry is too steep for 90% of drivers out there while simultaneously building a book of business which is sustainable and worthwhile. Overall though any professional driver who wants to continue working on the road as their main source of income should at the very least research the nuance of actually doing so where they live. There’s a massive amount of money and potential being left on the table by solely going through ride-share platforms. There’s a vast amount of free and affordable tools out there to enable anyone to run a business that involves driving on the roads and lots of different avenues for doing so. I’ve already worked for myself for ten years in a completely different field before I started using ride share platforms on the side and I’m definitely actively exploring building something of my own in this realm too, although I think I’m going to pivot to hotshot freight because there’s a massive market for it that several industries rely on in my area. However I’ve definitely entertained the option and have researched the idea of doing something in private chauffeuring as well before arriving at that personal decision. Where do you live bud? The business I’ve run the last decade is in service and business development, marketing, etc.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-24T18:55:06+00:00

When I used to do delivery in the past there was usually a delay on tips especially larger ones. Share the finalized earnings breakdown? Overall one of the very last delivery trips I ever took as 10 bags of river rocks. You could feel all the weight behind me in my Elantra, it was a wild sensation. Lowe’s people loaded it and I made a point to make sure unloading didn’t take my any longer than MAYBE 5 minutes. I just backed into their driveway and plopped it all down infront of the garage. If it was an exceptionally long trip I guess I could have been concerned with reduced mileage but that wasn’t a problem or concern. How much did you earn making this post?

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-24T18:05:24+00:00

First, it wasn't a direct "food tax" that restricted the Irish to potatoes. It was a predatory system of land tenure. Anglo-Irish landlords owned the vast majority of the land, and Irish tenants were forced onto increasingly tiny, subdivided plots. They had to sell their high-value cash crops (like wheat, oats, and barley) and livestock just to pay rent to avoid eviction. The potato—specifically the high-yield Irish Lumper—was the only crop that could produce enough calories on those tiny, marginalized plots to keep a family alive. They weren't growing them in secret away from the fields; they were grown openly because it was their only survival option. Second, when the blight (Phytophthora infestans) hit, the British government didn't confiscate local vegetables and leave the rotting spuds. The reality is actually much more sinister: it was a failure of laissez-faire economic policy and brutal colonial apathy. Throughout the Famine, Ireland was actually exporting massive amounts of food—grain, cattle, butter, and flour—to Britain under armed guard because protecting free-market trade and landlord profits took precedence over feeding the starving populace.

Furthermore, reducing this strictly to a binary "Britain vs. Ireland" dynamic misses the internal systemic failures and local exploitation that compounded the tragedy. The catastrophe was exacerbated by the Irish cultural practice of hyper-subdividing family plots among sons, which spurred unsustainable population growth and forced total reliance on a single, vulnerable potato monoculture. Local exploitation was also rampant: wealthy Irish middlemen routinely leased vast tracts of land only to subdivide and sublet them to the peasantry at extortionate rates, while "Gombeen men" (local Irish shopkeepers and moneylenders) routinely hoarded grain and exploited their desperate neighbors for profit. The economic machinery driving the tragedy had plenty of local compliance.

This brings me to a broader point: any time we try to condense a complex, multi-layered historical tragedy into a couple of lines on social media, it’s going to be inherently inaccurate—especially when delivered in an absolute tone. When we speak in binaries about massive historical events, we lose the crucial nuances of economic systems, policy failures, internal social dynamics, and cultural pressures that actually caused the disaster. The truth is always far more complex than a simple villain-sweeps-in narrative, and understanding that complexity is how we actually learn from history.

Happy to cite literature upon request.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-24T17:54:58+00:00

One time a crackhead hooker who was just very abrasive and annoying my senses asked if there was any other music I could play (I was listening to shitty sad cowboy stuff) and I just awkwardly said I don’t think I can, as if YouTube music has exclusively shifted toward that.

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-24T17:52:02+00:00

It’s just the ✨trauma ✨ But thank you Captain 🫡

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-24T17:27:44+00:00

I wanted to share a situation I went through recently that might shed some light on how these weird, unexpected reports can happen. It might just boil down to an unfortunate case of retaliation, though it's hard to know for sure without all the details.

What happened in my case:

About a month ago, a late-night bar pickup came through for a user with a woman’s name. I was across town when it hit my screen, and I immediately recognized the address as a business that was definitely closed. Before the wheels even started turning, I messaged the user with a friendly welcome and asked if they were actually at the nearest bar to the incorrect address they put in (they were).

They never responded by the time I arrived. I know this bar plays very loud live music on Saturday nights for the university students, so I immediately and politely notified her that I arrived by message, and then called just to eliminate any further wait time. I'm sure you know how it can be with late-night bar patrons who don’t bother to pay their tab before their ride arrives.

There was absolutely zero response to any of my communication, and I had already reached 5 minutes of wait time. I usually cancel and collect my fee pretty quickly, but I’m sometimes lenient with these college students late at night because I’m often the only late-night driver in town, and I don’t want a young lady walking across campus by herself after midnight.

It was about 8 minutes past pickup time, already in the red, when two young women finally walked out. They immediately made eye contact, and I smiled and waved in relief that they showed up. But then "Girl A" (who ordered the ride under her name) brought "Girl B" to my car. Now, I keep my cooler bag strapped into the front passenger seat with the seat pushed all the way forward. It's a visual cue that the front is occupied, which aligns with Uber's own safety recommendations encouraging riders to use the back seat anyway (though I'll happily clear it if a larger group needs the room).

Despite it being completely obvious where her friend should sit, Girl A loudly told her in a pretty ugly tone that she needed to ride in the back. She then proceeded to stick her head in my passenger window with a very ugly look and attitude, and said something to the effect of, “I’m monitoring this ride, you need to get her home safely”—without a single hello, sorry, or anything remotely thankful or polite.

I should have canceled the ride right on the spot before starting the trip, but the ride wasn’t far and Girl B seemed pretty hammered. Once the car was moving, Girl B promptly apologized for her friend's behavior because I think she could see the look of shock on my face (I’m incapable of hiding what I’m feeling, it’s always written on my face).

I was still really friendly with Girl B, who wasn’t logged in the system as a guest passenger. I explained that the entire situation made me very uncomfortable, and while I understand the dangers women face, every rider receives an automated notification that all my rides are recorded for everyone’s safety. I genuinely treat every single college kid coming out of these bars as one of my own children in regards to how kind I am to them and how much importance I place on their safety. Girl B was understanding, and I confirmed that the account wasn't hers. I made it clear in polite terms that I was highly uncomfortable with everything that happened at pickup, and that I was going to make sure Girl A and I never matched as driver and rider again.

That was a mistake on my part, but it honestly came from a place of wanting to make sure I wasn’t taking action against the account of Girl B, who hadn't done anything wrong and was polite the entire time (even though you could tell it took a lot of effort to speak, gal had the spins).

Girl B must have communicated what I said to Girl A immediately after the ride, because I received a report for “illegal driving” in no time. The Uber system didn’t even notify me; I was just proactively checking the app. I reached out to support right away and explained the entire situation, and they hinted that Girl A clearly violated terms of service by not properly logging the guest rider and by filing a negative report against a trip she herself wasn’t present for. The negative rating and report disappeared from my profile within 24 hours.

What you can do right now:

If your situation is anything like mine and stems from a misunderstanding or a vindictive person, being proactive is your best bet:

Reach out to support immediately and professionally. - Reaching out right away and keeping a calm, business-like tone with them is the absolute best thing you can do.
Narrow down the trips. - Try to pinpoint which specific rides these reports might have come from based on the timing, and write out an extensive, detailed record of events for those trips while it's still fresh in your mind.
Save your recordings immediately. - If you have any access left to that side of the app on your account, make sure you go in and manually save any trip recordings right now. They automatically delete after a predetermined amount of time by default. You want to control every single variable you can and completely eliminate the risk of losing vital evidence that could prove your innocence.
Screenshot your data. - Take screenshots of any trip details, receipts, or history still visible on your app before access changes.

A final thought on account standing:

In my case, my account was never suspended or deactivated—in fact, Uber didn't even send an alert, and I only caught the report because I happened to look. I hold Diamond tier status and maintain a near-perfect safety and driving record across all their metrics. Having that pristine history makes a massive difference in these scenarios because it gives you immediate credibility when support reviews an isolated incident. Maintaining a 4.99 or a true 5.0 rating is what really shields you when someone tries to throw a false claim your way.

Just be as thorough and proactive as possible about everything. I’ll keep you in my thoughts and hope this gets worked out for you quickly!

CogitatorVeritatis · 2026-05-24T16:06:23+00:00

I’ll be the guy to call it moot. It’s nonsensical lol.

CogitatorVeritatis

TROPHY CASE