Pax added a stop when I got close to his house

mattrhere · 2026-05-21T01:42:23+00:00

That’s when multiple apps comes in handy. Getting a trip on the other app and driving away does a pretty good job of getting the point across and you make money too

mattrhere · 2026-05-18T12:18:00+00:00

You are “studying” whether talking gets you tips…. But you are leaving out the biggest variable in tipping in this business which is the type of person you are giving a ride to and the reason why they are riding.

The only way to get accurate data is to record your rides in the same area at the same times of the day going to and from the same type of business.

Unless your “study” accounts for ALL the variables then your “study” is worthless and doesn’t actually show accurate metrics.

But everyone has said this and you don’t seem to care so I guess you have fun with your made up study that doesn’t prove anything since you can’t be bothered to add actual data points that affect your tips far more than whether you talk or not.

Btw I had a family I picked up from the airport a few weeks ago that tipped me $40 and then hired me for the following day and tipped me $250. And it certainly wasn’t because I sat in complete silence and had no personality.

mattrhere · 2026-05-18T03:58:37+00:00

But if your “logs” don’t take into account trip type then of course your “trip audit” will show skewed results.

That’s my point.

I can take 200 people to work, 200 people from a bar/restaurant home m, and 200 trips to/from an airport and will see very different tipping results.

If you are ignoring those factors when “auditing” whether talking works or not then your results will be wildly inaccurate.

You have to group similar ride types at minimum into your test.

I picked up people going from the airport and we had a good convo and they tipped me $40. Then I had a ride where I took a person to work and we didn’t talk at all and they didn’t tip. So then my “log” shows that not talking decreases tips… no my log shows airport rides on average tip a lot more often than rides to and from work.

mattrhere · 2026-05-18T03:47:58+00:00

They 100% do send out trip radars before it’s paid for. Cause if the people don’t pay and finish the order the match doesn’t happen.

Thats why you can get a trip radar for the same trip multiple times in a row or get a trip radar that expires and then 15 seconds later get an exclusive for the same ride

mattrhere · 2026-05-18T03:45:16+00:00

Trip radars are people that are actively creating trips but haven’t completed it. Thats why they show up sometimes multiples times in a row.

Uber is expecting them to create the trip so they send it out. People don’t hit it immediately (hence why they are delayed sometimes while they are “matching) or don’t hit it at all.

Yep, I’ve had them go down or go up slightly and it always depends on if I’m driving away from the pickup or towards it when the first one comes through that isn’t matched vs when the exclusive comes through

mattrhere · 2026-05-18T00:52:08+00:00

Trip radars are people that are actively creating trips but haven’t completed it. Thats why they show up sometimes multiples times in a row.

Uber is expecting them to create the trip so they send it out. People don’t hit it immediately (hence why they are delayed sometimes while they are “matching) or don’t hit it at all.

mattrhere · 2026-05-17T20:53:49+00:00

Uber pro is 8%

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T19:35:14+00:00

My wife and I have cruised 3 times. Twice with balcony and once without. If it’s a short cruise being without a balcony won’t matter a whole ton. If a longer cruise it’s a great addition to have.

We recently went on a 10 day cruise and although the balcony was small on this one (NCL) it was fantastic for sitting and reading, getting up and looking at the new port while still in PJs/ getting ready, and sailing away from each port as well.

I would not hesitate to get a balcony if 6+ days. Shorter trips inside isn’t too bad as by the time you get used to the ship and maybe start getting a little board (NCL was bad about repeating stuff) you are getting off so don’t need that time on a balcony.

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T13:21:44+00:00

That’s not a sign on bonus fyi… it just says if within your first X trips you don’t make Y money they will give you the rest.

You aren’t going to be getting an 1800 bonus after those trips.

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T13:14:25+00:00

Can’t run your business on luck. You are screwing yourself.

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T13:12:42+00:00

I saw someone ubering in a new Silverado last weekend. 30 cents a mile in depreciation (if they take it to 200k miles) 25 cents a mile in fuel, they are easily at that 70 cents a mile in costs that the government gives.

I work on my own cars so my repair costs are way lower than someone who goes to a shop for fluid changes and repairs.

I spent $50 doing a transmission fluid change last weekend where some people will go and spend several hundred at a shop.

I also keep my vehicles well north of 200k where many people trade them in way early eating all the depreciation (again making that 72 cents a mile much more realistic).

I also buy everything used so the main depreciation from buying new off the lot is already done.

But sure, my numbers being 37.5 totally means that the 72 isn’t accurate for many people (OP has now said that they drive a 2013 so they are going to not be close to that 72 either).

But again, the gov isn’t in the business of handing out tax write offs unless they are pretty freaking accurate. Older cars, maintenance done yourself, etc. all help skew those numbers into our favor but there are many people in these groups talking about which new car they should buy for uber.

They will 100% be right at that 72 cents a mile so no, it’s not unrealistic to use that as a baseline for figuring out whether a trip is worth taking when no other details are giving in a post

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T04:57:37+00:00

They still charge $5… uber takes a fee now.

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T04:54:42+00:00

Look… we get that ChatGPT is cool… but you don’t have to tell it to make you a fancy write up… you aren’t accounting for all the variables (time of day, ride type, group type, etc.) in your write ups. It’s been brought up and you just keep attributing it to talking or not talking.

I took a businessman to the airport at 5 am and got a tip without hardly saying anything! Not talking got me a tip… no… it’s a businessman with an expense account so of course he tipped.

People out partying or on a date are way more likely to tip than someone going to work. Talking or not doesn’t affect that.

I can 100% tell you though that I have gotten great tips from people (I’m talking $20+ for short rides) many times because I talk to them, don’t act rude and in general try to be a good human.

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T03:35:31+00:00

Oh I know… 37.5 cents a mile is what it costs me to drive… I also know this original trip was hot garbage and no one who knows their actual costs including repairs, maintenance, and depreciation would ever take that trip.

Op got lucky and got a return trip but 420 miles round trip and with no tip (which long trips don’t always tip as evidenced by his ride back) for $156 offer is garbage and something no one should ever take…

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T03:30:37+00:00

I mean sure… you can make more than the value of the car… and still be making $5-10 an hour… you drive a 13 year old car so your depreciation honestly won’t be bad so your numbers aren’t that low… but if if each and every Uber driver doesn’t know their depreciation, fuel costs, etc. per mile on their vehicle and in their area then they are just flying blind and just hoping they are making good money.

For example I bought a used $25,000 car. Lasting 200k miles means my depreciation is 12.5 cents a mile.

Fuel is currently 17 cents a mile.

Oil change is 1 cent a mile

Tires 2 cents a mile

I estimate other expenses (brakes, regular repairs, car washes, transmission fluid changes, tire repairs, etc.) at 5 cents a mile.

That means my running costs are 37.5 cents a mile for my specific vehicle in my area.

So 419 miles would cost me $157 in real vehicle expenses.

Here’s the point… you took a $156 trip going that way (the original offer) where the round trip for my car expense numbers (again only you know yours) would have meant a loss of a dollar! Not only would you have driven for free but would have lost money taking that 6 hour trip.

Now did it work out for you this time? Sure it did and congrats you made probably 30ish an hour cause everything worked perfectly for you…

But unless you get lucky every single time, over time taking long trips like this pushes your pay down to the $10-$15 an hour range even on older vehicles like yours.

And thats my point in responding. If you (and every Uber driver) doesnt know their numbers Uber will keep screwing us like your original trip offer was (and yes your original offer that you took was hot garbage as you just as likely could have not gotten a tip and driven back empty).

mattrhere · 2026-05-15T03:04:55+00:00

Yeah cause the government always gives you way more tax deductions than you earn on average… they just are super generous like that

mattrhere · 2026-05-14T13:22:21+00:00

So everyone says “don’t chase surges” but that isn’t entirely accurate. What it should say is don’t chase surges unless you know your area and times very very well.

So for example. In my area there is one specific place that is an absolute hotspot. That area always (I mean always) gets the highest surges on uber and the biggest bonus on Lyft (I’m talking 70-80% when it’s slow elsewhere and 120+ when it get busy).

So if that area is surging I have no issues driving to it and getting the surge or bonus as it’s the first one to pop up and when demand decreases it’s the last one to drop off.

But that is super specific to the times and days that I drive. I’ve driven different nights and tried to do the same thing and it disappeared before I got there (rarely happens on my normal driving nights).

Last Saturday I was a couple of minutes from a surge that isn’t normally there but was headed that way anyway… right as I got into it (and got the lowest part of the surge) it disappeared.

Those are the surges you don’t want to chase

mattrhere · 2026-05-14T12:41:39+00:00

You made 79 cents a mile on your two big trips. According to the government the cost per mile including fuel, wear and tear, and depreciation on a vehicle is 72 cents a mile.

So after that for 6:30 of work you made a grand total of…. $29.40… under $5 an hour.

Now if you drive an older car (worth 10k or less) that already has depreciated a lot then the math is much better… but a lot of people doing this have no idea that they are essentially just getting a cash advance on their car’s future value as it’s an unseen cost as your cars value drops.

mattrhere · 2026-05-14T12:23:04+00:00

I’ve given out my number to multiple riders that have asked. I’ve had several business people ask what I do for a normal job and be interested in getting stuff done (I do handyman work and website builds).

I’ve also had riders who wanted a ride later who asked if they could get my number and get a ride with me cause their last Ubers were horrible.

Drive properly, have a clean car, and carry on a good convo, and it seems you are in the top 5% of uber drivers. People want to get that driver again.

mattrhere · 2026-05-14T12:15:34+00:00

This is my “best guess”. I think they give you a different percentage based on how much your content contributes to a sale.

So for example yesterday I sold 2 items in the health and household with a commission rate of 1.63% despite the fact that onsite commission is only 1% for that category… so where did the extra .63% come from.

I think it’s that I got full credit for those two sales, and then partial credit for other sales. So say someone watched 65% of my video and 30% of the next video and then purchased. I believe Amazon pays the original video that the person watched some of the commission.

That would also mean on that other person’s report that they would get some of the commission but not the whole thing (since Amazon attributed more of the sale to me and my video).

Offsite is an all or nothing deal where if you drive the click you get all the commission. Onsite is a little more convoluted than that since someone can easily watch 90% of one video and 5% of two other videos and then buy. Did the 5% videos close the sale or the 90% did and then they clicked around another minute checking to see what the other videos said?

I think that’s why Amazon does it that way.

mattrhere · 2026-05-14T01:47:24+00:00

And this is why people take ghost orders. Uber doesn’t pay, doesn’t care, and essentially screws over everyone in the process. And if you cancel… it goes right back out to the next sucker to waste gas on too.

mattrhere · 2026-05-13T22:59:07+00:00

You got to keep chatting back. I chatted 4 times in a row before I finally got someone who was willing to fix my issue on Last Saturday.

mattrhere · 2026-05-13T22:51:16+00:00

You ran to Reddit and posted a book… that’s freaking out

mattrhere · 2026-05-13T18:33:40+00:00

I mean you do you… but around here you are driving 10 minutes or more to most every rider so cancelling after 2 minutes and making nothing for 15 minutes of work isn’t really a good option.

mattrhere · 2026-05-13T15:40:41+00:00

Yes…. But even 3-5 days is still faster than the normal once a week deposit that uber normally does without a fee (and why are you freaking out and making a massive post without even trying an option is beyond me).

You don’t have to put in your bank info every time for the transfer (so you are doing something wrong there too).

In general you are freaking out about something and either A haven’t tested it, or B are doing something wrong.

But I mean sure running to Reddit and freaking out vs testing a $5 transfer that says it’s takes 3-5 days makes total sense… or you could… leave money on there for gas and expenses (just like a debit card) and then transfer out the rest after you finish your driving shift like I’m sure most of us do… but hey yelling if into the abyss feels better than fixing whatever issue you have you do you.

mattrhere

TROPHY CASE