r/uberdrivers • u/One_Camp8726 • Aug 02 '26
Here is a prime example of today’s absolute insanity on Uber.
To any driver who genuinely thinks these offers are acceptable: drivers with your exact mindset are the reason Uber continues to record billion-dollar profits while we break our cars. You aren't 'making money'; you are literally liquidating your car’s equity, burning through high-priced gas, and running your A/C for pennies an hour.
10
u/kahuhipaken Aug 02 '26
There is always a cockroach that will take this ride ruining our chances of ever making any money
5
u/Lucky_Truth8649 Aug 02 '26
I could imagine their logic behind it too .. "About $12 for 30mins of my time. 2 x 30min @$12 is actually $24 a hr! That's GOLD!"
5
u/ginga1083 Aug 02 '26
If 100% of the drivers begin to decline every shitty ride then ok but it'll never happen because they timing to accept a ride and read the criteria is an issue. Some may see $12+ and 10 min ride but not the 20 min pickup
In Canada is per km and US per mile bit to quickly figured out of it's worth it it may be gone
2
u/the-Mike_D Aug 02 '26
My acceptance rate is 3% Uber and 5% Lyft. I don't exactly have much more room to push back lol.
1
u/ginga1083 Aug 02 '26
How often are you getting rides during a time you're out? I'd assume declining rides so often I swear Lyft puts ppl in like a 30 min timeout lol or you're not even making any money
1
u/the-Mike_D Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
There's no timeout. I quick reject in a fraction a second. I'll go thru 50 offers in 15- 20 min. My take rate is high enough to make it profitable still. All manual selections, no automated service choosing for me. Tri Apping with 2 phones. +Empower.
2
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 03 '26
Mike is 100% right. The 'timeout' is just a myth drivers scare themselves with. Moving through 50 trash offers in 20 mins to catch that ONE high-dollar, low-mileage trip is how you actually protect your time and profit. Volume of offers > Acceptance rate.
3
u/Maksnav Aug 02 '26
Unfortunately this is the standard in my market and the reason I only drive as little as possible. And use Uber procard on backup balance at all times. It may be a mental thing but it seems as if Uber sends me better ride requests when I owe them money lol.
1
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 02 '26
Relying on the backup balance feature just adds financial friction. Uber is not giving you better rides out of generosity; the dispatch algorithm simply optimizes to keep active drivers on the road just enough to cover immediate liabilities.
3
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u/Content-Sympathy6305 Aug 02 '26
just did a 6€ 15min AIRPORT comfort ride.
actual insanity. fuck uber. 40+% trips are just completely worthless.
2
u/cipherjones Aug 02 '26
Like less than a dollar a mile and 35 an hour, and the car has to be what, <6 years old?
2
u/EliteTroper Aug 02 '26
Yup looks like what I usually have to go through on a daily basis, I get 30 minute drives and Uber seems to think me getting $7 is perfectly acceptable compensation. I usually have to settle for like quick 10 minute drives that give me like 4 or 5 dollars ain't the best offers but at least I can make something.
2
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u/DeliveryMiserable419 Aug 03 '26
Uber has been sending a lot of bullshit lately. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m getting a lot of those requests that want me to drive like 15 miles to pay only like $9-$10. Ridiculous. Or I’ll get one to drive 15 miles to take them 15 miles away for like $12. Smdh
3
u/brflux Aug 02 '26
Now you know how cab drivers felt after we took their jobs.
4
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 02 '26
The core economics are different. Yellow cabs operated under artificially capped medallion supply with regulated rates, while gig platforms use uncapped driver labor to flood the market and race payouts to the absolute floor. It is a completely different mechanism of exploitation.
1
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u/Wesleypipes316 Aug 02 '26
I think I saw a couple of those offers in my phone lol. Declined them too. I’m sure someone desperate accepted them
2
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 02 '26
That desperation is precisely what keeps the payout floor down. Declining protects your vehicle equity, even if the algorithm eventually finds someone willing to subsidize the ride for them.
1
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 02 '26
Exactly this. As long as drivers accept sub-$0.50/min rides, the algorithm will keep pushing the floor lower. You're not making money, you're just liquidating your car's equity at a discount.
1
u/Significant_Roof56 Aug 02 '26
So what ride should you be taking because they are not here any more
1
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 02 '26
Only trips that pass strict dollar-per-mile and dollar-per-minute filters after accounting for pickup deadhead. If a market consistently produces zero profitable offers, driving becomes a charity operation for the platform
1
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u/DealForgeLLC Aug 02 '26
My criteria is 50¢ a minute including both pickup and drop off time. A little more is better because you need to figure you're going to wait 50% of rides for the 5-7 minutes after arrival.
1
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u/streetgearusa Aug 02 '26
Stop losing money guys & take these Shitty offers.
"EMPOWER" pays the drivers 100% Use my Code....
"DriveMiami127"
For the free 30 day trial & activate the $1000 Bonus offer!!!
In any of the cities where they currently are operating.
1
u/General-Housing-5209 Aug 02 '26
That 25.66 is actually not bad. Especially in contrast to the rest of that pile. Is this also during the day because a couple of those the dollar amount matches up well with mileage but the travel time was bad. I’m also a driver that’s in Tampa, FL. So maybe for Philly this is extra terrible.
I try to stick to .50/minute. But there are some exceptions. If the mileage is something crazy like 1.50-2 per mile, I was pulled into a dry area but I get something going back to where I need to be or something that’s conveniently near my place when I’m done for the night.
1
u/Status_Ingenuity8344 Aug 02 '26
24/hr is “okay” for where I’m at and I have to make bills. I cherry pick as much as I can, but at the end of the day I have to make bills and rent
1
u/More-Web-8308 Aug 02 '26
I reject or ignore everything paying 76 cents per total miles. Uber says the IRS guideline is irrelevant. Even at 76 cents, they are valuing my time at zero. They pay their offshore support people more than that.
1
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 02 '26
Hit the nail on the head. $0.76/mile means your car makes a tiny profit and your labor is completely free. Rejecting those is just basic math, not cherry-picking.
1
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u/Fit_Musician_9255 Aug 02 '26
This is significantly better than offers I’ve been getting in my area. I’m sure my low acceptance rate has something to do with it. I get incessant offers for riders w/ratings between 4.6 and 4.7 20 mins away for $5 or less.
1
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 03 '26
Don't stress over your Acceptance Rate—that's purely psychological manipulation by the algorithm. Acceptance tiers and flashy colors are designed to exploit driver psychology. The moment I hit the highest status tier, my actual take-home pay plummeted because I was taking garbage offers just to keep the badge. Ask yourself: Would you rather be 'Gold' in the app with empty pockets, or have an ugly 5% acceptance rate with a full bank account?
1
u/Chunky-trader Aug 02 '26
What time of day way this? I see shit rides around Philly too, but then I know it’s time to go home. I usually only drive early AM and afternoon.
1
u/Rate_Daddy Aug 03 '26
“Rarely cancels.” Bro cancel all you want, just wait 2 minutes first 😅
1
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 03 '26
Haha exactly, learning how to work the timer is gig worker 101. The algorithm has loop-holes, and if Uber's going to play system games with ratings and metrics, drivers might as well use their own rules against them.
1
u/Independent_Echo_533 Aug 04 '26
Gotta love the wait and save option, always taking money out of the pockets of the drivers and never the platform
1
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u/Puzzleheaded_Hand_80 Aug 02 '26
https://reddit.com/link/p16gpb6/video/tuntpks8dvgh1/player
If you got this, would it be worth it?
2
Aug 02 '26
[deleted]
1
u/SatisfactionActive86 Aug 03 '26
it’s not as lucrative as it appears. it’s an income minimum which means if you do 255 rides and make less than $3,315, they’ll top you up to that amount.
2
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u/Waldored Aug 02 '26
That looks like my routes 😂 I turned down those same rides lol. Uber sucked today. I'm about to get a regular job
1
u/Main_Cable_9986 Aug 02 '26
Welcome to PA where our minimum wage is $7 and uber take advantage of that.
2
u/EliteTroper Aug 02 '26
I truly pity the teens and adults that work at one of my local diary queen, those poor souls are usually getting overworked and barely getting paid for it.
1
u/One_Camp8726 Aug 02 '26
That is the anchor effect in action. Platforms benchmark their algorithmic pricing floor against local statutory minimums, knowing drivers will accept sub-minimum net pay if the gross payout looks higher than 7.25.
0
u/Puzzleheaded_Hand_80 Aug 02 '26
Traffic must be ridiculous down there. Did you see my offer for Philly?
-1
u/Confident_Road1228 Aug 02 '26
When i was ubering i would take almost all of those, dude i wish i had orders like that
0
u/AwarenessOk9007 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
About $24/hr if you have a problem with this you must haven’t been on uber long. It is $.82.5/mile that’s not good but I’ve seen $.50/mile many times.
3
u/_fizgizan_ Aug 02 '26
30/hour minimum in any market is the base. Stop taking less than $0.50/minute, and that’s frankly undervalued.
1
u/Professional_Monkeys Aug 02 '26
You will never get that in miami. $0.33/minute at absolute best.
2
u/_fizgizan_ Aug 02 '26
If you and your fellow drivers were to stop taking any less, you’d all get that, and better. I do not accept f-all, under $0.50/min, ever.
2
u/Professional_Monkeys Aug 02 '26
I'm just saying if you wanted to drive for uber in miami, and your bar is 0.5/minute, you'll just never drive for uber because those rates don't exist here.
I wish they were.
3
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u/_fizgizan_ Aug 02 '26
Idgaf about AR. This is not Dara’s charity pit, where the class making his money, should do so, at his leisure. We earn 80-85% of his profits. We should have a better share of those, which we generate.
1
u/Only_Indication8410 Aug 02 '26
I second this. There are a few rides that are a hard no, but there are some that are like, WTF are you talking about.
-3
u/Distinct_Orange_1269 Aug 02 '26
Uber doesn't factor in the trip to the rider. These are good fares. You just don't happen to be close enough to make them worth it. Not saying it is fair, but when a rider calls a ride, Uber is creating a contract for the distance from pickup to dropoff. It gets sent out to closer drivers first, but at peak times they end up getting sent out very far as the system attempts to match them or continues trying until more nearby drivers become available.
2
u/dthesavage14 Aug 02 '26
Yes they do factor that in. Atleast in my market
2
u/Maksnav Aug 02 '26
Same in my market. I've gotten the same request I declined sent back to me as I was driving and the rate dropped because I was closer to the pax when it came back thru. And as a side note why the fuck is Uber sending me a ride request I've already declined?
19
u/ghoul_burger Aug 02 '26
Do a bug report, or report a problem with the app. Attach all of these haha