Fun With Uber!

The BBQ Pit
1

I’m experiencing a lull between development contracts and I want some extra income, so I decided to try driving for Uber.

I applied, scanned and uploaded my documentation; driver’s license, registration, etc. and found an insurance company that will cover ride-sharing in my state.

In less than a day they ran the background check and approved me. That seems odd to me but maybe they’re just very efficient.

So I downloaded their partner app onto my phone and logged in. One of the first things it makes you do is read and agree to 3 documents. (You don’t actually have to read them, you can just agree, and I’m sure most people must do that, but it’s a bad idea.) The problem is that the text of the 3 documents is too small to be legible and the app doesn’t seem to support the phone’s zooming or landscape capabilities. One of them mentions insurance, which seems pretty important to me.

I thought that I could find the docs online but they don’t seem to be available on Uber’s desktop site. As far as I can see they’re only available in the app.

After spending at least 20 minutes clicking around on their website I finally found a contact form. (Is it just me or do some companies deliberately make it difficult to contact them?) I entered my information and asked if I could get readable copies of the documents and sent it.

Several minutes later I got an email response, which appeared to be a form letter, telling me to visit my local “partner hub” (30 miles away, in Philly) for help. This is, of course, ridiculous in this day and age, and doubly ridiculous for a technology company. I wrote back and more or less told them that.

Meanwhile I went to Google for help. I found that it listed a phone number for Uber’s Philadelphia hub! I called it and… it’s disconnected. Then I found an 866 customer service number for Uber so I called that. It answers with a very perfunctory (almost rude) message saying that I should email support@uber.com.

I’m pretty sure that’s the same place the contact form was sent to but I tried it anyway and got this message in response (Keep in mind that this was the address their phone message told me to contact.):

Of course I had already been through all of that.

So at that point I was basically going in circles.

Then I received an email (in response to my response) from an actual real live human being telling me to read the documents on my online “partner dashboard”. I responded and told them that I could not find those documents there and asked if they could please send me the documents or send me links to them. They responded that unfortunately I would have to go to the Philly partner hub. Which means a 60 mile round trip (at my expense) to an office that may not even be open and, even if it is, there’s no guarantee that anyone there will know where the documents are either.

W. T. F!

2

Now imagine how unhelpful they’ll be when it comes to giving up money owed to you and then be glad you’re not working for them.

When someone shows you who they are it’s your job to see; you’d have to be a complete moron to keep trying to sign up after this clusterfuck.

3

Exactly. Except I need the income. I’m not sure what to do.

4

Contact lyft and work for them?

5

I could but my understanding is that they don’t have as much work. Everyone calls Uber.

6

Well, instead of wasting wear-and-tear and gas on that 60 mile round trip, you could call and get an Uber ride there and back. [sub]Sorry, I couldn’t resist[/sub]

You might be able to Google an Uber office in another state and see if they can be contacted and are helpful.
Can you display the (too small) documents in the app and press to get the iPhone’s “Select All” and “Copy” ability? Then copy the documents into an email to yourself?

7

So it’s not **extra **income, it’s income.
Not sure which direction you’re 30 miles away from Philly (Bucks County, maybe?), but that’s a pretty populated area btwn it and NJ. If you’re physically capable and have schedule availability, this is the time of year extra servers, bar staff and drivers are in demand for caterers and nice hotels. That can mean cash in your pocket the night you work, and that’s w/o putting excess wear and tear on the car you need to get to your next contract job.
There’s also working seasonal overnight stock at Toys/Babies R’ Us and other retailers which can give you daytime for a part-time job as well. If you know when your next contract will start these can be low stress ways to keep up on your bills till it does.
If you don’t know when your next contract will start, I’d concentrate my hustle on that, since it’s probably in your field and would be better for your resume than a block of gig employment that could look like you were at loose ends.

8

I solved the problem. You can take screenshots on an Android, and they’re of high enough resolution that I can enlarge the images and read them.

Although I might not follow through given this experience.

9

Yeah, I’ve applied for some of those kind of jobs also. We’ll see what comes through.

10

If you haven’t seen it already, before you drive for Uber, I suggest you spend 12 minutes and watch Why Uber Is Terrible.

11

Check out Boyo Jim’s threads here, or PM him. He’s been driving for Uber (and he’s a Lyft driver, too).

He was generally positive about it, and made good change just driving late nights/bar time on the weekends.

12

You’re lucky.

I started the Uber rigamarole in NYC last year but didn’t finish because thankfully I got a job in my field. I would have had to:

Take an all-day defensive driving course at the uber office (did this)
Take a cursory physical at the uber office (did this)
Go to Queens to apply for a hack license, wait for that to get processed (weeks+fee)
Go to Queens and get finger-printed
Take a wheel-chair access course (fee)
Get TLC (taxi and limousine commission) plates if I was going to use my own car (fee, inspection) plus TLC approved insurance (~$6500/year IIRC)
or rent an uber-ready vehicle ($$$)

…and due to NYC uber-nomics probably would have had to drive 12 hours a day just to have a hope of making what I collected from unemployment.

And that was before they lowered the driver’s pay for the umpteenth time.

13

Wow. NY is tough. PA just legalized it but, if I do it, I’ll have to change my insurance to Geico since my current carrier won’t allow drive-sharing. Uber and Lyft have been here a while so apparently people have been driving illegally without proper insurance.

14

This is what scares me about them. Someone’s going to get into a (bad) accident, even if you’re not using their service but are hit by one of their cars. You just know car insurance is going to say we don’t cover commercial activity & then Uber/Lyft will say we won’t cover you because it was a requirement that you had your own insurance coverage. End results, lotsa medical bills & the only one to pay is, literally, some poor schlub who doesn’t even have a car (anymore).

15

Isn’t this what uninsured/underinsured coverage is for?

16

Sounds like you might be better off with Amway. :eek:

17

To be fair, you wouldn’t want either one of them to end up in your living room.

18

You can now get ride-share coverage in PA, from Geico. They sell hybrid coverage that actually costs less than my current personal coverage. But it’s disturbing that Uber approved me with my non-compliant coverage. I wouldn’t drive for them without the proper insurance, but apparently they won’t reject you for not having it.
Uber does cover you for amounts beyond what’s covered by your insurance but I’m not sure what they’d do if you weren’t properly covered.

19

To clarify: “hybrid coverage” doesn’t mean coverage for hybrid cars. It’s the term Geico used for their combination personal / commercial coverage.

20
  1. It’s an optional coverage. I have it (& recommend it) but not everyone does.
  2. What if you’re a city resident/pedestrian who doesn’t own a car? I believe you need to have car insurance to get that type of coverage. Did you hear about the crash in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago where 5 people on a mass transit bus were killed & a dozen or so were injured, some seriously? I know they were hit by a school bus & not an Uber, but the point’s the same; if they were on the bus they probably didn’t have a car.

Why don’t you read the Uber driver’s agreement? :rolleyes: