Transcription
Hey everybody. Uber's algorithm, it eats its own drivers. That's what it's designed to do. It's designed to train you like a puppy to uh to take rides that are unprofitable for the driver, but profitable for Uber. And in this video, I'm going to show you exactly how to recognize when this is being done to you and more importantly how to fight back against it and mitigate what it's doing to your to your pay. There are things that can be done and it does make a slight difference. It's not going to make, you know, it's not going to turn a $10 ride into a $40 ride, but it will increase your pay, or at least it has for me over time. And I think that uh I think overall drivers will see a little bit more money and hopefully be a little bit more happy. So go ahead and strap in and get ready to watch the video and let me know what you think. Drop your comments below. All righty, let's get started.
Okay, so we all know there's basically two types of trips with Uber. Um, I mean, well, I guess you could say three when you count reservation rides, but for the most part, what we're going to be talking about today is going to be the trip radar versus the direct requests that that come up on your screen and how Uber has used um, you know, they've applied specific conditioning and compliance techniques to train us as drivers to want to accept those trip radars very quickly so that you don't have a minute to sit there and say, "Okay, what is the pay per mile? What is the pay per hour? How far away is it? How far am I driving?" Things like that. They they really I I believe they really don't want drivers trying to calculate all this out. Um and the way they do it is simple. Many of the rides that come through and this is all based on my experience and you know like I said I've been doing this almost 12 years now so it it's been a while but based on my experience I'll get a trip radar and let's say the trip radar is for $12 and it's going I don't know anywhere between 10 miles and 14 miles. It it really depends on what they offer you per mile. But let's just say they send you out a trip radar and it really doesn't matter how far it's going for $12 and you ignore the trip radar or you decline the trip radar and I would say a little over half the time all of a sudden that trip radar come back to you within a minute or two usually less than a minute and it'll come back as a direct request but it'll come back for less money than what the original trip radar So if the trip radar came through at 12, you might get the offer on a direct request for you know like $10.98. They usually drop it a little over a dollar and uh you know it'll come back to you at let's say $10.98. But now it involves your acceptance rating. And I know so many of us like to say I don't care about my acceptance rating. I ignore it. And a lot of drivers do. I try to ignore it. I mean, my acceptance rating is like a pingpong ball. It is up and down, up and down. But here's where the acceptance rating is important. And I believe this is the psychology behind all of this is if you're going to drive at the airport, you need to have a high acceptance rating. Because in the airports that I drive in, if you don't have a high acceptance rating and you are not in what's called advantage mode, you are deprioritized at the airport. So, not only do you make 5% less on your money, but everybody else is getting requests before you do. You only get what everybody else doesn't want. So, at the end of the day, what Uber is teaching us or training us, what the algorithm is doing is it's saying to you, "Hey, look, it's the carrot in the stick. You know, if you accept this bad ride right up front, we're going to pay you the money and we're going to pay you $12. But if you ignore our request, you ignore the trip radar, we're going to offer you that ride at a considerable discounted rate for uh for your pay. So you'll go from, and this is, you know, speculative here, you'll go from $12 to $10.98. And you know, a lot of drivers are left scratching their heads going, "What the heck just happened here?" you know, that ride came through as a trip radar for 12 and now it's being offered as either an Uber priority ride or, you know, a direct request and it's less money. Why? How is this, you know, why is this happening? Well, it's simple. Is because the algorithm is trying to force you or teach you, train you like a puppy to quickly boom, tap that screen. Boom, tap it. the minute that trip radar pops up, they want drivers just to hit it, plain and simple. And I mean, I don't know for sure because I don't have, you know, five, 10 other drivers around me. have never sat down and and order a ride with five other five other drivers around. But I have had an experience where I was parked next to a driver and a radar request came up and this was a while ago when I was doing Uber Black and it came the same ride came to both of us and we're friends. We were sitting there, our windows were down and we were talking and neither one of us took the ride because it was a horrible ride. And they actually offered me the ride. If I remember correctly, it was a little over $5 more than what they offered it to him. So, and like I said, this, you know, this was a while ago, several years ago, actually. And you know, but I think that was the beginning of Uber using this new algorithm to start seeing exactly what they could get drivers to drive for.
Okay, so think about it. If they they have five drivers all within a radius of a passenger and they send that that request out to all five drivers all at the same time on Trip Radar and it goes out to three or four of them at 10 bucks, but it goes out to one at 9.95, you know, or 8.98, whatever, a little bit lower. It doesn't have to be much. and that driver takes the ride. What Uber has just taught these drivers is is you're eventually going to start seeing that's that's the level the next time a similar ride will pop up, they're going to say, "Okay, well, a driver took it. We offered it to drivers at 10 and another driver was willing to take it at nine. We'll start with the nine." Okay? And you might get three, four drivers that say, "No, I'm not going to do it for nine." But then there'll be one driver. It's all it takes is one. Then say, "Okay, I'll do it for eight." So now it's dropped the price even more. And they're using AI to figure all this out. And if there's one thing AI is good at, it's really really good at figuring out patterns. Okay? And it knows it knows what the drivers. So when when somebody orders a ride and it looks at and says, "Okay, there's seven drivers in the area." It knows exactly pro I would say within 1% it knows what driver is probably going to take that ride and for what amount they're going to take it for. So now imagine this. So now you got five drivers in an area and they send out the ride request to four of them at $10. Okay? You've got one driver in the area that took that ride for $8. So now they test, can they get this driver to go lower? They'll send it maybe to that driver for 796, 792. That driver is looking at it going, "Oh, it's eight bucks. It's, you know, it's only a couple cents off." If that driver takes it, boom, it's a new low. Okay? And it sounds crazy because you're thinking, "Oh, it's only a couple cents." But multiply that times millions of rides per day. And that's where the incentive lies, but there are things you can do. Okay, this is going to sound crazy. There's things you can do, but you have to come up with a plan and you have to stick to the plan. We'll go over that in just a second.
Okay. So, how exactly do drivers fight back against a giant artificial intelligence algorithm that's being used by so many companies, not just Uber and Lift? I mean, a lot of companies are using these AI algorithms nowadays. You know, how we fight back is is easier and more difficult than we think. First off, sit down and write down a plan. If you only drive Uber X, write down exactly what you're willing to drive for, how far you're willing to drive to a passenger to pick them up. Okay. What I suggest, and I'll give you an example, and after you're done watching the video, you can always go on to like chatpt and punch in some numbers and see if you can narrow this down or or or really focus in on on some numbers. But let's let's look at it like this. First, define what you're willing to drive for on the platforms that you're driving for. So, if you're driving Uber X, you might say, "Hey, I I'm not going to drive for anything less than a dollar a mile." If you're driving comfort, you might say, "I'm not going to drive for anything less than a$1.25 a mile." XL, $1.50. You know, whatever it is that you decide, you write that down. Then you say to yourself, okay, if I'm doing a ride that is the person is two miles away and so you have to drive the two miles to pick them up and they're going to be going six miles. That's eight miles total. So if you're driving Uber X, you're going to want to keep that ride at least at eight bucks or damn close to eight $8. Okay, really, really close to $8. Um, if you're driving comfort and XL, you can tick those numbers up a little bit, but when that ride request pops up, you have to be willing to first ignore the trip radar if it's a bad bad ride. Just let it time out. Don't even don't click it, you know, let it let it completely time out. Um, and if it's a direct request, you have to be willing to let that time out as well. You know, uh, the minute that a driver, and I'm guilty of this because I've done it, okay, so I know it's it's hard to do. Uber's really good at making you feel like you're losing out on something or you're going to be uh, you know, punished for not taking a ride. They're really really good at that. And I've done this where a ride pops up and I'm like, "Oh my god, I got to take it. I'm at the point where I got to take it." Whatever. You know what I mean? You've you've declined so many rides and you got to take it. The minute we do that as drivers, I think we've lost. Okay? There's no other way to say it. You've lost that fight. Um, it's not to say you still can't fight back. I mean, you you you know, the next ride you could say, you know what? I'm not going to take it. I don't care. I may only be onetenth of a mile away from this person, but they want me to drive 10 miles and they're only going to pay me $7.96 or $8. I'm not going to drive below the dollar a mile for Uber X. Plain and simple. And you just don't take it. And and I've done that. Um, I've noticed that when I'm driving during the day and that happens after a while, the rides do tend to tick up. They they the prices do tend to tick up and I think that that is a combination of things. One, the algorithm is looking at it like, okay, because the algorithm is looking at everything you do and they're noticing patterns and they've seen a pattern that you have turned down a lot of rides today that were borderline, you know, the rides that come through that are just under a dollar, 96 cents, 94 cents, you know, 98 cents, you know, that driver has turned those down. So, let's hit him with a dollar one, let's hit him with a dollar4. I've noticed that. And you know what? Hey, if I'm only driving a tenth of a mile and I'm picking up that person or even if I'm driving a mile or two and I'm picking up that person for a dollar4 and I'm only taking them right down the road four or five miles, I'll take that ride. I try to stay, you know, I'm not perfect. I try to stay above a dollar for Uber X. You know, you can't always do it, but you have to do your absolute best at doing it. That's the first line of defense is to is to create that plan and really stick to it and say, "Okay, I'm not going to drive five miles to pick somebody up to take them five miles for $6.75." Because at that point, you're effectively driving for pennies, 67 cents a mile. Okay? Now, this may change depending on your market, the day, and where exactly you are. And I'll tell you how and why. If I'm in an area close to a city or an area that I know to be busy, those rides aren't always bad because you're going from ride to ride to ride to ride to ride. It depends on time of day. So, when you are creating your plan, take that into account. Are you driving early in the morning when there's not a lot of drivers out there? All a lot of Uber drivers say, "Yeah, I like to get up at 4:00 in the morning, get out there, and start driving." I check the passenger app all the time, and there's very few Uber drivers out driving around at 4:00 in the morning. Um, there's a few, but not like there is at 9:30, 10:00 in the morning. So, pay attention to the times that you're driving, pay attention to the location that you're driving, and know what your market is. Know your market value in your city. You know, Uber is going to be real fast to tell you exactly what they think it is and I can assure you it's always going to be the lowest amount. So, make that plan, stick to that plan, and I think you'll see an uptick. Let me know, comment below, you know, do try it for a week, you know, try it for a week and let me know if it has ticked up your earnings and what that percentage is. you know, compare week over week and ask, you know, chat GPT, hey, what are you know, how did my earnings change? Did they go up? Did they go down? What was the percentage? Let me know. Drop it in the comments below and let me know. All right, we'll move on to the next part.
All right, so the next part of this is really deciding when you drive. It's important to decide when you drive. We all know early mornings are going to be are going to pay a little bit better. Um during the day is is I feel is the lowest part of is the lowest part as far as what they offer drivers. You know, I would say between 9:30 and 4:30 is is when the amounts are really low. Um those are people that are going to work and coming home from work. And the funny part is is Uber's real quick to offer people an inexpensive way to get to work and they generally do tick it up slightly on them when they want to get home because you know we all have to go to work but we all want to go home at the end of the day. So, and want seems to outweigh need and they they charge I feel like they charge passengers a little bit more and they they sometimes pay a little bit more evenings. That's where I think a lot of the money is and where drivers can make up and really tick up their uh their whether they pay attention whether you pay attention to hourly rate uh per mile per ride whatever it is, however you keep track of your pay, it generally is going to be more in the evenings and at night. So, when you start to figure out how you want to try and maximize your earnings and and and make the most amount of money, really sit down and look at when you are able to drive. Okay? I have a very weird schedule simply because, like I've said, and so many of you know, I have a young daughter. My wife works, you know, 12 hour shifts. And it's one of those things where, you know, if she gets home at 9:30, 10 o'clock at night because it took her time to, you know, write reports and and give reports to to uh other nurses and doctors and stuff like that. You know, sometimes she doesn't roll through the door until 10 10:15. It's not always conducive for me to go out at, you know, 10:30 at night because a I don't like to drive around drunk people and b, you know, if you do that during the week, usually those nights are slow. The busy nights are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from what, you know, I've noticed. And it's one of those things where, again, it's going to depend on your market. I hate to keep saying that, but it's true. Um, I have a bunch of cities around me. Baltimore, Washington DC, Colombia, you know, those places attract younger people. They go out at night and drink. They go out at night and go to dinner. And um, I'm lucky. I'm very lucky. I can go out there and drive those times on uh, most nights and I can make extra money. And it it really does increase my per mile rate when you're uh when you're able to do that. So, pay attention to when you're going to drive. Come up with a loose schedule. It doesn't have to be a tight schedule, but come up with a loose schedule and stick to it. And like I said, do it for a week. Do it for two weeks. And let me know, has it has it helped you? Have you made more money? Do you see better offers in the early early morning? Do you see stronger offers late at night? Um, have you noticed, are you getting more per mile or are you averaging more per hour when you when you do this? But feel it out, you know, try it for a week. If you don't notice a difference, maybe adjust your schedule a little bit and keep declining rides that aren't profitable. Tell the algorithm, "Hey, I'm not going to drive for less than a dollar a mile." The algorithm recognizes patterns and it will adjust because eventually they got to get people from point A to point B. And if the majority of the drivers out here do these things, Uber and Lyft and other ride share companies are going to have no choice whatsoever other than to tick up the price what they pay drivers. So, write your schedule. Figure out what you want to drive for as a minimum. Don't accept anything below that. Okay? Even if you're driving home, and I've done this recently, as recent as last night, don't accept a trip just because you're headed home. You're headed in that direction. Okay? Uber knows you're headed home. Uber knows what time you usually turn the app off. You know, Uber and Lift know this. Their algorithms aren't stupid. So, if they see you heading in a direction and it's 9:00 at night and they say, "Oh, this driver tends to turn off his app between 9 and 9:30 and they're headed back to where they live." They know they they'll they'll offer you if there's a ride going that way, they'll offer it super super cheap. You know what? I'm going there anyway. Pay the next driver more money. Don't don't take it. you know, make them pay somebody because the more we make them pay, the better off we're going to be. So, I mean, that's pretty much it. You really have to stick to these plans and uh, you know, don't let Uber turn you into a snack. Drop your comments below. Let me know what you think. And if you want to and you like this kind of content, go ahead and subscribe to the channel. See y'all in the next video.