Taxi Driver Online

My standoff with an Uber driver in Bristol after I refused to cancel the ride

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... er-3330590

A battle of wills took place in my bizarre exchange with an Uber driver at the train station


A recreation of Conor Gogarty's frustration with his wait for an Uber (Image: Bristol Post)

As I came down the steps of Bristol Parkway station after a recent late shift, I tried to book a ride home.

My car had broken down earlier in the week and, because of engineering works, the train only took me as far as Parkway on my journey home to Caldicot, just over the Severn Bridge.

There was a rail replacement bus, but it wasn’t due for another hour, so I turned to ride-hailing app Uber.

It immediately matched me to a driver who was five minutes away, according to the map on the app.

Five minutes passed, but the car’s dot on the navigation system wasn’t moving any closer to me.

Then I got a call. The driver wanted to know my postcode, so I told him.

There followed an outbreak of pained umming and ahhing on the end of the line.

“You see, this is very far for me,” the driver said. “It is not worth it for me.”

'I will cancel'

He ended the call and I looked down at my phone, hoping to book another ride – but I couldn’t, because my original one was yet to be cancelled.

I waited a few minutes for my driver to cancel, his dot motionless on the screen.

Unwilling to risk a cancellation fee, I called him to ask why my app said he was still due to pick me up.

He said: “OK, OK, OK – I will cancel.”

Another minute passed without him doing so, before I received another call from him.

In a voice that seemed to force itself through gritted teeth, he said: “OK – I will take you.”

Nonplussed but relieved to be heading home, I saw the dot finally begin to move. It arrived at Parkway a few minutes later.

'You should give me something'

The following half-hour consisted mainly of my driver telling me I should give him some cash.

“I am not making any money from this,” he complained. “It is 20 miles. It is not worth it.

“I drove a man to Gloucester the other day, a very nice man. That was not worth it to me either, so he gave me £20 in cash at the end.

“Do you have any cash on you? I am not saying you have to do anything, but you should give me something.”

I informed him I did not have any cash and gently pointed out he could have cancelled the job if he did not want to do it.

When I asked if he had been reluctant to cancel because Uber would have penalised him, he said: “I could have cancelled if I wanted.”

Questioned on why he changed his mind about taking me, he replied: “You did not sound happy on the phone.”

Touching though this sentiment was, I found it a little hard to believe when he again told me I should give him £20 in cash.

“And why do you live in Wales?” he snapped, almost seeming personally affronted that someone would have the gall to reside there.

As we crossed the Severn Bridge, he asked me why there were no tolls. It was becoming apparent this was not a man who cared to venture often into Wales.

Increasingly frustrated

The driver’s demeanour became increasingly frustrated as he drove through Monmouthshire.

He seemed extremely anxious to return over the Bridge, even asking me to look up on my phone exactly how many miles he would need to travel to get to Bristol city centre.

When we pulled up outside my house, the driver told me I had paid £37 for the journey. He pointed to his phone screen, which showed Uber had taken £9 of the fare.

“This is costing you almost nothing,” he told me.

For the fourth or fifth time, he asked if I had any cash on me, and once again I told him I did not.

“You can give me a tip on the app then,” he said.

I was non-committal on the issue, having not yet decided whether or not I would give a gratuity.

On the one hand, it was a long journey and I had sympathy for his dissatisfaction with his rate – but he had been so spectacularly charmless that tipping him would feel perverse.

As I sat down at home, I declined to tip the driver, gave him a one-star rating and flagged up his professionalism to Uber. If he hadn't been rude, I would have given him five stars and a nice tip.


A recreation of Conor Gogarty's frustration with his wait for an Uber (Image: Bristol Post)

A game of chicken

I was curious to know if the driver’s apparent reluctance to cancel the job is a common phenomenon.

When I researched the issue online, I found many complaints from people who had similar experiences.

Drivers receive a cancellation fee if their rider takes more than two minutes to cancel, Quartz reports.

If a driver cancels a ride, they can face a penalty from Uber, according to MarketWatch, which described the resulting situation as “a quiet battle of wills between Uber drivers and customers over who cancels first”.

The gig economy can be a tough place for workers. If Uber is penalising its drivers harshly just for cancelling a ride, then the firm needs to take some responsibility for the problem.

But there was something disingenuous about the way my driver seemed to play a game of chicken – which would have ended with me paying him a fee if I had cancelled.

Luckily, I managed to avoid being taken for a ride.

What Uber says

An Uber spokeswoman said: "We encourage licensed private hire drivers who use our app to only confirm trips if they are willing and able to carry them out, and we work hard to ensure our app remains reliable at all times.

"If a customer feels they have been incorrectly charged for a cancellation fee, please inform us through the Help section in the app so we can investigate any concerning behaviour and refund if appropriate."

Uber says drivers are not penalised for cancelling trips unless they are deemed to be doing so in order to receive cancellation fees.


Also found this recent article about Uber drivers in Bristol. No particularly earth-shattering insights, but an interesting enough read.

We spoke to Bristol's Uber drivers - this is what they had to say

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... at-3208291

From the hours, to the traffic, to the customers, we found out more about their experiences

Uber has revolutionised the way people travel, with a taxi now never more than a few taps away.

From safety concerns to pay disputes, taxi apps such as Uber - which have come to dominate the market in cities such as Bristol - are rarely far from the headlines.

But what about the drivers who spend hours each day on the city's roads, delivering passengers from all over the city to their destinations? What are their experiences of actually being out and about in Bristol?

To find out, we spoke to drivers as we made our own journeys. This is what they had to say.

All of the drivers we spoke to are current employees, and asked not to be named in order to protect their identity.

The hours

Chatting with some of the city's Uber drivers, it seems as though one of the key draws of the job is its flexibility - workers are able to set their own schedule and get out on the road whenever it suits them best.

"I usually get out at around 4am - there aren't so many drivers waiting around then and you are almost never just sitting and waiting for a ride." said one driver.

"Most of the rides around that time are people going to the airport, which is good route at that time of the morning because the roads aren't busy and you can do quite a few jobs in a short period of time.

"I finish at around 8am, and then spend some time having breakfast, relaxing at home, going to the gym, doing my good shop - whatever needs doing I can fit into that time.

"At 12pm-ish I go out for another shift, again about four hours. There are a lot more drivers out at that time, but it's still fairly busy.

"It's nice to split the day up that way because it doesn't get too tiring, and it's pretty flexible. I've had other jobs where I've worked long shifts and wouldn't know when I would finish, but with Uber I can just say 'okay, I've done enough today'."

Taxi apps such as Uber have been widely criticised for saturating the market with cheap rides, meaning that traditional taxi firms as we have known them are gradually being pushed out of business.

Another driver we spoke to explained how he had run a taxi business for a number of years with his father and brother, however had sold the firm after struggling with the hours - instead opting to drive for Uber.

"When you run a small taxi firm you are on call 24 hours a day, even if you're not driving. If your drivers call in sick, or are on holiday, then someone has to fill that space which means I was often cancelling plans to do trips and make sure all the bookings were fulfilled," he explained.

"It became very stressful, and so after a few years we made the decision to sell up. I think Uber is really well organised now, and working whatever hours you want does make things easier.

"You have to do more trips to make it worth your while, but for me personally it's worth it because there's less responsibility. I really like driving and having conversations with lots of different people, and now I can do that and have a break too."

Despite the option of flexible working, another driver said he worked around 80 hours a week to earn enough money to make the job sustainable.

He said: "It's a difficult job. I work long hours, maybe about 80 a week.

"Uber take a lot, they take 25 per cent - so it's hard.

"I've been a taxi driver for 10 years. I used to work for a taxi firm, but since Uber a lot of these firms are disappearing."

Bristol Live was told by Uber that drivers have full transparency into the amount their passengers have paid for their trip, what percentage Uber take, and what they will earn on every trip.

The driving app also provides a record of cumulative earnings in real time.

Drivers are also not charged to use the Uber app (unlike many similar operators, who charge a weekly radio fee), and a spokesperson for the company told us drivers can log on and off as they please - they are also free to drive for other operators if they please.

The traffic

When it comes to the city's congestion problems, Bristol's professional drivers have more of an expertise than most.

Lengthy queues are a source of endless frustration even for commuters who are making their way in and out of the city just once a day, and the thought of voluntarily spending their day weaving in and out of traffic would seem unimaginable.

For Bristol's Uber workers however, hours spent crawling along major routes is just a part of the job.

"It can be really frustrating," one driver said. "Every so often you do a job through loads of traffic, and then the next job will take you through exactly the same problems over again.

"You kind of get used to the pace - I've worked as a taxi driver in a few different cities but I do think Bristol is not very good for drivers because lots of the roads are so narrow. It's old and so wasn't really built for cars, but everyone seems to drive nowadays which makes things very busy.

"When you're on the roads all day you do start to find different routes that speed things up - it's good for everybody if you can find some way of getting the passengers to where they need to be as quickly as possible.

"Even new drivers find these routes quickly, you have to really. If someone is running late, especially to the airport or somewhere like that, there can be a lot of pressure.

"You don't want to let people down because it can affect your rating."

The customers

It's no secret working as a taxi driver can be a hazardous occupation - with dozens of strangers piling into your car week in, week out, it's near-impossible to know what kind of passenger you'll be picking up.

Uber does operate a ratings system for both passengers and drivers, however with influences such as alcohol put into the mix, workers can be put at risk of abusive customers.

"I try to avoid working nights, especially on the weekend," one driver explained. "You can never be sure who you are going to pick up and I've had some bad experiences in the past.

"Nothing too serious has happened but you do hear bad stories from other drivers. When people have had a few drinks it's like they lose their idea of how they should treat other people.

"Because apps like Uber are so convenient I think people can forget that there are actual people driving them around."

Another worker said: "I have had people shout at me in the past because they thought I was going the wrong way when I was just trying to find them a faster route.

"I've been a taxi driver for about 18 years and I would say attitudes towards drivers seem to be getting worse - a big part of the job when I started was having a chat with customers but people just don't want to know now.

"I have done whole trips where people haven't even taken out their headphones, haven't even acknowledged you.

"I wouldn't say that's worse than getting abuse or having someone damage your vehicle, but it is hard in a different way."

What Uber had to say

An Uber spokesperson said: "Drivers are at the heart of our service - we can’t succeed without them - and thousands of people come into work at Uber every day focused on how to make their experience better, on and off the road.

"Whether it’s being able to track your earnings or stronger insurance protections, we’ll continue working to improve the experience for and with drivers. Our community guidelines clearly state that any inappropriate or abusive language towards a driver can lead to a rider losing access to the Uber app.”

No.


Hardly a valid comparison, because similar operators won't be taking 25% off the fare.

Clearly the driver was trying it on, and no doubt he has been successful with the scam in the past.

Nice to see Uber's spin machine stumped though, as they couldn't really question the article as it was written by the accuser.

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IDFIMH

Not a totally invalid comparison. £130 per week is standard around here for radio hire for PH, so taking Uber's 25% cut into account you need to do £520 per week of set work before it breaks even. You do however have to add in that Uber charges less per mile so you'd have to work longer for that £520.

So if you're jockeying someone else's cab around another job I can see the uber setup being more worthwhile than taking a set from a PH op cos they charge per driver not per car.

so he would have received £28.00 for 20 miles at a cost of perhaps 45p a mile to fulfill so that makes £19.00 less another £7 or £8 back so he would have made £10 to £12 for himself plus tip but no tip was paid because of his behaviour

well he chose to work for uber but I suspect it was the dead mileage he wanted to try and avoid

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Can't disagree with what you say.

However, my point was more straightforward than that. To the average reader of the piece (ie a member of the public) it reads like radio hire is for an overhead that Uber drivers don't incur at all. Of course, the more valid comparison is between the cost of radio hire/settle/franchise (or whatever terminology is used) in the average PH operation and the 25% Uber takes from each fare.

The report could have more usefully said that while Uber drivers pay a %age of each fare, the more traditional firms normally charge a fixed fee.