The story below is from our July/August 2015 issue. For the DIGITALLY ENHANCED VERSION of this story download our FREE iOS app or view our digital edition for FREE today!
Out there tonight, while you're calling a cab or waiting on a friend, others are on their smartphones, in touch with the screen of a car like yours or mine, about to provide the ride.
uber- Syllabification: u ber
Pronunciation: oōbәr
Denoting an outstanding or supreme example of a particular kind of person or thing, Origin: German, from über, meaning over, beyond
(Definition taken from oxforddictionaries.com)
In an undisclosed location on a Friday evening in the Roanoke/Blacksburg area, Uber Rob* and I sit in his small-sized SUV, waiting for his next call. It doesn’t take long; Fridays are hot Uber nights around here. The iPhone mounted to his dash starts beeping loudly and steadily. The screen lights up with a countdown from 10 inside a circle that flashes red with each beep and grows smaller as the number count decreases. It takes all I have not to touch the screen myself worried that catastrophe might strike if we let it hit zero. But not Uber Rob. He does his quick checking to make sure it’s a call he wants to take, then hits the screen in the center of the circle disengaging the countdown and activating the phone’s navigation system. My James Bond moment is over. Uber Rob pulls out of his undisclosed location and we follow the navigation system’s directions to pick up his first of dozens of Friday night riders.
This is Uber. Everyday people using their own vehicles to shuttle other everyday people who need rides from Point A to Point B. It’s sorta like a taxi service, but it’s not. It’s sorta like calling up your friend and asking if he can pick you up from the airport, but it’s not that either. It’s called “ridesharing,” but it isn’t free. In fact, Uber is a little difficult to define. It’s better understood in process.
Let’s say you need to drop your car off at the auto shop and you need a way to get to work. Or you need a ride to the airport (or to be picked up). Or, maybe you have a fun night planned out with friends and no one wants to be the D.D. Rather than try to schedule all that in advance (or, in the case of your party night: rock, paper, scissors for it) you can just call Uber. Er…sorta.
Calling Uber really means opening the Uber app on your smart phone and pressing the button to request a driver. Which means you have to download the Uber app onto your smart phone. Which means you need to have a smart phone to use Uber. If you don’t have a smart phone, you can’t use Uber, because Uber is a technology company that is app driven. Once you download the app—which is free—you are ready to use Uber anytime, anywhere. The app is fairly intuitive (at least for Millenials, half of Gen X’rs, and case-by-case with Boomers). When you open it, Uber automatically pins your location on a map and tells you how far away the closest Uber driver is to you. Not only will it tell you how far an Uber driver is, but you can actually see where all the Uber drivers in the area are by locating the little black cars scattered on the map. As I write this article on a mid-day Monday, there are five Uber drivers hanging out in the Roanoke area, waiting for a fellow Roanoker to press the little black button at the bottom of his or her Uber app. This sends out a call to the closest Uber driver, activates that driver’s James Bond countdown, and propels the Uber rideshare system into use. Once the Uber driver accepts your request, you will see his or her first name (Uber is strict with protecting privacy—on both sides), car type, and picture pop up at the bottom of your phone’s screen. You can even watch the car on the map as it drives towards you, with the minutes of wait time counting down. Once you get in the car, your Uber driver will ask where you are going, plug the address into his or her navigation system (if needed), and start the clock. This is where the ridesharing becomes a service for which you pay. However, unlike a taxi service, Uber is cashless. Remember when you downloaded the Uber app? Part of that process involved inputting a credit card number that Uber keeps on file and is automatically charged after your ride is complete. You can tip if you like, but 9 out of 10 riders don’t, and Uber drivers aren’t expecting it. They’d rather get your five star rating.
About those ratings. Just like every other business, book, website, and blog, Uber drivers thrive—or not—by their ratings. Interestingly, so do you. Once your ride is complete you will receive an email receipt of your ride, along with the opportunity to rate your Uber driver. Likewise, your Uber driver is asked to rate you. Every time you request a ride with Uber, your Uber driver will see your rating. This is how they decide whether to accept your call. If you’re an obnoxious rider, spilling your fancy latte in their car while you impress them with your back-seat driving skills, you might just find it more difficult over time to get an Uber ride. Then you’ll be stuck like all the other poor Uber-less locals: pre-scheduling rides or playing rock-paper-scissors for care-free party nights.
You could argue that the benefits of Uber over other taxi services and public transportation are largely a matter of opinion. However, with the ease that Uber has swept in and flourished in nearly every city in which it has launched, Uber must be doing something right. Uber-ites cite many reasons for loving Uber: The drivers are reliable and come within minutes of being called. The cars are clean. The fares are cheap (not as cheap as public transportation, but cheaper than a taxi). The app functionality is easy and the cashless system is key. In a society that increasingly relies on instant and easy everything, Uber is living up to its name, not to mention giving local taxi services a run for their money…and customers.
Motivations for driving with Uber are as varied as the reasons for riding. One Uber driver I rode with drives with Uber on the days he’s off work from the local steel mill. He likes the extra cash, but mostly he enjoys meeting new people. Two more drivers I rode with (one in Roanoke, one in Charlotte) are naturalized citizens—Iranian and Eritrean. One is a full-time MBA student, driving with Uber during study time, and one drives as a second job, saving the money she earns so she can someday adopt a child from her home country.
For Uber Rob, driving with Uber pays the bills. A former Desert Storm vet whose disability income was recently slashed by over half, Rob found Uber by accident while poking around on Craig’s List last summer looking for more courier work to do for the Red Cross.
“I’d never even heard of Uber,” says Rob when explaining how he happened upon Uber and what it’s meant for him since. As a way to familiarize himself with the Uber system, Rob spent his weekends last July and August driving in Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia. “If you can survive up there, you can drive anywhere. It was terrible!” Rob shakes his head as he describes one awful traffic scenario after another. To say he was well-prepared to drive in the Roanoke/Blacksburg area is an understatement—an uber-understatement, even.
Because driving with Uber is Rob’s bread and butter, he doesn’t like giving away his secrets for driving success. And his secrets are working. In his eight months driving with Uber, Rob has managed to rack up quite the number of rides—over 2,200 at the time of this writing—sometimes grossing well over 100 rides per week. He can make over $35 an hour on weekend nights by being at the right place at the right time; not by chance, but rather by careful consideration and a lot of trial and error over the months. Other than the four evenings a week he spends in class working towards a degree in IT Security, Uber Rob is logged on with Uber.
“I’m a techy person,” says Rob, when explaining how he decided to partner with Uber. “It just seemed like something I’d like to do.”
Power to Uber, Uber Rob and all the tech geeks among us. They are driving our world forward. Literally.
*Rob’s complete name has been withheld for privacy purposes. “Uber Rob” is the name he uses with all his riders.