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The rating system is completely vacuous. Not only does it lack transparency, but it is often outright incorrect. ie; I received a weekly summary for one week, which stated I fell below my city average (4.79) which never seems to change, but that is another story altogether. Anyways, the weekly summary stated that I did 24 trips, 22 of which were rated 5 star, but my weekly average was 4.64. Off the top, that didn't seem right. If the other two trips were a 1 star the average would still be 4.66 not 4.64. Also, I thought that any rated 1 star prompted some type of action on Uber's part, ie; notice or email, but I never received anything.

Anyways, I wrote to UBER notifying them that their average could not possibly correct. Their response was to blow me off suggesting that until 500 trips are completed, the rating is not especially salient. I doubt I will keep doing this before I approach anywhere near 500 trips, but this is just an example how even their basic arithmetic can be off, yet they are using this rating to de-activate drivers. This rating can be manipulated by UBER five ways to Sunday and the driver never sees a thing. UBER discovers a driver that is criticizing them publicly, rather then deactivate them immediately which they have done in the past, and been sued over, the driver can watch his rating drop precipitously until he or she is kicked to the curb.
 
I was deactivated a few days ago because my rating fell below 4.2.
I dont think riders realize that a 4/5 rating isn't good.
So Uber suggested I use some expensive ($100) 3rd party "training session" to get a certificate, but I was welcome to shop around for other alternatives.
I found an inexpensive site (the cheapest I could find) called uber5stars for only $35. A few training videos and a questionnaire later and I was reactivated the same day!
 
I was deactivated a few days ago because my rating fell below 4.2.
I dont think riders realize that a 4/5 rating isn't good.
So Uber suggested I use some expensive ($100) 3rd party "training session" to get a certificate, but I was welcome to shop around for other alternatives.
I found an inexpensive site (the cheapest I could find) called uber5stars for only $35. A few training videos and a questionnaire later and I was reactivated the same day!
Ratings are generally meaningless, but 4.2 is pretty low. What do you think you are doing to garner such poor ratings?
 
Ratings are generally meaningless, but 4.2 is pretty low. What do you think you are doing to garner such poor ratings?
well I started with Uber during Mardi Gras week in New Orleans, and I unfortunately had alot of drunk rude people. Just a few 1 star ratings will really bring it down, other than those I've had a really good experience driving and have had happy riders.
 
Hi all i was working for uber in the Greenville SC market and did 47 completed trips of which only 30 was rated and just 17 at the 5 stars and my rating dropped to 4.1 so my account got deactivated and was told i need to take a class that will cost money i can't afford just because someone rated me poorly i am a very good driver and the system is unfair i think a better way must be set up in place of the rating system uber now uses and if a rider has a problem with a driver it can be handled by uber and the partner so he can learn from his mistake and because a better driver.
Your opinion is that you think you're a good driver. Out of 30 ratings there were 14 people that disagree with your opinion of your driving skill. There's a reason you're a 4.1. It's because you suck at driving. That's the harsh reality. I know it's difficult to read and understand as you hold yourself in high regard but uber passengers know how the rating system works. If they didn't then allot more people would have bad ratings. Whatever you did before you started to drive for uber, you should go do that again. Because 14 failing marks out of 30 is an F.

Passengers know how to rate. Otherwise my rating would be like yours and it's not.
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It gets old having to read how you are all such great drivers and it's always the passengers that don't know how the rating system works. It's not the passengers issue. If you're really good as you think you are you wouldn't have been deactivated.

What I fail to understand is how can uber be your lively hood after 50 rides? Seriously ??? You make that statement after 50 rides. You're a newbie. You must've had another job before uber. Because I doubt you have been making a living doing 50 rides.

Apparently you have come to the board for sympathy. But the details you have posted shows this maybe what you want to do because you think it's easy, you just don't have the skill set for it. Yeah, reality is harsh.
 
Your opinion is that you think you're a good driver. Out of 30 ratings there were 14 people that disagree with your opinion of your driving skill. There's a reason you're a 4.1. It's because you suck at driving. That's the harsh reality. I know it's difficult to read and understand as you hold yourself in high regard but uber passengers know how the rating system works. If they didn't then allot more people would have bad ratings. Whatever you did before you started to drive for uber, you should go do that again. Because 14 failing marks out of 30 is an F.

Passengers know how to rate. Otherwise my rating would be like yours and it's not.
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It gets old having to read how you are all such great drivers and it's always the passengers that don't know how the rating system works. It's not the passengers issue. If you're really good as you think you are you wouldn't have been deactivated.
Impressive rating! I agree that it's all about how one comes across to other people. Usually the pax makes up the mind within first 30 seconds how the driver is.
 
With the new update I can now see how many trips were actually rated.

I have 92% 5 star trips out of all rated trips. Today, while attempting to get the guarantee, I only had 2 rated trips and one rated me less than 5 stars. I assume it was the kid who put in the wrong destination, confirmed it and then failed to tell me until we pulled up that it was a few blocks down. Or it was the drunk hot girl thought it was weird I asked her if she was going to the hockey game - the destination was 2 blocks away from the arena and she had a jersey on.

I figure if 92 out of a 100 feel I did a great job, than I am happy.
 
The bottom line in all this is that to them anything less than a five-star rating might just as well be zero. This is really a shame because many aren't inclined to give 5s unless one goes really above and beyond the call of duty. The real fallacy here is that they tell you that you are your own boss. The only way is that you can choose when to and not to be online. Other than that it's pretty much Uber's way or the highway just as it is in any other corporation for the most part. With all the severe criticism they have received, it's a wonder that there hasn't been more reform of the service. They tell the drivers they are not employees, but if they can be deactivated, IOW fired, at will, then they really are employees even though we are told differently. Talking to people at the local centers is akin to talking to a stone wall. Makes you feel like doing cartwheels, and even then you are not getting anywhere. Isn't it time for their drivers to organize and form a union. Then they probably could not be fired unless they are guilty of something that could put them behind bars.
 
I have been an Uber driver for over 1 year now and have over 1500 trips. I was stuck in the low 4.7s and have recently moved my rating up to 4.8. I made some minor changes and it has paid off. I bought a 4 way phone charger and an Aux cord. Sometimes customers need a charge. These items are very cheap (less than $5) but payoff in high ratings. I also carry gum in the car in case people want some. Again a very small expense. I always try to talk to people...small talk etc. I apologize if I arrive late or make a mistake on the route. I always thank the rider when exiting my car and tell them I was glad to meet them. I try to stay away from passengers with low ratings....especially late at night.

Keep the car fairly clean. There should be no odors. You should be well dressed..at least a collared shirt. Always have music on...I go with SIRI for $10/month but others stream music thru their phone. Keep the volume low enough so you can still talk. If they want to be DJ...let them take control by giving them the Aux cord or show them how to tune into different channels. Let them control the volume as well.

My goal is to get to a 4.84 which is where the top 25% of the drivers are in my area.
 
Well, since this was bumped up... i'm a little surprised to see someone deactivated so quickly. I had a good 56 - 5 star run before I got my first non-5 star rating when i started Ubering. The rating system is jacked up because even during that run, I never had above a 4.9 even though it showed 100% 5 star ratings.

Oh well, screw ratings. I get good ratings without trying much.
 
Well, since this was bumped up... i'm a little surprised to see someone deactivated so quickly. I had a good 56 - 5 star run before I got my first non-5 star rating when i started Ubering. The rating system is jacked up because even during that run, I never had above a 4.9 even though it showed 100% 5 star ratings.

Oh well, screw ratings. I get good ratings without trying much.
See I think the rating system is pretty good. Although I would change a couple of things. The rating system keeps a driver focused and attention to the details. If I didn't have a rating, I wouldn't care as much if I made mistakes or was rude to a passenger.

Here are a couple of changes:
1) No ratings on a trip that is less than 5 minutes. I don't think you can have a conversation in 5 minutes. You certainly have no time to offer phone charging, gum or other things.
2) No ratings on a trip above a 2x surge. I don't think it is fare that a rider rates a driver when the fare is double or triple or more of the normal rate. The passenger is often surprised by the charge and takes it out on the driver. Uber had a surge adjusted rating in 2015 but I haven't seen it this year.
 
See I think the rating system is pretty good. Although I would change a couple of things. The rating system keeps a driver focused and attention to the details. If I didn't have a rating, I wouldn't care as much if I made mistakes or was rude to a passenger.

Here are a couple of changes:
1) No ratings on a trip that is less than 5 minutes. I don't think you can have a conversation in 5 minutes. You certainly have no time to offer phone charging, gum or other things.
2) No ratings on a trip above a 2x surge. I don't think it is fare that a rider rates a driver when the fare is double or triple or more of the normal rate. The passenger is often surprised by the charge and takes it out on the driver. Uber had a surge adjusted rating in 2015 but I haven't seen it this year.
What needs to happen is if a 4 star can potentially get you deactivated (if you get too many) then all 1-4 ratings should require a comment to explain why they didn't get a 5 star. That way, 4 star comments like "I didn't like the surge rate" can easily be contested as not a rating based on the drivers performance and out of his control.

At the very least, it'll allow us to know exactly what to change so we don't do it again.

But I think the true rating system should be "Would You Ride With This Driver Again? Yes or No?" that way there's no subjective "4 is still a good score..." mentality. Then base the score on your % of yes versus no, so if you have 99 yes versus 1 no, then you have a 99% driver score. You lose that subjective crap of 4's being acceptable while truly getting to the root of why there's a rating: whether or not someone should be a driver. That should be based on a simple question to their passengers, would you want to take that ride again?
 
See I think the rating system is pretty good. Although I would change a couple of things. The rating system keeps a driver focused and attention to the details. If I didn't have a rating, I wouldn't care as much if I made mistakes or was rude to a passenger.
I think a rating system is good but Uber's rating system is B.S. because it's either 5 stars because you think I should be a driver for Uber or 4 or less stars if you think I shouldn't be driving at all. Which is what the 4.6 deactivation rating implies.

My rating last week was 4.92 and had 6 pax not rate me 5 stars and my rating dropped to 4.87. This week I had 15 people rate me 5 stars and my rating only went up to 4.88 and then one really bad pax that I had to report and my rating dropped to 4.86 and after having a couple days off my rating dropped to 4.84. When I was at 4.92 I only had 11 people not give me 5 stars and 196 who did rate me 5 stars and now I'm up to 213 5 stars ratings and I'm at my lowest rating ever!

In the last two weeks I've had one woman who didn't like the idea of me not taking her 2 and 4 year child for a ride without a car seat.
I had 4 UberX rides that needed to be changed to UberXL rides because there was more then 4 pax. They are knew and where ok with me changing it.
I had 7 ride's where they wanted to stick more then 6 pax in my vehicle for one trip.

I don't think that the pax should be able to rate you if their first request for you is to break the law because after you shoot them down on the idea there is nothing that you can do to get a good rating because they already don't like you because they know and sometimes will say that other drivers will do it.
I also don't think that a pax should be able to rate you because their fare changed to the service that they used. You used the more expensive service of course you have to pay for it.

I think part of Uber's biggest down fall is not training the pax how the system works enough and by not allowing us to report pax who want us to break the law. Drivers who don't go flying through red lights or crosswalks when people are crossing or allow children to not be in a car seat or 5 or 6 pax in the back seat because we care about the pax safety and our insurance rates can't get a fair rating as long as that type of behavior is allowed to exist.
 
What needs to happen is if a 4 star can potentially get you deactivated (if you get too many) then all 1-4 ratings should require a comment to explain why they didn't get a 5 star. That way, 4 star comments like "I didn't like the surge rate" can easily be contested as not a rating based on the drivers performance and out of his control.

At the very least, it'll allow us to know exactly what to change so we don't do it again.

But I think the true rating system should be "Would You Ride With This Driver Again? Yes or No?" that way there's no subjective "4 is still a good score..." mentality. Then base the score on your % of yes versus no, so if you have 99 yes versus 1 no, then you have a 99% driver score. You lose that subjective crap of 4's being acceptable while truly getting to the root of why there's a rating: whether or not someone should be a driver. That should be based on a simple question to their passengers, would you want to take that ride again?
That's a good point a yes or no answer should be the system. This is Uber X so a 4 star rating would and should be a great rating. A 5 star rating is really a Uber Select or Uber Black fancy ride.
 
I think a rating system is good but Uber's rating system is B.S. because it's either 5 stars because you think I should be a driver for Uber or 4 or less stars if you think I shouldn't be driving at all. Which is what the 4.6 deactivation rating implies.

My rating last week was 4.92 and had 6 pax not rate me 5 stars and my rating dropped to 4.87. This week I had 15 people rate me 5 stars and my rating only went up to 4.88 and then one really bad pax that I had to report and my rating dropped to 4.86 and after having a couple days off my rating dropped to 4.84. When I was at 4.92 I only had 11 people not give me 5 stars and 196 who did rate me 5 stars and now I'm up to 213 5 stars ratings and I'm at my lowest rating ever!

In the last two weeks I've had one woman who didn't like the idea of me not taking her 2 and 4 year child for a ride without a car seat.
I had 4 UberX rides that needed to be changed to UberXL rides because there was more then 4 pax. They are knew and where ok with me changing it.
I had 7 ride's where they wanted to stick more then 6 pax in my vehicle for one trip.

I don't think that the pax should be able to rate you if their first request for you is to break the law because after you shoot them down on the idea there is nothing that you can do to get a good rating because they already don't like you because they know and sometimes will say that other drivers will do it.
I also don't think that a pax should be able to rate you because their fare changed to the service that they used. You used the more expensive service of course you have to pay for it.

I think part of Uber's biggest down fall is not training the pax how the system works enough and by not allowing us to report pax who want us to break the law. Drivers who don't go flying through red lights or crosswalks when people are crossing or allow children to not be in a car seat or 5 or 6 pax in the back seat because we care about the pax safety and our insurance rates can't get a fair rating as long as that type of behavior is allowed to exist.
Don't be deluded into believing that the pax don't know what they are doing. They know they need car seats and they know what your capacity is, they are trying to clown car you to save money. Here's a suggestion. If they are trying to cram 7 into your XL, just say no, either make them cancel, or drive around the corner and wait 5 minutes and cancel as a no show. You get paid and they are less likely to try that crap. Once you let them in the car they will take it out on you. For the people who order X but have 5 or 6 pax, don't say anything, act like a happy idiot. You have 48 hours to request a fare adjustment so wait till at least the next day, then put in the adjustment. Chances are they have already rated you and won't take the trouble to rerate. Either way, it's more important to get paid than get ratings.
 
Don't be deluded into believing that the pax don't know what they are doing. They know they need car seats and they know what your capacity is, they are trying to clown car you to save money. Here's a suggestion. If they are trying to cram 7 into your XL, just say no, either make them cancel, or drive around the corner and wait 5 minutes and cancel as a no show. You get paid and they are less likely to try that crap. Once you let them in the car they will take it out on you. For the people who order X but have 5 or 6 pax, don't say anything, act like a happy idiot. You have 48 hours to request a fare adjustment so wait till at least the next day, then put in the adjustment. Chances are they have already rated you and won't take the trouble to rerate. Either way, it's more important to get paid than get ratings.
I did wait 20 hours last week but it wasn't long enough.:confused:
 
There are so many things a passenger can knock you down on:
- Car smelled or was dirty
- Driver didn't get out and open doors
- Driver did not talk to us (unfriendly)
- Radio was too loud..didn't like the music
- We weren't offered any amenities
- Fare was too high
- Driver was late
- Driver took the wrong turn/route
- Driver had an attitude
- Ride was not comfortable or noisy
- Car was too small
- Seat belts were broken
- Temp was too hot or too cold
- Driver didn't have a phone charger
- Driver didn't have an Aux Cord

As a driver you have to do your best to make sure you earn your 5 stars. If you are getting a lot of non-5s then you are doing something wrong. I mentally go thru every ride and try to figure out who rated me poorly from day to day and work on improvements. You can get better but if you are a lousy driver, drive a crappy old car, and don't have any amenities..you will get buried in low ratings.

I went from a 4.71 to a 4.78 and with over 500 rides in the books it took almost a month to accomplish that. Now it will be very difficult to move the rating up some more. You pretty much have to be perfect or near perfect day to day and week to week. But I tell you there is nothing wrong with a 4.78. I see a driver around 4.8 as ABOVE AVERAGE. If you have a 4.9 you are EXCEPTIONAL. A 4.7 is average. A 4.6 or less and you probably shouldn't be driving. So what is the difference between a 4.9 driver and a 4.7 driver? Probably over 100 trips the 4.9 driver will have 90 5-stars and the 4.7 driver will have about 80 5-stars. It is not a big difference but over 500 trips its a lot more bad ratings.

Also don't drive when you are tired...you tend to make mistakes. Don't drive when you are amped up on coffee...it makes me talk too much. Don't drive passengers with low ratings especially late at night. Passengers with bad ratings tend to give drivers low ratings because they are not of sound mind.

Set goals every week. Make it a game. Reward yourself when you get a perfect 5.00 report card even a 4.80 or higher report card.
 
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