This is the second in my Uber Throwback Thursday series. Please feel free to ask a pressing question.

UberPOOL (14 September 2016)

When I hit twenty completed trips I unlocked UberPOOL. As you may know, this is a service for people who want to lower their fare by ride-sharing. For the driver this means making multiple pick-ups and drop-offs in a potentially never-ending stream where he will always be earning. The reality, according to the Internet and mild experience, is horror.

There are three chief issues with UberPOOL:

1. Take-home pay is apparently lower overall. This is according to the Internet. I have not done the mathematics.

2. Riders are prone to anger if another pick-up is made while they are in the car. Some will not realise that they picked UberPOOL as opposed to UberX (the regular service). Some realise but have a low star rating, partly because they try to risk being the only rider, and are angry that they have failed. It is inadvisable to accept an UberPOOL request with lower than four stars for this very reason—there have certainly been problems in the past. [A footnote to this is an anecdote told to me by my one and only UberPOOL rider, a lovely man who uses the service as part of his commute. Usually he does not have a pick up along the way so it works out well for him. And even when there is an extra rider he is cool with it. One time it did not go so well though. He ordered an UberPOOL but dropped the pin in the wrong place. The car already had a girl in it who was on her way to a job interview and was very upset at the prospect of being late. Why she took an UberPOOL for this important life event is uncertain. Perhaps she was broke, which would explain the job interview. In any case it sounded like an absolute shitshow.]

3. Most importantly to me, UberPOOL rides demand that the driver use Uber's native navigation. For all other rides the app offers a choice of its native navi (hey! listen!), Waze or GoogleMaps. I use GoogleMaps as a civilian because it is stable, accurate and tells you which lane to be in 97% of the time. No such luck with the Uber navigation. It is very basic and the first time I used it it took me on a fifteen minute joyride for what should have been a seven minute journey. The one time I used it for the UberPOOL ride mentioned above, the man largely navigated for me. Very embarrassing.

Another two important general points to raise are:
a) Uber does not tolerate a large number of request refusals (I'm not sure if there is an official number for this)
b) there is no option to opt out of UberPOOL

So, let us say that a driver only wishes to accept standard issue UberX requests. What does this mean in practice? Let me tell you about my morning.

I filled up with petrol then went online just after 7am. I immediately received an UberPOOL request. This is indicated by the word POOL displayed prominently at the top of the screen. It's worth noting that this time of day is surge heavy. The exact surge amount is indicated at the bottom of the screen next to the rider's star rating. It being a Monday, I was looking at over 2x surge, which is excellent. I let the timer run out and waited for an UberX request. Another UberPOOL came in. And then another. And then the app threw me offline. I steeled myself, went back online, and drove my usual route to central Fremont where surge is usually high.

I ignored three more UberPOOL requests and it threw me offline. The cycle happened once more. I became very sad and thought that my days of Uber might soon be over, at least in the morning-time which is my favourite. I decided to drive home and collect my thoughts, but I went online once more. An UberX request came in! Halfway up the freeway he cancelled (I still received the base fare for this, which is fair)! Then another UberX! A short commute for a local man. I dropped him off and waited for more requests. An UberPOOL. I ignored. Another UberPOOL. One more and that was it for me. I would have earned $15 in that hour with about twelve refusals. Not great. But then...

An UberX! At 2.5x surge! Lord be praised! My rider was waiting for me. She got in the front seat and said the magic words: "I have a job interview in San Francisco." An hour and a half later I was $86 richer. Her interviewer was even paying her travel expenses! My only regret is that I had a twinge of melancholy when the ride was over. Together we had made it to the destination through an unforgiving rush hour with three minutes to spare. We felt like heroes. She shook my hand and thanked me more times than I can remember. It was one of life's great micro-relationships—the sort you have at a party when you talk to someone interesting for a couple of hours then never see them again. It was a perfect Uber.

But all those ignored requests played on my mind. They still haunt me now as I type under the warm glow of a neon Las Vegas sign. How long will I last with Uber? Will they throw me away like a piece of old rubbish? Time will tell. I will not accept any more UberPOOL requests. Time will tell.

Low Acceptance Rate? (22 September 2016)

I'm currently on the precipice of potential deactivation owing to my low acceptance rate of UberPOOL requests.

Yesterday I received a mildly patronising text/email combo from Uber saying that if I don't want to accept requests I should simply go offline. They know I know they know I know what is really happening. It's a game and today they played a joker.

I ignored three UberPOOL requests as usual and it threw me offline. But today, when I tried to go back online, a red bar flashed up and it threw me off.

"You appear not to be accepting rides."
(Actually the "s" of "rides" was missing because of poor mobile optimisation, but I assume there was an "s" on it.)

After ten minutes it let me back and I made five UberX trips with only a little UberPOOL fly swatting. What will happen tomorrow? Will they escalate? We shall see?

Another reason I write today is that my last fare was upsetting. A man dropped his pin outside his apartment complex then called to mumble further directions. I couldn't understand him so I waited. He called again and invited me to go through the gate. He was walking around and led me back to his door. He went inside. I waited two minutes and he appeared again with a 3-4 year old boy and a booster seat. The boy was quiet and the man was a little creepy. Very quiet. He strapped the boy in awkwardly and I didn't hear the buckle click. I was worried but thought I'd just drive super carefully. I asked the man to put his seatbelt on too. We arrived at a school four minutes later and the man started to remove the boy. I turned around to say something nice to the boy but... he was just staring ahead with a half chewed chocolate biscuit in his mouth. His mouth was ajar. He was just staring straight ahead. I thought for a moment he might have special needs but it seemed different. He looked traumatised. A slight frown. So quiet. So still. The young father(?) so creepy. I didn't say anything to either of them but I felt something was wrong. But there was nothing I could say or do. The man waved me away and I gave him three stars. The look on that boy's face will haunt me forever.

I took Bluey through a car wash and now I'm going for an oil change at WheelWorks.