Okonkwo O.

This is a follow up to my previous review. In Dallas Uber has further increased their cut of the total take while reducing the cost of a ride. Now Uber charges 80 cents per ride, a dollar and 70 cents for their fee per ride which they take off the top and 20 percent of what is left. Thus a minimum ride (a ride under 4 miles) will attract an Uber charge of $5. The driver gets a gross of 2 dollars and 60 cents while Uber takes 2 dollars and 40 cents. If you are unlucky enough to give a ride to an SMU student, the would order you to take them to a fast food place usually a mile or one and a half away. They make you go through the drive through. If it is whatasaburger be sure you will spend anywhere between five to ten minutes waiting in line with your car running. Afterwards they eat in the car, spill drinks, food, leave trash, and jump out of your car after you drive them back with out tipping. Guess how much is your gross? It is a wopping 2 dollars and 60 cents. I used to get so worked up about it, and I am not usually able to hide my feeling about it such that I usually get a 1 star rating from those students. Somebody would say if you hate it so much why not quit. I will tell you why. I joined Uber 2 years ago. At that time my second wife had just died of multiple sclerosis. I still had two teenagers and an 11 year old at home. I had to find something that would be flexible. At that time Uber was advertising $35 dollars an hour for Uber X. If you really do the math you will realise that even if it was true, it is not much. Because the amount was merely gross. And the hourly mentioned was driving hours after you have picked up a client. It does not include the time spent in your car running the engine and waiting for Uber call. Neither does it include distances driven to pick up passengers. If the client cancells after you get there then it does not count. So I decided that Uber black was the way to go. You make fewer rides and much more money. So I contacted Uber. Asked about car requirements. With their approval I took 48,000 dollar loan to buy a car. When I tried to register it as Uber black I could not. I sent an email and h ot a reply encouraging me to register it as Uber X and then open another email and register it as Uber black. I tried to do that but it was all a lie. A year later somebody at Uber finally told me that they stopped registering Uber black in the same month that I was asking them if it was okay to buy my car to use as Uber black. To cut the long story short I had to run the car as Uber black. Later Uber came up with Uber Select and they let me register and for a while it was better. Uber sellect cost about twice the cost of Uber X. I switched to only Uber Select. Pretty soon Uber ordered all Uber Select to also do X or be turned off. Then t hey systematically began to kill off Uber Select business by always surging the price of Uber select. The alternative is to flip burgers, but it will not pay for my 900 dollar a month car loan. So I am forced to spend a gazillion hours (at least twelve) to be able to earn anything between 100 and 200 dollars gross per day. Thete that is why am still doing it until I find an alternative. What irks me most is the fact that everbody blames the drivers. The press make Uber drivers the villain. They do not know the city, they are not curteous, they are dishonest, etc. But who advocates for them? Who sincerely wonders how they make ends meet? What about the American tradition of tips? Why should it not apply to Uber drivers? Some will say why do they do it if it is so bad? I have told you my reason. But now let us look at it broadly. Maslow's hierarchy of needs? It suggests that a human has 5 needs that must be satisfied in a hierarchical order begining from the lowest to the highest. In order to satisfy these needs humans do what they must. However when one lower need is satisfied the next in hierarchy becomes a need. A very hungry man will even for to work for food. That does not mean that he is willing to work gor food only. As soon as he is full he will want other things like clothes, shoes, housing, etc. A person pressed to a corner would work for Uber no matter how low his take. Uber knows that that is why there was a time they would pay up to 800 dollars to get you convince friend or family to work for Uber. Now they pay 300 dollars. So when you get some one not knowing the city do not just give him a bad rating. Be gracious. It is only a gracious person that will give dignity and not take it away. That poor guy is trying his best to follow his American dream not knowing that he/she is a mere hapless pawn in the hands of the great shark called uber who pleases and woes her customers by using her drivers as mere fodder. I have much more to say but am afraid this is becoming too long. However I cannot resist wondering what holds us together as a nation. Our military are known for leaving no one behind. Why would we close our eyes to the plight of fellow Americans? Not long ago Apple was being taken to task for making their phones in China and paying very low wages why do we let Uber mistreat so many our country men and we keep quiet? It is cheap yes but would you sell your family for cheap stuff? Are we truely a Nation or have we gone back to the land of France before revolution? Are we gone back to creating bourgeoisie and the peasants classes all in the name of cheapness and convenience? Thanks for reading.

Okonkwo