How to Accept UberXL Or UberPlus/UberSelect Requests Only

Hello guys. Rideshare Guy here. Today, I want to do a quick video on How to Accept UberXL and UberSelect only. Just fyi: UberPlus is now known as UberSelect.

What is UberXL and UberSelect?

For those of you drivers who don’t know, UberXL is basically just the UberX service but it carries more passengers. UberXL vehicles can seat up to six passengers in addition to the driver. Normal UberX can only take four passengers. The rates on UberXL are obviously higher since you can take more passengers and in most cities, the rates are about double what UberX is.

The same goes for UberPlus or Select. It’s a service in certain cities, not every city, that accepts entry-level luxury cars. So, cars like BMW 3 Series, BMW 5 Series, Lexus IS GS, those types of cars. And I will link to a list of all of the eligible vehicles in my market and I’ll give you guys a link, or you can go on your individual websites for your personal cities to find eligible vehicles. Or you can just contact Uber and your local office and they’ll be able to tell you which vehicles are eligible.

Did you know you can accept only XL or Select rides?

But the reason why it’s important and the reason why I created this video is because if you’re already out there doing XL or you’re doing Select, one of the things that they keep finding from drivers is that they don’t realize that they can actually only accept XL request or only accept Select requests. What I mean by that is when Uber sets up your account — let’s say you’re an XL driver — they’ll often set it up so that you’re taking both XL and X requests.

Now, that might seem like a good thing on the surface because you’re getting more rides, but by taking X request, you could be missing out on XL request. So, demand isn’t always the same. But generally, what I found is that a lot of partners prefer doing XL only. So, in order to do that, all you need to do is email your local Uber office. I have the best ways to contact Uber link in the video notes section. But once you email them, all you need to do is tell them, “Hey, I want to set up my account so that I have XL option only.”

Email Uber to set your preference

Now, this isn’t available in every single market. And you can also do the same thing with Select, you can email them and tell them, “Hey, I want to be able to only accept Select rides.” And it’s not available in every single market, but it is in a majority markets. For example, LA, San Diego, Orange County. So, if you’re in one of those markets or if you’re not sure, make sure you just contact Uber, send them a quick email and from then on, you have two options.

When you go to your log-in screen and select the vehicle, you can select the vehicle that takes Select only or you can also do one that does X and Select. And what you’ll quickly realize is that as long as there’s a little bit of demand on Select or XL, you’ll actually be able to take all those requests. And even if the requests are only half the volume of X, you’re actually making double or more so it actually works out in your favor and guys your expenses are less too because you’re now driving fewer miles.

During surge pricing, you can switch vehicle profiles to the service that’s surging

One last tip or trick that I’ll tell you guys is about surge. Let’s say you’re sitting there and you’re logged in to Select only or XL only and you’re waiting for request. There’s no request, you can log on to the passenger app and see what the surge looks like on the passenger app for UberX. If UberX is surging in your area and it’s at 2x or above or maybe it’s even 1.75x, it might be worth it for you to go out there and log on to your profile that accepts X rides.

Since it’s surging, the rates will be very close to Select or XL so you don’t care what rate you get at that point, you’ll just go and take whatever you can get. So, that’s kind of what you want to keep in mind because a lot of times, passengers are starting to get smarter. They know that when X is surging at 2x, they say, “Hey, I might as well take a Select at this point,” or the passenger don’t even know about Select or XL, they’ll just go for that X at a 2x rate. So, it really benefits you because you’ll be able to log on as X and Select so you could get Select or X request at surge. It really benefits you as a driver to have the option to choose which service you receive requests from.