10 Embarrassing Mistakes That Even Pro Rideshare Drivers Make

I can’t believe I just did that! In this video and article, I’m going to share with you 10 embarrassing things that even veteran drivers do. I’m a driver with almost 25,000 miles, and I’m going to share with you 10 things, stupid things that I still do once in a while, which are really embarrassing.

And stick around, because at the end of the video I’m going to share with you what is the most embarrassing thing that happened just last week. Video and video transcript are below!

Drinking Regular Coffee

I used to drink regular coffee, and I’d have to go to the bathroom all the time. Then someone explained to me that cold brew is made differently and it’s not as much of a diarrhetic, which means you don’t have to pee as much. That’s what I drink in the mornings, and it works. I don’t pee nearly as often. But in the afternoon, sometimes I forget or I get tempted by a Starbucks, a picture, and I order something like a Caramel Macchiato, and then I pee often. A boneheaded move.

Forget to Wash Your Windows

When you see the window like this, it looks pretty clean, but in the morning, if I don’t wash it and then I’m driving in the morning and the sun is shining through, you start to see some of the dust and stuff on it, and it doesn’t look good. When I wash it every morning it looks clean and great, but still some mornings I just forget about it or I just decide not to do it, thinking it’s going to be different, but it’s not. It just looks bad.

Not Exercising

I work out pretty consistently, but then I’ll get to a point where I’m like, I kind of forget how important it is and I stop and then my back gets a little sore. Now, fortunately, I got this back shield thing, which really helps, but my back will get a little sore and then I’ll have to go work out again. So why do I forget? I don’t know.

Forgetting to Update Documents

This has happened twice, where Uber and Lyft send you warnings. They just sent me warnings about my driver’s license, which is up for renewal. Fortunately, I’ve learned, and I got my new driver’s license and I sent them the pictures and everything’s good. But a couple of times I didn’t. I procrastinated and I missed a day or two of driving while I got everything sorted out.

Taking Long Trips During Rush Hour

It really irritates me, but I get stuck taking long trips during rush hour. With Lyft, as you know, there’s a way that you can arrive and then you can see where you’re going and if you don’t want it, you can cancel. Sometimes, though, I get into the habit, because so many of the trips are just short, that I don’t even check. I just assume they’re going to be a short trip, and I get stuck. Someone’s in my car and I see, oh my gosh, we’re going over to Oakland or we’re going to another city where I’m going to have to sit in traffic.

Driving Without Enough Sleep

Driving when I haven’t gotten eight good hours of sleep is a big mistake. I learned this like in the second year, that if I don’t get enough sleep, I’m not a good driver. I’m impatient and I just can’t deal with the passengers. But still, some mornings my alarm will go off and I know it’s only been six hours or five hours and I go ahead and gut through it, and I always pay the price.

Forgetting to Turn on Both Apps

I drive primarily for Lyft, and I’ll be driving around for like 15 minutes waiting for a ride. And I’m like, “What am I doing? I can put Uber on and probably get a ride much sooner.” So I forget. And then I go the 15 minutes and then I go, “Oh my God, what am I doing?” And I put the app on. Very embarrassing.

Not Helping Passengers With Luggage

Sometimes I’ll be sitting in my car, got the air conditioning on, I’m listening to Dexter Gordon, and I see we’re going to the airport. And some guy’s walking towards the car with a piece of luggage, and I just pop the trunk. It’s lazy, it’s stupid, I have less of a chance of getting a tip, and I just forget. I just get lazy.

Getting Angry With Passengers

I still get angry with passengers. Sometimes they’ll ask me a question I don’t want to answer. They make me wait too long. They start eating food that I don’t like the smell of. It could be anything. And I turn into a really crappy driver, because I don’t have patience, and then I’m not nice and I don’t do the nice greeting. I don’t do the nice, “Have a great day,” and I don’t get a tip. I probably get my rating marked down. Although I’ve been pretty good for the last two weeks. As you can see here, I have only gotten five-star ratings for the last two weeks, almost 200 trips.

Missing a Turn

The one that is the most embarrassing, and it just happened last week, I miss a turnoff. I’m driving and I have it in my head where we’re going to go, and I didn’t realize I had to get on the freeway and I didn’t. I had to go down and turn around and come back and get back on the freeway, and it was like a five minute delay. I was so embarrassed, because passengers tell me horror stories about idiot drivers who made the wrong turn and it cost them 15, 20 minutes. So I’m very careful and very good about making sure I make my turns, but in this case I messed up, and that was by far the most embarrassing thing that I’ve done in a long time.

So what are the key takeaways here? Number one is, all you can do is the best you can do, and sometimes we’re going to make mistakes, and as long as we’re giving it our best effort, that’s the best that we can do. So just keep on going, keep on driving. Don’t let little mistakes slow you down, because there’s always another passenger for you to do an excellent job for.

This is Jay Cradeur with The Rideshare Guy. I want to say thank you so much for watching the video. Y’all go out and have a great day and be safe out there.