3 Improvements For The Uber Driver App

How can Uber make the driver app better for drivers? Jay from The Rideshare Guy shared three things that he really likes about the Uber app, and three improvements that he would like to see to improve the experience for drivers.

Take a look at Jay’s video, and read the video transcript below to see all the points he covers.

Before I do that, I want to share with you that today was the day I went into the Uber Hub, which is in Daly City right near San Francisco, California, and I got my car inspected. It only took about 15 minutes. I was able to drive right in, they inspected it, and then I went inside and look what I got. I got an Uber beacon. This, I believe, competes with the Lyft Amp. It took Uber a little while but they finally got something that’s bright and shiny and lights up at night. Stick around to the end of the video. I’m gonna share with you a little tip about how you can make your inspection process go a lot smoother and a lot quicker.

What does Uber get right in the Uber Driver app?

The first thing I really like is that Uber shows me the surge throughout the entire trip. This is something that Lyft doesn’t do. Let me show you a few screenshots here and I’ll show you exactly what I mean. This is the secondary screen on Uber’s app and as you can see, you can see it’s Sam, Uber X and I got a surge of 1.4.

Uber has great surge maps

The second thing I think Uber gets really right is that when I’m looking at the Heat Map, I can see a numerical value of what the surge is. If you’ve driven for Lyft, you know it just shows your red and a little brighter red and a little bit of pink but you don’t really know what the numbers are if you’re in a given area.I just like to know what exactly I’m driving in. Let me show you what that screenshot looks like right now. So, on the left, you can see the map and you can see where it’s hot and where it’s not hot and then to the right, if you zoom in, it’ll give you the actual number. So, it’s 1.7, 1.8. I find this information very, very helpful.

You can cancel on individual Uber Pool passengers

The third thing I really like is that I can cancel individual passengers in the Uber Pool. So, let’s say for example, I’m driving to the airport and I’ve got two people in my car and all the space in my trunk is filled up with luggage and I don’t have any room for another person. I can get a ping and then I can just cancel it and I don’t have to go pick them up. I don’t have to call them, I don’t have to do anything, I can just cancel. Let me show you exactly how you do that with a screenshot right now. Here we are back at the secondary page and as you can see where the red arrow is, you just click on cancel and boom, you’re outta the deal.

First improvement: Let us know the passenger destination before we start the trip

This is a big one, and this is what makes all the difference to me and this is why I prefer driving for Lyft over Uber.  Uber does not let us know where we’re going. I can’t figure out where I’m taking my passenger until I actually start the trip and this is a huge drawback because it makes it very difficult when I don’t wanna take somebody.

Somebody gets in my car, let’s say it’s rush hour and they wanna go all the way to, say, San Jose from San Francisco. I don’t wanna be in the traffic. I don’t wanna deal with it. I wanna stay within San Francisco where the surge is high and do a bunch of little trips. Well, I won’t know that I’m going to San Jose until I start the trip, which is usually when they were in my car. So then I have to say, “Hey, I’m sorry. I can’t go to San Jose right now. Please get out of my car. Go with somebody else, somebody else will come along.” So, it’s not pleasant. With Lyft, I can see where I’m going before the passenger gets in the car. So, this is a huge, huge request. Please let us see where we’re going before somebody gets in our car.

Second improvement: Automatically queue the next passenger

Please auto queue new passengers! When I’m driving for Lyft and I get a new ping, I got somebody in my car and then somebody else is going to be picked up after the current ride, it just automatically lines them up for me. I don’t have to push any buttons or anything. With Uber, I have to press twice just to accept that ride while I’m driving with a passenger in my car. Why not Uber, just auto queue like Lyft does? It seems like a perfectly reasonable request and I don’t really understand why it’s necessary.

Let me show you a screenshot so you understand exactly what I’m talking about. So, on the left, this is the first notification I get. It says, “New trip request, tap to accept.” So then I tap that. Then it goes to the second screen, which I have to tap it again. So, it would be so much better if it just auto queued the same way that Lyft auto queues.

Third improvement: Put more info about the current ride on the main screen

The third thing is Uber, could you show us on the home screen what kinda ride we have, whether it’s an UberX or an Uber Pool and the surge all on the home screen? This would make it so much easier for me to just know exactly what’s going on. As it is right now, I have to go to a secondary page to find out what kind of ride it is and also what the surge is. Why not put it on the home page?

What I’m gonna do is show you right now a screenshot of something I worked up in Photoshop as a suggestion, Uber, of a way you could handle this. So, here you can see how Lyft does it in the upper left hand corner. It’s either a Lyft, a standard Lyft, or a Lyft Line. They still do not show surge, which would also be useful information. Here’s how Uber can handle it. Down at the bottom, it says, “Sam, drop off.” To the right, you can see it say, “Sam, drop off, Uber pool, in 1.4 surge.”

Bonus tip: How to get your car inspected quickly, for free

Those are my three suggested Uber improvements. Now, let me share with you a little tip. So, as I said, today I went down and I got my vehicle inspected. Took about 15 minutes. This inspection, that actually do quite a bit more now than they did last year. This woman was checking my seat belts, she had me roll my windows up, the windows went down, things like that. She was very thorough but my car passed. Then, this is the tip, if you drive for both Uber and Lyft, this is really valuable, they’re gonna ask you to write your name and your phone number at the top of the form.

So, I took it, put it down in the center of my car, put my name, put my phone number, and then I took a picture of it. The reason you wanna take a picture of it is because you can then use this image to send to Lyft to say that your car has been inspected and approved. Now, as it turns out, she didn’t like that I took the picture. I explained to her that I just needed it for my records but then when I went inside and I turned the paper in to the guy, I just asked him, I said, “Do you mind if I take a picture of that?” And he said, “Fine.” So, it’s just laying on a table, I used an app called CamScanner and took a beautiful image of it. Then I submitted that to Lyft and within less than an hour, Lyft had approved my car.

Now I’m set for the next year in terms of inspections and I don’t have to go out, find somebody to do an inspection through Lyft and I don’t have to go to the Lyft Hub and any of that. It’s all done. So, grab a picture of the inspection form. Let me show what that looks like right now.

So, here’s the picture I took inside of my car and then I went inside and I was able to get a much better image using a free app called CamScanner, which makes a really beautiful image, and then I uploaded it through the Lyft app and boom, I got an email within about 15 minutes from Lyft saying my inspection had been Lyft approved and everything’s good.

If you have any comments, leave a comment and by all means, go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel. It’s a great channel. It’s got a lot of information, there’s videos coming on just like that and it’s always gonna be the latest, most current information so go ahead and subscribe. This is Jay Cradeur with The Rideshare Guy. Be safe.