Does Navigation Really Matter for Uber Drivers?

Today we’re going to be talking about navigation, some tips and some strategies. And stick around to the end of the video, I’m going to go over a relatively unknown feature of Waze, which I think you’ll find really useful.

Take a look at the video below and check out the video transcript beneath the video to see all of the points we cover.

Navigation matters, a lot! The biggest complaints from passengers are about navigation

This is Jay Cradeur with The Rideshare Guy, and let’s talk about navigation. Now the first thing I want to emphasize is that navigation is really, really important. I’m going to show you this screen shot here, and what you see here is something that Uber sent out a few years ago. And what it does is it shows exactly what are the biggest complaints that passengers have about drivers. And by far the most frequent complaint is about a bad route or lack of city knowledge.

That’s pretty interesting isn’t it? And I know for a fact that when I talk to passengers and they share with me about some of their worst experiences, oftentimes it’s about a driver that missed the turn or a driver who didn’t seem to know where they were going. Shoot, I had one guy get in my car and he just said to me, “Do you know what you’re doing?” I said, “Yeah, I think so.” He said, “Because the last guy didn’t know how to use his navigation system, and I just had to get out of the car because he wasn’t able to get me where I was going to go.”

Navigation is very, very important.

Your navigation app choices

Now you have a choice in navigation systems that you use. With Lyft, if you drive for Lyft, you have to use Waze, which I highly recommend. I’ve been using it for two years, and it seems to give me the most accurate estimate of time that the trip is going to take. And if you drive for Uber, you can use Uber’s own navigation system, you can use Google Maps, or you can use Waze. I’d recommend using Waze since you’re probably also driving for Lyft, and this way you don’t have to learn two different systems.

A few tricks I use with Waze

Let’s look at some of the great features of Waze. Now one of the great features of Waze is that it will show you all the turns you’re going to make on the way to your final destination. So I call that showing me all my navigation in one screen. And you can just scroll if it takes more than the entire screen. Let me show you how that works.

Once you’re navigating, this is the screen that comes up. Now what I wanted to show you, up here at the top where it says 200 feet to Olmstead Street, if you just tap that, it shows you all the turn-by-turn directions. So you can see what freeway we’re going to go on. You can see we’re going to be on Highway 101. And it gives you a good overview. If you want to close this up, you can either tap at the bottom where it says Close or tap up at the top where it says 200 feet Olmstead Street, and that will open it right back up. So this is a great feature. If passengers ask you what route you’re going to take, you’re going to know.

End up on the correct side of the street by seeing where the final destination is

Now sometimes what happens as you’re approaching your destination, you may suddenly realize that you’re taking your passenger to the wrong street. So sometimes the passenger will set the destination, and it might be the back of a building, in which case the other side of the street, the other street behind it might be closer. So one of the things you can do with this system that I just showed you is you can see where the final road is and make sure it matches the destination for your passenger. So for example, let’s say you want to go to Sanchez. You can go and look at the turn-by-turn directions and make sure that the final turn is onto Sanchez. If it says something other than Sanchez, then you know you’re going to have to look at the map and figure out how to get onto Sanchez so you can drop your passenger off in the right place.

Tips for arriving at your destination: Get as much info as possible!

Now let me give you a few tips when it comes to arriving at your destination. One thing I always ask my passenger is, what’s the perfect spot for me to drop you at? This way you’re engaging the passenger, the passenger will tell you exactly where they want to be dropped off, they feel like they’re being taken care of, and you take them exactly where they want. This is one way to really help you get a really good rating.

Another place where this might come in handy is like if you’re coming into an apartment complex with a lot of little roads. You can say, what direction should I go? Another way you could ask the question is if you’re on a residential street is, what color is your house? I know it’s on the right, but which color? I want to get you to the exact house that’s your destination. So that’s another way you can help at the end with your passenger, to ensure you get a good rating and do the best job you can possible for your passenger.

The Overview feature of the Waze app is great

Here’s the cool feature that I told you about: It’s called Overview. Now I’m going to go to a screenshot here and show you exactly how that works. So here we are back at our Waze screen, and again, here are directions going to the airport. And if you just move the screen just a little bit, see I’m just using my finger and I’m just moving the screen, you’ll see at the bottom right here it says, Overview. Now what this does is it will give you an overview of exactly where you’re going. I find this to be very valuable to see graphically exactly where I’m going.

Let’s say, for example, I want to go to a different location. Let’s say I want to go to Basa Seafood Express, in San Francisco. It’s going to show me that. I just move the screen a little bit, hit Overview, and it’s going to show me exactly how I get there, in a graphic form. So this is a little-known feature, it’s real simple. If you want to go back to normal, you just here in the lower left-hand corner, you hit Recenter, and it goes right back.

I hope you enjoyed this video on navigation. Waze is a great app, it integrates with both Uber and Lyft, and using them together really helps you. And remember, the No. 1 complaint that passengers have is about poor navigation and not knowing your city. So this is good stuff to study, get real good at it, and then keep your rating really high.

This is Jay Cradeur with The Rideshare Guy. If you like the video, go give us a comment, check off you liked it. And by all means, subscribe to this YouTube channel. This YouTube channel provides content every single week, all on rideshare, the whole rideshare industry. And if you’re in the rideshare business, don’t go a day without it. You all go out and have a great day, be safe out there.