How to Deal With an Angry Uber/Lyft Passenger

Most passengers who climb into our cars are polite, but what should we do when a passenger gets angry? It’s important to protect ourselves and enforce our own rules, all while giving good customer service.

I like to hear how other people deal with this issue, and Dylan over at The RideShare Hub recorded a video that shares his methods for dealing with angry passengers. Take a look, then scroll to the video transcript to read the points he covers.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to The Rideshare Hub. Today’s video is more of a serious one and I got a request from this from one of my viewers, and he wanted me to make a video about this and also I just thought it was a great topic to talk about.

Most passengers will be friendly

As an Uber and a Lyft driver every once in a while you’re going to get a passenger who’s just either angry or upset at something and I’ve gotten a couple myself and I wanted to share this with you. Now, for the most part when you’re driving Uber and Lyft, especially if you’re driving during the day, most of your rides, your passengers are going to be nice.

They’re going to be calm and collected, but sometimes, and especially if you do drive during the night and you are dealing with intoxicated passengers, every once in a while you’re going to get a passenger who’s just having a bad day, they’re fed up with something. Maybe they’re just an angry person in general or some people do have, you know, social disorders or mental health issues and, you know … Like such as bipolar, and they might just get angry easily. So, I just wanted to talk about basically how to deal with these passengers in the best way possible.

My own stories: How I dealt with angry passengers

I’ll share with you a quick story and then I’ll give some tips on how to deal with angry passengers in general. One time I did pick up a passenger and I could tell she was not having a good day. She gets into my car, she’s sitting right back there in the back seat and she’s on the phone and she’s talking really loud and she’s crying and just something was wrong. I actually kind of made a video about this and said how it was kind of funny because I was just sitting up here kind of awkwardly while she was in my back seat crying.

So, she was pretty upset and basically I just tried to help her in the nicest way possible. Instead of saying like, “Hey, you know, can you keep it down, can you be quiet?” I just said, “Hey, is everything okay?” You know, fortunately nothing too crazy did happen.

One time I did have a passenger who he wasn’t 21 and in the state of California you need to be 21 in order to buy cigarettes. He wanted me to go to the liquor store and go out and buy him cigarettes or rolling papers or something. He was like, “I’ll tip you through the app.” and, you know, just you go out and buy it yourself and I’ll wait in the car. I told him that I was not going to go and leave him in my car by himself. Secondly I didn’t trust that he was going to pay me because, you know, he said he was going to pay me after the fact. Thirdly I’m pretty sure he was underage.

I just stuck to my gun and I said, “You know what? No. I’m not going to do it.” So, you know, fortunately he didn’t get really upset.

How to keep your calm

When you’re dealing with irate, angry passengers just keep your calm. This is the best thing you can do. Be as calm as possible no matter how much you want to get back at them and yell at them. Don’t push the situation any further. It’s going to help you, save you a lot if you just stay calm and collected.

Remember, at any point if you feel uncomfortable during the ride, if your passenger’s yelling at you or something or if you feel threatened, you are very much capable as per Uber and Lyft’s terms of service and just legally, you can just pull over and say, “Hey, I don’t want to service you anymore. You know, I don’t feel comfortable. Please get out of my car.” If they don’t get out of the car you can call the cops on them and the cops can handle the situation.

Your car, your rules

Stay calm, stay collected, but also don’t be afraid to be assertive if you need to and always remember that this is your car. It’s your car, your rules. This isn’t Uber or Lyft’s property. This is your private property. If you want to kick somebody out, kick them out. Pull over. Don’t be afraid to pull over in a safe location and kindly ask your passenger to step out of your vehicle. If they don’t step out of the vehicle, again, don’t be afraid to call the cops or tell them, “Hey, you know, I’m going to call the cops if you don’t get out. I don’t want to go there but I’m not afraid to go there as well.”

So, that’s my advice. Also having a dash cam helps a lot. Having some sort of protection helps a lot as well and yeah. That’s all I have to say about that.

If you have anymore questions at all leave them in the comment section below or on the video. If you enjoyed this video or if you learned something, you know, give it a thumbs up or even if it was just a good reminder give it a thumbs up. It helps me a lot. Anyways guys, subscribe for more videos on Uber and Lyft and I will see you all next time.