Top 10 Uber Pro Questions Answered

Lately I shared videos about Uber Pro and Lyft Driver Enhancements, and following those and other articles we’ve received lots of feedback about the programs. Today I’d like to post the top 10 questions about Uber Pro, and answer them.

Jay Cradeur with The Rideshare Guy will present the top 10 questions about Uber Pro, and tick around at the end of the video and he’ll give you his updated opinion on this new program.

1. Do drivers start at zero?

Do drivers start at ground zero or are your previous driving habits and accomplishments taken into account?

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As you can see here on this screenshot, definitely your previous accomplishments are taken into account. Everyone does not start at ground zero. As you can see here, if you’re in the program in the test market, you’ll be notified of what your current status is. That doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with that status, right? You can do a lot of driving and hit the different marks, and once you move up to the level, then you’ll be notified that you’ve reached the next level.

2. When is it coming to my city?

There are eight cities that have been selected that are the test markets. You’ll see those on the screen. And they’re going to be testing this over the next few months, and they’re going to take in some feedback and make some improvements, and then assuming all goes well, they’re going to roll it out to more markets and eventually the whole country.

3. What will happen to the Quest Bonus?

The Quest Bonus will now be available to gold, platinum and diamond level drivers. Nothing’s really changed. But if you’re just a partner, that means you’re just getting started, you won’t be able to get those Quest bonuses offered to you until you’ve reached the minimum level, which is gold.

4. Is Uber still going to take commissions from drivers that achieve the gold, the platinum, or the diamond level?

And the answer is yes. Whatever your current commission cut is, that’s going to remain the same. For example, in my case, I’m at 75%, so Uber is still going to take their 25% out of my normal driving. But on top of that, let’s say I’m at the diamond level. I’m going to earn an extra 6% on all my time and distance earnings. Now what I want to show right now is a screen shot. You can see how there’s a line item for the extra earnings that you get for a trip. So in this case, we can see that Dan, who sent us these screen shots, an example on the left. He got a diamond reward of an extra 90 cents and then on the shorter trip to the right, he got a diamond reward of 14 cents.

5. Will part-timers be eligible for this?

The answer is absolutely yes, and if you do it right, you can absolutely qualify for gold, diamond or even platinum as a part-time driver if you work it smart. Some of the rides give you one point, and some of the rides, depending on the time of the day, give you three points. Let me break it down for you. For this example, we’re going to say that the gold is 300 points in three months. For some of the test markets, that’s the goal to reach the first level called gold.

Let’s say you’re a part-time driver, and you wanted to get a gold status. You would need 300 points in three months. That breaks out to 100 points per month, or 25 points per week. Now you’ve got a couple of options. Here’s option number one right here. You can see option number one, which is you could do 25 rides in a week. If each ride is worth a point, you need 25 points, you could 25 rides in a week. Now in order to get 25 rides, let’s say you can do three rides per hour, so we go 25 divided by 3 and that would put us at eight hours.

Option number two is to drive during what Uber’s calling 3 point hours. These are hours where instead of getting just one point, you can get three points. And they’re very similar to Lyft’s peak hours. As you can see here, Monday through Friday, 7:00 to 10 a.m., that’s morning rush. 5 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., afternoon rush, and then late night, and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have special hours. So now basically you can divide everything by 3, so instead of 25 rides, you’d only need 8. Because 8 times 3 would give you 24 or 25. If you did three rides per hours, you’d only need three hours to get that first level. Definitely doable if you’re a part timer. Go for it.

6. Can you show me how this is going to work in real life, dollars and cents?

I’m going to break out an example for you right now. Let’s look at some real dollars here. We’re going to make some assumptions. First that you earned $1,500 in one week. You worked 40 hours, and you do three rides per hour for a total of 120 rides. You are diamond level. So that means you are entitled to a 6% bonus on time and distance figures only. We have to subtract here is the base rate, which in San Francisco is $1.50 per ride. So that means we’re going to subtract $180.

And then I’m estimating approximately $100 in surge. Because we’re not going to get that 6% on surge. In total we’re going to subtract $280. Over here, you can see $1,500, less the $180, less the $100. It comes out to $1,220. Now the bonus does get applied to time and distance, and that’s all that we have left. So 6% times 1,220 gives you $73.20 per week. And if you did that for 50 weeks, then your total bonus would be $3,660.

Which is pretty great, considering before Uber Pro, you didn’t get that money. So the things to remember are it’s time and distance only, and as you saw in the previous screenshot, each ride will show you exactly what you’ve earned.

7. How does Uber Pro work in my specific city?

I’m going to show you this screen here, and you can look at your particular market and see exactly what you need to qualify at the different levels. If you’re not in any of these eight markets, Uber Pro is not in your market yet. And for that reason you won’t have any requirements yet.

8. How do we know our acceptance rate?

If you’re in the Uber Pro program, you’ll be able to look at it right on your app. We have this nice screen shot that was sent in to us by Daniel, who is a diamond. And as you can see, he’s got a rating of 4.93, that’s a star rating, and 97% acceptance rate and a 1% cancellation rate. So if you’re in the program, you’ll be able to see right there on your app.

9. Wow do I maintain my tiered status?

That’s simple. You’ve just got to keep hitting those numbers every three months. As long as you maintain those figures, then you’re going to maintain your status. If you don’t hit those numbers, you may drop down a level, and if you’re say a gold, and your numbers go up, then you can all of a sudden be a diamond level. It’s all based on your driving, your acceptance rate, your cancellation rate.

10. How are the star rating and the cancellation ratings calculated?

The star rating is based on your last 500 rides. It’s just an average of all the rides that you’ve had and what your passengers have rated you. Now if you only have say 200 rides, say you’re just getting started, it’s just going to be an average of those 200. All the way up to 500. I you have 10,000 rides, it’s only going to look at the last 500 that you’ve given to calculate your star rating.

Your cancellation rate is simply a fraction. So let’s say you gave 100 rides, but of those 100 people, you canceled on five. Then you’re going to have a cancellation rate of five over 100, that would be a 5% cancellation rate. Any time you cancel on a ride, that counts as a cancellation, and that goes against your total of all the rides that you’ve got.

How do I feel about Uber Pro? I’m on the fence

Those are all great questions. Thanks so much for sending us those questions, because when we answer them, it really helps everybody out that. So where am I? Well, I’m going to say that I’m like a lot of drivers, where I’m really on the fence. The earnings aren’t quite as much as I thought, a few more stipulations that I didn’t understand first time around, but still I’ve got to give it up for Uber and say, at least you’re trying, you’re giving us a program where we can earn some extra money, and where we can reduce our expenses and we can even help put a kid through college. Good job Uber, and I’ll be real curious to see what happens as they test this out and they make little tweaks here and there, it starts to get rolled out nationally.

This is Jay Cradeur, I want to say thanks for watching. You have a great day. Be safe out there.

 

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