Always Tip Your Driver

Off duty ARCO Gas Station - 2018 Song of the Moment: "When You Were Young" by The Killers It's a Friday night, just around midnight, when I'm pulling into the familiar ARCO down on 11th and Santa Clara St. The gas prices here are still lower than any place in the Bay that isn't a CostCo, and they're certainly all closed this time of night. I've just got the pump started when a voice calls out behind me. "Billy! Long time no see, man!" I turn to glance over my shoulder and a familiar face is barreling up towards me. "Carlos. Jesus, what the hell are you doing here?" "What do you mean, what am I doing here? I'm stopping to get gas in the middle of a twelve-hour shift. I haven't seen you over at the 7-11 in months." Carlos is certainly a bit stockier, and there are unmistakable heavy bags underneath his eyes. "Man, have I had a crazy year so far. All sorts of weird fares, people doing loads of heinous thing...

In-between trips - 2016 ARCO gas station Song of the moment: “Rookie Of The Year” by Funeral For aFriend The cheapest place to get gasoline in downtown San Jose (assuming you aren't going to a CostCo) is reliably the ARCO on 11 th and Santa Clara. The station itself is never open, but the pumps run 24 hours, and the low price means it's a hotbed for Uber and Lyft drivers in the know to get fueled up. As I'm pulling the car into the spot in front of pump 5, I see a Prius pulling into pump 7 with an Uber sticker in the front window. The guy who hops out of the front sees the sticker in the right rear of my window and smiles. He's a portly little Hispanic guy in his early 30s, and he barrels over to me, stabbing out at me his hand. “A fellow driver! I'm Carlos!” I chuckle a little, taking his hand and shaking it. “Billy. Let me guess, Carlos. You're pretty new at this.” He tips his head to one side. “How can you tell? I point toward...

Trip length: 54 minutes. Trip distance: 39.8 miles. Fare: $64.52. Year: 2016. Song of the trip: “Public Transportation” by Satchel Grande I'd stopped up at Buster's Cheesesteaks on Broadway (best cheesesteaks in San Francisco by my reckoning) for a dinner break and was ready to get back to driving, so as soon as I got into my car and turned back online, there was already a fare popping up, about twelve blocks away. The couple is waiting for me at Kearney & Clay. It's good that they're ready when I arrive, because it's a dangerous place to try and stop. Both streets tend to be full of traffic, they're both one-way, they're both perpetually under construction and, most importantly, nobody wants to wait for you to pick up or drop off passengers. There's no shoulder or bike lane to pull into for just a few seconds to let someone get in or out, so there's inevitably people honking if you're stopped for more than fifteen seconds, any t...

Trip length (pool): 24 minutes / 18 minutes. Trip distance (pool): 12.4 miles / 8.8 miles. Fare (pool): $16.73 / $13.55 Song of the trip: “Butterfly On A Wheel” by The Mission One of the questions I'm most asked as a driver is what's a good rule of thumb on when to choose a Pool fare (where you have the possibility of sharing the car with other random passengers, but pay less) versus when to choose an X fare (where you pay a little more, but have the entire car to yourself).  Things in Pool's favor You pay a lower rate, which is good for long trips that might sting the wallet! You get to meet interesting people! Things in X's favor You don't have to worry about detours that can add up in delaying your arrival time! You can change your destination en route or even add additional stops! You don't have to meet interesting people! I pull up to a trailer park in Sunnyvale on a Friday night, looking for someone named Connor. I glance at t...