Always Tip Your Driver

Trip length: 32 minutes. Trip distance: 16.3 miles. Fare: $19.48 Year: 2016 Song of the trip: “Hey Boy Hey Girl” by The Chemical Brothers The Nissan rolls into a tiny space in front of one of the frat houses, and I'm already a little nervous about this fare. The San Jose State kids are a mixed bag at best. Sometimes they're fine, but they also have the potential to be hot messes. Still, it's early enough that I don't feel like I need to worry about it too much. I stab my finger at the big button on the dash board to turn the hazard lights on and glance at the clock. 11:35 pm. The five minute timer is on. I turn it off almost immediately, though, as four guys move to the car with intent. They don't really look like the frat type, but then again, I wasn't in a frat, so who am I to judge? One guy opens the front passenger door and says, “You my Uber?” “I dunno. You Arturo?” “Ayup. C'mon boys, let's go.” The four of them pil...

Trip length: 16 minutes. Trip distance: 5.2 miles. Fare: $11.66. Year: 2018. Song of the trip:  “Going The Distance” by Cake Time's important in this one, so stay with me. Through a long chain of events I don't want to bother to explain, I was in Newark (out by Oakland) as we were approaching bar close (2 a.m.), way outside of my normal zones. I tell you this simply so you understand that I don't know this area. Like, at all . Over the years, I've cultivated a deep well of knowledge about most of the areas of the Silicon Valley, so I can answer questions about late night places to eat (especially after the bars are closed). People ask, and I deliver. At least usually. I pull up to pick up someone named Travis, and the clock reads 1:48 a.m. and I haven't even brought the car to a full stop before the guy is opening the back door of the car and hopping in. "Go go go!" he says. I narrow my eyes for a moment and glance around looking to see if...

Trip length: 48 minutes. Trip distance: 19.9 miles. Fare: $34.18 Song of the trip:  "Where Are You Going" by Dave Matthews This happened years ago, but it's a fun story to tell you none the less. But there are a couple of things that are important to understand about the time we were in when this story takes place. This was before Orange 45 became the dictator of the U.S., before tipping was allowed through the Uber app. Let's call it three years ago. One of the most common questions I get as an Uber driver has always been "Is it true you don't know where you're driving a passenger until they get into the car?" In the last few months, Uber's implemented a feature to notify a driver when a request is a trip over 45 minutes, so that drivers who don't want to get too far out of their home can pass on fares that might take them to, say, San Francisco from San Jose. We didn't have that feature back when this story happened. (Mind y...