Always Tip Your Driver

Trip length: 18 minutes. Trip distance: 12 miles. Fare: $13.07  Year: 2018. Song of the trip:  “Ramblin' Man” by Lemon Jelly I'd just dropped someone off at Oracle at 10:30 p.m. on a Friday, which meant I was on the border of Redwood City and Foster City, and I figured that no one would possibly call for a ride out there, so I was about to make my way back over to 101 when the phone pings and tells me there's a request only 5 minutes away. I figure why not, so I tap accept and see the request is northeast of me, to my surprise. Foster City, for those of you not in the Bay Area, is definitively not cheap . A one-bedroom apartment out there can run you three grand a month, easy. It's not an area we get called into that much, at least not us common UberX drivers. See, Uber offers a variety of levels when it comes to service. You have UberX, which is any ol' Tom, Dick or Harry who's driving for them, and makes up the majority of the fleet. Then you h...

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...