We used a lot of Uber in Washington, DC last weekend and had a decidedly mixed experience. In all honesty, I prefer Metro in Washington. Since my Uber rides in Los Angeles are nearly always flawless, I wonder if it was just my luck of the draw or a more common trend…
Trip One: Newark Liberty Airport to Park Hyatt Washington, DC
Our long-distance ride on Uber worked out well. Traffic was surprisingly light the entire journey. The driver smelled like weed, farted during the journey, played disgustingly vulgar stand-up comedy, and ate smelly food — which meant a more limited tip — but this was one of the better rides. I appreciated that he agreed to the trip and hope that it was worth his while for $235.59. I hesitated tipping, but felt he had gone above and beyond what he bargained for in driving over 200 miles.
Trip Two: Washington Union Station to Georgetown
A perfectly fine driver, though he had no concept of where he was going. Indeed, some of the main arteries through downtown Washington were closed in anticipation of protesters and the inaugural parade, but it took him 45 minutes to drive four miles and this was absolutely not necessary: there was only light traffic. We ended up going via U-Street to Florida Ave when several more direct routes were open. Cost of ride: $14.67.
Trip Three: Georgetown Apple Store to Park Hyatt DC
Another Uber Black for the price of Uber X and the driver was professional and courteous. This was a short journey. Cost of ride: $7.23.
Trip Four: Park Hyatt DC to Old Ebbitt Grill
A very nice full-time Uber driver who fiercely defended the way Uber treats its drivers (I brought up the negative comments on my blog concerning the Newark to Washington trip). He asserted he works 40 hours per week driving for Uber and averages $26/hr. Doing the math, that is $54,080/year. Some of the roads were still blocked around the White House, so we were let off about two blocks away from the restaurant. Cost of ride: $8.80.
Interestingly, he mentioned that Uber was subsidizing all DC drivers on 01/20/17, paying them “triple time” to drive on inauguration day due to the surge in demand.
Trip Five: Old Ebbitt Grill to Park Hyatt DC
I ordered the Uber from Lafayette Square just north of the White House and received a call from the driver asking me to walk down to 19th Street, which was three (long) blocks away. He claimed traffic was too bad to get to where we were. It was not. It took us seven minutes to walk to him and since Uber charges a flat rate now, it’s not like I saved any money. The driver was nice enough — from Georgia — and shocked to hear that I had been to Tbilisi. Cost of ride $11.11.
Trip Six: Park Hyatt DC to Washington Dulles
This was the greatest annoyance. We checked out of the hotel at 4pm and summoned an Uber. Our ride showed up at 4:06p and the driver opened the trunk for us. We put our bags in and sat down in the back seat. He asked us if we were going to National Airport. No, Dulles we said. He responded, “Oh, I can’t do that. You need to get out of my car.” I was flabbergasted and asked him to clarify. He claimed he was not allowed to go to Dulles. I called him a liar and asked him the real reason. He stated, “Well, I can go, I just can’t go now. Please get out of the car.”
So we did. The jerk did not even cancel the ride himself. He drove off in “ride in progress” mode and I had to cancel it in the app. A $9.00 fee was charged. Needless to say, that was later reversed and the driver was left a single-star rating. This was the first time I have ever given a rating that low.
That was supposed to be a $68 ride and when I went back in to order another Uber, surge pricing had swelled the fare to $123! We headed back into the lobby and sat down for a few moments. The fare dropped to $73 and I ordered another Uber to Dulles. The driver, who cannot see the destination until he begins the ride, called me up and asked where I was going. I told him the airport. He asked which one and when I said Dulles he replied, “Okay, I’m a few minutes away.”
Seconds later he cancelled the ride.
The fare dropped to $47 and we finally found a driver willing to take us to Dulles — just 30 minutes after we started. He was shocked to hear about what had just happened and said these drivers are just “lazy”. I think “greedy” is the better term than lazy, because I understand doing shorthaul rides within the District is more lucrative than a long ride to Dulles and no fare on the way back.
Still, I thought the premise of being an independent contractor for Uber was that you take both the ideal and less ideal rides.
Next week: A post on how my attitude toward tipping on Uber has evolved. What is your experience using Uber in Washington, DC?
image courtesy of Mark Warner / FLICKR
I’ve had Uber drivers not know how to get to Virginia from 14th st NW, FYI: Lyft drivers are worse in/around DC.
Matthew. Hope you were here for the Women’s March & had lots of fun. I’ve had better luck with Lyft.
I’m a native Washingtonian (well, Arlingtonian), and can confirm for you that these experiences with Uber drivers (especially Uber X) are not out of the ordinary. Most of them are professional and perfectly fine, but I’ve also had drivers who have told me to get out because they aren’t going the direction I was going, that they wanted to kill all the gays and can’t understand what’s wrong with Americans (full disclosure, I’m gay myself), and a few who were obviously high on weed. Of course then there are the ones who are former taxi drivers who took their surliness with them when they quit the taxi racket and joined Uber. Metro is always the better route, though within the District, I typically walk wherever I need to go. Since I’m a Star Alliance guy, I cannot wait until Metro opens up all the way to IAD.
In all honesty, it’s like you’ve never used Uber before. And to say that the metro in DC is better is laughable.
I lived in DC in and stand by my comments, RE: Metro.
Drivers calling to ask where you’re going is very much a thing in DC. I’ve had it at DCA pickups, usually they want to make sure it’s a long enough ride for them to bother. But since they don’t know geography either they tend to get that wrong. I’ve reported it to Uber, but it persists.
I think because of Lyft offering power bonuses to it drivers you get less of the “not long enough ride” as those short rides help them get to the 70 rides per week they need to quicker.
@ Matthew — Even the Queen used Metro for his travels within DC last week! Why not get the exercise instead of riding uber? We did use uber for our travels to and from DCA, which was certainly better and cheaper than DC taxis.
Because I was traveling with a bigger queen!
http://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2014/09/18/a-weekend-in-england-with-my-best-friend/
LOL. I had missed that post. Good read. Does John weigh 300 pounds?
No, he runs six miles a day and is pencil thin. But he doesn’t like to be “inconvenienced” with public transport.
Can confirm it’s a problem coming from DCA and going into the city. My advice is not to pick up if they call before arrival.
Usually the only problem to speak of is getting around within the city, although we do avoid Dulles like the plague. Only time we don’t use metro is when visiting friends in metro unfriendly places like Logan circle. Most if not all Uber and Lyft drivers seem to be driving in DC proper for the first time. If you need a GPS to look it up, it’s probably not going to be a great trip. For all the bashing of taxi drivers, they at least know the city.
The issue is that an Uber driver is self-employed and within their rights to refuse any trip. That’s the price you pay for Uber refusing to treat their drivers as employees.
Imagine if you waited in a queue for a ride at an airport as a driver and the passenger was going 3 miles away? And then they didn’t tip!
I stopped after ride 3.
How can you expect an uber driver , to know all the possible road closures? I stayed 7 miles outside of the city and used MARC for DC transit. I wouldn’t judge somebody for that… IMHO
Too bad, trip six was the most entertaining.
I absolutely expect an Uber drive to know about road closures. I was able to quickly pull them up on my phone using the Washington Post app. The thing is, the roads were not crowded.
I drive part time for Uber and I am more familiar with Maryland. I rarely start my “shift” in DC. The only reason that I pick up a rider in DC is because I just dropped off a passenger there. So my question is this. Would you rather that I pick you up anyway, knowing that my knowledge of the city is poor? Would you rather that I call you ahead and ask you where you are going because I am trying to avert disaster? There are going to be a lot of Uber drivers who don’t know your town. I have dropped off riders in Baltimore, Chesapeake Bay, Howard and Prince George’s counties in a single day, and it is not possible to be an expert navigator in every situation.
Ditto to what Gary Leff said above. Not having knowledge of where the destination is, and thus being able to decline such a trip, complicates the dessignation of what an IC is within just the rules of the IRS. Which is one of the many reasons we’ve seen lawsuits pop up nationwide regarding this issue alone.
Did you get slighted/wronged by those first few drivers to IAD? Yes, you guys sure did. But I think this goes all the way up to Uber HQ and them removing the option for drivers to decline. Again, IRS designations.
I know if I had been the driver from EWR, I would’ve definetly told you to exit my vehicle. Some trips are just not worth it.
My experiences with UBER in DC are similar. That is, very mixed. I generally take a taxi from the airport (DCA) since they are more reliable and I’ve had UBER drivers cancel multiple times when they find out I’m only a $15-20 fare.
How do they know what the fare is before they pick you up? The app doesn’t show the destination until the trip starts.
They call you and ask where you are going. This is against Uber policy but they do it all the time now in DC.
One thing I’ve always admired about you, is how genuine you are. There are many blogs that I used to read that I no longer do because they seem to have become all about this giveaway or that sponsored post, but your approach to monetization has never rankled. You’re up front about who you are and where you’re going and I’m happy to be along for the ride.
Why in the world would anyone use this company which is owned by the most evil people in the world… mbs and the saudi royal family.. rape me anch chop me into pieces please.