If you see anyone on the Chicago roadway with this type of writing on the back, you know who your driver is ;) I have lots of stories to share! Thanks to everyone as well who has shared their stories with me! Be sure to like "Your Friendly Neighborhood Uber Driver" on Facebook too!
*You have to learn more “adult-isms”, such as how to file a 1099 vs a W2, how to look for insurance, how to manage money, your time, etc. You're on your own!
*You’re your own boss. There is no manager down your throat telling you about your shortcomings. However, in order to make money, you have to drive (especially during surge hours aka rush hour and drunk people o’clock).
*You have to use your own car. Unless you have a plan and your own car and are in a situation where you desperately need something and have no other viable options, don’t quit your job to drive for Uber. It works for now and is definitely a good side gig for those who already have a job!
*The GPS enjoys having an attitude of its own and likes to take you down alleys or in circles. Make sure you have a backup GPS if yours likes to have spaz attacks in the super downtown area where GPS signal is scarce!
*You have to deal with city rush hour traffic (stop and go, moving 2 feet in 10 minutes, etc.). Patience is definitely a virtue.
*You may have to venture to the suburbs, over 3 hours away, or even to unsafe areas in the South Side of Chicago at midnight or later. Stay safe everyone!
*There are lots of overhead fees associated with being a "contractor"; there's an extra employment tax you have to cover yourself and tips are seldom, but better than being super depressed due to fearing getting fired from the job you have already. Be careful about your ratings, though. If you drop below a 4, your driver account could get closed. If your rating is below a 4.5, people could even think you’re a “dirty foreigner”.
*You are also responsible for all repairs on your car! The time and money spent fixing *your* car is time when you’re not making money!
*Beware of the drunk people. These lovely fellows can range from acting like my high school bullies, to being fun social butterflies and telling me stories, to falling asleep, to sometimes failing at finding me while super drunk and proceeding to be rude to me over the phone.
*Beware of the people who have crossed the line of drunk and act sloppy, to a point of almost puking in my car. None of my other friends I know who drive for ridesharing have had someone almost puke in their car; my guess is it’s a lot more rare than one would think. I am however asked that question quite frequently.
*Driving on St. Patrick’s Day or any big “drinking fest” holiday can enable you to rake in some major cash if you don’t feel like going out to party. I drove about 20-25 hours during St. Patrick’s Day weekend and made a little over $500 dollars. Not too shabby!
*You can make a living from being a ridesharing driver. You just have to actually get out there and drive. You definitely learn a lot about life, especially when talking to other passengers and hearing their stories. It gives me a ton of stories to share, which are all posted on the "Your Friendly Neighborhood Uber Driver" (rebsuberdriver.blogspot.com) blog.
*Even though the money fairy from my corporate job has flown away, as long as you can pay your bills, find yourself, be happy, be motivated, and make time to have fun, that’s all that matters in the end! If you are still able to sustain yourself independently, you’re doing the right thing!
Here's me sharing how I feel about being a ridesharing driver at an Open Mic Nite (at the Heartland Cafe's In One Ear Open Mic series)!
Dearest people of the Uber lands, the GPS is no bueno. Please don't rate me poorly. I did not engineer the gps, though I think I'm just gonna ask other people to direct me from now on because I can't think of any other reason I'd be rated badly besides for other red face drivers being dumb and almost killing me, getting lost, or the gps taking me to an alley to pick up passengers. I'm unfortunately not a human map and still trying to learn directions 102. I've also only been rideshare driving since Mid January and only been doing it full time since Early February. I'm still a newbie and am trying to find ways to better myself as a driver. Thankfully I have my lovely friend at home to give me pointers because he's been driving full time for 8 months. I hope my gender doesn't affect my ratings. I have had some people be surprised when they saw a "25 year old white girl" driving their Uber. I've been in a couple Ubers and several taxis and I think all of my drivers were of minority status (and 2 females) for my Ubers and I've had all foreign taxi drivers except 1 male who looked to be in his 30s who wanted some extra money, a man in his 40s or 50s when I went to see Muse in January, and someone know in Belegarth (another Caucasian male) who just started taxi driving too. I wonder if there are any other common folk females like me who drive for Uber or Lyft. Wherever you are, come find me!
I was giving someone a ride last night and he was surprised when his driver was an average Joe Caucasian woman. I told him I've sometimes had to drive in circles in the loop due to getting lost/gps spaz attacks. I keep my Garmin on hand if needed, but he thought I could have been a "dirty foreigner" because of my ratings. Nope. This person ended up giving me a friendly neighborhood tip for my customer service. Maybe I'll just stay in the burbs or city outskirts for awhile. It seems like there's a different attitude suburban people carry vs city folk. The suburban people seem more easy going/laid back. I also received 3 tips last night and all 3 of them were on trips starting from picking someone up in the burbs. I don't care too much about ratings, but I'm self conscious about it.
Someone else noticing also made me feel kind of wonky. But it's not a big deal. When people talk to me they'll see my personality shine through! I feel like some people also get thrown off when I have to pick up another rider in the middle of the route for a "pool". The people from Uber definitely had more adverse reactions than Lyft. They'd wonder where I'm going and think I'm lost. I end up ditching the additional passenger most of the time, but I think I should clearly explain the Uber Pool to people to avoid them being thrown off guard and thinking I'm being a clueless mc driver.
I had some directional difficulty getting from Grand/Franklin to 290 no thanks to the gps and ended up in Forest Park. Thankfully I'm familiar with the area over there and ended up getting flagged down for several rides all across the western burbs (Forest Park, Elmwood Park, Villa Park, Elmhurst, and even Schiller Park). I feel like the riders from the burbs are more friendly. Plus the gps doesn't act like a turd in the burbs or take me down alleys.
One other thing not to talk in my car: about your stomach flu misventures, drinking too much/getting sick misadventures, and how you're a bad "thrower upper". These people were forsure drunkity drunk, but I was amused and lucky I'm not extremely squeamish. Another lady I drove earlier needed an advil because she had never had period cramps before. Lucky you I carry that stuff on me because of my hormones and random outbreaks of cramps. I hope you feel better! I also hope you, Mr. Chef man I talked to, go enter a cooking contest. You'd definitely feel the positive sensation of taking a risk that's forsure. Not only that, but I also drove this couple to the Subterranean and they were mentioning about the 2 types of "red face men": slobbering dogs or snakes in the grass. My last boyfriend was definitely a snake in the grass! I even found out a tip for my casino bad luck. If someone sat on the slot machine seat for awhile and didn't win any money, the odds of winning are in your favor. If the seat is cold they aren't in your favor because you'll be putting the money in for the next person or so to win.
I also ended up picking up middle school kids from Elmhurst. I also picked up a bunch of high school students from Elmwood Park who were amused by my laugh and snapchatted it to their friends. It made me want to lol! I would also like to give thanks for all of my passengers who gave me recommends for food and places to go in Wicker Park. I also had random experiences driving an Air Force vet to a hotel, some rich bitchy business people talking about their millions of dollars in sand and foreign clients, some people telling me about the NYC atmosphere vs here in Chicago, and an English couple who was telling me about English food and living in Atlanta vs the "conservative south" and here in Chicago. Apparently you can get cheap deals on flights if you're going on a weekend venture to another state? I want to visit all the states someday. I had a blasty blast at my birthday shenanigans! Driving so much sometimes makes me realize I need to go out and have fun sometimes. Except after I post this blog, I'm going to go drive some more until practice. Happy weekend everyone I hope you've had some fun! Here's to spring coming soon!
What an adventure it’s been! I’ve been doing lots of driving either in the afternoon or night owl/drunk people o’clock. At least I’ve been getting more consistent with “going out to drive period”, but I still need to set a schedule like I had for my 9-5 job (even though I didn’t really follow a schedule for that either). I need to unlearn all of these poor habits and reverse my once broken professional confidence (due to almost 3 years of complete professional failure and almost zero success). I ended up at a gloving event Saturday, which helped my gloving level up, but further threw my schedule off. By the time I got back to Chicago, it was past 11pm and I was exhausted from driving from Chicago to Aurora while trying to Uber after. I am ready to conquer the world, but need to take my time and keep moving forward!
I have also been gradually coming to terms with the fact that there is no more money fairy spilling money into my wallet anymore just for “sitting there looking pretty” and doing a few things here and there. I was making more money than my parents and now I have no more automatic salary. The good news is I still have my tax return to gather and I got some birthday money and my Lyft 50 ride bonus. I am a quarter of a century old and got to stuff my face with Hibachi Grill food. RIP diet! Not only is there no more money fairy, but when I took my car in to get its oil change a couple weeks ago, I found out my car needed to be fixed. I was given a 3500 dollar estimate and thought they were trying to make money off of me. About 2 weeks after this, I noticed my front brakes were acting funny. A few more days later, I feel like I’m tugging on a rubber band when hitting my brakes. I’ve had brake lines snap on me before (I was 18 years old… not fun, but at least I was safe that time) and feared it happening again. As soon as it started to snow, as much as I wanted money, I was afraid it was going to snow very badly and felt nervous taking my car on the express way. I immediately stopped Ubering and took my car to Sears Auto (in Portage Park Six Corners). There ended up being a lot less problems than on the first estimate with my car, but I definitely needed new front brakes. At the end of the day, I walked away with my car about 5 hours after I asked for an estimate and was still able to make it to my karate class at night, only having to pay less than 1050 dollars. Phew! RIP money, but at least it’s not a super detrimental blow.
A lot of people seem to like to travel. Even though most of my travel ventures have consisted of Belegarth and amusement parks lately, My time will come soon! I haven’t exactly had the most social crowd talk to me, but I’d sometimes talk about family (as in ask how theirs is), one kind lady was talking to me about following dreams, and when I took an Uber to pick up my car, this adult Asian man was very professional and kind and I told him I had to get my car before my karate class. I think he was impressed when I told him I was a black belt, but he also had martial arts experience. Doing these types of things will make me rate you 5 stars. I also feel bad whenever I end up pulling in the alley and I have no idea where to pick up the person. I also feel bad whenever oncoming traffic is evil and I feel like people are going to kill me. I know I need to work on not vocalizing my fear when I’ve had moments of “almost dying”. I want my own 5 star ratings. In the meantime, here’s what NOT to do in my car:
*Open the front door and make my purse fall in the mud (and not act remorseful about it… accidents happen and my purse is easily washable)… I guess I should keep my crap off the front seat and take my back seat down for making trunk space. I leave my karate bag in my trunk to ensure I don’t forget it before class, but it is definitely awkward watching people open my trunk and see all my stuff. Oops! I guess I should also take my stuff out of my car too!
*Keep the drama llama OUT of my car! Worsely, no couples arguing in my car allowed. I've been through that way too much and I felt like I heard a slapping noise somewhere but wasn't sure if it was hitting a leg or hitting someone else, but either way, keep your drama out of my car please!
*Be a belligerent drunk person: I was waiting outside for someone at a bar called "Parliament" in River North. I chilled outside by the herd of taxis for awhile. No one showed up. Since there was no sign at the bar, I was worried I passed it. I turn the corner and go to the street corner by the crosswalk (since the bar was at the end of the street) and sat openly with my flashers on. No one showed up. Then I turned around and went on the opposite side of the street, wanting to avoid the taxi herd and I had no idea where this bar was. The Uber GPS isn't great either and I'm still learning to navigate through Chicago. I’ve had to pull into alleys before and I hope that doesn’t adversely affect my ratings. Anyways, I was about to contact the passenger and this man, very rudely, calls me twice and starts yelling at me. He was probably drunk too. Since I don't tolerate yelling, I was about to cancel him until 2 young ladies walked into my car. What a relief. The ladies apologized to me for his behavior and told me he looked like he was about to start a bar fight somewhere X.X Moral of the story is, if you're rude to me before you get into my car, your ass is getting canceled!
With that, I am off to go take my business and life lessons to my yoga class, keep improving my customer service skills, and go on more driving ventures! Have a smiley faced day!
Note: I snapped this photo on Ashland and Foster while at a red light hunting for passengers. We should all recognize how beautiful we are instead of dwelling on life's negativity! I've seen several of these signs all over Chicago. Where else have you seen these?
